Johann Warkentin

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Johann Warkentin (born May 11, 1920 in Spat in the Crimea ; † April 9, 2012 in Berlin ) was a Russian-German writer, poet, literary critic, editor and translator and lived in Berlin until his death.

Life

Johann Warkentin came from a Russian Mennonite family whose language is the Low German Plautdietsch . His studies of English studies in Leningrad were stopped by the outbreak of war, after which he was initially a military interpreter in the blockade winter of 1941/1942, but then, like all Russian Germans , was deported to Siberia and did forced labor from 1942 to 1946 . In 1948 he was able to continue his interrupted career and taught English, German and Latin at schools and universities in the Altai region , Kazakhstan and Bashkiria .

Warkentin was actively involved in the revitalization of the German-language post-war press and German literature in the Soviet Union after 1956 and in the struggle to restore German autonomy ten years later. 1955-1957 he joined the editorial staff of the first German-language newspaper postwar work in Barnaul / Siberia. From 1969 to 1980 he was editor of the German-language weekly New Life in Moscow . During this time he wrote a. a. Voices from the 15 republics , criticism of Soviet German literature , collected things or highlights .

In 1981 he left for what was then the GDR . Warkentin also became popular in the West after the fall of the Wall. In 1992 he published Russian Germans - Where from? Where? (New edition 2006) and 1996 Russian-German Berlin sonnets . In between and afterwards, many articles mainly critical of literature appeared in German, Russian-German and Russian-German newspapers and magazines.

In 2002 Warkentin received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon from Johannes Rau .

Works (selection)

  • Russian- German Berlin Sonnets , Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland eV, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-932130-01-4 .
  • Collected. Verses and adaptations (selection by Robert Weber), Progress publishing house, Moscow 1980.
  • History of Russian-German literature , Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland eV, Stuttgart.
  • Translator's Frust und Freud , non-fiction book, BMV Verlag Robert Burau, Lage / Lippe, ISBN 3-935000-07-3 .
  • Re-seals. Highlights of Russian poetry (Russian / German), BMV Verlag Robert Burau, Lage / Lippe 2000, ISBN 3-935000-00-6 .
  • Tracks in the loose sand. Collected verses , BMV Verlag Robert Burau, Lage / Lippe 2005, ISBN 3-935000-53-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wendelin Mangold : Mourning the death of Johann Warkentin - An obituary . Website of the Geest publishing house ; accessed on March 30, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Warkentin, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-German editor, writer, translator, poet
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Spat, Crimea
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 2012
Place of death Berlin