Per Wahlöö

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Per Fredrik Wahlöö (born August 5, 1926 in the Församling Tölö, Kungsbacka municipality , † June 22, 1975 in Malmö ) was a Swedish writer . (The place of birth and death are given differently in different sources).

Life

Per Wahlöö - his father was a journalist - studied history at Lund University . He then worked as a journalist , primarily as a police reporter. In his early published texts, he turned to social issues and also became active himself. Like his later partner and co-author Maj Sjöwall , he was a Marxist . In the 1950s he went to Spain , but was expelled from the Franco regime in 1956 as a result of his political involvement . After long trips around the world, he returned to Sweden . There he worked again as a journalist (court reporter), writer and translator.

In 1971 Wahlöö was one of the thirteen Swedish authors who founded the Svenska Deckarakademin , which has since awarded the Swedish Crime Prize.

Wahlöö was married twice. In 1961 he met Maj Sjöwall, with whom he lived from 1963. The couple had two children. In 1975 Per Wahlöö died of cancer in Malmö .

Act

Early work

At the end of the 1950s, the first literary works were television and radio games. In 1959 Wahlöö's first novel Himmelsgeten appeared , which was also published under the title Hövdingen (German title: Foul Play ). This was followed by Lastbilen (1962, German Das Lastauto ) and Uppdraget (1963, German Libertad! ), With the relationship of the individual to political power as a continuous theme that also recurs in Generalerna (1965, German Die Generale ). In Mord på 31: a våningen (1964, German murder on the 31st floor ) and Stålsprånget (1968, German company Stahlsprung ) Wahlöö uses the form of the detective novel.

Co-authorship with Sjöwall

Per Wahlöö has worked with Maj Sjöwall since 1961. The two authors tried to process their common political views on Swedish society in a literary way and thus bring them closer to sections of the population who, as a rule, seldom took part in political debates . They were modeled on the police procedurals , the police novels by Ed McBain , especially his series about the 87th police station, which Wahlöö had translated into Swedish. They designed the crime novel series Roman om ett brott (German novel about a crime ) as a socially critical platform.

At the time, the author couple was known for their socially critical attitude. Ulf Örnklo, crime expert at the Swedish radio, reports that Wahlöö and Sjöwall were so opposed to the state at the time that they paid no taxes, got drunk in public and misbehaved in such a way that they had to leave restaurants.

The novels were created as a joint effort. As Sjöwall later reported, they each wrote down their inspirations and then exchanged the manuscripts. According to their own statements, they did not earn any money with the novels for a long time. The writing took place parallel to their jobs and the upbringing of the children or on vacation. An initial basis was the experience that Wahlöö gained as a police reporter. But these were not enough, so that the intensive writing time had to be preceded by months of no less intensive research. In order to put their plan to dissect the inner workings of the police apparatus into practice, they needed inside information. They often obtained these illegally: They went to police stations and stole company newspapers and other papers that they could provide with information when the police were drinking coffee.

It is likely that the crime series about the policeman Martin Beck was designed in ten volumes (decalogy) from the start. In any case, the individual parts are becoming increasingly political and the respective criminal cases are more and more placed in the context of the social criticism intended by the authors. The rejection of the Swedish welfare state at the time then comes to light in the tenth episode.

"Despite all the other differences, this country, like Sweden, was a sham democracy , ruled by a capitalist economy and cynical professional politicians who took great care to maintain the semblance of some form of socialism that was just a reflection of it."

Sjöwall later took the edge off this criticism in interviews. Although she insists to this day that the portrayal of the “ailing society” was “very realistic” at the time, she admits that Wahlöö and she “exaggerated a bit at that time”: “[V] above all then when it came to portraying the secret police or the judges a bit more stupid than they were. ”A quote from Sjöwall is often used, which also has a weakening character:

“You could foresee the increasing swamping of Swedish social democracy as early as 1963 , but other things were completely unpredictable: the development of the police towards a paramilitary organization, their increased use of firearms, their large-scale and centrally controlled operations and maneuvers (...). We also had to change the type of criminal, as society and with it crime had changed: They had become more brutal and faster. "

Works

As sole author:

  • Himmelsgeten 1959 (from the new edition 1967 under the title Hövdingen , German Foul Play ) - filmed in 1986 in Sweden under the title Hövdingen
  • Vinden och rnet 1961 (German wind and rain )
  • Lastbilen 1962 (German. Das Lastauto. Translated from the Swedish by Michael O. Güsten with the assistance of Barbara Sparing . With an afterword by Alfred Antkowiak , Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1969.)
  • Uppdraget 1963 (German Libertad! )
  • Det växer inga rosor på Odenplan 1964 (German: From ships and people , stories and poems, created 1958 to 1963)
  • Mord på 31: a våningen 1964 (German murder on the 31st floor ) - filmed in 1982 under the title Kamikaze in 1989 , directed by Wolf Gremm , in the lead role by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
  • Generalerna 1965 (German The Generals )
  • Stålsprånget 1968 (German company Stahlsprung )

With Maj Sjöwall:

Awards

In 1965 Wahlöö received the Svenska Dagbladet literary prize for his novel Generalerna .

The Laughing Policeman , the English translation of the novel Den skrattande polisen (German: Endstation for nine ), which he wrote with Maj Sjöwall , won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the Best Novel category in 1971 as the first novel by a non-English-speaking author .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Svenska Filminstitutet: Per Wahlöö
  2. ↑ a) According to Brockhaus Enzyklopädie in twenty-four volumes, 19th edition, 23rd volume 1994 it is said in a general sense that he was both born in Lund and died there. b) According to Meyers Taschenlexikon Northern European Literatures, Leipzig 1980 the place of birth was Gothenburg and the place of death Lund.
  3. ^ Meyers Taschenlexikon: Northern European Literatures, Leipzig 1980
  4. ↑ Svenska Dagbladet: Deckardam (Swedish: "Die Krimidame"), from the daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet , published June 19, 2010, accessed June 17, 2012
  5. ↑ Katharina Granzin: Pioneers of the Ordinary . In: the daily newspaper . February 25, 2009.
  6. ↑ Gerhard Fischer: A country invents its murderers. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 17, 2002
  7. ↑ Gerhard Fischer: A country invents its murderers. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 17, 2002
  8. ↑ Sjöwall later said in interviews that she and her husband were “worn out” in the end and did not want to write any more crime novels in the series. JCSchmidt on caliber 38 said that this does not directly contradict the assumption that the series was intended to consist of ten volumes from the beginning, but at least "not necessarily" supports it. See biography on caliber 38
  9. ↑ Die Terroristen , 1977, p. 26 (As Gunvald Larsson's thoughts on a South American dictatorship).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wahlöö, Per
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wahlöö, Per Fredrik (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish crime novel writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Församling Tölö, Kungsbacka municipality
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1975
Place of death Malmo