Utta Danella
Utta Danella , another pseudonym: Stephan Dohl , actually Utta Schneider (born June 18, 1920 as Utta Denneler in Leipzig ; † beginning of July 2015 in Munich ) was a German writer whose work is located in the field of entertainment literature . With around 70 million books sold, she is one of the most commercially successful German writers of the 20th century. More than two dozen of her novels were made into films for television.
biography
Youth and Marriage
Utta Denneler's father, who died very early, was a pharmacist and chemist . She was taken in and raised by her maternal uncle. Even as a student she was interested in theater , opera and music . In her spare time she took acting classes, dancing and singing lessons. She enjoyed writing essays and secretly wrote her first novel at the age of 14.
After graduating from high school, Denneler tried different professions, attended lectures at universities and worked as a journalist for radio stations and newspaper publishers. In 1950 she married Hermann Schneider, who was 20 years her senior, and moved with him to Munich . She was married to him for 30 years until his death.
Career as a writer
In the attic of her apartment she secretly typed - she did not want to show herself in front of her husband - a 1000-page manuscript with the title All Stars from Heaven . Several publishers were interested in the work, but shied away from the scope. The Munich publisher Franz Schneekluth offered to reprint the novel if it were cut by half and published under the pseudonym Utta Danella . Utta Schneider accepted the offer, whereupon the novel appeared in 1956 with an initial print run of 6000 copies. It was Schneekluth who continued to motivate and support the writer.
The author made her breakthrough with her fourth novel Stella Termogen or The Temptations of the Years from 1960. The book reached a circulation of over 100,000 copies in a very short time. In 1967 her publisher Franz Schneekluth retired from professional life. Since then she has been looked after by Albrecht Knaus at the Hamburg publishing house Hoffmann und Campe . In her stories, she embedded the respective plot in a contemporary historical background.
In her 1971 novel The Shadow of the Eagle , which portrays the Balkans at the time of Tito , she foresaw the situation at the end of the 20th century.
In addition to novels, Utta Danella also wrote non-fiction, short stories and books for young people. She translated English books into German. A youth radio play from her pen was Zwei gute Freunde . Utta Danella died in Munich in early July 2015 at the age of 95.
Awards
- 1998: Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class
Works
Virtually all of the works have been published as e-books since 2014 . In 2015, on the other hand, two new novels are available in paperback .
Novels
- All Stars from Heaven (1956)
- Regina on the Steps (1957)
- The women of the Talliens (1958)
- All daughters from a good family (1958)
- The trip to Venice (1959)
- Stella Termogen or The Temptations of the Years (1960, in two volumes)
- The Mulberry Tree (1964)
- Adieu, Jean Claude (1965), also under the title No Man's Land (1970)
- The moon in the lake (1965)
- Forget If You Wanna Live (1966)
- Under the Magic Roof (1967)
- Quartet in September (1967)
- Jovana (1969)
- Dance on the Rainbow (1971)
- The shadow of the eagle (1971)
- Yesterday or The Hour After Midnight (1971)
- The Blue Bird (1973)
- The Wedding in the Country (1975)
- Two days in April (1975)
- Happy Fool's Summer (1976)
- The Dark Stream (1977)
- The Tears of Last Year (1978)
- Tidal wave (1980)
- Man has a home (1981)
- Jacobs Women (1983); The film was released in 2004 as The Family Secret
- The Virgin in Lavender (1984)
- The Undefeated (1986)
- The black mirror (1987)
- The Hotel in the Park (1989)
- My Girlfriend Elaine (1990)
- A Picture of a Man (1992)
- Where There Are Tall Towers (1993)
- Cloud Dance (1996)
- The Other Eve (1998)
- The kiss of apollo (2006)
- Encounter in the Night (2020)
stories
- Family Stories (1979)
- Sophie Dorothee. A Prussian History (1981); added new edition 1997 as Sophie Dorothee and other stories
- The missed ship. The Story of a Turbulent Dream Journey (1986)
Other
- A love that never fades. Encounters with Music (1988)
Translations
- Margaret Bell Houston : The Silver-Gray Trees of Youth (Cottonwoods Grow Tall), 1959
- Gwen Bristow : Tomorrow Is Forever (Tomorrow Is Forever), 1964
- Evelyn Anthony : White Moon of Barbados (The Tamarind Seed), 1973
Film adaptations
In 1992, ZDF broadcast the ten-part series Regina on the Steps with Katja Riemann based on Danella's 1957 novel.
