Siegfried Lenz

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Siegfried Lenz (1969)

Siegfried Lenz (born March 17, 1926 in Lyck , East Prussia ; † October 7, 2014 in Hamburg ) was a German writer and one of the best-known German-speaking narrators of post-war and contemporary literature. Lenz's most important work is the novel Deutschstunde (1968), which has been translated and filmed in many languages ​​and deals with the time of National Socialism and a misunderstood term of duty. His first collection of short stories from 1955, Suleyken was so tender , was also very successful due to his novel narrative style and the use of East Prussian- Masurian colloquial language.

Life

Siegfried Lenz was the son of a customs officer and grew up in Masuria . After the early death of his father, his mother and her daughter moved away from Lyck, leaving Siegfried, who had just finished school, with his grandmother, who lived on the banks of Lake Lyck . In 1939 he was initially able to take part in a "Landjahr" in the village of Saugen (East Prussia) and finally qualify for a nine-month course for gifted students, which was held at the Klaus Harms School in Kappeln in Schleswig-Holstein . While five of his classmates were referred to a Napola school, Lenz attended boarding school in Samter . Lenz later describes boarding school life in Samter, but leaves out the preparatory phase in Kappeln. After graduating from high school in 1943 in Samter, he was drafted into the Navy .

soldier

According to documents from the Berlin Federal Archives , Siegfried Lenz is listed in the central file of the NSDAP with the application date July 12, 1943 and the date of joining April 20, 1944. On April 20, 1945, he was named ensign at sea in a mass promotion process. According to his own admission, Lenz did not know that he was accepted into the NSDAP in a collective procedure. Shortly before the end of World War II, he deserted from the cadet training ship Hansa in Denmark and was taken prisoner by the British on his escape in Schleswig-Holstein . There Lenz became an interpreter for a British dismissal commission. In the 1966 essay Ich, for example , he reported both the euphoria of 17-year-old Lenz when he was called up and the later disillusionment and the redeeming end of the lies at the end of the war.

Student, volunteer, editor

After his release he attended the University of Hamburg to study philosophy , English and literature . He broke off his studies prematurely and became a volunteer with the daily newspaper Die Welt . From 1950 to 1951 he was feuilleton - editor at this newspaper. It was there that he met his wife Liselotte (* 1918; † February 5, 2006), who later illustrated some of his books. The marriage was concluded in 1949. The preprint of his own first novel in the literary section of the daily newspaper, which Willy Haas decided, encouraged him to strive to live as a freelance writer.

writer

In 1951 Siegfried Lenz published his first novel by Hoffmann and Campe : There were hawks in the air . With the fee he financed a trip to Kenya ; His story Lukas, meek servant , in which, among other things, the Mau Mau uprising is dealt with, emerged from the experience of this country . Since then Lenz has lived as a freelance writer in Hamburg , later on the Danish island of Alsen and then owned a bungalow in Tetenhusen for the summer months .

Lenz was a regular guest at the Group 47 literary meeting . He belonged to the Hamburg office of the Congress for Cultural Freedom . Together with Günter Grass , he was committed to the SPD and supported Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik . In 1970 he was invited to Warsaw to sign the German-Polish treaty . In October 2011 he became an honorary citizen of his East Prussian hometown.

Albrecht Knaus directed the collaboration with the Hoffmann und Campe publishing house .

Lenz was a member of the PEN Center Germany from 1967 . From 2003 he was visiting professor at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and an honorary member of the Free Academy of the Arts Hamburg .

Late years

In June 2010 Siegfried Lenz married a second time. In spring 2014 he announced that he would leave his personal archive to the German Literature Archive in Marbach . In June 2014 he founded a non-profit foundation based in the Hamburg district of Barmbek , which is supposed to devote itself to the scientific analysis of his work. The Siegfried Lenz Prize has been awarded by this foundation since 2014 .

