Werner Lindemann

Werner Lindemann (born October 7, 1926 in Wolfen , † February 9, 1993 in Zickhusen ) was a German poet and writer .

Life

Werner Lindemann was born into a family of farm workers and grew up in the Gutsdorf Altjeßnitz near Wolfen. At the age of 15 he was an agricultural apprentice at a large farmer and, as a teenager, had to fight as a soldier in World War II from 1943 to 1945 . This experience shaped and occupied him throughout his life, so that after the end of the war he was positive about the idea of socialism and the efforts to build a new social system in the GDR .

Werner Lindemann says he read his first book at the age of 20 in 1946. After the end of the war he studied natural sciences in Halle , where he began to write at the suggestion of a teacher. From 1949 he was an agricultural vocational school teacher, then a lecturer and senior consultant. He studied from 1955 to 1957 at the Institute for Literature "Johannes R. Becher" in Leipzig and was then editor of the student magazine "Forum".

He wrote his first poems shortly after the war and in 1959 published, among other things, the volume of poems "Stations", in which he also processed autobiographical elements. In April 1959, Lindemann took part in the first Bitterfeld conference - an authors' conference of the Mitteldeutscher Verlag in the Kulturpalast Wilhelm Pieck in the VEB Elektrochemisches Kombinat Bitterfeld , in addition to his work as a freelance writer at that time, he was also the head of the cultural center in Wölkau near Leipzig . There he met his future wife Brigitte "Gitta", from 1992 to 2002 head of culture at NDR 1 Radio MV of Norddeutscher Rundfunk . In 2011 she told Südwestrundfunk for the program SWR2 Tandem about the encounter in Bitterfeld :

“And he was supposed to talk, but he was scared. I was a student and went and went to see this. And he always gave me a very challenging look and at the end of the conference - at which he did not speak - he invited me over for coffee. That was our first meeting. "

- Brigitte Gitta Lindemann

The couple married, in January 1963 Lindemann had a son (the later Rammstein singer Till Lindemann ), and six years later a daughter. The family initially lived together in Rostock, but later spatially separated, as Lindemann increasingly moved to the countryside until he finally turned his back on the city. As a co-founder of the Drispeth artists' colony , Lindemann lived there until his death, and from September 1975 he lived in a farmhouse in the Mecklenburg community of Zickhusen .

He became known as a children's book author in the 1970s. He turned to this genre in the sixties at the suggestion of a publisher and tried with the "poetic idea" to show the special in everyday life. However, Lindemann had started with poems that were aimed at an adult audience:

“He also wrote, I must say, very terrible agitation poems. But based on a belief that it makes sense to stand up for it and also to risk something for it, that is to say maybe to overdo it. "

- Gitta Lindemann

Werner Lindemann often gave readings in schools to bring poetry to children and also led writing circles for children. In addition to children's poetry, various prose volumes appeared from the eighties, including "Aus dem Drispether Bauernhaus" and "Die Roggenmuhme", in which, through careful observation and remembering the childhood and youth, he describes the nature surrounding him and the family in short stories. and village life in everyday socialist life.

In the volume “Mike Oldfield in the rocking chair. Notes of a father “he compared the memories of the lyrical self with the statements and demands of the son and thus showed the contradictions of the people who grew up in different social systems, but also their commonalities: In literary terms, he processed a short cohabitation with his adult son Till - in the book Timm - who moved from Rostock to the country in September 1982 at the age of 19 to work as a carpenter for the local LPG . The coexistence of the two men was at times inharmonious. Werner Lindemann, at that time already 55 years old, had not spent much time with his son since leaving Rostock and could not do much with his interests. In return, he rebelled against his father, questioning his actions, actions and thinking on various occasions and thereby snubbed him. The son's rather negative attitude towards the GDR system also gave rise to differences. There was a fight between the two of them. In between, however, the writer repeatedly noted moments of rapprochement and mutual respect.

Lindemann's son moved out again in 1983 after only nine months, while the author stayed in Rostock for one night. Werner Lindemann described his feelings in his book as follows:

“Timm's room has been cleared. Where did he go Why secretly? A raindrop on the window pane; Tear of pain from a wandering cloud. The wind lifts him from the glass and splinters him into many little pains. When the bird is gone, they say they examine the cage. I search through the rooms like I can find him somewhere. How can I warm myself up now? How to cool down? "

- Werner Lindemann

The book was first published in 1988. Lindemann's son Till is now a singer and songwriter with the band Rammstein and is himself the author of poems. He dedicated his first collection of poems, Messer , which appeared in 2002, to his father. In addition, Werner Lindemann's book Mike Oldfield in the Rocking Chair was published on his initiative . Memories of a Father reissued in 2006 - with a photo of the singer as a grown man on the cover.

In 1985, the Akademie der Künste awarded Werner Lindemann the Alex Wedding Prize for his services as a poet in socialist children's literature .

Lindemann was very often a guest at the “Elementary School on the Elisabethwiese” in Rostock. After his death, the school was renamed "Werner Lindemann Elementary School" in his honor on October 7, 1994. His widow Gitta Lindemann attended the celebration.

