Wolfgang Frank (writer)

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Wolfgang Frank (born June 12, 1909 in Lübeck ; † July 19, 1980 ibid) was a German writer . He became known for his nautical novels and novel biographies , for example about the submarine commander Günther Prien , which were part of Nazi propaganda , and the international bestseller Die Wölfe und der Admiral from 1953.

Life

Wolfgang Frank was born in 1909 as the son of a German teacher in Lübeck, where he grew up and attended the Katharineum . At the age of 17 he left school and volunteered for the Reichsmarine in 1926 . She released him after a year because of an eye problem. Until 1928 aircraft production in Anatolia. In the Navy, he got his high school and studied in Munich and Hamburg law . With the dissertation The journalist in criminal law and emergency decree he was in 1933 at the University of Hamburg for Dr. iur. PhD . He did not want to pursue a legal career, but rather combine his passions for shipping and writing. During the semester break during his studies, he had already signed on to cargo ships and wrote articles for the " Hamburger Fremdblatt" newspaper . His first two novels , Hochseefischer and Donner in June , appeared in 1932 and 1933.

Several times he took part in sailing regattas across the Atlantic . He processed his experiences in the books The helmsman was the dear God. The storm voyage of the “Störtebeker” across the Atlantic (1936) and the hunt across the pond. Olympic Atlantic Regatta 1936 (1937). For his novel Novembersturm , published in 1938 , he took the shipwreck of the steamer " Luise Leonhardt " as a model. The steamer was driven into the great Vogelsand by storm on the night of November 23-24, 1930 and was lost with a crew of 30. Frank embedded this event in the fictional story of the Hamburg cabin boy "Claus", who is the only one to survive in the novel. With this, Frank managed to create an impressive piece of local Hamburg flavor. The technique of using actual events as a starting point and then elevating them like a novel, he later applied even more frequently. Frank also wrote poetry and in 1940 published the collection of poems from ten years .

He dealt intensively with whaling . He processed his Antarctic whaling trip on the " Jan Wellem " in the books Whalers. On whaling in the southern ice (1938), “Whale in Sight!” (1939) and The resurrected German whaling. Depicted on the development history of the First German Whaling Society in connection with a travel report about the 2nd "Jan Wellem" expedition (1939). He wrote the script for the documentary Whalers in Antarctica by Gerhard A. Donner, also made in 1939 .

In 1939 Frank became editor and managing director of the Hamburger Tagblatt.

At the beginning of the Second World War , Wolfgang Frank was deployed as a naval reporter on the Dönitz staff. A close friendship developed between him and the naval officer Günther Prien . Frank accompanied the commander of the U 47 submarine on his penultimate trip. After Prien had been missing since March 7, 1941, Frank published 1942 Prien attacks , a description of the experiences of the Corvette Captain, for which he also consulted his official war diary. The book became a bestseller, with 120,000 copies printed by 1944. Translations into English and Norwegian followed in 1954 and 1957. Frank continued this successful series after the end of the war with two more Prien books, What really happened to Prien? (1950) and The Bull from Scapa Flow. The life and deeds of the submarine commander Günther Prien (1958). The latter book, an expanded edition of Prien Attacks , was also noticed abroad.

Wolfgang Frank's greatest international success was the bestseller The Wolves and the Admiral from 1953, a novel-like chronicle of the submarine war . The book has been translated into twelve languages. Ship 16 from 1955, which tells of the pirate voyage of the auxiliary cruiser Atlantis , was similarly successful . Frank published the majority of his post-war books in Stalling-Verlag, Oldenburg and Hamburg.

On June 26, 1958, he married Thea Christa Paula Betty Magdalene Dethloff in Hamburg (born March 30, 1921 in Rostock , Mecklenburg-Schwerin ; † September 29, 1974 in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein). The couple had a daughter, Hildegard Luidgard Ilse Almuth Franziska Frank.

Another bestseller was Verklungen Horn und Geläut (1959), the chronicle of forester Franz Mueller-Darß . For this novel-like biography , he resorted to the diaries of forest officials, hunters and cynologists . The portrayal of the archetypal character of Darß made the region known beyond Germany. Mueller himself became almost as well-known and popular with a broad audience as his predecessor Ferdinand von Raesfeld through the book, which had 17 editions by 2001 . In contrast to the romantic and adventurous portrayals in Frank's novel, Mueller was a sober-thinking person. In 1969, Frank presented his last work, Süß sang die Nachtigall .

