Manfred Borchard

Manfred Borchard (born April 28, 1950 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † September 30, 2016 ibid) was a German writer and editor mainly of works of science fiction and eerie fantasy .

biography

Borchard worked as a trained typesetter in a small printing company and then as an arcade supervisor. In 1999 he married Marita Gumper. The marriage remained childless.

Borchard has been enthusiastic about science fiction and fantastic literature in the broadest sense since he was fourteen . He started writing in puberty, but his stories were returned uncommented by the publishers. His breakthrough came with the publication of two stories on the reader contact page of the Perry Rhodan series . He was invited by Helmut Ehls to participate in the SF correspondence ring “Space of Galaxy” and to publish stories in the association's magazine “Fire World” . When Ehls left the letter club to start his own fanzine ( PHALANX ), he brought Borchard on board as co-editor. PHALANX made Borchard the most sought-after author of the fandom .

In 1984 Borchard ended his active writing phase, he later said his creative demon had left him. He had reached a point where, for the first time in ten years, he had no ideas, no notes on further stories in store.

Literary work

From 1976 Borchard published in almost all fanzines, for example in Exodus , Outside , Karthago , Fantasia , Time Gladiator , Solaris , Sagittarius and many more. In the 80s he managed to publish in various anthologies. Occasionally, his brief, pointed stories appeared on the reader contact pages of the PR and Atlan series.

During his short comeback in the mid-1990s (some new stories appeared in the Fantastic Upper Rhine and Exodus published by Jörg Weigand ), however, he was unable to return to his heyday from 1975-1984. He received late recognition from the EDFC (First German Fantasy Club), who from 2002 published a complete edition of his stories (albeit not in chronological order) in five volumes: First Der Blechlecker , then Die Sternenkirche , Fünfstein , Der Zeitarzt and finally Star Freedom ( Science Fiction Blues, Volume 5, 2007).

Borchard's themes stem mainly from the golden age of science fiction: robots and love machines, Mars and alien planets, invasions and UFOs. The special thing is the ingenious, sometimes poetic, sometimes sarcastic style, the amalgamation with philosophical topics, the everyday, his own life. “His protagonists”, writes Frank G. Gerigk in the foreword to the first volume of the SF-Blues work edition published by edfc, “are not supermen, on the contrary. Often it is space travelers who get into strange situations, writers or letter writers. They are always underdogs, anti-heroes, driven, struggling with their fate (...). They remain a bit pale in their characterization even as main characters, are stylistic clones, suppliers of ideas and keywords or symbolic representatives of the ordinary. "

bibliography

Science Fiction Blues (collected stories, First German Fantasy Club)

• 1 The Tin Licker (2002)
• 2 The Star Church (2003)
• 3 Fünfstein (2004)
• 4 The temporary doctor (2005)
• 5 Star Freedom (2007)

Short stories

• Psychological Terror, The Decision. In: Perry Rhodan Volume 720, June 1975.
• Selection. In: Fire World, 1976.
• Enjoy the meal. In: Phalanx 1, 1976.
• Robot aW In: Phalanx 2, reprinted in: Erd-Chroniken, Freiburg: Dreisam-Verlag, 1976.
• Like wolves. In: Exodus / Phalanx special volume, 1977.
• In the face of His. In: Atlan, Volume 321, 1977.
• Automaton fairy tale . In: Phalanx 9 , 1977, reprinted as The Fan Story of the Month in Perry Rhodan Magazine No. 3/1979.
• My brother's keeper. In: Phalanx 11, 1978, reprinted in: Eros. Edited by Thomas LeBlanc, Munich: Goldmann, 1982. ISBN 978-3442234172 .
• Dead Missile Park. In: Terra Astra No. 374, ed. William Voltz, 1978.
• The dinosaur. In: Spider Music. Edited by Wolfgang Jeschke, Munich: Heyne, 1979. ISBN 3-453-30559-0 .
• The temporary doctor. In: Computer games. Edited by Roland Rosenbauer, Munich: Heyne, 1979. ISBN 9783453306486 .
• Free country. In: Exodus 11, 1979.
• Model Eva. In: Eawy (1980), reprinted in: Skyline , ID Verlag, 1984.
• Nietzsche Passion. In: Solaris Story Reader 3rd ed. Karl-Heinz Schmitz, Übergrenzen-Verlag, 1982.
• Light season. In: Halley. Edited by Thomas LeBlanc, Munich: Goldmann, 1984.
• Report to no academy. In: Two Angels of the Night. Edited by Jörg Weigand, Markt Rettenbach: Fabylon, 2011. ISBN 9783927071339 .

Web links

• Manfred Borchard in the bibliography of German science fiction ( books , stories , articles )
• Brief portrait on the Exodus website
• Manfred Borchard in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
• Literature by and about Manfred Borchard in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Blog entry by Achim Mehnert , October 16, 2016.
2. ↑ Klaus N. Frick: The editor remembers: Phalanx, Exodus and the others. ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Condolence page of Exodus magazine.
4. ^ Foreword by Frank G. Gerigk to Der Blechlecker (Science Fiction Blues, Volume 1, Belletristische Reihe Volume 18, Fantasia 155, Erste Deutscher Fantasy Club e.V. , Passau 2002, p. 8.)