Franz Fühmann

Fühmann was the son of an apothecary in Rochlitz an der Iser (Rokytnice nad Jizerou) in the Karkonosze in Czechoslovakia. After Volksschule he attended the Jesuitenkonvikt Kalksburg near Vienna for four years, leaving in 1936 to attend the gymnasium in Reichenberg (Liberec), northern Bohemia. Fühmann took his Abitur exams in Vrchlabí. After the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany, he joined the Sturmabteilung.

Fühmann was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1941, and was a communications soldier in Greece and the Soviet Union. He was captured by Soviet forces in 1945 and sent to a communist rehabilitation school in Noginsk, near Moscow.

Fühmann returned from Soviet captivity to East Germany, where he lived for the rest of his life in Märkisch Buchholz and Berlin. He joined the National Democratic Party of Germany, one of the bloc parties, was active until 1958 and resigned from the party in 1972.

From 1952 until his death, Fühmann was a freelance writer. He mentored young writers, and spoke for those under East German repression. In 1976, Fühmann was among the first to sign a letter protesting the exile of Wolf Biermann.[4] He received the 1956 Heinrich Mann Prize, the 1957 and 1974 National Prize of East Germany, the 1977 German Critics' Award and the 1982 Geschwister-Scholl-Preis, and was a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin.

Fühmann's work includes poems, translations of Czech and Hungarian poems, books for children and young adults, essays, stories, a ballet (Kirke und Odysseus) and a collaboration with a photographer (Was für eine Insel in was für einem Meer) about the developmentally disabled. He also compiled a volume of poems by rearranging parts a rhyming dictionary and furnishing it with headings.

Works for children and young people were important to Fühmann throughout his life, and he published his first children's book at the wish of his daughter Barbara. Among Fühmann's children's books are fairy tales, puppet plays, plays on the German language (Lustiges Tier-ABC, Die dampfenden Hälse der Pferde im Turm von Babel) and retellings of classical literature (Reineke Fuchs, Das Hölzerne Pferd [the Iliad and the Odyssey] and Prometheus [Die Titanenschlacht]), and he corresponded with many young readers.

Many of Fühmann's early short stories are autobiographical, and in Das Judenauto he describes memories of his childhood and youth. He later dealt with his involvement in Nazi Germany. The concept and the possibility of "change" (in his case, from a supporter of Nazism to a dedicated socialist) were especially important to Fühmann, and play a leading role in Zweiundzwanzig Tage oder Die Hälfte des Lebens (one of his major works, a spare diary of a trip to Hungary).

In his work, Fühmann emphasized fairly tales, sagas and myths. This preoccupation penetrates many of his books, from his children's books to his short stories (Das Ohr des Dionysios) and essays. With the latter, Fühmann encouraged the publication of authors whose work had rarely appeared in East Germany (such as Georg Trakl and Sigmund Freud).

Beginning with Zweiundzwanzig Tage, Fühmann increasingly criticized the socialist society of East Germany. In a number of letters and later speeches, he attempted to convince East German politicians to change their policies regarding culture. This attitude became more visible in his work, especially in Saiäns-fiktschen. He withdrew from his connections to cultural politics in East Germany, such as the Schriftstellerverband der DDR (Writers' Union of East Germany) and the Akademie der Künste. In later life he began to despair of the political conditions in East Germany (as reflected in his correspondence with Christa Wolf, Monsieur – wir finden uns wieder), and was unable to finish his long-planned magnum opus (which he called Bergwerksprojekt in his letters and notes). It was published posthumously in 1993 as Im Berg, with the subtitle (added by himself) Fragments of a Failure. Fühmann said a year before his death, "I have cruel pains; the bitterest is having failed in literature and in the hope for a society as we all once dreamt it."

