Science Fiction Club Germany
The Science Fiction Club Germany (SFCD) is a nationwide association founded in 1955 by friends of science fiction in literature , film and electronic media . It has the legal form of a registered association (eV).
Purpose of the association
The SFCD aims to critically examine science fiction and fantasy in literature and the media. The aim is also to promote the sciences that form the basis of science fiction and to promote peaceful, humane and tolerant attitudes. The SFCD also maintains contacts with foreign associations that pursue the same goals.
development
The SFCD was founded on August 4, 1955 by the science fiction authors Walter Ernsting (alias Clark Darlton ) and Raymond Z. Gallun , the publishing editor Walter Spiegl and Julian Parr in Frankfurt am Main. The seat of the association is Hanover . The American Forrest J Ackerman, known worldwide as the "No. 1 science fiction fan", was one of the first members .
While the activity of German science fiction fans took place almost exclusively in the SFCD in the beginning, the association sees itself today as an umbrella organization with traditionally good contacts abroad as well as with numerous independent groups and initiatives at local and regional level.
Today the SFCD has over 450 members throughout Germany (as of September 2004). There are also some members in the USA, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden, Canada and Australia. This makes the SFCD the oldest and largest independent association of its kind in Germany.
activities
Publications
The main activity is the issuing of publications. The Andromeda Nachrichten appears quarterly and represents the most extensive information compendium on the topic within the German-speaking area. The editions of the Andromeda Science Fiction Magazine are compiled by changing editors who offer to collect material on certain special topics. These included, for example, story editions about German reunification or alchemy in the past and future, bibliographies and reports from larger science fiction congresses or about one of the first German science fiction fans Herbert Häusler . The magazine appears once or twice a year. The Story Center appears once a year and contains short stories by as yet unknown German-speaking authors. In addition, books are bought cheaply by the association and distributed to members as special publications.
Prices
The SFCD annually awards the German Science Fiction Prize for the best novel and the best short story in the genre that was originally published in German last year. The award is endowed with 1000 euros for each category.
The Curt Siodmak Prize has been awarded for film and television productions since 2003 .
All award winners are announced at the SFCD congresses, which take place annually at different locations.
In the early days of the SFCD at the end of the 1950s, a number of loan books and novels from the Utopia Zukunftsroman series were awarded the club seal of the Science Fiction Club Germany .
Heicon ´70
In 1970 the SFCD hosted the 28th World Science Fiction Convention in Heidelberg (informally known as Heicon '70 or just Heicon ); the only Worldcon that has taken place in Germany so far and attended by around 620 guests from at least 15 countries.
further activities
Other activities include supporting the activities of its members, who are often involved in local and regional fan groups and special-purpose groups, and establishing useful contacts at home and abroad. A special feature is the SFCD-Phonothek , a kind of "acoustic memory" in which long-term members have collected recordings of numerous German science fiction radio plays as well as tape recordings of science fiction congresses and events at home and abroad.
Prominent members
literature
- Rainer Eisfeld : The future in your pocket. Science Fiction and SF Fandom in the Federal Republic - The Pioneering Years 1955-1960 , 2nd Edition Lüneburg (Dieter von Reeken Verlag) 2008. ISBN 978-3-940679-11-6
- Heinz J. Galle: How Science Fiction Conquered Germany. Memories of the future past , Lüneburg (Dieter von Reeken Verlag) 2008. ISBN 978-3-940679-20-8
- Ronald M. Hahn : Science & Technology = Future. History and ideology of the SF booklet. In: Eike Barmeyer (Ed.): Science Fiction. Theory and history. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1972, pp. 219–243.