Christa Wolf’s principles for the literaryization of September 27 from 1960 to 2000 were that it wasn’t important to search for or stage the important, avoid the mundane, or avoid the commonplace.
Please explain one day of this year, September 27th, as exactly as possible, requested the Moscow daily “Isvestia” in 1960 to its colleagues around the globe. This writer would go on to become the most well-known in the GDR.
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Christa Wolf worked so hard on this project that it resulted in the 665-page September book “One Day in the Year,” which was released by Aufbau-Verlag in 2003. Christa Wolf, née Ihlenfeld, was 31 years old on September 27, 1960. She had been married to Gerhard Wolf for nine years and had two children, Annette and Katrin, who they called Tinka. At the Halle-based Mitteldeutscher Verlag, both partners were editors. The Wolfs enjoyed material security, which under capitalism could hardly be taken for granted, while leading an artistic life.
Christa Wolf, whose 1963 debut novel “The Divided Sky” made her famous, frequently expressed gratitude for her happy marriage and family life. In this book, more than in his wife’s prior works, Gerhard Wolf serves as the proverbial dependable man by her side and her sympathetic interlocutor in every circumstance.
Of course, he helped her when she was experiencing writer’s block: “On the way, I let Gerd know that I’ve made a start. He believes that I can only write when I’m negative or uptight, which is how I unintentionally created this state of mind.
Playing with Goethe’s time
On December 1, 2011, Christa Wolf passed away in Berlin-Pankow, putting an end to the lengthy “discussion in the Wolf residence.” These discussions, which referred to Goethe’s time and the Romantic era, were directed at friends who were artists like Brigitte Reimann, Volker Braun, and Stephan Hermlin. The book contains these adoring recollections and tributes “Gerhard Wolf released “Herzenssache. Memorial – Unforgettable Encounters” in 2020.
Whether the author is speaking about the actress Carola Stern, the fashion designer Otl Aicher, or his buddy the sound poet and artist Calfriedrich Claus, they all demonstrate his apparent gift for empathy. Wolf published Claus’ “Between the Past and the Past” in his 1991-founded publishing company, Janus Press, along with the so-called language sheets “Aurora,” which are also on display at the Reichstag.
Gerhard Wolf did not naturally possess the ability to develop into the Homme de Lettres: He was the son of an accountant and was born on October 16, 1928, in Bad Frankenhausen, Thuringia. He lost his mother when he was ten years old. He was captured by Americans as an anti-aircraft supporter near the end of the Second World War. He joined the SED in 1946, and the organization banned him after he objected to Wolf Biermann’s repatriation.
Wolf completed his Abitur in 1947 and began working as a “new teacher” before beginning his studies in Jena and at Berlin’s Humboldt University in 1949. Before starting his incredibly profitable career as a publisher, he worked as a radio editor in Berlin and Leipzig at this time while also getting a taste of film at DEFA. The poets whose voices Wolf recorded, for instance in the “Märkischer Dichtergarten” series he co-edited with Günter de Bruyn, considered him a friend. His first original work, “Humanity’s dreamer and fighter,” appeared in 1959 for Louis Fürnberg.
Minnedienst as a writer
As a grand prelude to “Aufbau – out of line,” Gerhard Wolf and Bert Papenfuss released the book “Thirteen Dance” in 1988. He worked to preserve the literary collective spirit of the GDR, which had predominantly appeared in Prenzlauer Berg, after reunification. When it became permissible for private individuals, Wolf recalled that he and Christoph Links were the first to have their publishers LinksDruck and Gerhard Wolf Janus Press listed in the GDR’s commercial register: “Of course I wanted the books to do things that you couldn’t do before.”
Additional writing in the Tagesspiegel:
In the book “In a dark blue hour” by Peter Stamm, Lord stays in the writing house. Teenagers and repeat offenders The Shards, a dark, masterful Roman by Bret Easton Ellis First thing in the trash “The Happy Secret,” an autobiography by Arno Geiger
Wolf Otl Aicher, a friend of the Scholl twins and the designer of the 1972 Olympics’ cheery pastel aesthetic, was successful in influencing the visual style of his publishing imprints, which are dedicated to experimental literature like Franz Mons’ “das wort auf der tongue.”
When Christa won the Geschwister-Scholl-Prize in Munich in 1987 for her book “Störfall,” the Wolf couple first met Otl Aicher. The circle of life for Gerhard Wolf, which was always a love service for literature, is now complete. At the age of 94, he passed away on Tuesday.