The Academy of the Arts in Berlin has administered Fühmann's literary estate. His library (consisting of about 17,000 volumes, with many notes and underlinings) is part of the Historische Sammlungen of the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin. His work still interests young artists (such as Barbara Gauger), and the Franz Fühmann Freundeskreis Märkisch Buchholz in Berlin illustrates its extent.

Films based on Franz Fühmann's works, or for which he wrote the script:

• Betrogen bis zum jüngsten Tag (Duped Till Doomsday) (1957): Directed by Kurt Jung-Alsen (with Rudolf Ulrich and Wolfgang Kieling) from Kameraden
• Die heute über 40 sind (1960): Directed by Kurt Jung-Alsen (with Rudolf Ulrich). Script: Franz Fühmann
• Der Schwur des Soldaten Pooley (The Oath of Soldier Pooley) (1962): Directed by Kurt Jung-Alsen. Script: Franz Fühmann
• Die Suche nach dem wunderbunten Vögelchen (1964): Directed by Rolf Losansky (with Lieselott Baumgarten and Fred Delmare) from the children's story of the same name
• Köpfchen Kamerad (1965): Directed by Otto Holub (with Fred Delmare). Script: Franz Fühmann
• Der verlorene Engel (The Lost Angel) (1966): Directed by Ralf Kirsten from the novella, Das schlimme Jahr
• Das Geheimnis des Ödipus (The Secret of Oedipus) (1973–74): Directed by Kurt Jung-Alsen. Script: Franz Fühmann
• Der Fall Ö. (1991): Directed by Rainer Simon (with Matthias Habich and Jan Josef Liefers) from the short story, "König Ödipus"

• Born, Arne. Fühmanns Offener Brief vom November 1977. Ein Postulat und seine Unterdrückung. Mit unveröffentlichten Schriftstücken (Fühmann's Public Letters from November 1977: A Postulant and His Oppression, With Unpublished Writings). In Berliner Hefte zur Geschichte des literarischen Lebens (Berlin Journal of the History of Literary Lives) 3 (2000), pp. 81–115.
• Heinze, Barbara (editor). Franz Fühmann: eine Biographie in Bildern, Dokumenten und Briefen (Franz Fühmann: A Biography in Pictures, Documents and Letters). Foreword by Sigrid Damm. Rostock: Hinstorff Verlag, 1998.
• Richter, Hans. Franz Fühmann. Ein deutsches Dichterleben (Franz Fühmann. A German Poet's Life). Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 1992.
• Robinson, Benjamin. The Skin of the System: On Germany's Socialist Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2009.
• Sachse, Christian. Der schwarze Stoff, aus dem die Wahrheit ist. Franz Fühmann auf der Suche nach seiner Wahrheit (The Black Stuff From Which Truth Comes: Franz Fühmann on His Search for Truth). In: Zeitschrift des Forschungsverbundes SED-Staat (Journal of the SED State Research Union) Nr. 15/2003.
• Simon, Horst (editor). Zwischen Erzählen und Schweigen. Ein Buch des Erinnerns und Gedenkens. Franz Fühmann zum 65. (Between Stories and Silence: A Book of Memories and Memorials—Franz Fühmann to 65) Rostock: Hinstorff, 1987 (contains a biography and reviews of his work)
• Tate, David (1995). Franz Fühmann, Innovation and Authenticity: A Study of His Prose-writing. Google Books. Rodopi. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
• Wagner, Irmgard. Franz Fühmann. Nachdenken über Literatur (Franz Fühmann: Thinking About Literature). Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitärsverlag, 1989.

• Literature by and on Franz Fühmann in the catalog of the German National Library (in German)
• Fühmann page of the Fühmann Friends Circle (in German)
• Interview amongst others in the newspaper Glossen (in German)
• Einblick in die Bibliothek Franz Fühmann (A Glimpse in Franz Fühmann's library) (pdf) (in German)
• Rolf Schneider: Der Tanz auf dem Seil (The Dance from the Soul) (SPIEGEL special 10/1995 from 1 October 1995, Page 23) (in German)