We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 March 2023
ULRICH PLENZDORF, AUTHOR, SCREENWRITER, AND PLAYWRIGHT, is the second outstanding contemporary writer from the German Democratic Republik to come to Oberlin. Mr. Plenzdorf is accompanied by his wife, Helga, who is editor of an East German periodical concerned with the problems of handicapped children. The Plenzdorfs are visiting this country for the first time.
Ulrich Plenzdorf was born in Berlin in 1934. After completing his Abitur in 1954, he studied philosophy in Leipzig, then served as stagehand for the DEFA from 1955 to 1958. Following 18 months of military service, he completed a four-year training course at a film academy in 1963. Since that time he has worked as a scenarist for the DEFA Studio Babelsberg, and has written seven scenarios, five of which have been produced.
Karla (1965), one of his early scenarios, tells of a young substitute teacher who downgrades the compositions of a senior class written on the subject, “Was mir die Schule gegeben hat!” In her judgment, they have not only mouthed socialist doctrines without genuine sincerity but also have failed to exhibit any potential for independent opinion.
Perhaps Plenzdorf's best known film scenario is Die Legende von Paul and Paula (1974), which is currently enjoying considerable popularity in Western Europe. It depicts the long rocky road of a specialist in a foreign trade authority in his quest for a great love, which ends tragically. The film book concludes with one of Plenzdorf's few attempts at verse:
Unsre Füße, sie laufen zum Tod
Er verschlingt uns und wischt sich das Maul
Unsre Liebe ist stark wie der Tod
Und er hat uns manch Übels getan.
Jegliches hat seine Zeit
Steine sammeln, Steine zerstreun
Bäume pflanzen, Bäume abhaun
Leben und Sterben und Friede und Streit.
Ulrich Plenzdorf has not published extensively, but he quickly achieved international acclaim for his controversial yet highly regarded short novel, Die neuen Leiden des jungen W., which propelled him to the top among young writers of the German Democratic Republic (Der Spiegel). It is a short novel with obvious roots in Goethe's Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774). It presents the case of a young “Aussteiger,” or deserter from the socialist society.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
