Ulrich Becher

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Ulrich Becher in 1924

Ulrich Becher (born January 2, 1910 in Berlin , † April 15, 1990 in Basel ) was a German writer and playwright. He is the father of Martin Roda Becher .

Life

Ulrich Becher was born in Berlin as the son of the lawyer Richard Becher and the pianist Elisabeth Ulrich. After visiting the Free School Community in Wickersdorf , where musical skills were specially trained, he began studying law in Berlin. At the same time he began training as a painter. While still at school he made the acquaintance of George Grosz , who recognized his graphic talent and accepted him as the only master student.

But his skills were also poetic. From 1932 he was a member of the PEN and appeared in Becher's short book Men Make Mistakes at Rowohlt , but in 1933 his work was publicly burned as "degenerate" literature . The day after the Reichstag fire , Becher left Germany and from then on lived in various European cities such as Vienna, Paris, Prague and London. On November 11, 1933, he married a former fellow student from the Faculty of Law, Dana Roda, the daughter of the famous Austro-Hungarian writer Alexander Roda Roda and subsequently took on Austrian citizenship.

As the son of the Swiss pianist Elisabeth Ulrich, he hoped to live as a writer in Switzerland, but in the eyes of the Swiss authorities, his anti-fascist stance violated the principle of neutrality. The Aliens Police denied him his work permit and suggested that he emigrate abroad. The Becher couple then joined the group around Hermann Mathias Görgen , with whom the couple managed to flee to Brazil via Portugal in March 1941.

The efforts to obtain a visa for the United States dragged on for three years. When they finally got their entry permit, they moved to New York to live with their in-laws in 1944.

In 1948 Ulrich Becher returned to Europe with a play The Bockerer , which he had written together with Peter Preses . The play should be a great success in Vienna. In 1954 he settled in Basel. In 1969 Rowohlt published his autobiographical novel “Murmeljagd”, in which he thematically dealt with the supposed and actual threat, loneliness and abandonment of a journalist who was politically persecuted in Austria after 1938 in Switzerland. In 1976 he received the overall works award from the Swiss Schiller Foundation .

His estate is in the Swiss Literature Archive in Bern and in the exile archive of the German National Library in Frankfurt.

A selection of his books, graphics and drawings from the twenties and thirties were exhibited in May 2012 at the Rotes Antiquariat gallery in Berlin. A small publication appeared with color images of his work. The exhibition was opened by Martin Roda Becher, among others.

Works

  • Men make mistakes. Stories. Rowohlt, Berlin 1932
  • Nobody. Modern mystery play. Julius Kittl Nachf., Mährisch-Ostrau 1934
  • The conquerors. Stories from Europe. Preface Ernst Glaeser , Oprecht, Zurich 1936
  • The fairy tale of the robber who became a policeman. Morality . Foreword by Willy Keller. Notgemeinschaft Deutscher Antifaschisten, Rio de Janeiro 1943. Series: Notbücherei deutscher Antifaschisten, 1
  • The Bockerer. Tragic farce. Together with Peter Preses. Sexl, Vienna 1946
  • Journey to the blue day. Verses. Volksstimme, St. Gallen 1946
  • The Piper of Vienna. Together with Peter Preses, 1950
  • Nightingale wants to fly to his father. A cycle of New York short stories in four nights. Sexl, Vienna & Weismann, Munich 1950
  • Brazilian romanzero. Frick, Vienna & Classen, Zurich 1950
  • Shortly after 4th novel. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1957; again Arco, Wuppertal 2011 ISBN 978-3-938375-45-7
  • Games of time. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1957
  • Men make mistakes. Stories of the compass rose. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1958
  • The heart of the shark. Novel. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1960
  • Games of time. Volume 2. Berlin 1968
  • Men make mistakes. Twelve short stories. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1970
  • Your cause, madame! and other stories. Construction, Berlin (GDR) 1973
  • Marble hunt. Novel. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1969; Schöffling again, Frankfurt 2009
  • The profile. Novel. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1973
  • William's ex-casino. Novel. Benziger, Cologne 1973
  • New York Novellas. Benziger, Cologne 1974
  • Siff. Selective identification of friend and foe. Essays. Benziger, Cologne 1978
  • Franz Patenkindt. Romance of a German godchild of François Villon in fifteen pennilies. Berlin hand press, Berlin 1979
  • From the inadequacy of reality. Ten not-so-nice stories; Lenos, Basel 1983
  • Conquering a small town. Spoken theater, acting. In Das Beste, Selection Books , No. 483, Stuttgart 1983 ISBN 3-87070-196-X ; again Thomas Sessler, Vienna 2001
  • Away from the rodeo. Novella. Lenos, Basel 1991
  • "I live in the apocalypse". Letters to parents. Ed. + Introduction Martin Roda Becher in collaboration with Marina Sommer and Dieter Häner. Verlag der Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft , Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-901602-39-9
  • Marble hunt. Novel. New edition with an afterword by Eva Menasse . Schöffling & Co., Frankfurt am Main 2020, ISBN 978-3-89561-454-5 .
  • New York Novellas . Edited and with an afterword by Moritz Wagner. Schöffling & Co., Frankfurt am Main 2020, ISBN 978-3-89561-453-8 .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Online . New edition 2009 see literature. For a review in the FAZ, see web links. At the media label Spektral as an unabridged audio book, speaker Wolfram Berger , review in the magazine Audiobooks, 4, 2010
  2. ↑ Men make mistakes , Der Tagesspiegel , May 11, 2012
  3. ↑ With 396 pages. In it: 1st night: “The woman and death”, 2. “The black hat”, 3. “At apple wine”, 4. “Nightingale wants to fly to his father”. Review online . The four stories were often reprinted, even in part and in a different arrangement, see Benziger 1974 (3 of 4 nights); or Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 1974 udT The black hat. 101 pages or Rowohlt, Hamburg 1955: The whole night, 155 rororo linen ribbons, only the 1st & 2nd night, 184 pages
  4. ↑ "Samba", "Firewater", "The small and the big"
  5. ↑ "Nobody", "Makumba", "Mademoiselle Löwenzom"
  6. ↑ first 1950, see above, but only 3 of the 4 nights, 328 pages
  7. ↑ Readable online in stores. With a list of early reviews on Becher shortly after 1945
personal data
SURNAME Becher, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1990
Place of death Basel