Siegfried Lenz died on October 7, 2014 in Hamburg. He was buried on October 28, 2014 next to his first wife Liselotte in the Groß Flottbek cemetery. Before that, there was a funeral service in the main church of St. Michaelis . Lenz lived from 1963 until his death in a villa in Hamburg-Othmarschen , which was demolished in 2017.

plant

Lenz at a reading in Bonn (1969)

In addition to 15 novels , Siegfried Lenz wrote over a hundred stories , plays , radio plays , essays , speeches , reviews and repeatedly interfered in daily political events. According to Hanjo Kesting , he belonged to Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass as "one of the defining and outstanding authors of German post-war literature". In his early years he was one of the pioneers of the short story genre in German-language literature and remained its outstanding representative for a long time. For decades, model stories such as Das Feuerschiff (1960) can be found in the canon of school reading. It was only later that Lenz established himself as a master of the long prose form with novels such as Deutschstunde (1968), Heimatmuseum (1978) and Arnes Nachlaß (1999) . In 1963, for example, Marcel Reich-Ranicki judged : "This narrator is a born sprinter who has got it into his head that he must also prove himself as a long-distance runner."

At first, Lenz was mainly influenced by Ernest Hemingway , who gave him "the opportunity to see himself". In the 1960s he distanced himself from Hemingway and turned to his "admired role model" William Faulkner in particular . Lenz's conventional narrative style, reminiscent of nineteenth-century narrators, has led to criticism that he is a traditionalist and that his works are "old-fashioned". Marcel Reich-Ranicki awarded Lenz the title “the benevolent doubter”. Hanjo Kesting describes his composure and humor as central qualities that determine his work as well as "the epic writer's attitude to understanding rather than judging the world and people". At the same time, Lenz remained a pedagogue at all times, who, according to his own statement, wanted to show "that there is right and wrong action". In a much-quoted speech he emphasized: "I just don't value the art of challenging as much as the art of making an effective pact with the reader in order to alleviate the existing evils."

Shortly before Lenz's death, around 80 previously unknown poems were found, which are said to have been composed between 1947 and 1949. The topic is his war experiences and the problems in post-war Germany. It is still open whether the poems will be published.

His novel Der Überläufer , written in 1951, was published posthumously in 2016. Originally, the work was supposed to be published in 1952, but the publisher withdrew the promise it had already given for political reasons (as, for example, Heinrich Böll had done in 1948 with his story The Legacy ) . The novel is about a German soldier who joins partisans and thus the Red Army towards the end of the Second World War .

Lenz's estate is in the German Literature Archive in Marbach . Parts of it can be seen in the permanent exhibition in the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach, in particular the manuscript for the German lesson .

Awards and honors

In the 1970s, Lenz was to receive the Federal Cross of Merit. However, he declined, pointing out that he was a citizen of a Hanseatic city . According to Günter Grass , however, the real reason was that many former National Socialists had also received the medal.

Siegfried Lenz Foundation

In June 2014, the Siegfried Lenz Foundation, which the author himself set up, was recognized by the City of Hamburg. The main task of the foundation is the scientific processing of the journalistic and literary work. Young artists and scientists are also to be supported through grants awarded. The foundation has been commissioned to award the Siegfried Lenz Prize , a literary prize that was first presented in 2014 in Hamburg's City Hall. The award is intended to honor international writers whose work not only achieved great recognition, but whose creative work is close to the spirit of Siegfried Lenz. The prize is awarded every two years and is endowed with 50,000 euros.

