Klaus Gunzel

Klaus Günzel (born January 30, 1936 in Pethau ; † May 3, 2005 in Zittau ) was a German writer and librarian.

Life

Günzel came from a middle-class family, his father was a co-owner of the Zittau felt factory and was expropriated in the Soviet occupation zone. Shaped by his humanistic upbringing, Günzel could not identify with the communist-style curriculum taught at school and left school before graduating from high school.

In 1954 he began training as a librarian at the Leipzig College of Librarianship and after graduating in 1957, he got a job as a librarian at the Christian-Weise Library in Zittau . Since that time, Günzel has published, initially in regional writings, contributions to classical German literature and above all to German romanticism, which later developed into the focus of his literary work. His lectures were received with great interest also because of his excellent rhetoric.

In 1978 Günzel took over the management of the library's old scientific holdings. In 1984 Günzel decided to work as a freelance writer after his books, which had been published since 1970, had made him literary fame beyond the borders of the GDR. In addition, Günzel worked as the editor of bibliographies on ETA Hoffmann , Heinrich von Kleist and Ludwig Tieck , as well as several stories by Clemens Brentano . Günzel was a member of the GDR Writers' Association and the National Democratic Party of Germany . In May 1987 he was a delegate at the 13th NDPD party congress in Leipzig.

The high point of his work was the time after the fall of the Berlin Wall , when his main work Die Brentanos appeared in 1993 . In 1996 Günzel was awarded the Calwer Hermann Hesse grant .

Despite a long and serious illness, he was still able to complete his last work, The King and the Empress , which appeared at the time of his death.

His world historical romance Maria Walewska and Napoleon, which has remained a fragment, was published as a private print on the first anniversary of his death.

plant

• Old German puppet shows , Berlin 1970
• ETA Hoffmann. Life and work in letters, personal testimonies and contemporary documents. , Bibliography, Berlin 1976
• Triangle. King of romance. The life of the poet Ludwig Tieck in letters, personal reports and reports. , Bibliography, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-805-20344-6
• Kleist. A picture of life in letters and contemporary To report. , Bibliography, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-476-00563-1
• The Serapion Brothers. Fairy tale poems of the Berlin Romanticism. , Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-372-00061-7
• Romantic fates. A portrait gallery. , Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-373-00157-9
• Viennese encounters. German poets in Austria's imperial city 1750 - 1850. , Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-373-00323-7
• The Brentanos. A German Family History , Zurich-Munich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-1089-6
• The German romantics. 125 CVs. A dictionary of persons. , Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-1119-1
• The Congress of Vienna. History and stories of a world theater. , Munich 1995, ISBN 3-73-380201-2
• Romance in Dresden. Creation and encounters. , Frankfurt-Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-458-16857-5
• Baths residences. Cures and amours, diplomacy and intrigue. , Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-421-05154-2
• I wish many guests to my table today! Goethe's visitors in the house on Frauenplan. , 1999, ISBN 3-740-01099-1
• Silhouette images. Stories from then and yesterday. , Munich-Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-733-80316-7
• The Weimar Princely House. A dynasty makes cultural history. , Cologne-Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-412-03100-3
• The King and the Empress. Friedrich II. And Maria Theresa. , Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-7700-1165-1
• Maria Walewska and Napoleon , Zittau 2006, private print, no ISBN

literature

• Uwe Kahl: Farewell to an Oberlausitzer and world citizen , in: Oberlausitzer Heimatblätter 6/2005

Web links

• Literature by and about Klaus Günzel in the catalog of the German National Library
• Haug von Kuenheim : Book review in the "time" of Günzel's last work

Individual evidence

1. ↑ National-Zeitung of May 11, 1987.