Herbert Kranz
Herbert Karl Ludwig Kranz, pseudonym Peter Pflug was a German writer.
Biography
After graduating from the Städtisches Reform-Realgymnasium in Berlin-Wilmersdorf in 1910, Kranz studied German, philosophy and history in Berlin and Leipzig. At the start of World War I he volunteered, but was discharged two years later due to illness as a lieutenant. He then married Ulrike Reck. After starting as a scientific assistant at the Youth Welfare Office in 1918, he took on several jobs in the literary field in addition to his own literary activities with various publications. He worked as a director at the theater in Düsseldorf in 1920 and in the Netherlands in 1923. From 1925 he worked first as a freelancer, then as an editor at the Rhein-Mainische-Volkszeitung in Frankfurt am Main, which belonged to the Herder publishing group, and from 1927 produced the children's newspaper Weg in die Welt as its supplement. From 1930 to 1933, he was a professor of German at the Halle Pedagogical Academy in teacher training, without having a teaching degree himself. After Hitler's rise to power, Kranz was dismissed from the academy in 1933 because of his liberal views. He found employment as a local editor at the Frankfurter Zeitung and, in parallel, at the Illustrierte Blatt. At the same time he worked as a freelance writer. In 1941, for example, he wrote Hinter den Kulissen, an anti-Semitic pamphlet about French politics from 1933 to 1940. In 1943, the Frankfurter Zeitung was closed down and he was banned from his profession by the Reichsverband der Deutschen Presse for his drama Der Ritt mit dem Henker, whereupon the Illustrierte also dismissed him. His book Zeugnis der Zeiten was, however, recommended by Alfred Rosenberg's "Hauptamt Schrifttum" for Nazi libraries.After the war, he lived as a freelance writer in Vachendorf, Stuttgart, Gebersheim and, from 1970, in Königstein im Taunus. He died in 1973.
Ubique Terrarum novels
Herbert Kranz celebrated his greatest literary successes in the field of children's and youth literature. At the age of 60, he began his most successful series of novels based around the fictional society Ubique Terrarum. This 10-volume series describes the adventures and experiences of a group of six men. The stories are set in Afghanistan, Brazil, the United States, a Caribbean island, Greenland, Malaysia, Sardinia, Morocco, Lebanon, and southern France, among other places.The novels were written between 1953 and 1958 and were all first published by Herder in Freiburg. All the novels contain an alphabetical appendix to the countries, places, people, and expressions described, which was not common in juvenile literature at the time. His grandson Georg Kranz reissued the series as paperbacks with an updated glossary from 2004 to 2010.
- Volume 1: In the Clutches of the Unnamed,
- Volume 2: Crashed in the Jungle,
- Volume 3: Death in Skeleton Canyon,
- Volume 4: Guiltless among the Guilty,
- Volume 5: Escape to the Ice Shark Hunters,
- Volume 6: Command of the Rajah,
- Volume 7: The Island of the Persecuted,
- Volume 8: The Night of Betrayal,
- Volume 9: The House of the Seven Towers,
- Volume 10: The Sign of the Serpent,
Children's books
Schnucki-Has und Miesemau, 1929Mit Vollgas, 1929Lampes Wochenende, 1930Die lieben Tiere, 1934Bei den Oster-Hasen, 1934Kasper kommt vor Gericht, 1934Häschen Klein ging allein …, Verse 1935Hänschen Didelhänschen!, Kinderreime 1935So fahren wir, 1937Die tolle Autofahrt, 1938Putzi, 1938Von Mutz und Stropp und dem Häslein Hopp-Hopp, 1938Der Geburtstag Verse, 1939Historical narratives
These include the series "The Voice of the Past", also published by Herder in Freiburg. A historical personality is the main character of each book.- Volume 1: The Way to Freedom, 1960
- Volume 2: The Son of the Lion, 1961
- Volume 3: The Judge on Trial, 1961
- Volume 4: King for a Time, 1962
- Volume 5: The Heir to the Throne, 1963
- Volume 6: The Third President, 1964
Adventure Series
Verschleppt, after Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, Volker-Verlag Cologne 1934His Friend the Buccaneer, after Daniel Defoe's Captain Singleton, Herder Freiburg 1964Robin the Red, after Walter Scott's Rob Roy, Herder Freiburg 1965Der Elfenbeinthron, after a Persian heroic legend by Firdausi, Herder Freiburg 1966North Tower One Hundred and Five, after Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, Herder Freiburg 1967Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, after Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Herder Freiburg 1967Escape from Venice, after James Fenimore Cooper's The Bravo, Herder Freiburg 1965All Hands On Deck, after Herman Melville's White-Jacket, Herder Freiburg 1968Other works on historical themes
Der junge KönigDer alte FritzBismarck und das Reich ohne Krone, Franckh Stuttgart 1960Schwarzweißrot und Schwarzrotgold, Franckh Stuttgart 1961Das Ende des Reichs, Franckh Stuttgart 1961Das Buch vom deutschen OstenDer Retter des StammesDie FundgrubeDer Engel schreibts aufZeitung Funk und Fernsehen- ''Hinter den Kulissen der Kabinette und Generalstäbe – Eine französische Zeit- und Sittengeschichte 1933–1940''