Works

German lesson, cover of the first edition from 1968

Novels

Stories and short stories

  • 1955: Suleyken was so tender . Masurian stories , short stories
  • 1956: The most beautiful festival in the world
  • 1956: The contraband cabinet
  • 1957: The miracle of Striegeldorf
  • 1957: Santa Clauses risk
  • 1958: the beginning of something
  • 1958: hunters of ridicule. Stories from that time , stories
  • 1958: Lukas, meek servant , story (12 pages)
  • 1959: A friend of the government , short story
  • 1960: The lightship , stories
  • 1960: The renunciation , stories
  • 1961: Time of the Innocent , scenic work
  • 1962: Moods of the sea , stories
  • 1964: The face , scenic work
  • 1964: Lehmann's stories
  • 1965: The spoiler , story
  • 1967: House search , scenic work
  • 1968: People from Hamburg , story
  • 1970: The blindfold , scenic work
  • 1973: As with Gogol , narrative
  • 1975: Der Geist der Mirabelle , narrative ( No. 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list from March 31 to July 13, 1975 )
  • 1975: Einstein crosses the Elbe near Hamburg , stories
  • 1980: three pieces , scenic work
  • 1984: The end of the war , story
  • 1986: The stories 1949–1984 , 3 volumes
  • 1987: The Serbian Girl , short story
  • 1996: Ludmilla , short story
  • 2004: Onlookers , stories
  • 2006: The Stories. ISBN 3-455-04285-6 .
  • 2008: Minute of silence , novella
  • 2009: Landesbühne , novella. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-455-30665-1 .
  • 2009: The Easter table , story, illustration: Jacky Gleich
  • 2011: The distance is close enough. Stories. Edited by Helmut Frielinghaus. dtv, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-423-14023-2 .
  • 2011: The mask. Stories. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-455-40098-4 .
  • 2011: harmony. The subject. Two one-act plays. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-455-04292-4 .
  • 2012: Coast in binoculars. Stories. Edited by Helmut Frielinghaus. dtv, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-423-14080-5 .
  • 2013: The night in the hotel. Illustrated by Joëlle Tourlonias, ISBN 978-3-455-38127-6 .
  • 2013: a love story. Tender things from Suleyken. Illustrated by Franziska Harvey. ISBN 978-3-455-38134-4 .
  • 2013: The miracle of Striegeldorf. A Christmas Story. New edition with illustrations by Franziska Harvey. ISBN 978-3-455-38083-5 .
  • 2014: People from Hamburg. With pictures by Klaus Fußmann and a foreword by Helmut Schmidt, Hoffmann and Campe, ISBN 978-3-455-40513-2 .
  • 2015: The fishing competition. Illustrated by Nikolaus Heidelbach. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-455-40548-4 .
  • 2015: Kind of a mess. Christmas and winter stories. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-455-40539-2 .

Essays, children's books, speeches

  • 1953: Lotte shouldn't die , children's book
  • 1970: Relationships , essay
  • 1971: The ruling language of the CDU , speech
  • 1971: Lost Land - Gained Neighborhood , speech
  • 1971: That's how it was with the circus , children's book
  • 1980: Conversations with Manès Sperber and Leszek Kołakowski.
  • 1982: About fantasy: Conversations with Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, Walter Kempowski, Pavel Kohout.
  • 1983: ivory tower and barricade. Experiences at the desk , essay
  • 1986: Telling a story - telling a story , essay
  • 1992: About memory. Speeches and essays .
  • 1998: On pain , essay.
  • 2001: Conjectures about the Future of Literature , essay.
  • 2006: Self-Transfer, About Writing and Living. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg, ISBN 3-455-04286-4 .
  • 2012: American Diary 1962. Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, ISBN 978-3-455-40422-7
  • 2014: Opportunity to be amazed. Selected essays. Edited by Heinrich Detering. Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, ISBN 978-3-455-40493-7 .
  • 2017 Marvella's joy. Illustrated by Nikolaus Heidelbach . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg, ISBN 978-3-455-40621-4 .

Film adaptations (selection)

