Alexandra Cordes (real name Ursula Horbach, née Schaake, 16 November 1935 – November 1986) was a prolific German writer of mainly

romantic fiction A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed to the developme ...

, many of whose books were best-sellers. Cordes was married to the fellow novelist Michael Horbach, who encouraged her to write. However her novels outsold his own. She was estimated to have 15 million books sold, while Horback had sales of about 4 million books. Spiegel Online
/ref> In October 1986, Horbach shot his wife in the head with a

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

from his weapon collection. He then shot himself in an apparent murder-suicide attempt. He died after a week in intensive care.

Life

Ursula Schaake was born in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

descent. After finishing school she worked in the Bonn office of the

Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specificat ...

newspaper. Afterwards she worked as a journalist for a number of German newspapers, including the "Welt" and the "

Hamburger Abendblatt ''Hamburger Abendblatt'' () is a German daily newspaper in Hamburg belonging to the Funke Mediengruppe, publishing Monday to Saturday. The paper focuses on news in Hamburg and its surrounds, and produces regional supplements with news from Norde ...

". In 1958, she married Michael Horbach, a journalist and novelist, who encouraged her to write. She started by writing serials in women's magazines, which were later published in book form. The books sold well, so that by the time of her 59th book she had a turnover of 15 million books sold. This eclipsed the turnover of her husband, who had over four million books sold, over a much longer period.Spiegel Online
/ref> In the 1970s, the childless couple moved to

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Châteauneuf-du-Pape (; ) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. The village lies about to the east of the Rhône and north of the town of Avignon. A ruined medieval castle s ...

in the

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

. On the night of 27 October 1986, Michael Horbach shot his wife in the head, killing her, with a revolver from his weapon collection. He shot himself a few hours later and died after a week in intensive care.

Select works

* ''Drei Sterne sah ich leuchten'', Munich 1983 * ''Einmal noch nach Hause'', Munich 1983 * ''Liebe unter fremden Dächern'', Munich 1983 * ''Die Nacht der Versuchung'', Munich 1983 * ''Psychiater Dr. R. Treffpunkt Hansa-Hotel'', Munich 1983 * ''Rechtsanwalt Dr. M.'', Munich 1983 * ''Spuren in der Wüste'', Munich 1983 * ''Das Zauberkind'', Munich 1983 * ''Hunde aus Porzellan'', Munich 1984 * ''Das Jahr danach'', München 1984 * ''Der Sehnsucht seltsame Wege'', Munich 1984 * ''Traum von der ewigen Jugend'', Munich 1984 * ''Das Traumschloß'', Munich 1984 * ''Am Ende aller Flucht'', Munich 1985 * ''Das dritte Leben'', Munich 1985 * ''Lorna und das große Abenteuer'', Munich 1985 * ''Der Mann aus der Fremde'', Munich 1985 * ''Der Buschpilot'', Munich 1986 * ''Der Hoteldetektiv'', Munich 1986 * ''Die Lady'', Munich 1986 * ''Eiko'', Munich 1987

References

Sources

Erich Schaake:'' Lieben und Sterben in der Provence. Die Geschichte der Alexandra Cordes''. Langen/Müller, 2005, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Cordes, Alexandra 1935 births 1986 deaths People murdered in 1986 20th-century German novelists 20th-century German women writers German people of French descent Writers from Bonn German women novelists Women romantic fiction writers German people murdered abroad Female murder victims in France People murdered in France Deaths by firearm in France Uxoricides Murder–suicides in France German expatriates in France