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UWE JOHSON
 
German writer and philosopher
Uwe Johnson (July 20, 1934 - February 22, 1984) was a German writer, editor, and scholar.Johnson was born in Kammin (now Kamien Pomorski, Poland). At the end of World War II in 1945, he fled with his family to Mecklenburg; his father died in a Soviet internment camp (Fünfeichen). The family eventually settled in Güstrow, where he attended John-Brinckman-Oberschule 1948-1952. He went on to study German philology, first in Rostock (1952-54), then in Leipzig (1954-56). His Diplomarbeit (undergraduate thesis) was on Ernst Barlach. Due to his lack of political support for the Communist regime of East Germany, he was suspended from the University June 17, 1953, but was later reinstated.Beginning in 1953, he worked on the novel Ingrid Babendererde, rejected by various publishing houses and unpublished during his lifetime.In 1956, his mother left for West Berlin. As a result, he was not allowed to work a normal job in the East. Unemployed for political reasons, he translated Herman Melville's Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile (the translation was published in 1961) and began to write the novel Mutmassungen über Jakob, again rejected by several publishing houses, before being published in 1959 by Suhrkamp in West Berlin. Johnson himself moved to the West at this time. There, he promptly became associated with Gruppe 47, which Hans Magnus Enzensberger once described as "the Central Café of a literature without a capital." During the early 1960s, he continued to write and publish fiction, but supported himself largely as a translator, mainly from English-language works, and as an editor. He travelled to America in 1961; the following year he was married, had a daughter, received a scholarship to Villa Massimo, Rome, and won the International Publishers' Formentor Prize.1964 - for the Berliner Tagesspiegel, Reviews of GDR television programmes boycotted by the West German press (published under the title "Der 5. Kanal", "The Fifth Channel", 1987)In 1965, he travelled again to America and edited Bertolt Brecht's Me-ti. Buch der Wendungen. Fragmente 1933-1956 (Me-ti: the Book of Changes. Fragments, 1933-1956). From 1966 through 1968 he worked in New York City as a textbook editor at Harcourt, Brace & World. During this time (in 1967 he began work on his masterwork, the Jahrestage and edited Das neue Fenster (The new window), a textbook of German-language readings for English-speaking students learning German. On January 1, 1967 protestors from his own West Berlin apartment building founded Kommune 1. Johnson first learned about it by reading it in the newspaper. Returning to West Berlin in 1969, he became a member of the West German PEN Center and of the Akademie der Künste (Academy of the Arts). In 1970, he published the first volume of his masterwork, the Jahrestage (Anniversary). Two more volumes were to follow in the next three years, but the fourth volume would not appear until 1983. Meanwhile, in 1972 he became Vice President of the Academy of the Arts and had a lectureship on Max Frisch's Tagebuch 1966-1971. In 1974, he moved to 25 Marine Parade Sheerness-on-Sea on the Isle of Sheppey where he enjoyed sitting in the Napier pub nearby Shortly after, he broke off work on Jahrestage due to partly to health problems and partly to writer's block. This was not a completely unproductive period. He published some shorter works and continued to do some work as an editor. In 1977, he was admitted to the Darmstädter Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (Darmstadt Academy for Speech and Writing); two years later he informally withdrew. In 1979 he gave a series of Lectures on poetics at the University of Frankfurt (published posthumously as Begleitumstände. Frankfurter Vorlesungen). In 1983, the fourth volume of Jahrestage was published, but he broke off a reading tour due to health reasons. Johnson died February 22, 1984 in Sheerness-on-Sea in England. His body was not found until March 13 of the same year. At the time of his death, he had been planning a one-year stay in New York City.
Uwe Johnson is buried in plot no. 54 XD at Halfway cemetery Sheerness shown on extreme right on plan of cemetery marked with an X and he was buried 10th July 1984. Hogben and Sons were the undertakers and the owner of the plot is Mrs E Johnson. She taught at Minster College and lived at 47 Unity St Sheerness ME12 2PR but she is probably not there now
Email Correspondence between Paul Dummott and
Profs Williams and Riordan re Uwe Johnson
Sent 10/10/2005
Dear Professor Williams
I am sorry to bother you.
I run a very small voluntary staffed museum based in a dockyard worker's cottage in Sheerness. Last week we had a visit from pupils of the John Brinkman Oberschule in Gustrow, the school attended by Uwe Johnson under their teacher Sigis Buecanet (?). They wanted to see where Johnson lived from 1974 to 84.I n our museum we have a very brief (A4) resume of him but know little about him. Only recently from other German visitors did we become aware how famous he was in Germany. I have just discovered that his wife also lived in Sheerness presumably with his daughter. We know from the local undertaker that the wife paid for his cremation and the burial of the ashes in Sheerness cemetery although I have discovered they were separated Can you tell us a bit about her in particular what happened to her and the daughter after they left Sheerness. As a matter of interest I have a copy of a German tape about him made by Hilda Bechert and Klaus Dexel for Suddeutschen Rundfunks Stuttgart 1988. It starts with views of the Napier pub he used to frequent every night and voices over by local patrons.