literature

  • Winfried Baßmann: Siegfried Lenz. His work as an example of the way and location of literature in the Federal Republic of Germany. Bouvier, Bonn 1976, ISBN 3-416-01271-2 (= treatises on art, music and literature, 222).
  • Hans-Jürgen Greif : On modern drama: Martin Walser , Wolfgang Bauer, Rainer Werner Fassbinder , Siegfried Lenz, Wolfgang Hildesheimer . 2nd edition. Bouvier, Bonn 1975, ISBN 3-416-00936-3 (= studies on German, English and comparative literature, 25).
  • Rachel J. Halverson: Historiography and fiction. Sigfried Lenz and the " Historikerstreit ". Lang, New York et al. a. 1990 (=  German life and civilization;  8).
  • Ming-fong Kuo: The novel by Siegfried Lenz with special consideration of the novel The Role Model. Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1991, ISBN 3-631-40857-9 (= European university publications ; series 1; 1223).
  • Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Siegfried Lenz . Edition text u. Review, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-921402-33-6 (= text + review; 52).
  • Rudolf Wolff (Ed.): Siegfried Lenz. Work and effect. Bouvier, Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-416-01825-7 (= collection of profiles; 15).
  • Corinna Schlicht (Ed.): Comments on Siegfried Lenz. Laufen, Oberhausen 1998, ISBN 3-87468-150-5 (= authors in context - Duisburg study sheets; 2).
  • Felicia Letsch: Dealing with the past as a moment of criticism of the present. The novels "Billard at half past nine" by Heinrich Böll , "Dog Years" by Günter Grass , "Death in Rome" by Wolfgang Koeppen and "Deutschstunde" by Siegfried Lenz. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-7609-5118-X (= Pahl-Rugenstein Hochschulschriften; 118; Ser .: Literature and History).
  • Jörg Magenau : Schmidt - Lenz. Story of a friendship. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-455-50314-2 .
  • Erich Maletzke: Siegfried Lenz. A biographical approach. To Klampen, Springe 2006, ISBN 3-934920-88-8 .
  • Dorothée Merchiers: Le réalisme de Siegfried Lenz. Lang, Bern a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-906758-81-8 (=  Publications universitaires européennes; Ser. 1, Langue et littérature allemandes; 1770).
  • Hagen Meyerhoff: The figure of the old in the work of Siegfried Lenz. Lanf, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1979, ISBN 3-8204-6645-2 (=  European university publications ; series 1; 327).
  • Hartmut Pätzold: Theory and Practice of Modern Spelling. Using the example of Siegfried Lenz and Helmut Heissenbüttel . Bouvier, Bonn 1976, ISBN 3-416-01258-5 (= literature and reality; 15).
  • Elfie Poulain: La recherche de l'identité sociale dans l'œuvre de Siegfried Lenz. Analysis de pragmatique romanesque. Lang, Bern a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-906754-68-5 (=  Collection contacts; Sér. 3, Études et documents; 37).
  • Marc J. Schweissinger: Siegfried Lenz: Minute of silence [A Moment Of Silence]. The Literary Encyclopedia, first published September 20, 2014.
  • Trudis E. Reber: Siegfried Lenz. 3rd, supplementary edition Colloquium, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-7678-0678-9 (=  heads of the 20th century; 74).
  • Nikolaus Reiter: Value structures in the narrative work of Siegfried Lenz. Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1982, ISBN 3-8204-7262-2 (=  European University publications; Series 1; 560).
  • Irene Schlör: Puberty and Poetry. The problem of education in the literary examples of Wedekind, Musil, and Siegfried Lenz. Wisslit, Konstanz 1992, ISBN 3-89038-821-3 (also dissertation at the University of Istanbul , 1991).
  • Werner Schwan: "I'm not a monster". War and post-war periods in the German novel. Grass, tin drum - Lenz, German lesson - Böll, group picture with lady - Meckel, search image. Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 1990, ISBN 3-7930-9062-0 .
  • Hans Wagener: Siegfried Lenz. Edition text and criticism, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-406-04152-3 .
  • Wolfgang Beutin: Siegfried Lenz. In: Award-Winning. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-631-63297-0 , pp. 227-274.
  • Marcel Reich-Ranicki : My friend Siegfried Lenz. In: FAZ , March 17, 2006.
  • Fritz J. Raddatz : I rebel, that's why I am. In: Die Zeit , March 16, 2006, No. 12.

Movie

  • Siegfried Lenz - writer and philanthropist. Documentary, Germany, 2011, 43:40 min., Script and director: Adrian Stangl, production: arte , NDR , series: Mein Leben, first broadcast: March 21, 2011 on arte.

