Heinz Czechowski (7 February 1935 – 21 October 2009) was a German poet and dramatist. At the age of ten, Czechowski survived the highly destructive bombing of his birthplace of

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. After training in surveying and graphic design, he studied at the Johannes R. Becher Institute of Literature in

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 ...

, where he was strongly influenced by Georg Maurer and the Saxon school. His first published poems appeared in 1957 in an issue of ''Neue Deutsche Literatur''. From 1961 to 1965, he worked at the Mitteldeutscher Verlag publishing house in

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (), is the second largest city of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is the sixth-most populous city in the area of former East Germany after (East) Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Magdeburg as well as t ...

. Between 1971 and 1973, he wrote plays for the city of

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

, after which he became a freelance writer. Czechowski produced free translations of the work of foreign poets (e.g.

Anna Akhmatova Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; , . ( – 5 March 1966), better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova,. ...

Mikhail Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov ( , ; rus, Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, , mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲerməntəf, links=yes; – ) was a Russian Romanticism, Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called ...

Marina Tsvetaeva Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva ( rus, Марина Ивановна Цветаева, p=mɐˈrʲinə ɪˈvanəvnə tsvʲɪˈta(j)ɪvə, links=yes; 31 August 1941) was a Russian poet. Her work is some of the most well-known in twentieth-century Russ ...

, and Yiannis Ritsos). He was a founding member of the Leipzig Free Academy of the Arts.

Works

*''Nachmittag eines Liebespaares''. Poems, 1962 *''Sieben Rosen hat der Strauch''. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 1964 (anthology) *''Zwischen Wäldern und Flüssen''. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 1965 (anthology) *''Unser der Tag, unser das Wort''. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 1966 (anthology) *''Wasserfahrt''. Poems, 1967 *''Spruch und Widerspruch''. Prose, 1974 *''Schafe und Sterne''. Poems, 1975 *''Was mich betrifft''. Poems, 1981, *''Von Paris nach Montmartre''. 1981, *''Ich, beispielsweise''. Poems, 1982 *''An Freund und Feind''. Poems, 1983, *''Herr Neithardt geht durch die Stadt''. 1983, *''Kein näheres Zeichen''. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 1987, *''Sanft gehen wie Tiere die Berge neben dem Fluß''. 1989 *''Die überstandene Wende''. 1989 *''Mein Venedig''. Poems and prose, 1989, *''Auf eine im Feuer versunkene Stadt''. 1990, *''Nachtspur''. Poems and prose, 1993, *''Gedichte und Poeme''. 1996 *''Mein westfälischer Frieden. Ein Zyklus''. Nyland-Stiftung, 1998, *''Sauerländische Elegie''. 1998 *''Ich und die Folgen''. Rowohlt, 1998, *''Das offene Geheimnis''. 1999, *''Die Zeit steht still''. Poems, Grupello Verlag, 2000, *''Wüste Mark Kolmen''. Poems, Ammann Verlag, 2000, *''Seumes Brille. Gedichte aus der Schöppinger Chronik (1999/2000).'' UN ART IG Verlag, 2000, *''Einmischungen''. Grupello Verlag, 2000, *''Seumes Brille''. Grupello Verlag, 2002, *''Der Garten meines Vaters''. Grupello Verlag, 2003, *''Die Elbe bei Pieschen und andere Ortsbeschreibungen''. *''Unstrutwärts''. *''Von allen Wundern geheilt. Gedichte''. onomato Verlag, 2006, *''Die Pole der Erinnerung. Autobiographie''. Grupello Verlag, 2006,

Prizes

* 1961: Kunstpreis der Stadt Halle * 1970: Goethepreis der Stadt Berlin (collective prize) * 1976: Heinrich-Heine-Preis des Ministeriums für Kultur der DDR * 1984:

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 ...

der Akademie der Künste der DDR * 1990/1991: Stadtschreiber von Bergen * 1996: Hans-Erich-Nossack-Preis des Kulturkreises der deutschen Wirtschaft * 1998: Dresdner Stadtschreiber * 1999: Dr. Manfred Jahrmarkt-Ehrengabe der Deutsche Schillerstiftung * 2001: Brüder-Grimm-Preis der Stadt Hanau

Bibliography

*Renatus Deckert: ''Ruine und Gedicht. Das zerstörte Dresden im Werk von Volker Braun, Heinz Czechowski und Durs Grünbein'', Thelem Verlag, Dresden 2010.

External links

Wolfgang Ertl zu Czechowskis Werk seit der Wende
{{DEFAULTSORT:Czechowski, Heinz 1935 births 2009 deaths German male poets German male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German poets 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights German-language poets 20th-century German male writers