Guest of the ilb 2004
Volker Braun was born in Dresden in 1939. After
finishing school he worked for three years in printing, in underground
engineering, and in strip mining before studying Philosophy. In 1962 he
was threatened with expulsion after Stephan Hermlin recited Braun’s
poems at a reading at the Akademie der Künste. In 1965 Helene Weigel
brought him to the Berliner Ensemble, where his first piece, »Die
Kipper« (t: The Dumpers), was staged (and banned). Following the put
down of the Prague Spring, he wrote »T« (Trotzki) and »Lenins Tod« (t:
Lenin’s Death). Between 1972 and 1977 he collaborated with the Deutsche
Theater, and in 1990 he became house author of the Berliner Ensemble.
Many of his later works were printed and, in some cases, performed,
years after their conception: among them »Unvollendete Geschichte« (t:
Unfinished Story), »Hinze-Kunze-Roman« (t: Hinze-Kunze Novel), the
volumes of poetry »Training des aufrechten Gangs« (t: Training to Walk
Erect) and »Langsamer knirschender Morgen« (t: Slowly Grinding
Morning), the theatre pieces »Dmitri« and »Die Übergangsgesellschaft«
(t: The Transformation Society), and the essay collection »Verheerende
Folgen mangelnden Anscheins innerbetrieblicher Demokratie« (t:
Devastating Consequences of Lacking Appearance of Internal Democracy).
Braun calls it all »work against the rock crust of promises«. Despite
the fundamental criticism he received, Braun considers himself a
socialist, who through his »conspiratorial Realism« pushes for changes
of circumstances. »One searches for a perspective which does not comply
with the official way of thinking, nor with appeasing or conformist
thinking – in other words, a view on things from below.« He remained
true to this attitude after the German reunification, be it with the
abyssal novella »Die vier Werkzeugmacher« (t: The four Tool Makers),
the cycle of poems »Rot ist Marlboro« (t: Red is Marlboro) and
»Tumulus«, or the theatre pieces »Der Staub von Brandenburg« (t:
Brandenburg Bust) and »Limes. Mark Aurel«. The Academy in Darmstadt
awarded the Büchner Prize 2000 »to the poet, who with wit and mercy has
created a lively chronicle of his historical world«, and »has renewed
and transformed the language and forms of the philosophical era of
German literature«. In 2005, Braun was awarded the Serbian Poetry
Prize, the Golden Key of the Town of Smederevo. He has been head of the
department for literature at the German Academy of the Arts, Berlin,
since 2006.
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