Marga Frank

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Margarethe "Marga" Frank (born September 1, 1922 in Vienna as Margarethe Güttler ; † June 19, 2013 ) was an Austrian writer who mainly wrote books for children and young people. In addition, she was active in the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF); from day one she was in charge of children's radio and conceived the program “ Das Traummännlein sucht ”, which was the most popular series on Austrian radio after Heinz Conrads' big Sunday morning revue .

life and career

Marga Frank was born on September 1, 1922 as the daughter of Stefanie and Otto Güttler in the Vienna General Hospital . In Vienna she grew up in poor conditions, but also spent time with her grandparents on the farm . Her love for speaking pieces was awakened by her mother, who often took her to the Burgtheater as a child . Her father was in the orchestra of the Vienna Volksoper , where he played the clarinet and piccolo . In her hometown she attended the two-year commercial school and was actually aiming for a career as a doctor. In the German subject she was taught by Max Stebich , among others . At a young age she married Siegfried Frank and in 1941 had their son Jürgen Frank, who later became a board member of the Brau Union and is still a full member of the Association of Austrian Master Brewers and Brewery Technicians . Due to her early marriage and the Second World War , she finally had to give up her career aspiration. Until the end of the war she was obliged to do military service as a clerk, where she was last stationed in the Ennstal , from where she made her way to her child and parents via the demarcation line to Vienna. In order to support and maintain her family and parents financially, she had to start working immediately in 1945, where she was briefly employed by the Medical Association in Vienna.

In October 1945 she began working as an employee of RAVAG as a stenographer in the scientific department of the later ORF . Later she worked in the office of the program director Alfons Übelhör , who headed the science department from 1945 to 1949. At the same time, she began her writing activities, mainly writing children's, girls' and fairy tale books. Besides her work, she wrote her books mostly at night. The reason for writing children's books was her view that there were too few children's books on the market at the time and that those that were available were not particularly beautiful. In the field of children's and young people's books, she became a bestselling author with her Evi series, for which there were still new editions and completely new works over two decades later. At the age of 29 she married a second time, but divorced two years later and again took the family name from her first marriage. She also had two foster daughters .

With the official founding of ORF on August 1, 1955, Frank was appointed head of children's radio after an intermezzo in school radio under the local department head Franz Gregora . Together with Inge Maria Grimm (* 1921) she conceived a new character for a bedtime show, which served as the successor to the "Sandman" and ran from September 11, 1955 under the title The Dream Boy Comes . The actor and speaker Herbert Lenobel gave the dream man his voice from then until 1967. He was followed by Peter Gruber from 1967 until the program was discontinued in 1994. After Heinz Conrads’s big Sunday morning revue , her program Das Traummännlein’s became the most popular series on Austrian radio. Other radio plays for children followed later, including the show Seid mucksmäuschen still , which also emerged from a collaboration with Grimm and for which there was also a book publication. Various kindergarten programs were also produced at the same time. Until the early 1980s, Frank wrote children's books and went in 1982 in pension . Since then she has continued to be active in the social field and, for example, helped out free of charge in an X-ray ordination as an assistant. She also went to the children's hospitals and performed puppet theater - she did this for ten years in the broadcasting house - and gave readings. During her life she has received several awards and received various honors.

Marga Frank, member of the IG Authors Authors and the Austrian Writers' Association , was awarded the Silver Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1981 and the Austrian Medal of Honor for Science and Art in the same year . Frank died on June 19, 2013 at the age of 90. Her body was cremated ; the urn burial took place on August 10, 2013 at the cemetery in Sulz in Burgenland .

Works (selection)

  • 1946: How the good God created Austria
  • 1946: a fairy tale book for little people
  • 1947: O distant strange world
  • 1948: Evi's trip to summer
  • 1948: a year with Evi
  • 1948: Evis homecoming
  • 1949: Dunki three times
  • 1949: And what else, Evi? ; new edition under the title What's next, Evi? : 1963
  • 1950: The Maxi. A school girl story.
  • 1950: Maxi in the big city ; new edition: 1963
  • 1950: Miss Evi Pacher ; new edition: 1971
  • 1951: Maxi becomes sensible
  • 1951: Twelve little candles
  • 1951: Fischlein Silberflink and other fairy tales
  • 1953: "I'm coming to Africa ..."
  • 1960: The dream man comes
  • 1961: The dream man has arrived!
  • 1965: From dream man's big sack
  • 1968: The two friends
  • 1968: Our Evi
  • 1969: Evi's big trip
  • 1970: Everyone helps Evi
  • 1972: Hitzkopf Maxi
  • 1980: New stories from the little dream man

Awards and honors (selection)

Literature & Sources (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ current members of the Association of Austrian Master Brewers and Brewery Technicians , accessed on October 22, 2017
  2. ↑ Otto F. Beer: From the capitals of the world: Vienna - No money for culture . Die Zeit , edition 46/1967, p. 2 below, from November 17, 1967. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
  3. ↑ The “little dream man” celebrates his birthday: Peter Gruber turns 65 . Article ORF Online Niederösterreich of September 22, 2011, accessed on June 13, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b Part of Marga Frank , accessed on October 22, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Frank, Marga
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frank, Margarethe (full name); Güttler, Margarethe (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH 19th June 2013