Paul Dummott
From: Williams R.W. Williams R.W. <R.W.Williams@swansea.ac.uk>
To: 'Paul Dummott'
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 10:25 AM
Subject: RE: Uwe Johnson
Dear Paul,
Uwe Johnson was as they say 'probably the best German writer in the last fifty years', better in my view than Grass or Boell. But he was a difficult and complicated man. He believed, wrongly it is generally assumed, that his wife Elisabeth had informed on him to the Czech secret police and made her write a confession. When it was complete they parted company, though she continued to live in Sheerness until he died. His death and the whole scandal was the subject of a sensation volume by Tilman Jens which caused much upset at the time.
I taught Jonson's work for many years and supervised a PhD by Colin Riordan, who is now Professor in Newcastle upon Tyne. Colin is the leading British researcher on Johnson. He visited Johnson in Sheerness in 1980 or so. he would know much more than I about him. Incidentally, the Czech agent who purportedly had an affair with Elisabeth Johnson appeared in print recently and denied anything of the sort. But the sensational account has passed into the standard accounts, popularised by Jens and also by Johnson himself, who, in his Frankfurt lectures, gave an account of the whole episode.
Hope this helps,
Rhys W Williams
From: Paul Dummott [mailto:pauldummott@supanet.com]
Sent: Monday 10 October 2005 12:08
To: C B Riordan vc; non-Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk to create full e-mail address.NB He is now Vice Chancellor of Essex University
Subject: Uwe JohnsonTo Prof. Colin Riordan I copy below emails I have exchanged with Prof Williams. Is there much you can add bearing in mind we do not have much space? Since I wrote to Prof Williams I managed to get the cremation order and burial order from the local undertakers which gave a little info about his wife.
Paul Dummott
Dear Paul, I believe his wife Elisabeth lives in Neubrandenburg in northern Germany, teaching and lecturing there, though she may have retired by now. His daughter Katharina stayed in this country I think. How much do you want to know? I can certainly find out more, or put you in touch with the right people. All his books and papers are in an archive in Frankfurt, in a house that bears a remarkable resemblance (on the inside) to the one he lived in on Marine Parade. They would doubtless be able to help if you were looking for pictures etc.
Best wishes
Colin Riordan vc; non-Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk to create full e-mail address.NB He is now Vice Chancellor of Essex University
Johnson’s works and honours
Honours
Works
- Mutmassungen über Jakob (1959, Presumptions about Jakob)
- Das dritte Buch über Achim (1961, The third book about Achim)
- Translator of Herman Melville's Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile (1961)
- Translator of Das Nibelungenlied from Middle High German (1961)
- Translator of John Knowles's A Separate Peace (1959) as In diesem Land (1963)
- Karsch, und andere Prosa (1964, Karsch, and other prose)
- Zwei Ansichten (1965 Two opinions)
- Editor of Bertolt Brecht's Me-ti. Buch der Wendungen. Fragmente 1933-1956 (Me-ti: the Book of Changes. Fragments, 1933-1956) (1965)
- Editor of Das neue Fenster, a textbook of German-language readings for foreign students (1967)
- Editor of textbook for the documentary film "A Summer in the City" (1968?)
- Jahrestage. Aus dem Leben von Gesine Cresspahl, Volume I (1970, further volumes 1971, 1973, 1983; Anniversary: from the life of Gesine Cresspahl)
- Eine Reise nach Klagenfurt (1974, A trip to Klagenfurt)
- Berliner Sachen, Aufsätze (1975, Berlin things, essays)
- Editor of Max Frisch Stich-Worte (1975, Max Frisch Reference)
- Editor (together with Hans Mayer) of Das Werk von Samuel Beckett. Berliner Colloquium (1975, The work of Samuel Beckett: Berlin Colloquium)
- Von dem Fischer un syner Fru (Of the fisherman and his wife; the German-language title is in dialect): a fairy tale by Philipp Otto Runge with seven pictures by Marcus Behmer, and a retelling and afterword by Uwe Johnson(1976)
- Editor of Verzweigungen. Eine Autobiographie by journalist Margret Boveri (1977, Branchings: an Autobiography)
- "Ein Schiff" ("A Ship") in: Jürgen Habermas (Editor) Stichworte zur "Geistigen Situation der Zeit" (References on "The spiritual situation of the time", Volume 1000 from the publisher Suhrkamp (1979)
- "Ein unergründliches Schiff" ("An unfathomable ship") in: Merkur 33 (1979)
- Skizze eines Verunglückten (Sketch of an accident victim, 1982)
- Begleitumstände. Frankfurter Vorlesungen (1986 -- posthumous; Attendant Circumstances: Frankfurt lectures)
- Ingrid Babendererde. Reifeprüfung 1953 (1992 -- posthumous; Ingrid Babendererde: Final Exam 1953; the "Reifeprüfung" is an examination in German schools, taken at the end of a course of study, and which one must pass to graduate.)
