Rainer Kerndl

Rainer Kerndl (born November 27, 1928 in Bad Frankenhausen / Thuringia ; † October 21, 2018 in Berlin ) was a German writer and journalist .

Life

Rainer Kerndl was the son of a commercial employee . From 1943 to 1945 he lived in Altburgund in occupied Poland . Towards the end of the war he did his working hours and was a member of the Waffen SS for a short time . He became a US prisoner of war , from which he was released in September 1945. In 1948 he passed the school leaving examination . In 1949 he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and worked as a volunteer and editor at a party newspaper in Saalfeld .

From 1951 he wrote as a freelance journalist for the Daily Rundschau , in addition he was a full-time secretary of the Free German Youth (FDJ) at the boarding school Wickersdorf . After Kerndl's earlier membership of the Waffen SS became known, he was expelled from the SED; In 1954 he was resumed retrospectively.

Kerndl worked for the Junge Welt and The Truth , the central organs of the FDJ and the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin . From 1963 he was a theater critic for the SED central organ New Germany . He also wrote plays himself , especially for the Maxim Gorki Theater in East Berlin . In 1984 his drama Der Georgsberg was withdrawn from the repertoire of this theater after three performances because of “behavior that was harmful to the party”. As a result, Kerndl was only able to publish a few narrative works in the last years of the GDR .

Kerndl was a member of the GDR Writers' Association , since 1969 he was a member of the board, from 1973 to the presidium of this organization, and from 1978 to 1989 he was its vice-president. Since 1972 he has been a member of the PEN Center Germany . Kerndl received the Erich Weinert Medal in 1961 , the Lessing Prize of the GDR in 1965 , the Goethe Prize of the City of Berlin in 1972, a National Prize of the GDR in 1972 , the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1975 and the "Order of Merit for Polish Culture" in 1976 .

From 1980 to 1989 Kerndl was registered as a Social Security Employee (GMS) of the GDR State Security under the code name "Rita", but was not managed or deployed as an unofficial employee (IM).

Works (selection)

Flashes remained unanswered. The new adventure No. 15, Berlin 1953
... and nobody stays behind! Berlin 1953
Young hearts. Berlin 1954
The conquest of Burgwalldorf. Berlin 1956
A reunion. Berlin 1956
... played for money. Berlin 1958 (together with Walter Böhme )
Shadow of a girl. Berlin 1961 (Premiere Maxim-Gorki-Theater Berlin, October 21, 1961)
His children. Berlin 1963 (Premiere Maxim-Gorki-Theater Berlin, October 7, 1963)
A plea for seekers. Berlin 1966
The betrayed rebel. Berlin 1967
The strange journey of Alois Fingerlein . Berlin 1967 (Premiere Maxim-Gorki-Theater Berlin, October 13, 1967)
Double game. Berlin 1969
I met a girl. Berlin 1969
When is Honest Coming? Berlin 1971 (Premiere Maxim-Gorki-Theater Berlin, October 17, 1971)
Pieces. Berlin 1972
Jarash, a day in September. Berlin 1974
Night of compromises. Berlin 1976
The fourteenth summer. Berlin 1977
The long arrival of Alois Fingerlein. Berlin 1979 (Premiere Maxim-Gorki-Theater Berlin, May 19, 1979)
An opaque affair. Hall [u. a.] 1981
A burned out life. Hall [u. a.] 1983
The Shahnas' stones. Berlin 1986
The girl in the chestnut tree. Berlin 1988
A homeless guy. Hall [u. a.] 1990
Bimbo Hubert. Berlin 1993

Filmography

1969/1977: The strange journey of Alois Fingerlein (theater recording)

literature

Bernd-Rainer Barth : Kerndl, Rainer . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Gottfried Fischborn : Rainer Kerndl. In: Literature of the German Democratic Republic. Individual representations Volume 2. People and knowledge, Berlin 1979, license no. 203.1000/73, LSV 8012

Web links

Literature by and about Rainer Kerndl in the catalog of the German National Library

Dieter Fechner : Reaching into the literary treasure chest (12) - once successful GDR authors snatch from oblivion. In: Rotfuchs October 189 , 2013 .; accessed on October 26, 2018

Individual evidence

↑ Rainer Kerndl died. In: jungewelt.de . October 24, 2018, accessed October 26, 2018 .
^ Joachim Walther: Security area literature: writers and state security in the German Democratic Republic (= analyzes and documents. Scientific series of the Federal Commissioner, 6). Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, ² 1998, ISBN 978-3-86284-042-7 , p. 743.

personal data
SURNAME	Kerndl, Rainer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German journalist, author and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH	November 27, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bad Frankenhausen
DATE OF DEATH	October 21, 2018
Place of death	Berlin

[1] Rainer Kerndl died. In: jungewelt.de . October 24, 2018, accessed October 26, 2018 .

[2] Joachim Walther: Security area literature: writers and state security in the German Democratic Republic (= analyzes and documents. Scientific series of the Federal Commissioner, 6). Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, ² 1998, ISBN 978-3-86284-042-7 , p. 743.