Rudiger Rosenthal

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Rüdiger Rosenthal (born February 25, 1952 in Boizenburg / Elbe ) is a German poet and journalist .

Life

Rosenthal grew up in what is now Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , graduated from high school in 1970 and at the same time completed an apprenticeship as a shipbuilder in the Elbe shipyard in Boizenburg . He then studied physics at the Technical University of Magdeburg . From 1974 he was a university assistant, then a developer and engineer at the Oberschöneweider factory for television electronics . Rosenthal was also active in East Berlin and Mecklenburg as an author (including in the Pankow Poetry Club ) and as a journalist (under pseudonyms for West German media) and belonged to various alternative cultural, peace and environmental groups of the GDR opposition . Due to years of publication, performance and travel bans and further political persecution pressure, he moved to West Berlin in 1987 .

In the GDR, Rosenthal could only publish a little (e.g. in the literary magazine Temperamente ). Most publications were made without permission in West German and Austrian magazines and in the West Berlin literary magazine Litfass. Berlin magazine for literature . In 1984 he illegally published the volume of poems Polish Travel, Poetic Stories and Other Poems (with etchings by Cornelia Schleime ) in West Berlin's Oberbaum Verlag . In Polish Travel Rosenthal describes the Poland of " Solidarność ", the texts were written shortly before the declaration of martial law in 1981 after the GDR authorities refused any further trips to neighboring Poland. Other texts in Polish Travel deal with experiences of dictatorship and the defense of the language in the dictatorship.

Until 1989 Rosenthal worked as a journalist a. a. for the program "Radio Glasnost" on West Berlin Radio 100 and the daily newspaper taz , for whose articles published there he received the Konrad Adenauer Journalist Prize in 1989 . In 1989 Rosenthal returned to East Berlin, initially becoming press spokesman for the GDR Green Party , later for Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and environmental associations .

reception

A number of texts have appeared in magazines and anthologies. a. in the volume contact is just a marginal phenomenon - new literature from the GDR , which presented the alternative literature scene in Prenzlauer Berg . In his essay "Background and Resistance - The Parallel Culture in East Berlin" in the book Freedom is Always Freedom ... Those who think differently in the GDR , Rosenthal described East Berlin's cultural and oppositional scene, in the essay "Stalin's legacy" set out for another GDR . Reformers and oppositionists on the future of their country the necessity of a de-Stalinization of the GDR.

In 1990 Rosenthal published the anthology Robert Havemann. The voice of conscience. Texts published by a German anti-Stalinist . The book contains speeches, essays and letters by the GDR dissident Havemann . In 2005 he published Mut with Gerald Praschl and Bärbel Bohley . Women in the GDR , a book about the resistant life of eight East German women.

Together with Stephan Bickhardt and over 100 supporters from the group of GDR civil rights activists, he published the declaration on Chemnitz , which in the course of the riots in Chemnitz in 2018 turned against the instrumentalization of the murder of Daniel H., but also the political appropriation of civil rights activists Criticized slogans for other political ideas (especially by right-wing groups).

Works (selection)

as an author
  • Norbert Haase, Lothar Reese, Peter Wensierski (eds.): VEB Nachwuchs. Youth in the GDR . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1983, ISBN 3-499-15178-2 (Rororo-Panther; 5178).
  • Dorothea von Törne (Ed.): Vogelbühne. Poems in dialogue . Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1983.
  • Lutz Rathenow (Ed.): I was once a catcher in the snow. New texts and pictures from the GDR . Oberbaum-Verlag, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-87628-213-5 .
  • Christoph Buchwald, Ursula Krechel (ed.): Luchterhand yearbook of poetry. Vol. 2 (1985), ISSN  0179-9150 .
  • Christoph Buchwald, Elke Erb (ed.): Luchterhand year book of poetry. Vol. 3 (1986), ISSN  0179-9150 .
  • Christoph Buchwald, Jürgen Becker (ed.): Luchterhand yearbook of poetry. Vol. 4 (1987/88), ISSN  0179-9150 .
  • Peter Geist (Ed.): A Molotov cocktail on someone else's bedside. Poetry from the seventies and eighties by poets from the GDR. a reading book . Reclam, Leipzig 1991, ISBN 3-379-00694-7 .
  • Klaus Michael , Thomas Wohlfahrt (ed.): Bird or cage to be. Art and literature from independent magazines in the GDR 1979–1989 . Druckhaus Gralev, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-910161-10-3 .
  • Ferdinand Kroh (Ed.): "Freedom is always freedom ..." Those who think differently in the GDR . Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1988, ISBN 3-548-34489-5 .
  • Elke Erb, Sascha Anderson (Ed.): Touch is only a marginal phenomenon. New literature from the GDR . Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-462-01734-9 .
  • Hubertus Knabe (Ed.): Departure into another GDR. Reformers and opposition leaders on the future of their country . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-499-12607-9 .
as editor
  • Robert Havemann. The voice of conscience. Texts by a German anti-Stalinist . Rowohlt, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-499-12813-6 .
  • Courage. Women in the GDR . Herbig, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7766-2434-5 (together with Gerald Praschl and Bärbel Bohley).

literature

  • Andrea Jäger: writer from the GDR. Expatriation and relocation from 1961 to 1989. Lexicon of authors . Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1995, ISBN 3-631-48643-X , pp. 519f. (Writings on research on Europe and Germany; 1–2).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Civil rights activists publish "Declaration on Chemnitz". Retrieved July 9, 2019 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rosenthal, Rudiger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author, poet, editor and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Boizenburg / Elbe