Horst Bienek
Horst Bienek was a German author and poet known for his profound literary contributions and the exploration of themes related to his personal experiences and historical context. Born into a family with a strong artistic influence, Bienek faced significant challenges during his youth, including separation from his family and forced labor during World War II. Despite these hardships, he achieved recognition early in his career, sharing the East Berlin Literature Prize for Young Authors in 1948.
Bienek's life took a dramatic turn when he was arrested in East Germany for perceived political offenses, resulting in a 25-year sentence in a Siberian labor camp. His eventual release in 1955 marked the beginning of a fruitful literary career in West Germany, where he became influential in the publishing scene and held various editorial positions. He is best known for his tetralogy, "Gleiwitz: Eine oberschlesische Chronik," which reflects his childhood memories and the complexities of the human condition.
Throughout his life, Bienek received numerous literary awards, highlighting his impact on German literature. He established the Horst Bienek Prize for Lyric Poetry as part of his legacy, promoting the works of others and nurturing the literary community. His poetry and interviews with fellow writers remain significant contributions to the understanding of modern literature.
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Horst Bienek
Poet
- Born: May 7, 1930
- Birthplace: Gleiwitz, Poland
- Died: December 7, 1990
- Place of death: Munich, Germany
Biography
Horst Bienek was the youngest of six children born to Hermann Bienek, an official with the German National Railway, and his wife Valeska, née Piontek, a piano teacher. He was raised a Roman Catholic. Bienek was artistically sensitive. As a child, he was deeply moved by Ernst Barlach’s sculptures of suffering peasants.
During World War II, when Bienek was fourteen, he was separated from his family and ended up in Brandenburg. Under Russian occupation in 1945, he had to do forced labor. In 1946, he moved to Köthen/Anhalt. In 1948, Bienek and Christa Reinig shared the East Berlin Literature Prize for Young Authors.
In 1950, Martin Gregor-Dellin hired Bienek as his associate on the East Berlin Cultural Advisory Committee. Gregor-Dellin describes Bienek as short and slight, with a quiet, provocative voice and an astounding vocabulary. When that office closed, Bienek began studying with playwright Bertolt Brecht’s Berlin Ensemble. In November, 1951, Bienek was arrested by the East German State Security Service for alleged political offences. He had apparently drawn attention to himself by wearing purple leather shoes.
Bienek was sentenced to twenty-five years forced labor in the coal mines of the Workuta labor camp in Siberia. In June of 1952, Christa Reinig received a card from Bienek asking her to send him warm clothing. Her packages of food and clothing saved his life. An amnesty after the death of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin permitted Bienek’s release into West Germany in October 1955.
From 1957 to 1961, Bienek was the literature editor for Hessian Radio in Frankfurt-am-Main. He was also coeditor of Blätter und Bilder (pages and pictures), a journal for literature, music, and painting. The Villa Massimo Scholarship enabled Bienek to live in Rome in 1961. In 1962, he settled in Munich and became editor in chief with the newly founded Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (German pocketbook publishing company), establishing a special series on modern literature. Bienek’s Werkstattgespräche mit Schriftstellern (1962), fifteen interviews with writers, remains a valuable reference tool.
In 1966, Bienek became a member of PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists); from 1968 until his death, he was director of the literature section of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts; and in 1970, he became a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature in Darmstadt. Bienek traveled through Europe, America, and Australia giving lectures and readings.
In Bienek’s sparse poetry, he worked with typography as well as words. Drawing on his own experience, he explored the mindset of the prisoner. His masterpiece is Gleiwitz: Eine oberschlesische Chronik in vier Romanen (Gleiwitz: an Upper Silesian chronicle in four novels). Only after Bienek had drawn on his childhood memories to write the tetralogy did he feel ready to travel back to Silesia.
Bienek was awarded sixteen prizes for literature, including the Andreas Gryphius Prize (1967 and 1983), the City of Bremen Prize for Literature (1969), the Hermann Kesten Prize (1975), the Wilhelm Raabe Prize (1978), the Nelly Sachs Prize (1981), the Eichendorff Medal (1987), and the Jean Paul Prize (1989). He bequeathed his estate to the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts to establish the Horst Bienek Prize for Lyric Poetry (Germany). The ten thousand-Euro prize is awarded annually. It is a fitting legacy from a writer who was always interested in promoting the works of others.