Web links

Commons : Siegfried Lenz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Siegfried Lenz  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Monika Klein, Siegfried Hirsch: Siegfried Lenz - Traces in the German-Danish border region. In: Hohenfelder and Uhlenhorster Rundschau. 2/2015, pp. 16-18.
  2. ↑ Erich Maletzke: Siegfried Lenz: A biographical approach. To Klampen Verlag, 2014, p. 19f. [1]
  3. ↑ Dieter Hildebrandt is said to have been in the NSDAP. In: The world . June 30, 2007.
  4. ↑ Monika Klein, Siegfried Hirsch: Siegfried Lenz - Traces in the German-Danish border region. In: Hohenfelder and Uhlenhorster Rundschau. 2/2015, pp. 16-18.
  5. ↑ Short CV ( memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) at Radio Bremen from October 8, 2014. (Archive)
  6. ↑ May 8, 1945. End and beginning. SRF, May 8, 2015, minute 14:40
  7. ↑ http://knerger.de/html/lenzsiegschriftsteller_120.html Photo of the tombstone
  8. ^ "Literature is self-testimony" Siegfried Lenz in conversation with Ulrich Wickert . In: About the imagination and age. Homage for the 85th birthday. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2001, pp. 7–26.
  9. ↑ Erich Maletzke: Siegfried Lenz. A biographical approach. Klampen Verlag, Springe 2006, ISBN 3-934920-88-8 , p. 172 f.
  10. ^ Siegfried Lenz becomes an honorary citizen of his hometown. In: The world . October 18, 2011.
  11. ↑ Siegfried Lenz marries a long-time neighbor. Spiegel Online , June 13, 2010.
  12. ^ Siegfried Lenz entrusts his personal archive to the German Literature Archive. Undated communication on the Hoffmann und Campe website (accessed on July 2, 2014).
  13. ↑ Siegfried Lenz establishes a foundation and awards high-value prizes. In: Hamburger Abendblatt of June 18, 2014 (accessed July 2, 2014).
  14. ^ Writer Siegfried Lenz is dead. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of October 7, 2014 (accessed October 7, 2014).
  15. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Siegfried Lenz and his wife
  16. ↑ Helmut Schmidt: "I will miss him very much". In: Hamburger Morgenpost online, October 28, 2014, accessed on October 28, 2014.
  17. ^ The house of writer Siegfried Lenz in Othmarschen is demolished. shz.de, November 16, 2017
  18. ↑ Hanjo Kesting : The storyteller - Siegfried Lenz. In: A leaf from the almond tree. German writers before and after 1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0274-7 , pp. 185–186, 190–191, quotation p. 191.
  19. ↑ Ute Müller: William Faulkner and the German post-war literature. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-2970-4 , p. 201.
  20. ↑ Hanjo Kesting: The storyteller - Siegfried Lenz. In: A leaf from the almond tree. German writers before and after 1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0274-7 , pp. 191–193.
  21. ↑ Walther Killy : Solid German lessons for the whole world . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 1976, p. 202 ( online ).
  22. ↑ Lübeck News. September 7, 2014, p. 30.
  23. ↑ NDR: The Defector (1/2). Retrieved May 14, 2020 .
  24. ↑ a b Volker Weidermann: The enemy in the book. In: Der Spiegel. 9/2016 of February 27, 2016, pp. 116–119.
  25. ^ Heide Soltau: Rediscovery of the novel by Siegfried Lenz. , ndr.de, February 25, 2016, accessed on February 29, 2016.
  26. ↑ Report in the Tagesspiegel.
  27. ^ Press photos of the new exhibition. ( Memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ↑ Honorary Senators of the University of Hamburg ( Memento from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  29. ↑ Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 1988 to Siegfried Lenz (PDF).
  30. ↑ Alster lock keeper: The honor lock keeper
  31. ^ Siegfried Lenz becomes an honorary citizen in Poland . RP Online of September 27, 2011; Retrieved September 30, 2011
  32. ↑ Lübecker Nachrichten , October 8, 2014, p. 3
  33. ^ Siegfried Lenz Foundation. In: siegfriedlenz foundation. Retrieved July 12, 2020 .
  34. ↑ A diver is looking for work and gets into existential conflicts. Lenz writes this down with a cool mind. Armgard Seegers about a great novel from the time of reconstruction. Hamburger Abendblatt dated September 5, 2009, loaded on July 23, 2018
  35. ↑ Hissing polonaise. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 6, 2011, page 2/8
personal data
SURNAME Lenz, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyck, formerly East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 2014
Place of death Hamburg