Gregor Dorfmeister (7 March 1929 – 4 February 2018) was a German journalist and writer. Under the pseudonym Manfred Gregor, Dorfmeister published three novels. His debut novel, ''

Die Brücke Die Brücke (The Bridge), also known as Künstlergruppe Brücke or KG Brücke, was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. The founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Karl Schmidt-R ...

'' ("The Bridge"), was turned into a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Janua ...

-winning film of the same name. The second, '' Das Urteil'' (''The Verdict''), is best known in the United States where it was made into the movie '' Town Without Pity'' starring

Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. ...

and featuring an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-nominated

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

of the same name performed by

Gene Pitney Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician. Pitney charted 16 top-40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top-40 h ...

Life

Born in Tailfingen, today part of Albstadt, Gregor Dorfmeister grew up in

Bad Tölz Bad Tölz (; Bavarian: ''Däiz'') is a town in Bavaria, Germany and the administrative center of the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district. History Archaeology has shown continuous occupation of the site of Bad Tölz since the retreat of the gla ...

, where he attended high school. In the spring of 1945 at age 16, he was a member of the

Volkssturm The (, ) was a ''levée en masse'' national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was set up by the Nazi Party on the orders of Adolf Hitler and established on 25 September 1944. It was staffed by conscri ...

in his home region and participated in defending two bridges against advancing American tanks. Seeing one of the tank-crew members wounded was "terrible. ... That's when I became a pacifist". Seven of eight of his young fellow German fighters were also killed in the day's battles before the town fell. In 1946 he finished high school and then worked for a construction company and in the

wood processing Wood processing is an engineering discipline in the wood industry comprising the production of forest products, such as pulp and paper, construction materials, and tall oil. Paper engineering is a subfield of wood processing. The major wo ...

industry. From 1948 he studied drama, journalism and philosophy at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

. During this period he completed an internship at a Munich newspaper. From 1954 he was Außenredakteur of the newspaper Munich ''Merkur'' in

Tegernsee Tegernsee () is a Town#Germany, town in the Miesbach (district), Miesbach district of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the banks of Tegernsee (lake), Lake Tegernsee, which is 747 m (2,451 ft) AMSL, above sea level. A spa town, it is su ...

, from 1957 in Miesbach and 1960 in Bad Tölz. From 1962 he headed the local paper ''Tölzer Courier''. Dorfmeister, who in addition to his journalistic work has been committed to the support for disabled people, lived in retirement in Bad Tölz. In 1981 he was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

. He died in

in 2018. Dorfmeister released three novels under the name Manfred Gregor: *In his highly autobiographical first novel ''

'' (1958), ''The Bridge'', he describes the senseless

use of a group of seven sixteen-year-olds at 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 ...

against the advancing Americans to defend a bridge. Six of the boys in the novel are killed, only one survives. The book was domestically in Germany, and internationally, a great success and the film of the same name by Bernhard Wicki (1959) is a classic anti-war film, ''

''.Kelley, Bill III
"Discover “The Bridge” – one of Germany’s finest post-WWII antiwar films"
, '' hamptonroads.com'', June 2015. Review of ''The Bridge:

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

''; "Best extra: 20 minute interview with author Gregor Dorfmeister". In 2007

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

produced directed by with Franka Potente in the role of the teacher Elfie Bauer. *Dorfmeister's second novel, ''Das Urteil'' (1960), ''The verdict'', is about a rape case against a soldier of the American occupation troops in a southern German town. The book was made into a film by

Gottfried Reinhardt Gottfried Reinhardt (20 March 1913 – 19 July 1994) was an Austrian-born American film director and producer. Biography Reinhardt was born in Berlin, the son of the Austrian theater director Max Reinhardt (until 1904: Max Goldmann), mana ...

called '' Town Without Pity''. The movie included an

-nominated song of the same name with music by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by

Ned Washington Ned Washington (born Edward Michael Washington, August 15, 1901 – December 20, 1976) was an American lyricist born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Life and career Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962. He won the Be ...

and performed by

. The Pitney version was also featured in the 1988

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

movie '' Hairspray''. *In his third novel, ''Die Straße'' (1961), ''The Road'' or ''The Street'', Dorfmeister describes a group of young people whose inner emptiness and aimlessness can lead to a slide into crime.

Works

* ''Die Brücke''. ''The Bridge''. Novel. Desch, Munich 1958 ** Current paperback edition: Bertelsmann, Munich 2008, * ''Das Urteil''. ''The Verdict''. Novel. Desch, Munich 1960 * ''Die Straße''. ''The Road'' or ''The Street''. Novel. Desch, Munich 1961

References

Literature by and about Gregor Dorfmeister
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 ...

"We were still children,"
article from the Hamburger Abendblatt of 7 May 2005

Additional sources

Interview in German with Dorfmeister
by Norbert Joa, ''One on One'' on Bayern Radio 2, 30.04.2013. *Graham, David
''Manfred Gregor's Die Brücke: an exercise in literary translation''
(2000) Master of Arts thesis, Dublin City University, 2000. Abstract and download available. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dorfmeister, Gregor 1929 births 2018 deaths People from Albstadt People from the Free People's State of Württemberg 20th-century German novelists Writers from Baden-Württemberg Volkssturm personnel Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German male novelists 20th-century German male writers German pacifists 20th-century pseudonymous writers German child soldiers in World War II