Fritz Rudolf Fries (19 May 1935 – 17 December 2014) was a German writer and translator.

Life

Fritz Rudolf Fries was born in

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, Spain. His mother was a German of Spanish descent, and his father a German businessman who was shot during 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 ...

Italian partisans The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic during the Second World War in Italy ...

. In 1942 the family moved to

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 ...

, a city which was heavily bombarded at the end of the war. After studying English and Romance literature under

Werner Krauss Werner Johannes Krauss (''Krauß'' in German; 23 June 1884 – 20 October 1959) was a German stage and film actor. Krauss dominated the German stage of the early 20th century. However, his participation in the antisemitic propaganda film '' Jud ...

and Hans Mayer at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig, he became a freelance translator from English, French and Spanish (

Calderón Calderón () is a Spanish and occupational surname. It is derived from the Vulgar Latin "''caldaria''" ("cauldron") and refers to the occupation of tinker. "Calderón" without any further specifics usually refers to Pedro Calderón de la Barca, t ...

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his no ...

, Neruda, Buero Vallejo and others), an interpreter (in Prague and Moscow, and elsewhere) and a writer. In 1964 he travelled to

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. He also made his name as editor of a four-volume edition of the works of

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...

. From 1960 to 1966 he worked as an assistant with Werner Krauss at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in Berlin. ''Das Luftschiff'' was filmed by

Rainer Simon Rainer Simon (born 11 January 1941) is a German film director and screenwriter. He directed 17 films between 1964 and 2000. His '' How to Marry a King'' (1969) and '' Six Make it Through the World'' (1972) are highly imaginative adaptations of f ...

. In 1972 he became a member of the

PEN Center PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

and shortly afterwards was elected to the presidency. His first novel, ''Der Weg nach Oobliadooh'' ("The Road to Oobliadooh"), was not approved for publication in the GDR, but with the help of

Uwe Johnson Uwe Johnson (; 20 July 1934 – 22 February 1984) was a German writer, editor, and scholar. Such prominent writers and scholars as Günter Grass and Hans Mayer declared Johnson to be the most significant writer to emerge from East Germany. Duri ...

it appeared in West Germany in 1966, under the imprint of the Suhrkamp publishing house. Gabriele Wohmann remarked that "Fries's work belied the stereotype of the technically awkward, thematically constrained, stylistically cautious and staidly narrational East German writer." In 1996 it was revealed that he had worked as an informant for the Ministry for State Security (from 1972 to 1985 under the codename "Pedro Hagen"). As a result, he resigned from many of the associations of which he was a member (PEN, the Academy of Arts in Berlin, Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, and the German Academy for Language and Literature). A semi-autographical novel, ''Alles eines Irrsinns Spiel'', was published in 2010. Fries lived in

Petershagen Petershagen is a town in the Minden-Lübbecke district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies on the Westphalian Mill Route. The core is formed by the districts of Petershagen and Lahde, located opposite each other on the Weser. Geography ...

, Berlin and contributed articles to several daily newspapers until his death in 2014.

Selected works

* ''Der Weg nach Oobliadooh''. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp 1966. * ''Der Fernsehkrieg'' (Short Stories with illustrations by Nuria Quevedo). Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 1969;

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, ...

, Frankfurt a.M. 1970; VEB Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 1975 (2nd ext. ed.). * ''Das Luftschiff'', Rostock 1974, Piper . * ''Lope de Vega'', Leipzig 1977, Insel 1979 . * ''Alexanders neue Welten'', Berlin and Weimar 1982. * ''Verlegung eines mittleren Reiches'', Berlin 1984. * ''Die Väter im Kino'', Berlin and Weimar 1989. * ''Die Nonnen von Bratislava''. München: Piper Verlag, 1994. . * ''Don Quixote flieht die Frauen oder die apokryphen Abenteuer des Ritters von der traurigen Gestalt''. Berlin-Köpenick: Katzengraben-Presse, 1995. . A limited edition of 999 copies includes work by Manfred Gruber. * ''Im Jahr des Hahns'' (diaries). Leipzig: G. Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1996. . * ''Septembersong'', Hamburg 1997. * ''Der Roncalli-Effekt''. Leipzig: G. Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1999. . * ''Diogenes auf der Parkbank'' (Erinnerungen). Berlin: Verlag Das Neue Berlin, 2002. . * ''Hesekiels Maschine oder Gesang der Engel am Magnetberg''. Berlin: Verlag Das Neue Berlin, 2004. . * ''Blaubarts Besitz''. Leipzig: Faber & Faber, 2005. . * ''Dienstmädchen und Direktricen''. Leipzig: Faber & Faber, 2006. . * ''Alles eines Irrsinns Spiel''. Verlag Faber & Faber, Leipzig 2010. 330 S.

Prizes

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 ...

of the

Academy of Arts, Berlin 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 ...

, 1979 (with a speech by Karl Mickel) *

Order of Isabella the Catholic The Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic (; Abbreviation, Abbr.: OYC) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent Order of merit, orders of merit bestowed by the Kingdom of Spain, alongside the Order of Charles III (established in 1771) and ...

, 1987 * Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize, 1988 * Bremen Literature Prize, 1991 * Prize for Literature of the City of Brandenburg, 1991 * War Blind Society Prize for Radio Plays, 1995

Bibliography

* Frauke Bolln: ''Zwischen Beat-Generation und „Ankunftsliteratur“: Fritz Rudolf Fries' Roman „Der Weg nach Oobliaooh“''. Bielefeld: Aisthesis-Verlag, 2006. . * Mirjam Gebauer: ''Der Pikaro im deutschen Roman der 1990er Jahre''. Trier: WTV, 2006. . * Karsten Kruschel: ''Fritz Rudolf Fries''. In: Erik Simon, Olaf R. Spittel (Hrsg.): ''Die Science-fiction der DDR. Autoren und Werke. Ein Lexikon.'' Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1988, , S. 132–134. * Joachim Walther: ''Sicherungsbereich Literatur. Schriftsteller und Staatssicherheit in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik''. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 1996. .

References

External links

"Der hohe Preis der Reisefreiheit"
von Cornelia Geißler (Berliner Zeitung, 27. November 1996)
Erich Loest: "Wider die Dunkelmänner unserer Zeit", Die Zeit, 13. Juni 2002

provided by the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fries, Fritz Rudolf 1935 births 2014 deaths Writers from Bilbao East German writers Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin 20th-century German translators 20th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers Stasi informants