Theodor Weissenborn

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Theodor Weißenborn (2018)

Theodor Weißenborn (born July 22, 1933 in Düsseldorf , † January 9, 2021 in Gerolstein ) was a German writer .

life and work

Theodor Weißenborn was born in 1933 as the son of the academic painter Karl Weißenborn (1890–1973) and the art teacher Antonie Weißenborn née Brungs (1907–1981). The family lived well-to-do in their mother's middle-class parental home in downtown Düsseldorf . After the first bombing raids on Düsseldorf, the family moved to their father's house in Deuna / Eichsfeld in 1941 . After a short stay in the mother's parents' house in Düsseldorf and its destruction by bombs, the family moved to Niederorschel , a neighboring village of Deuna, in 1942 . In 1945 Weißenborn took part in a special course for the sons of teachers in the Heiligenstadt ban schoolpart and received the first prize because he was able to recite the reader essay From the Life of Adolf Hitler by heart. Shortly afterwards, in the second week of April 1945, the US Army moved into Eichsfeld, which was replaced by Soviet troops at the beginning of July . The family fled the Soviet Zone to West Germany and found accommodation with an uncle of their mother near Coesfeld .

In April 1946 the family returned to Düsseldorf. Weißenborn attended the Humanist Jacobi Gymnasium there , where he passed his school leaving examination in 1955, and wrote his first short stories that appeared in newspapers and magazines . Among other things , he read Hemingway , Borchert , Kolbenhoff , the magazines Horizont , Athenae and Neue Auslese as well as - in high school - with a passion for poetological and stylistic books. He edited the school magazine and won first prizes in essay competitions for schools in Düsseldorf. His German teacher allowed him to create dialectical reflections as narratives rich in dialogue. In high school essay interpreted it Hölderlin Ode Bound power ; Orally it was tested via Guardini's Rilke interpretation.

In the summer semester of 1955, Weißenborn studied art education at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . The academy bought one of his drawings . He then changed his subject and in the winter semester 1955/56 began studying German , Romance languages and philosophy at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn . After a six-week marathon course at the University of Lausanne , he passed the Examen du Degré Supérieur de Français Moderne in 1956 . He then studied Romance studies with Franz Rauhut in Würzburg in the winter semester of 1956/57 . From summer 1957 he continued his studies in Bonn . This was followed by art history studies at Heinrich Lützeler and Herbert von Einem . He joined the student “Working Group for New Art” and designed an alternative course of study with a focus on the disciplines of poetics , stylistics , rhetoric and recitation .

In 1961 Weißenborn's first book, Almost the Kingdom of Heaven , was published, a collection of short stories that deal with the world of children and young people. He began working on Out of Call Range , a time-sensitive novel from the Bonn student milieu. On December 9th, he married Hildegard Siepmann, who brought a daughter into the marriage.

1962 followed a first occupation with the writings of Sigmund Freud and CG Jung . Weißenborn resigned from the Catholic Church . In the following year Dieter Wellershoff invited him to work in the - later so-called - "Cologne School", a group of young authors founded by Wellershoff. Rolf Dieter Brinkmann and Günter Herburger belonged. Weißenborn, however, wanted to go his own way and refused. In 1964, Wolfgang Weyrauch became aware of Weißenborn and edited out of range . The novel was published in the same year and received mixed criticism. Weißenborn moved to Cologne with his family.

In 1965 Weißenborn developed the project of a literary panorama of psychological suffering and began studying medical psychology and psychiatry at the University of Cologne . He quickly stepped into opposition to Kurt Schneider's clinical psychiatry, which was taught in Cologne - still from the Nazi era - and came to Franco Basaglias anti-psychiatry via psychosomatic medicine ( Alexander Mitscherlich ) and Anglo-Saxon social psychiatry ( Laing , Cooper , Bateson ) . On the basis of his observations in the Cologne psychiatry, he wrote in quick succession a series of radio plays critical of psychiatry , which, after productions by NDR / WDR and other ARD institutions, appeared as a book under the title "A tainted conception". At the invitation of progressive doctors and lecturers , Weißenborn was able to hold guest lectures at numerous psychiatric hospitals and universities, speaking out against treatment with electric shock , lobotomy and lobectomy and advocating alternative social-psychiatric and anti-psychiatric forms of therapy.

