Rudolf Hirsch (writer)

Rudolf Hirsch (1988)

Rudolf Hirsch (born November 17, 1907 in Krefeld , † June 7, 1998 in Berlin ) was a German-Jewish writer and journalist .

Life

Rudolf Hirsch was the son of a wealthy Jewish shoe dealer. He was trained as a businessman from 1924 to 1928. In 1931 he joined the KPD . In 1933 he emigrated to Holland and Belgium, but returned to Germany again in 1934 and did illegal anti-fascist work for the Marxist group Neu Beginnen . In 1938 he left Germany again.

After an unsuccessful asylum application in Sweden, Hirsch found refuge in Palestine in 1939 . In Tel Aviv , where he earned his living as a shoemaker, he and Arnold Zweig led the local section of the Free Germany Movement . In the partly autobiographical novel Patria Israel (1983), Hirsch sat down on the fate of 250 Jewish refugees who were killed on November 25, 1940 on board the steamer Patria in the port of Haifa in connection with a bomb attack carried out by the Haganah underground organization , critically deal with Zionism .

After the end of the Second World War he returned to Germany. As the most popular court reporter in the GDR , he worked for the weekly newspaper Wochenpost . He reported on sensational trials against Nazi criminals, such as B. about the Auschwitz trials or the Lischka trial , but also about theft trials from the GDR province. His court reports appeared in several anthologies.

Since 1958 he was married to the writer Rosemarie Schuder . With her he became for their joint literary work The Yellow Spot. The roots and effects of hatred of Jews in German history were awarded the GDR National Prize in 1988 .

Rudolf Hirsch was buried in the row of artist graves in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery.

Rudolf Hirsch's gravestone

Works

Non-fiction

Autobiography

• From a lost world. Edited by Walter Nowojski . Das Neue Berlin , Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-360-00979-7 .

Court reports

• As a witness in this matter. Reports from everyday court life. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1958.
• Dr. Meyer's magic trick. A court report from the Düsseldorf trial against members of the West German Peace Committee. Congress publishing house, Berlin 1960.
• Witness in matters of love and marriage. From everyday court life. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1963.
• Witness with crying and laughing eyes. From everyday court life. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1964.
• Witness in East and West. From everyday court life. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1965.
• Witness in new love and marriage matters. From everyday court life. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1966.
• heard, unheard of. From everyday court life. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1968.
• The first best. Selected court reports 1950–1960. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1970.
• Lawbreaker, judge. From everyday court life. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1971.
• In matters of love and marriage. Selected court reports. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1972.
• Tragic comedies of everyday life. Court reports. The New Berlin, Berlin 1974
• Young people and their needs in court. Court reports. The New Berlin, Berlin 1979.
• Eros and marriage in court. Court reports. The New Berlin, Berlin 1980.
• Smile through tears? Court reports. The New Berlin, Berlin 1981.
• To the final solution. Trial reports on the Lischka trial in Cologne and the Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt / M .. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1982. New edition: To the final solution. Process reports. Dietz, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-320-02020-X .
• Stumbled, stumbled, straightened. Court reports. Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1983.
• The strangest cases of the RH Selected court reports. Verlag Tribüne, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-7303-0035-0 .
• What a deer has to wear its skin for and other court reports. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1988, ISBN 3-7352-0104-0 .
• Life, what else. Court reports from three decades. 5 volumes. Reiher, Berlin 1990–1991.
• The Markus Wolf Trial. A report. Brandenburgisches Verlags-Haus, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89488-082-1 .
• Chosen falls. The reporter as a witness on his own behalf. Verl. Neues Leben, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-355-01490-7 .

Anti-Semitism and the persecution of the Jews

• The yellow spot. Roots and effects of hatred of Jews in German history. Essays. Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-352-00150-2 (with Rosemarie Schuder).
• Number 58866 King of the Jews. Ed. Ost, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-929161-80-X (with Rosemarie Schuder). New edition: No. 58866. “King of Jews”. The life of Kurt Julius Goldstein . Revised and expanded new edition. vbb, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86650-781-4 .

Fiction

Novels

• Mr. Louisides bitter almonds. New life, Berlin 1955.
• The fake logbook. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 1956.
• Patria Israel. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1983.
• The Aryan Jewess. Ed. q, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-86124-227-3 .

as editor

• The journey home of Rabbi Chanina and other tales and stories from Yiddish. VOB Union, Berlin 1962.

literature

• Walter Nowojski: Court reporter and poet too. The life of the court reporter Rudolf Hirsch. Antiquariat Brandel, Berlin 2007 ( Friedrichshagener Hefte. No. 60).
• Karin Hartewig, Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Rudolf Hirsch . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Patria Israel, 1983, Greifenverlag Rudolstadt, ISBN 3-7352-0071-0 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Rudolf Hirsch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Manfred Jäger: Walter Nowojski (Ed.): Rudolf Hirsch - From a lost world . Review of Hirsch's memoirs in the Deutschlandfunk broadcast “Political Literature”, March 24, 2003
• Jeannette Otto: Chutzpah was his secret . Interview with Rudolf Hirsch in: Die Zeit 7/1998, February 5, 1998