Theo Harych

Theo Harych (December 19, 1903 – February 22, 1958) was a German writer.

Life

Born in Doruchow, Posen, Theo Harych was the son of a farmer. From 1910 to 1918, he worked as a herder and servant in Silesia. He stopped attending a Volksschule after 1916. He went to Central Germany in 1919 where he worked in a sugar factory and in a coal mine in Mücheln. As a member of the Miner's Labor Union, he participated in Mitteldeutschen Aufstand (Central German Rebellion) in the Gieseltal (Giesel Valley). He attended a driving and servant school in Halle (Saale), subsequently he was a journeyman in Saxony on the way. For a short time, he was a valet of an Adel though would be instantly dismissed, admittedly after five minutes, because of Communist propaganda. He followed with a refreshed journey and a time as a driver in Berlin. From 1930 to 1936, Harych was unemployed and worked as a locksmith from 1936. He drove deliveries with one of his own panel van from 1936 to 1944. He would indeed be drafted to the Wehrmacht in 1944 however fared poorly because of ear problems. He was assigned to "Ear Company" and soon released.

After World War II, he worked renewed as a valet in East Berlin. His writing talent would be discovered in 1950 and enable him an existence as a freelance writer. Harych was a member of the Deutscher Schriftstellerverband and received the 1954 Heinrich Mann Prize. He died of suicide in Berlin in 1958.

Theo Harych published besides a children's book, 3 novels of which "Hinter den schwartzen Wäldern" (Behind the Black Forests) describes Harych's poor childhood. Themes of "In Geiseltal" are misery and rebellion in the Central German coal mines until the insurrection of 1921. The third novel, "Im Namen des Volkes" (In the Name of the People), is the documentary of the assimilation of the "Fall of Jakubowski one of the authentic miscarriage of justice whose victim had been a polish farm worker in the 1920s.

Theo Harych indeed personified that early East German cultured image of the writing worker however surpassed as a storied natural talent and in his documentary realism the most representative of the stately patronage of proletarian literature.

Works

*"Hinter den schwarzen Wäldern" (Behind the Black Forests), Berlin 1951
*"Bärbels und Lothars schönster Tag" (Bärbel and Lothar's Beautiful Day), Berlin 1952
*"Im Geiseltal" (In Geisel Valley), Berlin 1952
*"Im Namen des Volkes?" (In the Name of the People), Berlin 1958

Literature

Serke, J.: "Zu Hause im Exil" (To the House in Exile). München, Zürich 1998

External links

* [http://www.stiftung-aufarbeitung.de/service_wegweiser/personen_detail.php?ID=871 Wer was wer in der DDR? Harych Theo] (Who was who in East Germany? Theo Harych) de icon