In 1966 Weißenborn had a son and a daughter two years later. In 1969 the family moved to Landscheid in the Eifel .

Weißenborn traveled to Germany, Austria and Switzerland as a cabaret artist and gave weekend seminars in numerous universities and church academies on topics such as "Language as a weapon or Can literary figures change society?", "Illness as protest / psychological suffering and its causes in the mirror new literature ”,“ What is verbal aggression useful and to whom does it harm ? ”“ Sensory experience in life crises ”,“ The offended Eros ”,“ Age - self-competence or social performance? ”,“ Religiousness and mental health ”,“ Blasphemy / about constructive interaction with literary annoyances ”,“ Speak so that I can see you! / Forms and possibilities of the radio play ”.

In 1971 Weißenborn was accepted into the PEN Center Germany . In the following years, other radio plays as well as satires, parodies and grotesques were created , which, along with other short stories and short stories, appeared in numerous book editions. The most important of these pieces have been translated into a total of 26 languages.

Between 1974 and 1976 Weißenborn systematically compiled the contemporary psychological and psychotherapeutic specialist literature with special consideration of the works of Erich Fromm , Carl Rogers ', Karen Horney , Erich Neumanns , Josef Rattner and Horst-Eberhard Richter .

Between 1977 and 1979 the novel As like smoke in the wind was written , which was published in autumn 1979.

In 1980 Weißenborn decided to resume philosophical studies ( Nicolai Hartmann , Max Scheler , Karl Jaspers , Martin Buber ); he dealt with Fritz Perls ' gestalt psychology and with questions of bibliotherapy and poetry therapy in collaboration with Hilarion Petzold . In those years created numerous poems on issues of philosophy and conflict psychology , ecclesiastical and religious critical texts and finally the essay is Being Nothingness subtitled explication of a paradox , published 1984th

In 1986 Weißenborn ran in the Bundestag election campaign in the constituency of Bitburg for The Peace List , an alliance made up of members of the DKP , SPD , FPD and the GRÜNEN and advocated the destruction of medium-range nuclear weapons. He made peace political cabaret and demanded in a satirical newsletter those members of the German Bundestag, which for the NATO double-track decision had voted, personal to acquire sponsorships for one of the in Hasselbach stationed and Heilbronn cruise missiles and Pershing II - rockets on. Since those addressed refused, he carried out a public “ forced baptism ” on March 23, 1986 in front of the gate of the Hasselbach missile base and gave the cruise missiles stationed there the names of their political mothers and fathers. In the autumn of 1986, Weißenborn's correspondence with the Bonn deputies was published as a facsimile edition under the title Die Paten der Raketen .

From 2002 to 2003 Günter Helmes published a six-volume complete edition of Theodor Weißenborn's works.

In 2009 the Weißenborns moved to Pulheim , a year later to nearby Cologne, and in 2015 to Gerolstein. Weißenborn subsequently wrote numerous philosophical and psychological essays and published in literary and cultural magazines ( Language in the Technical Age , Ostragehege , Die Drei, etc.). In addition, numerous socially critical (mainly church and religion critical) short texts emerged, including were printed by the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland and the magazines concrete , Christian and Socialist , Art and Culture, the heretic letters and the red fox .

On January 9, 2021, Weißenborn died after a brief serious illness at the age of 87. He was buried in the forest cemetery in Gerolstein.

