1966

Max Walter Schulz (31 October 1921 – 15 November 1991) was an East German author and part of that country's literary establishment.[1][2]

Life

Max Walter Schulz was born in Scheibenberg, a small town in the Erzgebirge mining district in the mountains south of Chemnitz. His father was an office worker.[3] He attended primary school and enrolled at secondary school, but appears to have left before completing the course.[1] He was conscripted for military service, serving in the army between 1939 and 1945. During the final part of his military service he was held by the Americans as a prisoner of war.[3]

Military defeat left the western two thirds of Germany divided into four separately administered military occupation zones. Schulz's home region was now administered as part of the Soviet occupation zone, and it was to the Soviet zone that he returned, following his release at the end of the war.[3] During 1945/46 he took casual work, and was also employed for a time as a teacher under the "Neulehrer" scheme, introduced in occupied Germany to try and mitigate the chronic shortage of surviving school teachers.[1] Between 1946 and 1949 he studied pedagogy at the Leipzig University. While he was a student, Schulz joined The Party. Between 1950 and 1957 he taught at the middle school in Holzhausen (Leipzig).[2]

Between 1957 and 1959 Schulz resumed his own education, attending the "Johannes R. Becher" Literature Institute (as it was known at that time) in Leipzig. It was, according to (at least) one source, "the most important training institution for young writers in the German Democratic Republic".[2][lower-alpha 1] In 1964 Schulz succeeded Max Zimmering as Director of the Institute.[1][4] He remained in the position for nearly twenty years, skilfully charting for the institute a sometimes challenging course between scholarly integrity and the shifting political expectations of party officialdom.[5]

In 1983, Schulz took a new job as editor in chief of the prestigious fortnightly literary journal, Sinn und Form, taking over from Paul Wiens. He retired in 1990.[1]

Writer

Max Walter Schulz was the author of novels, short stories, reviews and essays. His fictional writing is typical of East Germany's so-called "Bitterfeld Path literature", intended both to point the way to an independent "socialist national culture" and to satisfy the "growing artistic and aesthetic needs of the working population".[5][6] A particular case in point was "Wir sind nicht Staub im Wind" (We are not dust in the wind) which appeared in 1962, intended at the time as the first part of a planned multi-volume cycle.[3] It achieved great success with East German readers.[7]

By the end of the 1960s Schulz had established his credentials with readers as a novelist, with academics as a literary mentor and with the party, to the point at which his critical and "semi-official" pronouncements about the new generation of writers became important for the subsequent development of East German literature.[7]

Memberships (selection)

Max Walter Schulz was naturally a member of the (East) German Writers' Association ("Deutscher Schriftstellerverband"). He served during 1962/63 as its secretary. Then, between 1969 and 1990, he served as 9ne of the association's (normally approximately five) vice-presidents.[1]

Between 1967 and 1969 Schulz was a candidate for membership of the regional party leadership team ("Bezirksleitung") for Leipzig,[1] then serving for a further two years, till 1971, as a full member of it.[3]

In 1969 he was elected to membership of the (East) German Academy of Arts.[1]

Recognition (selection)

Output (selection)

  • Wir sind nicht Staub im Wind, Halle (Saale) 1962
  • "Stegreif und Sattel", Halle (Saale) 1967
  • Kontakte, Halle (S.) 1970
  • Triptychon mit sieben Brücken, Halle (Saale) 1974
  • Das kleine Mädchen und der fliegende Fisch, Berlin 1978 (jointly with Albrecht von Bodecker)
  • Pinocchio und kein Ende, Halle etc. 1978
  • Der Soldat und die Frau, Halle (Saale) 1978
  • Die Fliegerin oder Aufhebung einer stummen Legende, Halle etc. 1981
  • Auf Liebe stand Tod, Berlin 1983 (three novels – of which the third is very short – in a single volume: Der Soldat und die Frau, Die Fliegerin oder Aufhebung einer stummen Legende and Unser Wermut)

Notes

  1. ↑ The Soviet occupation zone had been relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in October 1949.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Andreas Kölling. "Schulz, Max Walter 31.10.1921 15.11.1991 Schriftsteller, Direktor des Instituts für Literatur "Johannes R. Becher"". Wer war wer in der DDR?. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Max Walter Schulz: deutscher Schriftsteller und Kulturpolitiker (DDR); SED; Prof". Munzinger Archiv GmbH, Ravensburg. 6 January 1992. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Max Walter Schulz, Schriftsteller". Literatur – Mitglieder. Akademie der Künste, Berlin. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  4. ↑ David Clarke (February 2006). "Parteischule oder Dichterschmiede? The Institut für Literatur "Johannes R. Becher" from Its Founding to Its Abwicklung". German Studies Review. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 29/1 (1): 87–106. JSTOR 27667955. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  5. 1 2 Marina Micke (2015). "'Wechselschritt zwischen Anpassung und aufrechtem Gang': Negotiating the Tensions between Literary Ambition and Political Constraints at the Institut für Literatur 'Johannes R. Becher' Leipzig (1950–1990)". School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester, England. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ↑ Christian Eger (22 April 2009). "Bitterfelder Konferenz Ein Dichter sagte: Das wird ein bitterer Feldweg werden". Mediengruppe Mitteldeutsche Zeitung GmbH, Halle. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  7. 1 2 Isabelle Lehn [in German]; Sascha Macht; Katja Stopka (2016). Das Institut für Literatur "Johannes R. Becher". Eine Institution im Wandel von vier Dekaden DDR-Literaturgeschichte (PDF). Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. pp. 485–501, 494. ISBN 978-3-8353-3232-4. Retrieved 21 October 2020. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  8. ↑ "Die Gruppe 47 in Saulgau". Einige Schriftsteller aus der DDR waren eingeladen worden ... Die Zeit (online). 8 November 1963. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
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