Volker Braun

Volker Braun was born in Dresden in 1939. After finishing school he worked for three years in printing, in underground engineering, and in strip mining before studying Philosophy. In 1962 he was threatened with expulsion after Stephan Hermlin recited Braun’s poems at a reading at the Akademie der Künste. In 1965 Helene Weigel brought him to the Berliner Ensemble, where his first piece, »Die Kipper« (t: The Dumpers), was staged (and banned). Following the put down of the Prague Spring, he wrote »T« (Trotzki) and »Lenins Tod« (t: Lenin’s Death). Between 1972 and 1977 he collaborated with the Deutsche Theater, and in 1990 he became house author of the Berliner Ensemble. Many of his later works were printed and, in some cases, performed, years after their conception: among them »Unvollendete Geschichte« (t: Unfinished Story), »Hinze-Kunze-Roman« (t: Hinze-Kunze Novel), the volumes of poetry »Training des aufrechten Gangs« (t: Training to Walk Erect) and »Langsamer knirschender Morgen« (t: Slowly Grinding Morning), the theatre pieces »Dmitri« and »Die Übergangsgesellschaft« (t: The Transformation Society), and the essay collection »Verheerende Folgen mangelnden Anscheins innerbetrieblicher Demokratie« (t: Devastating Consequences of Lacking Appearance of Internal Democracy). Braun calls it all »work against the rock crust of promises«. Despite the fundamental criticism he received, Braun considers himself a socialist, who through his »conspiratorial Realism« pushes for changes of circumstances. »One searches for a perspective which does not comply with the official way of thinking, nor with appeasing or conformist thinking – in other words, a view on things from below.« He remained true to this attitude after the German reunification, be it with the abyssal novella »Die vier Werkzeugmacher« (t: The four Tool Makers), the cycle of poems »Rot ist Marlboro« (t: Red is Marlboro) and »Tumulus«, or the theatre pieces »Der Staub von Brandenburg« (t: Brandenburg Bust) and »Limes. Mark Aurel«. The Academy in Darmstadt awarded the Büchner Prize 2000 »to the poet, who with wit and mercy has created a lively chronicle of his historical world«, and »has renewed and transformed the language and forms of the philosophical era of German literature«. In 2005, Braun was awarded the Serbian Poetry Prize, the Golden Key of the Town of Smederevo. He has been head of the department for literature at the German Academy of the Arts, Berlin, since 2006.

© international literature festival berlin

Provokation für mich
Mitteldeutscher Verlag
Halle, 1965
 
Wir und nicht sie
Mitteldeutscher Verlag
Halle, 1970
 
Das ungezwungene Leben Kasts
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1972
 
Gegen die symmetrische Welt
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1974
 
Es genügt nicht die einfache Wahrheit
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1976
 
Training des aufrechten Ganges
Mitteldeutscher Verlag
Halle, 1981
 
Gedichte
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1983
 
Verheerende Folgen mangelnden Anscheins innerbetrieblicher Demokratie
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1988
 
Guevara oder der Sonnenstaat
Büchergilde Gutenberg
Frankfurt/Main, 1984
 
Hinze-Kunze-Roman
Mitteldeutscher Verlag
Halle, 1985
 
Die Übergangsgesellschaft
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1987
 
Unvollendete Geschichte
Mitteldeutscher Verlag
Halle, 1990
 
Langsam knirschender Morgen
Mitteldeutscher Verlag
Halle, 1988
 
Bodenloser Satz
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1990
 
Der Stoff zum Leben. 1 – 3 Gedichte
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1990
 
Iphigenie in Freiheit
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1992
 
Böhmen am Meer
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1992
 
Das Nichtgelebte
Faber & Faber
Leipzig, 1995
 
Der Wendehals
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1995
 
Lustgarten – Preußen
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1996
 
Wir befinden uns soweit wohl. Wir sind erst einmal am Ende
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1998
 
Die unvollendete Geschichte und ihr Ende
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1998
 
Tumulus
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 1999
 
Wie es gekommen ist
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 2002
 
Das unbesetzte Gebiet
Suhrkamp

Frankfurt/Main, 2004

Der berüchtigte Christian Sporn. Ein anderer Woyzeck
Insel
Frankfurt/Main, 2004

Auf die schönen Possen
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main 2005