Günter de Bruyn


Günter de Bruyn was a German author.

Life

Günter de Bruyn was born in Berlin in November 1926; his father Carl was a Catholic from Bavaria. Günter served as a Luftwaffenhelfer and soldier in World War II. Wounded, he was then held in custody by the United States as a prisoner of war; after his release he found a job as a farm worker in Hesse. After his return to Berlin, he trained as a "new teacher" in Potsdam. Until 1949 he worked as a teacher in a village near Rathenow in Brandenburg.
Subsequently, he trained as a librarian and worked at the Zentralinstitut für Bibliothekswesen in East Berlin from 1953 to 1961. After 1961 de Bruyn lived as a freelance writer. From 1965 to 1978, he was a member of the Zentralvorstandes des Schriftstellerverbandes der DDR ; he was a member of the presidency of the PEN Centre of East Germany from 1974 to 1982.
In October 1989, Günter de Bruyn declined to accept the National Prize of East Germany.
De Bruyn later lived in the village of Görsdorf in Brandenburg, as well as in Berlin. He was a member of the German PEN Centre.
He died in October 2020 at the age of 93.

Literary activity

Günter de Bruyn's works range from the frequently autobiographically colored realist novels and narratives which explain critiques of the private lives of the artists in East Germany to essays on literary science and historical themes, particularly Prussian history.
He edited a series of works from 18th and 19th century authors in Berlin and Brandenburg, which appear under the title Märkischer Dichtergarten.
He had great success in the 1990s with the two volumes of his autobiography, Zwischenbilanz and Vierzig Jahre.

Awards

Works

Über die Arbeit in Freihandbibliotheken, Berlin 1957Hochzeit in Weltzow, Halle 1960Wiedersehen an der Spree, Halle 1960Einführung in die Systematik für allgemeinbildende Bibliotheken, Berlin 1961Der Hohlweg, Halle 1963Ein schwarzer, abgrundtiefer See, Halle 1963Maskeraden, Halle 1966Buridans Esel, Halle 1968 Preisverleihung, Halle 1972Tristan und Isolde, Berlin 1975Das Leben des Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, Halle 1975Märkische Forschungen, Halle et al. 1978Im Querschnitt, Halle et al. 1979Babylon, Leipzig 1980Neue Herrlichkeit, Frankfurt am Main 1984Lesefreuden, Frankfurt am Main 1986Frauendienst, Halle et al. 1986Brandenburg, München et al. 1991 Im Spreeland, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991 Jubelschreie, Trauergesänge, Frankfurt am Main 1991Zwischenbilanz, Frankfurt am Main 1992Mein Brandenburg, Frankfurt am Main 1993 Das erzählte Ich, Frankfurt am Main 1995Was ich noch schreiben will, Göttingen 1995 Irritation und Verstehen, Stuttgart 1995Vierzig Jahre, Frankfurt am Main 1996Altersbetrachtungen über den alten Fontane, Berlin 1999Die Finckensteins, Berlin 1999Deutsche Zustände, Frankfurt am Main 1999Preußens Luise. Vom Entstehen und Vergehen einer Legende, Berlin 2001 Unzeitgemäßes, Frankfurt am Main 2001Unter den Linden, Berlin 2003Abseits. Liebeserklärungen an eine Landschaft. Mit Fotos von Rüdiger Südhoff, Frankfurt am Main 2005Als Poesie gut. Schicksale aus Berlins Kunstepoche 1786 bis 1807. Frankfurt am Main 2006Die Zeit der schweren Not: Schicksale aus dem Kulturleben Berlins 1807 bis 1815, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2010,. E-Book Gräfin Elisa. Eine Lebens- und Liebesgeschichte, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2012,. E-Book Der neunzigste Geburtstag. Ein ländliches Idyll, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2018,

Editorial work

Das Lästerkabinett, Leipzig 1970

Film adaptations

  • 1978: Hochzeit in Weltzow
  • 1980: , based on Buridans Esel
  • 1981: ''Märkische Forschungen''