Werner A. Kral
Werner A. Kral (born January 4, 1923 in Chomutov , Czechoslovakia ; died January 29, 2010 in Heidelberg ) was a German science fiction author and journalist.
Life
Kral grew up in Prague , where he on the German state secondary school graduation made and then at Prague's Charles University astronomy , astrophysics and mathematics studied, but was withdrawn shortly after enrollment. During the Second World War he served as a soldier in Poland , France , North Africa and Italy , was taken prisoner of war near Monte Cassino in the United States and then French and was released in 1947 as a displaced person. He settled in Heidelberg, where he lived until 1973, where he worked for the postcard publisher Popp, completed a distance learning course in technical drawing , attended English courses and continued his autodidactic training . He then worked in a design office and as a journalist for the German Research Service and three other specialist journals from Konradin-Verlag . He was editor-in-chief of the magazines International Electronic Rundschau and Nachrichten-Elektronik . Kral got to know the astronautics pioneer Hermann Oberth and was editor-in-chief of the then discontinued magazine Astronautik until 1992, which was published by the Hermann Oberth Society .
Starting in 1963, Kral wrote a series of science fiction novels in Leihbuchverlag appeared Bewin, including a trilogy about the "Space Commodore Fritz Wendel". In addition to these books, he published popular science texts and wrote radio lectures.
Kral had been married since 1951. He had a son with his wife Anita. From 2002 the couple lived again in Heidelberg, where he died in 2010 at the age of 88 after suffering increasingly from Parkinson's disease in his final years .
Awards
- Golden badge of honor and gold medal from the Hermann Oberth Society
- Silver badge of honor of the German Aerospace Society
bibliography
- Room commodore Fritz Wendel
- 1 Help from the Andromeda Mists. Bewin-Verlag Winterbach, Menden / Sauerland 1963.
- 2 inferno. Bewin-Verlag Winterbach, Menden / Sauerland 1964.
- 3 The exploding sun. Bewin-Verlag Winterbach, Menden / Sauerland 1964.
- Single novels
- Atlantis ... the end of a power. Bewin-Verlag Winterbach, Menden / Sauerland 1963.
- And they do exist! Bewin-Verlag Winterbach, Menden / Sauerland 1964.
- Secret in the jungle. Bewin-Verlag Winterbach, Menden / Sauerland 1964.
literature
- Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn , Wolfgang Jeschke : Lexicon of Science Fiction Literature. Heyne, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-02453-2 , p. 627.
- Volker Hanisch: Kral, Werner A. In: German Literature Lexicon . The 20th century. Vol. 32. De Gruyter, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-063190-6 , Col. 79 f.
Web links
- Werner A. Kral in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
- Entries on Leihbuch.de
- Gottfried Hilscher: Werner A. Kral turned 80 , TELI website
- Gottfried Hilscher: Werner A. Kral died at the age of 88 , obituary on the TELI website
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kral, Werner A. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German science fiction author and journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th January 1923 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chomutov , Czechoslovakia |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 29, 2010 |
| Place of death | Heidelberg |