Dieter Noll (31 December 1927 – 6 February 2008) was a German writer. His best known work is the two volume novel '' Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt'' from the early 1960s which had sold over two million copies by his death. The work was filmed in 1965.

Life

Dieter Noll was born in

Riesa Riesa (; ) is a town in the district of Meißen in Saxony, Germany. It is located on the river Elbe, approximately northwest of Dresden. History The name ''Riesa'' is derived from Slavic ''Riezowe''. This name, romanised as "Rezoa", appears f ...

, Saxony to a pharmacist. His mother, who was half Jewish, suffered from repression after the

Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws (, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The two laws were the Law ...

were enacted in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. Noll attended an Oberschule before being drafted as a

Luftwaffenhelfer A ''Luftwaffenhelfer'', also commonly known as a ''Flakhelfer'', was any member of the auxiliary staff of the German ''Luftwaffe'' during World War II. Such terms often implied students conscripted as child soldiers. Establishment ''Luftw ...

, or assistant in the Nazi air force. Noll served as a

in the Schweren Heimatflakbatterie 210 in Borna district of

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

, though at the end of 1944 he became a soldier in the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

. Towards the end of the war, he was captured as prisoner of war by the Americans. After his release, he took his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

, or school-leaving certificate, in Chemnitz. He began a study of

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

, philosophy and German at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

in 1948. After 1950 he lived in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

as a

contributing editor A contributing editor is a newspaper, magazine or online job title that varies in its responsibilities. Often, but not always, a contributing editor is a "high-end" freelancer, consultant, or expert who has proven ability and has readership dra ...

of the

Bodo Uhse Bodo Uhse (12 March 1904 – 2 July 1963) was a German writer, journalist and political activist. He was recognised as one of the most prominent authors in East Germany. Early years Uhse came from a Prussian Junker family with a long tradition ...

published newspaper ''Aufbau'' and an employee of the socialist ''

Neues Deutschland (, , abbr. nd) is a left-wing German daily newspaper, headquarters, headquartered in Berlin. For 43 years it was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which governed East Germany (officially known as the ...

''. From 1956 onwards, he worked as an author. Noll lived in

Königs Wusterhausen Königs Wusterhausen (; , ) is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district of the state of Brandenburg in Germany a few kilometers outside Berlin. Geography Geographical location Königs Wusterhausen – locally known as "KW" () or "KWh" ()– lie ...

, where he also retired. Noll belonged to the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

after 1946. From 1964 to 1967, he was a member of the SED Bezirk (district) of the party's Berlin leadership. Because of his faithfulness to the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...

, Noll resisted the protest with which numerous East German authors had reacted to the

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

Wolf Biermann Karl Wolf Biermann (; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song " Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976. Early life Biermann was ...

after 1976. In May 1979 Noll described in an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

Erich Honecker Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the post ...

the authors

Stefan Heym Helmut Flieg (10 April 1913 – 16 December 2001) was a German writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym (). He lived in the United States and trained at Camp Ritchie in 1943, making him one of the Ritchie Boys of World War II. In 1952, he r ...

, Joachim Seyppel and Rolf Schneider as "''kaputte Typen''" (broken types) who, allegedly, were turning their craving for admiration into no lesser an evil than an actual class enemy might have been. These questionable letters helped bring about exclusion of new authors from the Schriftstellerverband of East Germany in June 1979. He worked as an informer for the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

. Noll reported in the early 1950s about the building phase of East Germany. His main work is the two-volume autobiographically shaped novel ''Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt''. In the first volume, Holt's development, through

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

, shaped candidates for the Luftwaffenhelfer and Wehrmacht to the military prison. The reader can follow Holt's beginning doubts by the end of the Third Reich. The second volume portrays the difficult development of a Wehrmacht soldier during the beginnings of Socialism. The work has sold two million copies. The first volume was filmed and integrated into the East German school curriculum. Dieter Noll was a member of the Schriftstellerverband (Writer's League) of East Germany beginning in 1954, and from 1963 to 1966 was acting chairman of the organization's Berlin chapter. He belonged to the

Akademie der Künste The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

in East Berlin after 1969. He received the following awards: the 1955 Literature Prize of the

Free German Trade Union Federation The Free German Trade Union Federation ( or ''FDGB'') was the sole national trade union centre of the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) which existed from 1946 to 1990. As a mass organisation of the GDR, nominally representing al ...

(FDGB), the 1961

Heinrich Mann Prize The Heinrich Mann Prize () is an essay prize that has been awarded since 1953, first by the East German Academy of Arts, then by the Academy of Arts, Berlin. The prize, which comes with a €10,000 purse, is given annually on 27 March, Heinrich ...

, the 1963 and 1979

National Prize of East Germany The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) () was an award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, and other meritorious achievement. With scientific achievem ...

, Second Class, the 1964 Johannes R. Becher Medal in Gold as well as the 1979 Art Prize of the FDGB. His son Hans, born in 1954, goes by Chaim Noll and lives as an Israeli writer. Dieter Noll died of cancer on the night of 6 February 2008 in Zeuthen.

Works

* ''Neues vom lieben närrischen Nest'', Leipzig 1952 * ''Die Dame Perlon und andere Reportagen'', Berlin 1953 * ''Sonne ・er den Seen, Heitere und bedenkliche Abenteuer eines Schleppkahnpassagiers'', Berlin 1954 * ''Mutter der Tauben'', Berlin 1955 * ''Mecklenburgische Landschaft'', Dresden 1958 (together with Renate Rösing and Roger Rösing) * '' Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt'', Berlin ** ''1. Roman einer Jugend'', 1960 ** ''2. Roman einer Heimkehr'', 1963 * ''Kippenberg'', Novel, Berlin and Weimar 1979 * ''In Liebe leben'', Poems 1962・982, Berlin and Weimar 1985

Editorial work

* ''Kisch-Kalender'', Berlin 1955 (together with F. C. Weiskopf)

Citations

Literature

* Elzbieta Glanc-Boteva: ''Die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Faschismus in der DDR-Literatur'', Berlin 1979 * Bernd Schick: ''Persönlichkeitskonzeption und Roman'', Berlin 1981 * Martina Langermann: ''Die Herausforderung eines Gegenstandes'', Greifswald 1987

External links

Literature by and on Dieter Noll
in the catalog of the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

Dieter Noll
at imdb
Wer war wer in der DDR? Dieter Noll
(Who was who in East Germany? Dieter Noll) by the

Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur The Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship (, alternatively translated as "(Federal) Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East Germany") is a government-funded organisation established in 1998 by the Bundest ...

Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt oder: Mein Jugendfreund Dieter Noll
(The Adventure of Werner Holt or My Childhood Friend Dieter Noll)

Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (; "Central German Broadcasting"), shortened to MDR (; stylized as mdr), is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. Established in January 1991, its headquarters are in Leipzig, wi ...

February 6, 2008
Das Ende des Werner Holt (The End of Werner Holt)
article by Torsten Harmsen in the

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (; ) is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since Reunification of Germany, reunification. It is published by Berl ...

from February 7, 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Noll, Dieter 1927 births 2008 deaths People from Riesa German people of Jewish descent Communist Party of Germany members Socialist Unity Party of Germany members East German writers German male writers Writers from Saxony German Army personnel of World War II Heinrich Mann Prize winners Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany Luftwaffenhelfer German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States Deaths from cancer in Germany Stasi informants