Writer Volker Braun (1939): Large Signed Photo, Reading Berlin 2022

About Volker Braun (source: wikipedia):

Volker Braun (*7. May 1939 in Dresden) is a German writer. Along with Peter Hacks and Heiner Müller, he is one of the most important playwrights in the GDR. In addition to theater texts, his work includes poems, novels, stories and radio plays.

Life: Volker Braun grew up alongside four other brothers as the son of the accountant, representative and art lover Erich Braun and his wife Irmgard in Dresden-Rochwitz. In 1957 he graduated from high school and initially worked for a year in the Dresden printing press of the Sächsische Zeitung. After initially unsuccessfully applying to study, he went to the Schwarze Pumpe gas combine, where he worked, among other things, as a civil engineering worker and concrete pipelayer. The experiences of this time were reflected in his early literary works, including his debut drama Kipper Paul Bauch (later published under the title Die Kipper). In 1960 he began studying philosophy at the University of Leipzig. The first literary works were created during this time. Braun initially became known primarily as a poet. He had been a member of the SED since 1960. Nevertheless, in the GDR he was considered critical of the state, and he often only managed to publish his prose or poems by using tactical skills. From the beginning he saw himself as a decidedly political author in the critical succession of Bertolt Brecht. The pivotal point of his work was the contradictions between the socialist utopia on the one hand and the reality of state socialism on the other. Like Brecht and Heiner Müller, he understood it as part of an epochal contradiction, the effects of which he did not simplify ideologically, but rather described as the “open ends of history”. The title The simple truth is not enough, which is given to a volume of notations published in 1975, is programmatic for Braun's attitude. The turn to historical material as the basis of his dramatic production, which he carried out in the 1970s, testifies to his intention to continually place the contradictions of the GDR in a larger historical context.

At the beginning he described the construction of socialism critically and enthusiastically. From 1965 to 1967 he worked as a dramaturge at the Berliner Ensemble at the invitation of Helene Weigel. After the events of the Prague Spring, he became increasingly critical of life under socialism and the possibilities of reform. He was then increasingly monitored by the Stasi. Braun had worked at the Deutsches Theater Berlin since 1972, and in 1976 he was one of the signatories of the protest resolution against Biermann's expatriation. From 1979 he worked again at the Berliner Ensemble, and in 1981 he received the GDR Lessing Prize.

In the 1980s, Braun's works increasingly painted a picture of a depressing life in the GDR. The actors in his plays move resignedly in an immobile environment. His Hinze-Kunze novel, based on Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist and His Lord, received permission to print in 1985, but after its publication it was sharply attacked as "absurd" and "anarchist" by the influential critic Anneliese Löffler, and Klaus Höpcke, then deputy Minister of Culture, received disciplinary proceedings for granting permission to print.

On the other hand Braun received the GDR National Prize in 1988. During the peaceful revolution in 1989, he was one of the advocates of an independent “third way” for the GDR and was one of the first invited signatories of the call “For our country”.[8] After reunification, he critically examined the reasons for the failure of the GDR. In this context is also his collaboration with the Western Marxist magazine “Das Argument” published by Wolfgang Fritz Haug.

Volker Braun received many awards in both the East and the West. Even before reunification, he had the status of a pan-German author. In 2000 he received the renowned Georg Büchner Prize.

Volker Braun headed the literature section at the Academy of Arts (Berlin) from 2006 to 2010. He is a member of the PEN Center Germany.

Braun lives in Berlin.

On the position during and after reunification: A famous poem from 1990 describes it:

Ownership

Here I am still: my country is going to the West.

WAR TO THE HUTS, PEACE TO THE PALACES.

I kicked him myself.

It throws itself away and its meager adornment.

Winter is followed by the summer of desire.

And I can stay where the pepper grows.

And my entire text becomes incomprehensible.

What I never owned is being taken away from me.

I will forever miss what I didn't live.

Hope lay in the way like a trap.

My property, now you have it on your hands.

When will I say my and my all again?

These verses “get to the point: the contradiction between design and life, possibility and reality, theory and practice, program and experience in GDR socialism, which was ultimately difficult to live... Every verse in the poem is a short, completed sentence with a period at the end . Each sentence is a laconic statement of sad finality. […] Hope, which was a trap on the way to lack of illusion, must now give way. A great elegy.”

Works (selection)

The tippers. Play. Henschelverlag [today: henschel Schauspiel Theaterverlag], Berlin 1962/65. Premiere: 5. March 1972, Städtische Theater Leipzig, directed by Gotthard Müller. FRG premiere: 16. September 1973, Wuppertal Theater, directed by Günter Ballhausen and Jürgen Bosse.

