Jurek Becker

Jurek Becker (* probably September 30, 1937 in Łódź, Poland born Jerzy Bekker; † 14 March 1997 Sieseby, Schleswig -Holstein ) was a German writer, screenwriter and GDR dissident.

• 6.1 overviews and introductions
• 6.2 Biographies
• 6.3 Anthologies
• 6.4 Miscellaneous

Life

Childhood and youth

Jurek Becker was born in Łódź in Poland. His date of birth is unknown, as his father in the ghetto older stating him as he was to save him from deportation. Later he no longer remembered the correct date of birth. Probably Jurek Becker was a few years younger than can be found anywhere.

Becker's parents were Jewish; his father Max Becker, born Mieczyslaw Bekker (1900-1972) worked as a clerk and later. authorized officer in a textile factory After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Jurek Becker was deported together with his parents in the ghetto of Lodz. In 1944 he came with his mother, Anette Bekker, first in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and later to Sachsenhausen concentration camp or outdoor storage king Wusterhausen.

After the war, his father, who had survived Auschwitz found him with the help of the Jewish-American organization JOINT search again. His mother was - already in freedom - died of malnutrition, about 20 other family members had been killed. An aunt, who had fled before the German invasion of the USA, and Jurek and his father Max were the only survivors of the family.

1945 Becker moved with his father in the street Lippehner 5 (today Kathe Niederkirchnerstrasse Street) to East Berlin. The father of this decision justified with the fact that in the Soviet occupation zone anti-fascists came to power and was never acted so thoroughly against anti-Semitism as the point at which he had experienced the most pronounced. Max Becker differed greatly later between them and the Germans.

Becker lived after 1945 in East Berlin, including a residential community with Manfred Krug, whom he had known since 1957, in Cantianstraße in Berlin- Prenzlauer Berg.

1955 made ​​Jurek Becker Abitur and volunteered for two years then voluntarily People's Police, the forerunner of the National People's Army. He was also a member of the FDJ. Against the will of his father, who wanted him would doctor, he decided in 1957 for the study of philosophy and became a member of the SED. After six semesters, he was expelled in 1960 after a fight " on probation " by the university and became a freelance writer.

His life as a freelance writer

In 1960, he began a short film scenario studies in the GDR film center Babelsberg and wrote several cabaret texts. In 1962 he was a staff writer at the DEFA and wrote several plays and screenplays. When in 1968 his script was rejected Jakob the Liar, he worked it to his first novel, which was published in 1969 and 1974 but still filmed. In 1971 he received the Heinrich Mann Prize and the Charles Veillon Prize.

His most famous book, Jacob the Liar, has been filmed twice. The film adaptation by the DEFA was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (1974, DEFA Studio East Germany, Director: Frank Beyer, actor Vlastimil Brodsky, Erwin Geschonneck, Henry Hübchen ).

1972 his father died. In 1973 he published his second novel, misleading the authorities. He was also elected to the board of the Writers Union. In 1974 he received the Literature Prize of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and the 1975 National Prize of the GDR for Literature II class for misleading the authorities. 1976 signed the politically committed Jurek Becker with eleven other writers a letter against the expatriation of Wolf Biermann, which was punished with expulsion from the SED and from the board of the Writers' Union of the GDR. The novel The Boxer appeared.

1977 Jurek Becker stepped out in protest against the exclusion Reiner Kunze from the Writers' Union and moved with the approval of the GDR authorities in the West, because his books are no longer installed in the GDR and film projects were rejected.

From 1978 to 1984 published two more novels ( Sleepless days in 1978 and all world friend 1982) and a collection of short stories ( After the first future 1980). Jurek Becker was a visiting professor at universities and held several keynote lectures.

Appeared in 1986, the novel Bronstein children. He also wrote this year, the script for the successful television series Liebling Kreuzberg, for which he was created in 1987 together with Manfred Krug and Heinz Shirk awarded the Adolf Grimme Award in gold.

Jurek Becker has three sons, two with his first wife Erika. The third, Jonathan ( by his second wife Christine ), was born in 1990. Becker died in 1997 of colon cancer that was diagnosed in December 1995.

His grave is in the cemetery at Sieseby.

Awards

Works

• Jakob the Liar, novel, 1969, Reclam, 2004 ISBN 3150153468 Ditzingen
• Mislead the authorities, novel, 1973, ISBN 3-518-36771-4
• The boxer, novel, 1976, ISBN 3-518-37026- X
• Sleepless days, novel, 1978, ISBN 3-518-37126-6
• After the first future, short stories, 1980, ISBN 3-518-02110-9
• All world friend, novel, 1982, ISBN 3-518-02120-6
• Bronstein's children 's novel, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986 ISBN 3-518-02577-5
• Warning of the writer, three lectures in Frankfurt, 1990, ISBN 3-518-11601-0
• Amanda heartless, novel, 1992, ISBN 3-518-40474-1
• End of megalomania, essays, lectures, 1996, ISBN 3-518-40757-0
• Jurek's news to Manfred Krug & Otti, postcards to the couple Krug, ed. by Manfred Krug, 1997, ISBN 3-430-11213-3
• Your Incomparable, Letters, 2004, ISBN 3- 518-41643 -X
• Dear Johnny, postcards to his son Jonathan, 2004, ISBN 3-550-07600-2
• My father, the Germans and I, essays, lectures, interviews, 2007, ISBN 978-3-518-41946-5

Screenplays (selection)

Media

• Jurek Becker reads Jakob the Liar. 1976, VEB German records Litera 8 65 211 (Audio cassette, 1998, ISBN 3-89584-427-6, Audio CD, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86717-113-7 ).
• " Infatuation into words, falling in love in language ... ". the Hörverlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86717-430-5 ( prose, speeches, and interviews ).