Works

  • Almost the Kingdom of Heaven , short stories, Verlag Ludwig Auer , Donauwörth 1963
  • Out of call range , Roman, Paul List Verlag , Munich 1964
  • A tainted conception , stories, Diogenes , Zurich 1969
  • The voice of Mr. Gasenzer , stories, Claudius, Munich 1970
  • Handbook for German speakers , parodies, Jugenddienst-Verlag , Wuppertal 1971
  • Letter from an apolitical , prose text, Edition Beck, Zweibrücken and Paris 1971 (together with Bernd Müller-Dennhof)
  • A defiled conception , stories, dtv , Munich 1972
  • The love-hate game , stories, Erdmann , Tübingen 1973
  • Illness as protest - examples of socially damaged life , pathographies , Werner Raith, Starnberg 1973
  • Submission to the Minister , prose text, Edition Beck, Zweibrücken and Paris 1973 (together with Bernd Müller-Dennhof)
  • Theodor Weißenborn calendar , biophile wall calendar, Edition Beck, Zweibrücken and Paris 1974 (together with Bernd Müller-Dennhof)
  • The leap into the unknown , stories, Klett , Stuttgart 1975
  • Returning to Silence , Stories, Salzer , Heilbronn 1975
  • The Guardian of Wales , Stories and Grotesques, Aufbau-Verlag , Berlin and Weimar 1976
  • Language as a weapon , A political reading book, Gauke , Hannoversch Münden 1976
  • Blue beans - sharp knives , unusual crime stories, Ensslin and Laiblin, Reutlingen 1976
  • Spiritual estate , poems, Gilles and Franke, Duisburg 1977
  • Singing for two in the night , texts against violence , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 1977
  • Die Killer , satirical novel, Helmut Braun, Cologne 1978
  • Polyglott , poems, Guido Hildebrandt, Duisburg 1979
  • As a smoke in the wind , Roman, Kerle, Freiburg and Heidelberg 1979
  • Orphan's Heartbreak , Satires and Grotesques, Helmut Braun, Cologne 1979
  • The house of linnets , stories, guys, Freiburg and Heidelberg 1980
  • Ghosts in the overburden , stories, Husum Druck und Verlag , Husum 1983
  • Spiew na dwa glosy nocna pora , short stories, PIW, Warsaw 1983
  • Head off to prayer! , Satires, grotesques, parodies, éditions trèves, Trier 1984
  • Being is nothing , tract, Fietkau, Berlin 1984
  • On the cellar fractions , stories, Eremiten-Presse , Düsseldorf 1984
  • The thing with Dad and other stories , stories, Klett, Stuttgart 1986
  • The godparents of rockets , letter satires, éditions trèves, Trier 1986
  • The stone sea , stories, Urachhaus , Stuttgart 1986
  • Oscillation , treatise, Edition Beck, Zweibrücken and Paris 1987 (together with Gerhard Hintschich )
  • Alchemy , Proverbs and Contradictions, Quell Verlag, Stuttgart 1987
  • Purgatory , short stories, Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1987
  • Victims of a Conspiracy , Selected Prose, Quell Verlag, Stuttgart 1988
  • Ja na wietrze dym , Roman, Panstwowy Institut Wydawniczy, Warsaw 1989
  • The sin dog , short stories, Verlag Cornelia Riedel, Bad Homburg vdH 1990
  • The emperor has a bird , stories, Pfeiffer, Munich 1992
  • Blasphemy - annoyances / bitterness , texts for meditation and discussion, PARANUS , Neumünster 1992
  • Hieronymus in the case , Roman, Volk und Welt , Berlin 1992
  • On the magic of little things , stories, Friedrich Bahn Verlag, Konstanz 1994
  • The benefits of rain , novel, Mitteldeutscher Verlag , Halle / Saale 1994
  • Days of Silence - Days of Happiness , stories, MUT-Verlag , Asendorf 1997
  • Pro Ecclesia , prose text, Hans Boldt Literaturverlag GmbH, Winsen / Luhe 1998
  • The Nu or The Practice of Absence , novel, Carl Böschen Verlag , Siegen 1999
  • Fragments of love , prose from five decades, Carl Böschen Verlag, Siegen 2000
  • Felici / Faces and faces , literary and graphic portraits, Eremiten-Presse, Düsseldorf 2000 (together with Clas DS Steinmann)
  • Island in the stream , poems - thoughts - shapes, Carl Böschen Verlag, Siegen 2001
  • Bread for the soul , short stories, Echter Verlag , Würzburg 2001
  • Farewell Times , novel trilogy, Carl Böschen Verlag, Siegen 2002
  • The woman who was my daughter , stories, Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2002
  • As like a smoke in the wind , novel, Carl Böschen Verlag, Siegen 2002
  • Works , ed. by Günter Helmes . Carl Böschen Verlag , Siegen 2002–2003
    • 1. Stories , 2002
    • 2. Radio plays , 2002
    • 3rd poems , 2003
    • 4. Letter satires , 2003
    • 5th novels , 2002
    • 6. Diversa , 2003
  • Armor - yes and no! , Letter satires, Carl Böschen Verlag, Siegen 2003
  • Notes from Wildenhain , narrative, with an essay on a word by Ludwig Wittgenstein , Verlag Ralf Liebe , Weilerswist 2007
  • The disappearance of time in the afternoon. , Stories, Verlag Ralf Liebe, Weilerswist 2007
  • Speaking in the dark, the invisible reveals itself to the listener , radio play, Verlag Ralf Liebe, Weilerswist 2009
  • The world in Haigerloh. Selected prose. , selected prose, Verlag Ralf Liebe, Weilerswist 2010
  • The Madonna in the quarry. , Church stories, satires, mishaps, Verlag Ralf Liebe, Weilerswist 2010
  • Whimsical contemporaries , short stories, satires, grotesques, Verlag Ralf Liebe, Weilerswist 2013
  • Cross shots - Thoughts and memoirs of a heretic , dgvt-Verlag, Tübingen 2019