Werner Lindemann died just a few years after reunification in early 1993. He did not live to see his son's music career. He is buried in his former home in Zickhusen in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

Works

• Mosaic stones. Poems , Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 1957.
• Stations , construction publishing house, Berlin 1959.
• The unholy testament. A cycle of poems , Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 1959.
• Written on the way , Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 1960.
• ... to be deeply bound to you ..., Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1961.
• Once there was a Rain , VEB Hofmeister, Leipzig 1961.
• For the farmer's wife (1961).
• And I tell you ... , VEB Hofmeister, Leipzig 1961.
• with Ingeborg Meyer-Rey : Das Osternest , Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1964.
• What tastes the animals , children's book publisher, Berlin 1966.
• Rattermann and Pustemehl , children's book publisher, Berlin 1967.
• Poetry album 35 , Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1970.
• Chimney sweep soot face , children's book publisher, Berlin 1970.
• Pünktchen , children's book publisher, Berlin 1974.
• The day sits in front of the tent , Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1974.
• The donkey, the grandmother and other musical instruments , Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1974.
• Walked through Wulkenziehen , children's book publisher, Berlin 1974.
• The vegetable basket , Verlag Junge Welt, Berlin 1975.
• Landtag: Gedichte , Verlag Tribüne, Berlin 1976.
• The school opens the doors , children's book publisher, Berlin 1976.
• Dancing birches - poems for children , children's book publisher, Berlin 1977.
• Son and father Rübesam , children's book publisher, Berlin 1978.
• From the Drispether farmhouse , Edition Holz, Berlin 1981.
• The Snow Maiden , Postreiter Verlag, Halle 1982.
• A nest hidden on dense branches , Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3358006328 .
• What does the frog do in winter? , Children's book publisher, Berlin 1982.
• The little camel and other fairy tales from Kazakhstan , children's book publisher, Berlin 1979.
• A tree frog wanders , Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3358005143 .
• Tausendfuß , Verlag Junge Welt, Berlin 1984.
• Der Nasenbaum , Postreiter Verlag, Halle 1985.
• The Roggenmuhme : Kleingeschichten, Verlag Tribüne, Berlin 1986.
• Die Fledermausstunde , Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-358-00699-9 .
• Mike Oldfield in the rocking chair: Notes of a father , Verlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3938686618 .
• At the stop , Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3358006794 .
• Tüftelchen , Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3358012778 .
• The brave little fish , Verlag für Lehrmittel, Pößneck 1990, ISBN 3749302049 .
• with Gitta Lindemann: Petermen's lookout. A reading book from Mecklenburg, Kinderbuch Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3358013561 .
• Dance in the wind like a girl. Small enjoyable stories , Landesverlags- und Druckgesellschaft, Mecklenburg 1991, ISBN 3910179665 .
• Girls have braids , Landesverlags- und Druckgesellschaft, Mecklenburg 1991.
• Tina Tüftelchen , Franz Schneider Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 9783505047077 .
• Thoughts are children of silence , Demmler Verlag, Schwerin 1993, ISBN 3910150217 .
• Mike Oldfield in the rocking chair. Notes from a father. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2020, ISBN 978-3-462-05466-8 (with a conversation between son Till Lindemann and publisher Helge Malchow ).

Radio

Thomas Gaevert : Something Mike Oldfield recently - A Father-Son-Story , production Südwestrundfunk, first broadcast October 10, 2011 SWR2

literature

• Author collective: "Lindemann, Werner", in: Lexicon of German-language writers from the beginnings to the present, Volume 2 / LZ, Leipzig 1975, p. 47.
• Hans-Joachim Böttcher : "Lindemann, Werner", in: Important historical personalities of the Düben Heath, AMF - No. 237, 2012, p. 61.

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Lindemann in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SWR2 Tandem: Some Mike Oldfield recently ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2017 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. , Broadcast from 2011, accessed via ARD media library, original sound Gitta Lindemann from 12:10 min. 
2. ↑ SWR2 Tandem: Some Mike Oldfield recently ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2017 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. , Broadcast from 2011, accessed via ARD Mediathek, original sound Werner Lindemann from 12:45 min. 
3. ↑ chemiepark.de: History , accessed on June 17, 2017
4. ↑ mdr.de: then, April 24th, 1959: 1st Bitterfeld Culture Conference , accessed on June 17th, 2017
5. ↑ SWR2 Tandem: Some Mike Oldfield recently ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2017 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. , Broadcast from 2011, accessed via ARD Mediathek, original sound Gitta Lindemann from 10:27 min. 
6. ↑ SWR2 Tandem: Some Mike Oldfield recently ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2017 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. , Broadcast from 2011, accessed via ARD Mediathek, original sound Gitta Lindemann from 2:39 min. 
7. ↑ welt.de: My father would be proud of my poems , October 1, 2013, accessed on June 17, 2017
8. ↑ Werner Lindemann: Mike Oldfield in the rocking chair. Notes from a father , Ingo Koch Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-938686-61-4 , p. 9.
9. ↑ SWR2 Tandem: Some Mike Oldfield recently ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2017 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. , Broadcast from 2011, accessed via ARD Mediathek, original sound Werner Lindemann from 12:45 min. 
10. ↑ SWR2 Tandem: Some Mike Oldfield recently ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2017 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. , Broadcast from 2011, accessed via ARD media library, original sound Gitta Lindemann from 11:15 min. 
11. ↑ SWR2 Tandem: Some Mike Oldfield recently ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2017 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. , Broadcast from 2011, accessed via ARD Mediathek, original sound Gitta Lindemann from 13:10 min. 
12. ↑ SWR2 Tandem: Some Mike Oldfield recently ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2017 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. , Broadcast from 2011, accessed in March 2017 via ARD Mediathek 
13. ↑ welt.de: My father would be proud of my poems , October 1, 2013, accessed on June 17, 2017
14. ↑ Werner Lindemann: Mike Oldfield in the rocking chair. Notes from a father , Ingo Koch Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-938686-61-4 , p. 148.
15. ↑ Werner Lindemann: Mike Oldfield in the rocking chair. Notes by a father , Der Morgen publishing house, Berlin, 1988, ISBN 978-3-371001-88-3
16. ↑ Werner Lindemann: Mike Oldfield in the rocking chair. Notes from a father , Ingo Koch Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-938686-61-4 .