Josef Reding

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Josef Reding (born March 20, 1929 in Castrop-Rauxel ; † January 10, 2020 in Dortmund ) was a German writer .

Life

Josef Reding was born in 1929 as the son of a projectionist . He attended a secondary school in Mengede (today's Albert Schweitzer secondary school) and a modern-language grammar school in Castrop-Rauxel. During World War II he was with other young people from the Ruhr to Alsace and to Bavaria sent . In 1944 he was used as a member of the Volkssturm to fight tanks; he was taken prisoner by the United States . His guards left him magazines and paperbacks, so he got to know and appreciate the literary form of the short story . With Ernest Hemingway he got to know the classic short story, which he later continued in many books: an open beginning, the dramatic development to the narrative climax and the open ending.

In 1951 he passed the school leaving examination. He then worked as a concrete worker for two years. From 1953 he studied German, psychology, journalism, art history and English at the University of Münster . A scholarship from the Fulbright Commission enabled him to continue studying in the United States. Reding was a student at the University of Illinois at Champaign until 1957 , where he earned a master's degree. During his stay in America he got to know the race problem in the southern states , and he made contacts with the beginning civil rights movement around Martin Luther King .

After returning to Germany, he worked as a helper in the Friedland transit camp for a year . From 1959 to 1966 Reding stayed again in the United States as well as in famine and leper regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America, about which he reported in television documentaries . After he had already been active in the Catholic youth movement as a teenager , Reding was also involved as an adult in the Catholic Church ; from 1971 to 1975 he was a member of the Joint Synod of the Dioceses of the Federal Republic of Germany .

Josef Reding began his writing career writing books for young people. Since his stay in the USA in the 1950s, his work, which largely consists of short stories, has been formally heavily influenced by the classic American short story . Reding dealt with social problems from a Christian point of view in many of his works . In addition to fiction prose works, he has written radio plays , poems and journalistic articles. From 1963 to 1988 he worked for the union newspaper Welt der Arbeit . He was involved in the peace movement .

Reding had been married since 1965 and had three sons. He lived in Dortmund and was the brother of the painter and writer Paul Reding and Elisabeth Stark-Reding.

According to his wishes, Reding found his final resting place across from Fritz Hüser in the Großholthausen cemetery in the south of Dortmund. His estate has been in the Fritz Hüser Institute for a long time .

Memberships and honors

Josef Reding was a founding member of Gruppe 61 . He was a member of the Association of German Writers (VS) , today in ver.di ; from 1971 to 1978 he was chairman of the North Rhine-Westphalian state association and from 1976 to 1980 member of the board of directors. Since 1973 he has been a member of the PEN Center Germany ; he was also a member of the European authors' association Die Kogge . He received u. a. The following awards: 1958 a sponsorship award from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for young artists , 1961 a scholarship from Villa Massimo , 1969 the Annette von Droste Hülshoff Prize and the Cogge Literature Prize of the City of Minden, 1981 the German Short Stories Prize, 1984 the “Iron Reinoldus” of the Dortmund / Kreis Unna press association, the City of Dortmund's Ring of Honor in 1986, the Ruhr Area Literature Prize in 1989 and the Citizens of the Ruhr Area award from the Pro Ruhr Area Association and in 2001 the Comenius Prize . In 1988 a community secondary school in Holzwickede was named after him. On March 20, 2009, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, he was awarded the Honorary Prize of the JA Comenius Foundation for the support of children and young people in need.

Works (selection)

author

  • Silver spear and red heron , Recklinghausen 1952
  • Drummer boy Ricardo , Recklinghausen 1954
  • Wetbacks on the Rio Grande , Gütersloh 1954
  • Frogmen and fire jumpers , Recklinghausen 1955
  • Larry the fire squad falls from the sky , Gütersloh 1955
  • Warning - car bandits! , Gütersloh 1956
  • Friedland , Recklinghausen 1956
  • Castrop-Rauxel from above and inside , Castrop-Rauxel 1963
  • The hunters come back , Emsdetten 1963
  • Paper ships against the current , Recklinghausen 1963
  • Hunger Reserves , Recklinghausen 1964
  • To swallow for Grabner , 1967
  • Leprosy, a challenge , Würzburg 1970
  • Plague barge "Stella Maris" , Balve 1975
  • Gold, hoarfrost and carrots , Recklinghausen 1981
  • Blasting the Iceberg and Other Adventures , Balve 1981
  • Paper ships against the current , Freiburg im Breisgau 1984
  • Father makes the flutter man , Munich 1984
  • Dortmund in transition , Herzberg 1985 (together with Peter Strege)
  • And the pigeon chases the griffin , Freiburg im Breisgau 1985
  • It occurs to me , Stuttgart 1986
  • Man in the Revier - Essays , Cologne 1988
  • You can't sneak to God , Würzburg 1999
  • The automat and the tramp , Würzburg 1995
  • Reader , Recklinghausen 1994
  • Alone in Babylon, Stories. Herder library, Freiburg 1966

editor

  • In the stream . Munich 1963
  • Wisdom from China . Freiburg 1986 (together with Friedhelm Denninghaus)

translator

  • Alma Houston: Nuki . Recklinghausen 1960
  • Sulamith Ish-Kishor: The Red Sabbath or A Boy from Old Prague . Freiburg 1965
  • Edward F. Murphy: Mademoiselle Lavallière . Recklinghausen 1959

Short stories

  • Next to the blue seahorse
  • In the swing circle of the crane
  • Vita Nova pharmacy
  • The bulldozers came ...
  • General agent Ellebracht commits a hit-and-run
  • Don't call me a nigger Short stories from two decades
  • The result
  • Jerry in Harlem
  • Hit and run

literature

  • Hedwig Gunnemann (Ed.): Five decades of life, three decades of writing: testimonies of his life / Josef Reding. For his 50th birthday . Dortmund City and State Library, Communications NF 11, 1979, DNB 800958128 .
  • Gisela Koch (Red.): Josef Reding, seventy. A commemorative publication . Dortmund City and State Library, 1999, DNB 956 348 491 .

Web links

Wikiquote: Josef Reding  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julia Gaß: writer Josef Reding found dead. In: Ruhr news . January 10, 2020, accessed January 12, 2020 . Jens Dirksen: District writer Josef Reding died at the age of 90 in Dortmund. In: waz.de . January 11, 2020, accessed January 12, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Josef Reding: My commitment to the short story . In:  Don't call me a nigger. Short stories from two decades . Georg Bitter, Recklinghausen 1978, ISBN 3-7903-0243-0 , p. 6.
  3. ↑ Hilmar Klute: The writer everyone has been waiting for. Retrieved April 10, 2020 .
  4. ^ Announcements from the Fritz Hüser Society, 2020 / I, p. 2
  5. ↑ Josef Reding. In: Kürschner's German Literature Calendar , 2: P – Z. De Gruyter, 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-033720-4 , p. 828.
  6. ^ Announcements from the Fritz Hüser Society, 2020 / I, p. 2
  7. ↑ Julia Pater: 7th international writers' colloquium in Arnsberg / Neheim-Hüsten. In: neheims-netz.de. March 29, 1981, archived from the original on July 19, 2011 ; accessed on January 12, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Reding, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Castrop-Rauxel
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 2020
Place of death Dortmund