KURZBIOGRAFIE

 

Biography and Events:

1944 Born 8 April 1944 in Heinzendorf, Silesia (now in Poland), the son of a Protestant pastor.
1945 Family flees advancing Soviet troops and eventually settles near Leipzig.
1949 Founding of the German Democratic Republic.
1958 Begins attending Gymnasium in West Berlin after the authorities refuse to allow him, as a pastor's son, to pursue his education in the GDR.
1961 Erection of the Berlin Wall. Hein decides to settle in the East, although he is still not allowed to study. Employed variously as a construction worker, waiter, bookstore clerk, and factory worker.
1964 Finally allowed to attend evening school.
1965 Becomes an assistant to prominent stage director Benno Besson. Begins writing short journalistic pieces.
1966 Marries, first son born.
1967 Gains admission to Karl Marx University in Leipzig. Major: philosophy.
1970 Transfers to Humboldt University in Berlin.
1971 Graduates with a degree in logic. Second son born. Employed as dramaturge at the Berlin Volksbühne under Besson.
1973 Promoted to house author. Begins writing fiction and plays.
1974 Premiere of (heavily censored) first play, Schlötel oder Was solls, at the Volksbühne. GDR admitted to the United Nations, recognized diplomatically by most countries other than West Germany. Chief of State Erich Honecker promises an end to "taboos" in literature.
1976 Exile of outspoken Marxist balladeer Wolf Biermann. Protest letter signed by prominent GDR artists results in a cultural deep-freeze lasting the rest of the decade.
1979 Cancellation of fifteen planned premieres of Hein plays. Besson and others leave Volksbühne because of harrassment. Hein becomes a free-lancer. His play Die Geschäfte des Herrn John D. premieres.
1980 Premieres of plays Cromwell and Lassalle fragt Herrn Herbert nach Sonja. Die Szene ein Salon. Publication of first short story collection, Einladung zum Lever Bourgeois.
1981 Publication of Cromwell und andere Stücke.
1982 Becomes member of the official Writers' Union. Receives GDR's prestigious Heinrich Mann literary prize. Premiere of an adaptation from Lenz, Der Neue Menoza oder Geschichte des kumbanischen Prinzen Tandi. Publication of novel Der fremde Freund. His short story collection is published (and abridged!) in the West
1983 Premiere of Die wahre Geschichte des Ah Q in Berlin. Publication in the West of Der fremde Freund under the title Drachenblut.
1984 Receives Literature Prize of the Association of [West] German Critics for Drachenblut. First West German collection of plays and essays published.
1985 Publication of novel Horns Ende after wrangling with censors.
1986 Second West German collection of plays and essays. Refused permission to visit the U.S.
1987 Makes two-month visit to the U.S. Publication of Öffentlich arbeiten, a collection of essays. Delivers fiery speech before the Writers' Union denouncing censorship.
1988 Premiere of play Passage.
1989 Receives Lessing Prize, GDR's highest recongnition for drama. Premiere in April of Die Ritter der Tafelrunde in Dresden. Novel Der Tangospieler published despite threat of censorship. Receives Stefan Andres Prize in West Germany. The newly-opened border between Austria and Hungary provokes a torrent of emigration by unhappy East German citizens. In September, the leftist opposition group Neues Forum is founded. GDR fortieth anniversary celebrations and a visit by the highly popular Soviet reformer Mikhail Gorbachev lead to protests in October which the police at first violently suppress. Two weeks later, Erich Honecker is deposed in a palace coup staged by communist supporters of reform. On November 4, a million demonstrators on Berlin's Alexanderplatz listen to a speech by Christoph Hein, among many others. The Berlin Wall is effectively opened on the evening of November 9. Hein serves on the citizens' commission investigating official violence during the October protests. Despite Hein's active efforts, public opinion swings toward unification.
1990 Publication of a play collection and an essay collection. East German voters endorse unification with West Germany. On October 3, the German Democratic Republic ceases to exist.
1991 Hein is a vocal opponent of the Gulf War. Honorary recipient of the German Cultural Prize. Elected to Academy of Arts. Speaks out against anti-foreigner sentiment in Germany.
1992 Nearly killed by a stroke, Hein withdraws from public life during a long recuperation.
1993 Publication of Hein's first post-GDR novel, Der Napoleon-Spiel.
1994 Publication of Exekution eines Kalbes, a collection of short stories spanning two decades.
1995 Premiere of first post-GDR play, Randow.
1997 Publication of Von allem Anfang an, a "fictive autobiography."
1998 Hein is awarded the Peter-Weiss-Preis on August 30 by the city of Bochum. The prize carries a DM 25,000 monetary award. In October Hein is elected president of the joint German PEN-Zentrum.
1999 Hein returns to the stage with a flurry of plays. Bruch, a play about a surgeon who goes on practicing for too long, opens in Düsseldorf early in the year. Hein suggests somewhat cryptically a political decoding of the subject matter: "Die Herren über Leben und Tod, die Shakespeare so gut kannte, daß er sie beschreiben konnte, waren Könige und Kriegsherren. Die Herren über Leben und Tod, die ich kenne, sind einerseits Ärzte, andererseits jene, die nicht an der Regierung, aber an der Macht sind." (Review.) In Acht und Bann, a sequel to the 1989 play Die Ritter der Tafelrunde, premieres in Weimar during that city's festive year as Kulturstadt Europas. (Review.) And back in Berlin, The Berliner Ensemble stages Himmel auf Erden/, a play set in the contemporary former-GDR. Hein speaks in greater detail about this play in an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost. These three plays, plus one other (Zaungaeste>, are collected into a book from Aufbau titled Stücke (ISBN 3-351-02891-1). Meanwhile, as PEN president, Hein is a prominent voice of opposition to German participation in the NATO air campaign in Jugoslavia. And finally, in October, my book on Hein appears.
2000 In February and March, The Knights of the Round Table receives its second American staging at the California Repertory Theatre Company in Long Beach.

(Biographical information drawn primarily from McKnight, Understanding Christoph Hein and Baier [ed.], Christoph Hein: Texte, Daten, Bilder.)

©