Prof. Colin Riordan
PVC/Provost of Humanities & Soc Sci
- Email: c.b.riordan@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: 222 5769
- Extension: 5769
- Address: HSS Faculty Office
- 7th Floor, Daysh Building
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
- UK
Background
Professor Riordan spent twelve years in the Department of German at the University of Wales, Swansea. Having been appointed to a temporary post as Lecturer in 1986, he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1994. He was a founding co-ordinator of the Centre for Contemporary German Literature, and helped to host the visits of a number of writers including Peter Schneider, Volker Braun, Sarah Kirsch, Jurek Becker, Uwe Timm and Christoph Hein. He co-organized the Uwe Johnson Conference (London, September 1994) and the conference on Ecological Thought in German Culture (Swansea, 1995). In the late eighties and early nineties he co-organized twelve conferences on German and Business Studies, held at the Goethe Institute, London, in co-operation with the DAAD.
He was appointed to the Chair of German at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in March 1998, and took up his post on 1 September that year.
Roles and Responsibilities
He is Dean of Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and director of research in German.
Research Interests
Post-45 German literature, with particular emphasis on Uwe Johnson and Peter Schneider; literature and National Socialism; the history of Green thought and politics in Germany. Now working on a volume entitled Nature and Environment in Modern German Literature, 1850-1949.
Selected Publications
- Riordan, Colin '"Die Unentbehrlichkeit der Landschaft". Natur und Repräsentation in Johnsons Jahrestagen"'. Johnson-Jahrbuch 2005, 12, 67-78.
- Riordan, Colin Hermann Hesse and the Ecological Imagination. In: Ingo Cornils and Osman Durrani, ed. Hermann Hesse Today/Hermann Hesse Heute. Amsterdam/New York, NY: Rodopi, 2005.
- Colin Riordan Ecocentrism in Sebald's After Nature. In: J J Long and Anne Whitehead, ed. W. G. Sebald - A Critical Companion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.
- Colin Riordan 'Der Roman ist für einen Nachdruck in der Demokratischen Republik nicht zu empfehlen': Uwe Johnson und die Zensur in Ost und West. In: Beate Müller, ed. Zensur im modernen deutschen Kulturraum. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2003.
- Colin Riordan Depictions of the state in works of the inner emigration. In: Neil H. Donahue and Doris Kirchner, ed. Flight of Fantasy. New perspectives on Inner Emigration in German Literature, 1933–1945. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2003.
- Colin Riordan The Green Alternative in Germany 1900-1930. In: Steve Giles and Maike Oergel, ed. Counter-Cultures in Germany and Central Europe. From Sturm und Drang to Baader-Meinhof. Bern: Peter Lang, 2003.
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- Gustrow - "Paradise of the North"
(Alexander Dettmar)
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Güstrow Castle (16th Century) |
In December 1993 Swale Borough Council agreed to develop a partnership between the Landkreis (or District) Güstrow and the Borough of Swale to pursue projects of mutual interest with a European dimension; these areas of work were identified as Economic Development, Chambers of Commerce, Agriculture, Education, Youth Training, Arts and Culture, Tourism, Sport, Twinning and Local Government. |
Güstrow - The District
The rural district of Güstrow, in former East Germany, comprises three towns - Güstrow (70,000 inhabitants), Bützow (20,000 inhabitants) and Teterow (30,000 inhabitants). Around 60% of the total population live in six towns with the rest in 94 villages. The area is situated in the centre of Mecklenburg -Vorpommern between the regional capital of Schwerin, the major areas of Rostock and Neubrandenburg and the Federal Capital of Berlin
Güstrow covers an area of more than 2,000 square kilometres. It has excellent infrastructure and beautiful scenery with lakes and forests. Gustrow offers an ideal location for small and medium - sized enterprises (agriculture, food processing, metal industry, machine and site manufacturing and clothing) while education, culture and leisure are equally important assets.
Güstrow - The Town
The town of Güstrow is a perfect example of cultural diversity with memorials to the famous artists and writers Ernst Barlach, Uwe Johnson and Georg Friedrich Kersting. The town centre with its cathedral, parish church and town houses attract many visitors each year.
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Ernst Barlach - the town of Güstrow is synonymously associated with the name of Ernst Barlach (1870 -1938) who settled in the town in 1910 to produce the final forms for his sculptures after a period of teaching and years of travel in Germany, Paris, Italy and Russia. Barlach remains one of the most important artists of the 20th century who worked for almost 30 years in the heart of Mecklenburg.
Uwe Johnson - prolific German writer who graduated in Güstrow in 1951 spoke of "a landscape in which children learn about living."
Georg-Friedrich Kersting - early romantic painter born in Güstrow and supervisor of the Meissen porcelaim china which he helped to bring to the attention of the world. |
The fallen Angel |
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