- Wolfgang Borchert
Wolfgang Borchert (
May 20 ,1921 –November 20 ,1947 ) was a Germanauthor andplaywright whose work was affected by his experience ofdictatorship and his service in theWehrmacht during theSecond World War .Borchert was born in
Hamburg , the only child of teacher Fritz Borchert and author Hertha Borchert. Far from being an enthusiastic Nazi, Borchert hated his (compulsory) time in the party's youth wing, theHitler Youth , from which (after much effort) he managed to resign. In 1940 he was arrested by theGestapo (Secret State Police) and then released. The same year he reluctantly took up an apprenticeship at a Hamburg bookshop. While at the bookshop, Borchert secretly took acting lessons. In 1941, upon passing his acting examination, he left the apprenticeship and began working at a theatre inHanover . His nascent theatrical career was cut short, however, by hisconscription into the Wehrmacht only a few months later.Borchert was posted to the Eastern front, where he saw the full horror of the eastern conflict, witnessing the numerous casualties in battle and those sustained due to cold, starvation, and inadequate equipment. When a cut on his hand became infected, Borchert contracted
hepatitis . His superiors, accusing him of attempting to evade military service byself-mutilation , had him arrested and placed in isolation. He was convicted of making "statements endangering the country" and sentenced to serve a further six weeks of detention and was then sent back to the Eastern front "to prove himself at the front". There he sufferedfrostbite and several further bouts of hepatitis, after which he was granted medical leave. On leave he again acted in theatre in the now ravaged city of Hamburg. Following a performance in which he parodied Nazi propaganda ministerJoseph Goebbels , Borchert was arrested and sentenced to nine months in prison. On his release he was again returned to the army, this time serving on the western front. His company surrendered to the French in March 1945. During their transportation to aprisoners of war camp Borchert evaded the guards and escaped, and then walked home to Hamburg (a distance of around 370 miles).Following the war, Borchert's condition continued to worsen. In 1946 doctors told him the damage to his liver would kill him within a year. He resumed his work with the theater, and began writing. He wrote short prose and published a collection of poems "
Laterne, Nacht und Sterne " ("Lantern, Night and Stars"). In January 1947 he wrote the play "The Man Outside " ("Draußen vor der Tür"). Shortly after its publication the play was performed on the radio, meeting with much acclaim. Later in 1947 Wolfgang Borchert entered a hepatic sanitorium in the Swiss city ofBasel , where he continued with short stories and wrote his manifesto against war "Dann gibt es nur eins! " ("Then there is only one thing!") shortly before his death.External links
* [http://www.bsu.edu/classes/warner/resource/translte.html English Translations of some of Borchert's stories]
* [http://outofmymindsometimes.blogspot.com/2006/05/translation-of-wolfgang-borcherts-der.html Translation of "The Crowned Tooth, Or Why My Cousin No Longer Eats Toffees"]
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