Gert Ledig, full name Robert Gerhard Ledig (4 November 1921,

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

– 1 June 1999 in

Landsberg am Lech Landsberg am Lech (Landsberg at the Lech (river), Lech) is a Town#Germany, town in southwest Bavaria, Germany, about 65 kilometers west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Landsberg (district), Lands ...

), was a German writer.

Biography

Gert Ledig, son of a merchant, spent his early childhood in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. From 1929 he lived in

. After finishing school, he held down a number of casual jobs from 1936 onwards. After this, he entered an apprenticeship to become an electrician and also studied at a private acting school to become a director. In 1939, he volunteered for the German army (Wehrmacht). As a pioneer, he took part in fighting at the Western Front, advanced to NCO and was transferred to the Eastern Front in 1941. Due to alleged

misconduct Misconduct is wrongful, improper, or unlawful conduct motivated by premeditated or intentional purpose or by obstinate indifference to the consequences of one's acts. It is an act which is forbidden or a failure to do that which is required. Misc ...

he was transferred to a

penal battalion A penal military unit, also known as a penal formation, disciplinary unit, or just penal unit (usually named for their formation and size, such as ''penal battalion'' for battalions, ''penal regiment'' for regiments, ''penal company'' for companie ...

. In summer 1942, Ledig was wounded before

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

; he suffered, among other injuries, an injury to his jaw. After being released from the army, he trained to become a shipbuilding engineer. In the last year of the war he worked in the naval forces bureaucracy. After the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Ledig joined Germany's Communist Party. He again worked several casual jobs, such as lumberjack and scaffolder. In 1948, he failed in his attempt to take over his father's company and also failed in setting up his own advertising agency. From 1951 to 1953, Ledig worked as a translator for the

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, then worked as an author from 1953 onwards. His debut novel '' The Stalin Organ'' (''Die Stalinorgel'') was relatively positively received both in Germany and abroad. Ledig was invited to meetings of Germany's literary author group

Gruppe 47 Gruppe 47 (Group 47) was a group of participants in German writers' meetings, invited by Hans Werner Richter between 1947 and 1967. The meetings served the dual goals of literary criticism as well as the promotion of young, unknown authors. In a ...

. Because of his war injuries and doubts whether he could call himself an author at all, he declined the invitation, stating he'd find it impossible to stand next to authors such as

Ilse Aichinger Ilse Aichinger (1 November 1921 – 11 November 2016) was an Austrians, Austrian writer known for her accounts of her persecution by the Nazis because of her Jewish ancestry.

, a member of the group, and ''Die Stalinorgel'' was "only a combat organ". In 1956, he was represented by

Günter Eich Günter Eich (; 1 February 1907 – 20 December 1972) was a German poet, radio playwright, and writer. He was born in Lebus, on the Oder River, and educated in Leipzig, Berlin, and Paris. Life Eich made his first appearance in print with some p ...

, who read from Ledig's second novel, '' Vergeltung'' (''Payback''). Ledig's stark depiction of war events was increasingly met with revulsion in the climate of the 1950s, so Ledig eventually withdrew from writing altogether. From 1963 he ran an engineering firm and an agency for technology news. Ledig, meanwhile living in isolation in Utting near the Ammersee, was only rediscovered in 1998 - just before his death.

W. G. Sebald Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), known as W. G. Sebald or (as he preferred) Max Sebald, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was according to ''The New Yorker'' ”widely recog ...

had been pointed towards his work ''Vergeltung'' as one of the few examples of a literary treatment of Allied air raids on Germany during the Second World War. Sebald published a chapter on the responses to his Zürcher Vorlesungen ("Zurich lectures") of 1997 and the resulting discussion in the Germany media in his book '' On the Natural History of Destruction'' ("Luftkrieg und Literatur") in 1999. In autumn 1999, German publisher

Suhrkamp Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and is generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010, ...

re-issued ''Vergeltung'', which met much more positive responses now than during its first publication in autumn 1956. In August 1999, the novel was discussed in the '' Literarisches Quartett'', a TV-broadcast book discussion featuring prominent literature critics, discussed by

Marcel Reich-Ranicki Marcel Reich-Ranicki (; 2 June 1920 – 18 September 2013) was a Polish-born German literary critic and member of the informal literary association Gruppe 47. He was regarded as one of the most influential contemporary literary critics in the f ...

and thus gained recognition again. On 26 August 2005, radio station

Radio Bremen Radio Bremen (), shortened to RB () is Germany's smallest Public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster and the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerha ...

broadcast a radio drama based on the novel with the same title. This version was written by Daniel Berger and directed by Klaus Prangenberg. Since 2016 there is an official Facebook page on which is planned to publish yet unpublished or lost stories of the author. Current dates and events soon will be announced .

Works

*''Die Stalinorgel'', 1955, Hamburg, Claassen Verlag ** translated into English as ''The Naked Hill'' (1956, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson) / ''The Tortured Earth'' (1956, Chicago, Henry Regnery) ** new English translation ''The Stalin Organ'' (2004, London, Granta) / ''The Stalin Front'' (2005, New York, New York Review of Books) ** also Dutch (publisher Arbeiderspers) and Portuguese (Ulissea) editions *'' Vergeltung'', 1956, Frankfurt am Main, S.Fischer ** translated into English as ''Payback'' (2003, London, Granta) ** also Dutch (publisher Arbeiderspers), French (Zulma), Spanish (Minuscula) and Croatian (Kruzak) editions *''Faustrecht'', 1957, Munich, Kurt Desch ** translated into English as ''The Brutal Years'' (1959, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson) ** Kindle Edition Amazon "Faustrecht, Gert Ledig", Published 2015 *''Darling'', München a(translated into English) 1957 *''Das Duell'' (''The Duel''), 1958, Berlin, Aufbau Verlag *''Der Staatsanwalt'' (''The Prosecutor''), 1958, Fürstenfeldbruck, Steinklopfer *''Die Kanonen von Korcula'' (''The Guns of Korcula'') (as yet unpublished novel manuscript, probably from the 1960s)

Theater adaptation

* ''Faustrecht'' based on the book by Gert Ledig, for the stage worked by Barbara Wendland. Premiere at February 2016 in Theater im Pfalzbau, Ludwigshafen. Coproduction with the Badischen Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Regie: Tilman Gersch.

References

External links

* Oliver Bentz: '. In: „

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“ vom 30. November 2001. * * Angelika Brauchle:
Gert Ledig und die Sprache der Gewalt
'. Dissertation at the

Bonn University The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Will ...

(2008)(PDF-file; 1,5 MB) * André Maertens:
Möglichkeiten kriegskritischen Schreibens in "Die Stalinorgel" von Gert Ledig
'. Dissertation at the

Freiburg University The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

(2014)(PDF-file; 1,46 MB) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ledig, Gert 20th-century German novelists 1921 births 1999 deaths Writers from Leipzig German male novelists 20th-century German male writers German Army soldiers of World War II