Mink. Fragment. 1965 (premiere: Leipzig 1972).

Provocation for me. Poems. Central German publishing house Berlin and Weimar, 1965.

Preliminary. Poems. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1966.

Declaration of war. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Berlin and Weimar 1967.

Schmitten. Play. 1969/1978. Premiere: 18. January 1982, Municipal Theater Leipzig, directed by Karl Georg Kayser.

Lenin's death. Drama. henschel Schauspiel [Henschelverlag], 1970. Premiere: 28. September 1988, Berliner Ensemble, directed by Christoph Schroth.

Us and not them. Poems. Central German publishing house Halle and Leipzig, 1970.

The casual life of Kast. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, 1971 (Edition New Texts series)

Poems. 1972.

Hinze and Kunze. Play. henschel Schauspiel [Henschelverlag], 1967. Premiere: 4. May 1973, Municipal Theater Karl-Marx-Stadt, directed by Piet Drescher.

Tinka. Play. henschel Schauspiel [Henschelverlag], 1972/1973. Premiere: 29. May 1976, Municipal Theater Karl-Marx-Stadt, directed by Hartwig Albiro. FRG premiere: 23. April 1977, National Theater Mannheim, director: Jürgen Bosse, first performance in Germany: 23. April 1977, Staatstheater Kassel, directed by Hagen Mueller-Stahl.

Against the symmetrical world. Poems. Central German publishing house, 1974.

The simple truth is not enough. Notes. Reclam publishing house Leipzig, 1975.

Guevara or The Sunshine State. Play. henschel Schauspiel [Henschelverlag], 1975. Premiere: 10. December 1977, National Theater Mannheim, directed by Jürgen Bosse. GDR premiere: 21. January 1984, Städtische Theater Leipzig, directed by Karl Georg Kayser.

Great peace. Play. henschel Schauspiel [Henschelverlag], Berlin 1976. Premiere: 22. April 1979, Berliner Ensemble, director: Manfred Wekwerth, Joachim Tenschert, collaboration: Werner Mittenzwei.

Training to walk upright. Poems. Central German publishing house, 1976.

Simplex German. Scenes about immaturity. henschel Schauspiel [Henschelverlag], Berlin 1978. Premiere: 26. April 1980, Berliner Ensemble, directed by Piet Drescher. FRG premiere: 20. November 1982, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.

Unfinished story. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-518-02266-0.

Poetry album 115: Volker Braun . Poems. Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1977.

Dmitri. Play. henschel Schauspiel [Henschelverlag], Berlin 1980. Premiere: 7. December 1982, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, directed by Günter Ballhausen. GDR premiere: 27. April 1984, Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, directed by Christoph Schroth.

Proceedings of Prometheus, 1982, print: Black Art, Hamburg 1986.

pieces. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1983. (In it: Die Kipper, Hinze and Kunze, Schmitten, Tinka, Guevara or The Sunshine State, Great Peace, Simplex Deutsch, Dmitri and an essay by Klaus Schuhmann).

Guevara or the sunshine state. Gutenberg Book Guild, 1984.

Hinze-Kunze novel. Central German publishing house, 1985. New edition Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2007, ISBN 978-3-518-38038-3.

The transition society. Comedy. henschel Schauspiel [Henschelverlag], Berlin 1987. Premiere: 24. April 1987, Bremen Theater, directed by Torsten Fischer. GDR premiere: 30. March 1988, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, directed by Thomas Langhoff.

Slow crunching morning. Poems. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1987, ISBN 978-3-354-00282-1.

Devastating consequences of a lack of semblance of internal democracy. Fonts. Reclam 1988. (Licensed edition: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1988), ISBN 978-3-379-00405-3.

Transit Europe. After Anna Seghers. Play. henschel Schauspiel [Henschelverlag], 1988, premiere: 30. January 1988, German Theater Berlin.

Bottomless sentence. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1990, ISBN 978-3-518-40226-9.

Iphigenia in freedom. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3-518-40440-7.

The turncoat. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1995, ISBN 978-3-518-40686-1.

The unlived. Narrative. Faber & Faber, Leipzig 1995, ISBN 978-3-928660-48-8.

Lustgarten, Prussia. Selected poems. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-518-39624-2.

The four toolmakers. Parabola. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1996, ISBN 978-3-518-40806-3.

We're doing well so far. We're at the end for now. Statements. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1998.

Tumulus. Poems. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1999, ISBN 978 3 518 41027-1.

Nevertheless nothing or The turncoat. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2000. ISBN 978 3- 518- 39680-3

What is really wanted. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-518-41170-5.

