Thomas Klingenstein

Thomas Klingenstein

Thomas Klingenstein (born Thomas Erwin ; born April 30, 1961 in East Berlin ) is a German writer and painter .

Life

GDR past

During the GDR era , Thomas Klingenstein was a dissident and was deported to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1981 . In May 2008, the public identified Thomas Klingenstein as Thomas Erwin, who had attended a meeting with Robert Havemann , Katja Havemann and Gregor Gysi on October 3, 1979 . The fact that Gregor Gysi took the then 18-year-old Thomas Klingenstein to Berlin in his car after the meeting and that this trip is recorded as a report in Stasi files was the start of the IM affair around Gregor Gysi in May 2008.

Thomas Klingenstein discovered his interest in Japanese culture early on. A critical classmate expelled from school brought him into conflict with the GDR leadership in 11th grade. Erwin stood up for the classmate and resigned from his FDJ function as an agitator. In 1979 Erwin graduated from high school.

Friends of Robert Havemann

Due to his politically critical attitude, Erwin was refused to study Japanese studies by the GDR leadership. After graduating from high school he worked as a supervisor in the East Asia department of the Pergamon Museum . As a writer, he was involved in the opposition art and culture scene in East Berlin and Dresden . This is how Erwin got in touch with Robert Havemann . During this time Gregor Gysi made the well-known car trip on October 3, 1979, which is documented in a report from October 5, 1979 in the Stasi files. Through his acquaintance with Stefan and Inge Heym , Erwin met Stephan Hermlin , who advocated the first publication of Erwin's poems in the GDR . Contacts with the Austrian ambassador at the time, Hans Walser, and other journalists and diplomats accredited in the GDR enabled him to create an alternative to censored mail for himself and for others (including Robert Havemann, Dieter Eue , Karl-Heinz Jakobs , Lutz Rathenow ).

Arrest and deportation

Thomas Erwin was arrested in October 1980 (at the same time as Frank-Wolf Matthies and Lutz Rathenow). While he was still in custody in the Stasi prison in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen , his collection of poems "The day will always stay tomorrow" was published by Piper-Verlag, Munich. In February 1981 he was deported to the Federal Republic due to numerous protests (including Heinrich Böll , Bruno Kreisky , Günter Grass and Stephan Hermlin ), where he was initially taken in by the son of his publisher, Ernst-Reinhardt Piper. After a scholarship and stay at the Literary Colloquium Berlin (LCB) of the Berlin Senate for Culture, he went to Paris in 1981 .

The painter Thomas Klingenstein

In 1986 Thomas Erwin took his mother's maiden name, Klingenstein, on. Klingenstein experienced the political change in Germany in 1989 in Japan , where he lived from 1984 to the mid-1990s. Japan became an important focus of his "artistic apprenticeship years". In 1995 Klingenstein moved back to Berlin-Kreuzberg , where he lives and works as a writer and painter. A serious, no fault of his studio fire in 1998 destroyed many of his works. In 1990 Klingenstein created the mural “Diversion to the Japanese Sector” on the Berlin Wall, part of the East Side Gallery . In 1992 there was an exhibition of the works of Thomas Klingenstein at Mitsukoshi . In 1993 his works were part of a group exhibition at the Tsukuba Museum of art. In 1994 Thomas Klingenstein portrayed the Japanese national poet Mori Ogai for the house where he was born in Tsuwano, where the painting is part of the exhibition. Another prominent portrait of Thomas Klingenstein is the portrait of Sayoko Yamaguchi . A second mural by Thomas Klingenstein can be seen in Niigata- Tagami, it was created in 1993.

Works

• Thomas Erwin The day will always be tomorrow , poems, R. Piper & Co. Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3492026826

literature

• Katja Havemann / Joachim Widmann "Robert Havemann or How the GDR Done ", Ullstein Heyne List GmbH & Co. KG, Munich 2003, ISBN 3550075707
• Thomas Klingenstein, Theo Feig. Vol. 4, Berlin, 2010

Web links

• Thomas Klingenstein website
• GDR PAST - Stasi files put Gysi in distress in Spiegel Online on May 20, 2008
• Artist Thomas Klingenstein on a car trip that leaves you with questions. BZ , May 25, 2008, accessed December 18, 2012 (interview). 
• Gysis passenger in the daily newspaper from June 1st, 2008
• Interview CNN with Thomas Klingenstein about the East Side Galley
• Radio report from France about the painters of the East Side Gallery
• Radio report from France with Thomas Klingenstein about the East Side Gallery

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Austrians helped with the smuggling in the standard: The Austrians helped with the smuggling September 25, 2009
2. ↑ "Detour to the japanese sector", 1990: Thomas Klingenstein: East Side Gallery, 1990
3. ↑ Leaving a Piece There, The Atlantic Times: Leaving a Piece There How artists saved one of the Berlin Wall's last intact sections - By Lisa Ellis ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ "Portrait Mori Ogai", 1995: Thomas Klingenstein: Portrait Mori Ogai 1995,
5. ^ "Mural Niigata", 1992: Thomas Klingenstein: Mural Niigata, 1992
6. ↑ Archived online publication in the German National Library: THEO FEIG PRESENTED THOMAS KLINGENSTEIN