Since 2000, Utta Danella's novels have been filmed as part of the Utta Danella film series by ARD / Degeto :
No. | title | Director | First broadcast |
---|---|---|---|
1 | The black mirror | Rainer Boldt | November 10, 2000 |
2 | The blue bird, part 1 | Dietmar Klein | December 29, 2001 |
3 | The blue bird, part 2 | Dietmar Klein | January 1, 2002 |
4th | The wedding in the country | Gloria Behrens | April 5, 2002 |
5 | The other Eva | Gloria Behrens | May 16, 2003 |
6th | The summer of the happy fool | Gloria Behrens | June 27, 2003 |
7th | The moon in the lake | Heidi Kranz | March 26, 2004 |
8th | The family secret, part 1 | Heidi Kranz | October 7, 2004 |
9 | The family secret, part 2 | Heidi Kranz | October 8, 2004 |
10 | Suddenly it's love | Brigitta Dresewski | October 29, 2004 |
11 | One love in Venice | Marco Serafini | January 6, 2005 |
12 | A love in September | Gloria Behrens | September 15, 2006 |
13 | The sky in your eyes | Gloria Behrens | September 29, 2006 |
14th | Dance on the rainbow | Peter Weissflog | September 7, 2007 |
15th | When dreams fly | Peter Weissflog | February 22, 2008 |
16 | The secret of our love | Gloria Behrens | March 28, 2008 |
17th | See the stars with you | Gloria Behrens | April 11, 2008 |
18th | My best friend's fiancé | Peter Weissflog | April 3, 2009 |
19th | Chocolate in summer | Gloria Behrens | September 18, 2009 |
20th | A nun to fall in love with | Peter Weissflog | April 23, 2010 |
21st | Kissed awake | Gloria Behrens | May 20, 2011 |
22nd | Love with smile lines | John Delbridge | May 27, 2011 |
23 | Prague secret | Marco Serafini | October 26, 2012 |
24 | Who kisses the doc? | John Delbridge | April 26, 2013 |
25th | Storm in the marriage sky | John Delbridge | May 3, 2013 |
26th | The sky-strikers | Thomas Kronthaler | February 14, 2014 |
27 | About guys and cows | Sibylle table | April 11, 2014 |
28 | Lisa swims freely | Peter Stauch | March 27, 2015 |
29 | Lies have beautiful legs | Thomas Kronthaler | 20th November 2015 |
literature
- Hiltrud Häntzschel : Danella, Utta. In: Killy Literature Lexicon - Volume 2. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-020934-1 , pp. 549-550 ( excerpt (Google) )
Web links
- Official website for Utta Danella
- Literature by and about Utta Danella in the catalog of the German National Library
- Utta Danella in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Literature: Best-selling author Utta Danella has died. Obituary of the dpa . In: Zeit Online , August 11, 2015.
- Petra Pluwatsch: Utta Danella is dead: the master of the light muse. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 11, 2015.
- Martin Ebel: The queen of kitsch is dead. In: Berner Zeitung , August 11, 2015.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b eth: Successful author: Utta Danella is dead. In: Spiegel Online , August 11, 2015. Accessed on August 12, 2015.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Danella, Utta |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dohl, Stephan (pseudonym); Schneider, Utta (real name); Denneler, Utta (maiden name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German writer |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 18, 1920 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Leipzig |
DATE OF DEATH | July 2015 |
Place of death | Munich |