Michael Zielonka

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Michael Zielonka (born March 9, 1942 in Nordhausen / Harz; † December 2, 2018 in Krefeld ) was a German priest and writer .

Life

In January 1945 Michael Zielonka had to flee with his mother and newborn sister from his Upper Silesian homeland to the west: to Nordhausen, his birthplace, where his father was stationed as a soldier. He spent his childhood in the Thuringian town of Klettenberg . From 1956 he completed a railroad apprenticeship with the Deutsche Reichsbahn, which he completed in 1959 after a second escape from the GDR in Duisburg with the Deutsche Bundesbahn as the best of his year. From 1960 to 1964 he attended the Collegium Marianum in addition to his professional activity, a Catholic evening grammar school in Neuss, where he passed his final exams in 1964. He then studied philosophy, theology and Romance studies at universities in Paris, Bayeux, Innsbruck and Rome and obtained his master's degree in Innsbruck. After living in monasteries of the Order of the Premonstratensians in Mondaye / Normandy and in Duisburg-Hamborn for a long time from 1966 , he was ordained priest for the diocese of Aachen in 1973 .

Michael Zielonka initially worked as a chaplain in Viersen-Dülken and from 1976 as a religion teacher at the Fabritianum grammar school in Krefeld-Uerdingen. In 1979 he went to Rome, where he was a teacher at the German School and Vice Curate at the German Church of Santa Maria dell'Anima until 1981 . From 1981 to 1986 he was university pastor in Paris and at the same time vicar at the Notre-Dame Cathedral. In 1986 he returned to Germany and worked as a military chaplain in Geilenkirchen, Teveren and Düren until 1992. From 1993 to 1997 he looked after a parish in Aachen and at the same time took on journalistic tasks in the church sector. From 1998 to 2007 he worked as a school chaplain at a comprehensive school in Krefeld, based in Mönchengladbach. From 2013 he lived in Krefeld.

He actively devoted himself to the pastoral care of letters, lived and worked in the de-churched milieu of authors and intellectuals with a focus on Düsseldorf. His literary work includes poetry, short prose , essays and the modern religious text. At the same time, the translations from the Friulian language submitted by Giorgio Faggin were made up . In May 2010 his oeuvre comprised 14 books, two scores and approx. 400 scattered individual publications. However, its public impact remained limited. The linguistic virtuosity of the volume of poetry "From the accuracy of the inaccuracy" (1981) was no longer achieved by his later publications.

Michael Zielonka was a member of the Association of German Writers . For book projects in 1972, 1976 and 1981 he received a working grant from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and in 1980 the sponsorship award for the Upper Silesian Culture Prize . In numerous essays and stories he has described the land of his ancestors from which they had to flee in 1945. In 1971 he was awarded the title of Knight by Yuste by the Spanish Crown for his initiative to adapt Romanesque poetry.

Works

  • 78 poems , double number of the Lyrische Hefte, selected by Arnfrid Astel, Inning 1969
  • Me, addition to my umbilical cord (poetry), Munich 1970
  • Doubt and Progress (Church Poetry), Hamburg 1972
  • Lay me out with glasses (satires, cabaret poetry), Darmstadt 1974
  • Nothing but lovesickness (religious-modern texts), Kevelaer 1976
  • On the accuracy of inaccuracy (enigmatic poetry), Munich 1981
  • Unconventional meditations (religious-modern texts), Graz [u. a.] 1982
  • Literally living (religious-modern texts), Würzburg 1990
  • Impulses for reading year A (short texts on sermons and liturgy), Nettetal 1995
  • Impulses for reading year B (short texts on sermons and liturgy), Nettetal 1996
  • Living more clearly (his main spiritual work on all topics of the annual cycle), Nettetal 1996
  • Impulses for reading year C (short texts on sermons and liturgy), Nettetal 1997
  • Cheerful through the church year (humoresques), Leipzig 2003
  • New questions to old answers to religion and religions , Berlin 2010
  • Both either and or. Exploring the Frontiers of the Catholic , Berlin 2016

Editing

  • Friulian poetry in the twentieth century , San Daniele 1975 (edited with the translator Giorgio Faggin)

literature

  • Ralf Georg Czapla : On the difficulty of being a poet and a priest. A portrait of the author Michael Zielonka. In: German books. Forum for literature. Interview with the authors - Criticism - Interpretation 34 (2004), pp. 189–195.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Zielonka. In: Kürschner's German Literature Calendar 2018/2019. Volume II: PZ. Walter de Gruyter , 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057616-0 , pp. 1061-1062.
personal data
SURNAME Zielonka, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German priest and writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Nordhausen
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 2018
Place of death Krefeld