Editing

  • Josef Alois Gleich : Udo, the steely man , a highly chivalrous novel , Quell Verlag, Stuttgart 1988
  • The explanation. Excellent short stories. Edited by Peter Härtling , Theodor Weißenborn and Rudolf Otto Wiener. Quell-Verlag, Stuttgart 1988
  • It is better to light a candle than to complain about the great darkness. Useful conversations. , Verlag Ralf Liebe, Weilerswist 2008

Radio play productions

Among others in Prague, Vienna, Zurich, Warsaw, Budapest, Paris, Rome, Dublin, London, Sydney, Wellington, Toronto, Johannesburg, Helsinki, Ljubljana, Copenhagen and Reykjavik.

  • Patient. Four monologues , directed by Ludwig Cremer , Westdeutscher Rundfunk , 1966
  • The dad , Raoul Wolfgang Schnell , Saarländischer Rundfunk , 1967
  • Korsakow , directed by Raoul Wolfgang Schnell, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 1967
  • Human cake , director: Raoul Wolfgang Schnell, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 1968 (together with Walter A. Frank)
  • Victim of a conspiracy , directed by Günter Bommert , Radio Bremen , 1967
  • Something , directed by Horst H. Vollmer, Hessischer Rundfunk , 1969
  • The tailor of Ulm or continued speech by a man in an impossible position , directed by Oswald Döpke , Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 1969
  • Singing for two in the night , directed by Horst Loebe , Radio Bremen, 1970
  • Letter from a mother , directed by Siegfried Niemann, Sender Free Berlin , 1970
  • Sermon for every day of the year or a moral painting from the mountainous Westphalia , directed by Günter Bommert, Radio Bremen, 1970
  • Testimony of humanistic maturity , director: Friedhelm Ortmann , Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 1970
  • The Linnet House , directed by Mathias Neumann , Hessischer Rundfunk, 1971
  • A testimony to humanistic maturity , directed by Peter Groeger , Rundfunk der DDR , 1976
  • Amputatio capitis and cerebro extirpation - a new aspect of neurosurgery or the amputation of the head as the final solution to the psychotic question , directed by Heiner Schmidt , Bayerischer Rundfunk , 1977
  • E-shock and neuroleptics , directed by Günther Sauer , Hessischer Rundfunk, 1977
  • Thanatos , director: Ulrich Gerhardt , Bayerischer Rundfunk, 1977
  • The voice of Mr. Gasenzer , directed by Klaus-Dieter Pittrich, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 1980
  • One love and 800 lire , directed by Ulrich Lauterbach , Radio Bremen, 1980
  • The death of the patient solves all problems (1st episode) , director: Günther Sauer , Hessischer Rundfunk, 1980
  • Season in Lausanne , directed by Ralf Becher, Sender Freies Berlin, 1980
  • On the cellar fragments , directed by Norbert Schaeffer , Radio Bremen, 1984
  • Pompe Funebre , directed by Lutz Liebelt, Saarländischer Rundfunk, 1984
  • The dog of sin , composition: Ulrike Brinkmann, RIAS Berlin, 1989
  • Trains to Lesum , directed by Hans-Helge Ott , Radio Bremen, 1990
  • Globetrotter. The text for the film , directed by Uwe Schareck, Süddeutscher Rundfunk , 1990
  • Purgatory , directed by Bärbel Jarchow-Frey, RIAS Berlin, 1991
  • My reversed face , directed by Jan Krämer, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 1992
  • The voice of Mr. Gasenzer , directed by Hans-Peter Bögel , Süddeutscher Rundfunk, 1994
  • Pro Ecclesia , directed by Norbert Schaeffer, Norddeutscher Rundfunk , 1997
  • The benefits of rain , directed by Hans Gerd Krogmann , Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 1999
  • Speaking in the dark, the invisible reveals itself to the listener , ORF , Studio Vienna , October 15, 2009, Ö1 (with Gert Westphal in the leading role of the narrator)