Conditions are falling apart. Speech at the awarding of the Georg Büchner Prize. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2000, ISBN 978-3-518-06616-4.

The unoccupied territory. Historical narrative. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-518-41634-0.

The infamous Christian Sporn. The other Woyzeck. Two stories. (Island Library 1289). Insel Verlag, 2004, ISBN 978-3-458-19259-6.

To the beautiful antics. Poems. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2005. ISBN 978-3-518-41671-6.

The lunch meal. Narrative. Insel Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-458-19289-3.

Machwerk or Flick's shift book by Lauchhammer. A picaresque piece. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-42027-0.

Working days I. Workbook 1977–1989. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-42048-5.

Kassenrutsch – Volker Braun and contemporaries. Projects-Verlag Cornelius, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86237-131-0.

The bright clusters. Narrative. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42239-7.

Working days II. Workbook 1990–2008. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-42418-6.

Demos, The Greeks / Cleaning Women. henschel Schauspiel Theaterverlag Berlin 2015, premiere of The Greeks / Cleaning Women on the 16th. September 2016, Berliner Ensemble, director: Manfred Karge.

Reference library of the unhoused. New poems. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-518-42543-5.

Relocation of the secret point. Writings and speeches. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2019. ISBN 978-3-518-42875-7

Hand strokes. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2019. ISBN 978-3-518-42849-8

Big gap. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2021. ISBN 978-3-518-43021-7

Radio plays

1991: Iphigenia in Freedom, Director: Karlheinz Liefers, Production: Funkhaus Berlin.

1991: Iphigenie in Freiheit, director: Fritz Göhler, composition: Hans Rempel, production: Funkhaus Berlin.

1992: Iphigenia in Freedom, Director: Karlheinz Liefers, Composition: Jürgen Meinel, Production: DS-Kultur, SFB.

1992: Hinzekunze, edited by Thomas Fritz, directed by Walter Adler, produced by MDR, ORB.

1998: The Dust of Brandenburg, director: Joachim Staritz, composition: Benjamin Rinnert, production: DLF, SFB-ORB.

1999: The story of the four toolmakers, editing and directing: Jörg Jannings, composition: Wolfgang Florey, production: SFB-ORB, DLF.

2002: Das Really Wanted Editing and direction: Jörg Jannings, composition: Wolfgang Florey, production: SFB-ORB.

2003: The 14th Province, director: Barbara Plensat, composition: Peter Kaizar, production: SFB-ORB.

2005: The Unoccupied Area, Director: Jörg Jannings, Composition: Wolfgang Florey, Production: DLF, RBB.

2005: The infamous Christian Sporn, editing and direction: Jörg Jannings, composition: Wolfgang Florey, production: MDR.

2009: Machwerk or the shift book of Flick by Lauchhammer, editing and direction: Barbara Plensat, composition: Lutz Glandin, production: RBB.

2009: The Luncheon, Director: Stefan Kanis, Composition: Peter A. Bauer, Production: MDR.

2016: The Cleaning Women, 56 min., directed by Stefan Kanis. Original shipment: 10. April 2016, production: MDR Figaro.

Awards

1964: Erich Weinert Medal

1971: Heinrich Heine Prize from the GDR Ministry of Culture

1980: Heinrich Mann Prize of the Academy of Arts (GDR)

1981: Lessing Prize of the GDR

1986: Bremen Literature Prize

1988: National Prize of the GDR

1989: Berlin Literature Prize from the Prussian Sea Dealing Foundation

1992: Schiller Memorial Prize

1993: Villa Massimo scholarship

1994: Guest of the University of Wales

1995: Calwer Hermann Hesse scholarship

1996: German Critics' Prize; Poetry lectures at the University of Heidelberg

1996: Member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry and the Saxon Academy of Arts

1998: Erwin Strittmatter Prize

2000: Brothers Grimm Professorship at the University of Kassel

2000: Büchner Prize

2006: Elected director of the literature section of the Academy of Arts (Berlin)

2007: ver.di literature prize for his story The Luncheon

2009: he received the German-French Candide Prize together with Olivia Rosenthal

2010: Town clerk for Rheinsberg

2012: Knight (Chevalier) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

2012: Art Prize of the State Capital Dresden

2016: Prix international Argana de la Poésie (Morocco)

Film adaptations

1989: Great Peace (theatrical recording)

1991: Suspicion, based on the story Unfinished History.

Trivia

Braun When signing his books, he sometimes had the habit of crossing out his name printed in the book and then adding his signature above it. Lately he only signs his books in pencil, writing the signing date vertically from top to bottom.