From 1956 to 1972 Wolfgang Frank was managing director of the German Sailing Association based in Hamburg .

Wolfgang Frank died on July 19, 1980 in his hometown of Lübeck, where he was also buried.

Works

  • Deep sea fisherman , Roman, Hamburg 1932
  • The journalist in criminal law and emergency ordinance , dissertation, Hamburg 1933
  • Donner in June , Roman, Hamburg 1933
  • as Associate Editor: Westward-ho! The time of the great sailing ships , Hamburg 1935 (6th, revised edition Hamburg 1953)
  • Days of Homecoming , short stories, Hamburg 1935
  • Fish steamer on the high seas , Berlin, Leipzig and Vienna 1936 (later versions edited by A. Neibecker appeared in the series "Der deutsche Erzähler")
  • Dalmatian spring. Report of a romantic journey , Hamburg 1936 (revised Oldenburg and Hamburg 1962)
  • The helmsman was God. The storm voyage of the "Störtebeker" across the Atlantic , Hamburg 1936
  • as editor: Rudolf Ude: My ship goes to sea. Collected from letters and reports by Irmgard and Inge Ude , Berlin 1936
  • "First team - on the boat!" , Berlin, Leipzig and Vienna 1937
  • The hunt across the pond. Olympic Atlantic Regatta 1936 , Hamburg 1937
  • Whale hunters. Whaling in the southern ice , Hamburg 1938
  • November storm. Based on notes by Quartermaster Hermann Kronsfoth , Hamburg 1938 (later under the titles Novembersturm. Shipwreck on Groß-Vogelsand and Novembersturm , Library of the Sea, Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-89225-150-9 )
  • “Whale in Sight!” , Berlin and Leipzig 1939
  • The resurrected German whaling. Depicted on the history of the development of the first German whaling company in connection with a travel report about the 2nd "Jan Wellem" expedition , Düsseldorf 1939
  • Poems from ten years , poetry, Hamburg 1940
  • Prien attacks. According to the author's notes on board and the official war diaries of Corvette Captain Günther Prien , Hamburg 1942 (several editions until 1944) available to the commander of the submarines
  • together with Hans Meckel: What really happened to Prien? Documents, eyewitness reports and official documents compiled from German and British sources , Hamburg 1950
  • The wolves and the admiral. The novel of the U-Boats , Oldenburg and Hamburg 1953 (2nd, expanded edition under the title Die Wölfe und der Admiral. Triumph und Tragik der U-Boats , Oldenburg and Hamburg 1957; 6th Edition as Die Wölfe und der Admiral. U Boats in combat - triumph and tragedy , Bergisch Gladbach 1995, ISBN 3-404-65025-5 )
  • Ship 16. The pirate voyage of the heavy auxiliary cruiser "Atlantis" in the seven seas. According to the documents of the commanding officer Bernhard Rogge reported by Wolfgang Frank , Oldenburg and Hamburg 1955 (10th edition Munich 1982, ISBN 3-453-00039-0 )
  • The bull of Scapa Flow. Life and deeds of the submarine commander Günther Prien. According to the author's notes on board U 47 and the official war diaries of Corvette Captain Günther Prien that were available to the commander of the submarines at the time, as well as German and English documents from the war and post-war period , Oldenburg and Hamburg 1958
  • The bass of the storms. Stories from the See , Oldenburg and Hamburg 1960 - stories reworked by the author
  • Horn and peal died away. The forest master chronicle. A life with forests and dogs , Oldenburg and Hamburg 1959 (later under the title Verklungen Horn und Geläut. The Chronicle of Forester Franz Mueller-Darß ; 17th edition Munich, Vienna and Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-405-13176-6 )
  • Sweet sang the nightingale , Oldenburg and Hamburg in 1969

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf Düsterberg: Data source: Soldier and war experience. German military memorial literature 1945-1961. Tübingen 2000, p. 238
  2. ↑ a b Hildegard Frank-Rubien: Dr. jur. Wolfgang Frank
  3. ^ NN: The steamer "Luise Leonhardt" sank in the "November storm" , Hamburger Abendblatt of October 25, 2003
  4. ^ Rolf Düsterberg: Data source: Soldier and war experience. German military memorial literature 1945-1961. Tübingen 2000, p. 238
  5. ^ Information on the genealogy website of Grit Ende
  6. ↑ Manfred Wetzel: Franz-Mueller-Darß . In: Forest biographies from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . Schwerin 1999, p. 186
personal data
SURNAME Frank, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 1980
Place of death Lübeck , Schleswig-Holstein