Awards

literature

  • Hanna Schnedl-Bubenicek: Relations. Stuttgart 1984.
  • Friedhelm Munzel: Literature as catharsis: Religious pedagogical introduction . In: Theodor Weißenborn, Der Kaiser hat ein Vogel , Stories for religious instruction and youth groups, Verlag J. Pfeiffer, Munich, 1992.
  • Irene Wiesner: "Without the people the world would be in balance": Portrait of the author Theodor Weißenborn . In: Die Bücherei , magazine for municipal public libraries in Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 37, 1993, issue 1.
  • Günter Helmes : “What I cannot keep silent about, I have to speak about it.” The art of storytelling and existence with Theodor Weißenborn. In: Theodor Weißenborn: Fragments of love . Carl Böschen Verlag , Siegen 2000, ISBN 3-932212-23-1 , pp. 7-12.
  • Günter Helmes: Exercises in absence. In: Theodor Weißenborn: times of parting . Carl Böschen Verlag, Siegen 2002, ISBN 3-932212-32-0 , pp. 589-592.
  • Günter Helmes: Theodor Weißenborn. In: Critical lexicon for contemporary German literature . (KLG), 120th subsequent delivery, October 2018, ISBN 978-3-88377-009-3 , pp. 1–37.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ This drawing ( old town houses ) was used in 1976 for the dust jacket of his book Der Wächter des Wals .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Alchimie (1987), blurb on the inside cover at the back.
  2. ↑ Frequent new editions; also in: Live full of joy. Stories not just for confirmands. , St. Johannis , Lahr 1995, ISBN 3-501-01243-8 .
  3. ↑ ARD audio game database, patients. Four monologues
  4. ^ ARD audio play database, Der Papi
  5. ^ ARD radio play database, Korsakow
  6. ↑ ARD radio play database, human cake
  7. ↑ ARD radio play database, victim of a conspiracy
  8. ↑ ARD audio play database, something
  9. ^ ARD radio play database, Der Schneider von Ulm or Continued speech of a man in an impossible position
  10. ↑ ARD audio game database, singing for two in the night
  11. ^ ARD radio play database, letter from a mother
  12. ↑ ARD radio play database , sermon for every day of the year or a moral painting from the mountainous Westphalia
  13. ↑ ARD radio play database, certificate of humanistic maturity
  14. ↑ ARD radio play database, Das Haus der Hänflinge
  15. ↑ ARD radio play database, a testimony to humanistic maturity
  16. ↑ ARD radio play database , Amputatio Capitis and Cerebroexstirpation - a new aspect of neurosurgery or the amputation of the head as the final solution to the psychotic question
  17. ↑ ARD audio game database, e-shock and neuroleptics
  18. ↑ ARD audio game database , Thanatos
  19. ^ ARD radio play database , The voice of Mr. Gasenzer
  20. ↑ ARD radio play database, Eine Liebe und 800 Lire
  21. ↑ ARD audio game database, The death of the patient solves all problems (1st episode)
  22. ↑ ARD radio play database, season in Lausanne
  23. ↑ ARD audio game database, To the basement breaks
  24. ^ ARD audio play database , Pompe Funebre
  25. ↑ ARD radio play database , Der Sündenhund
  26. ^ ARD radio play database, The trains to Lesum
  27. ↑ ARD radio play database, Globetrotter. The text of the film
  28. ↑ ARD audio play database, Purgatory
  29. ↑ ARD radio play database, My confused face
  30. ^ ARD radio play database , The voice of Mr. Gasenzer
  31. ^ ARD audio play database, Pro Ecclesia
  32. ↑ ARD radio play database, Die Wohltaten des Regens
personal data
SURNAME Weissenborn, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and essayist
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 2021
Place of death Gerolstein