Nikolai von Michalewsky (a.k.a. Mark Brandis) (January 17, 1931 – December 27, 2000) was a German writer and journalist best known for a series of

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

novels published between 1970 and 1987.

Biography

Von Michalewsky was born in

Dahlewitz Dahlewitz is a village on the southern outskirts of Berlin, Germany, just north of the Route 10 autobahn. Since October 2003, Dahlewitz has been part of the Blankenfelde-Mahlow municipality, in the district of Teltow-Fläming. History Archaeologic ...

, a town on the outskirts of Berlin. After having earned his living as a dock worker, a coffee harvester in the Congo, and a diver in the Mediterranean, he worked as a journalist in the

Algerian war The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

, eventually to start writing fictional works in the late 1950s, mostly juvenile novels. He expanded his field to documentary filming and writing of

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the liste ...

in the 1960s, an expertise he became very successful at. At the end of his life he would have more than 500 broadcast radio dramas to his name.Biography at the writer'
official German language website
In 1969 he was approached by German book publisher Herder to write a science fiction book for juveniles. Despite having no previous experience in the field of

, von Michalewsky's first book in the genre, ''Bordbuch Delta VII'', was an instant success. Using the name of his protagonist as

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

and writing in first person perspective, von Michalewsky would pen approximately two books a year over the following decades to eventually complete a series of 31 novels. The series became the second best-selling German-language science fiction series of all time, eclipsed only by team effort

Perry Rhodan ''Perry Rhodan'' is a German space opera franchise, named after its hero. It commenced in 1961 and has been ongoing for decades, written by an ever-changing team of authors. Having sold approximately two billion copies (in novella format) worl ...

. The books were translated into Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish and Chinese. A late attempt to revive the series in 1999 was limited to one novel, ''Ambivalente Zone''. This expanded universe series was cut short when von Michalewsky died at

Grasberg Grasberg is a municipality in the district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 13 km southeast of Osterholz-Scharmbeck, and 20 km northeast of Bremen. History Before the cultivation and colonisation of ...

shortly after Christmas 2000, leaving the second novel, ''Negativer Sektor'', unfinished.

Mark Brandis series

The Mark Brandis series can be categorized as

hard science fiction Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's ''Islands of Space'' in the Novemb ...

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes Space warfare in science fiction, space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, i ...

with many allusions to seafaring novels. Mankind has been exploring the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

, setting up colonies on the Moon and

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

. Earth is controlled by two superpowers, the ''Union of Europe, the Americas and Africa'' ("EAAU") opposing the ''United Oriental Republics'' ("VOR", that is Asia). The respective capitals are

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

and an artificial Atlantic city named

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

. Mark Brandis, a German-born astronaut, works as a test pilot for a nominally independent EAAU institution, the ''Venus-Earth Astronautical Society'' (VEGA). His work with the newest and therefore fastest and strongest spaceships often puts him and the international crews of his ships into danger, be it revolutions, ecological catastrophes, overpopulation issues, space exploration, equipment malfunctions and civil war. After volume 20, Brandis quits his job to run an independent society dedicated to rescue ship crews suffering emergencies in space Operating a number of modern high-speed space rescue ships from an extraterritorial Moon base, the society rescues numerous space crews and plays an important role in various adventures not too dissimilar in style to the VEGA adventures. As in the early novels, political diplomacy and difficult ethical choices play an important role, as well as the constant fighting to keep the space rescue service in operation on a tight budget and in spite of warring factions and interests.Jeschke/Mamczak (editors): "Das Science Fiction Jahr 2006" (), p. 657 ff.: Essay "Erinnerungen an Mark Brandis" (Memories of Mark Brandis) The ships of the rescue service are named after people famous for their humanitarian efforts, such as

Elsa Brändström Elsa Brändström (26 March 1888 – 4 March 1948) was a Swedish nurse and philanthropist. She was known as the "Angel of Siberia" (). Life and commitment Elsa Brändström was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She was the daughter of the M ...

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...

Henri Dunant Henry Dunant (born Jean-Henri Dunant; 8 May 182830 October 1910), also known as Henri Dunant, was a Swiss humanitarian, businessman, social activist, and co-founder of the Red Cross. His humanitarian efforts won him the first Nobel Peace Prize i ...

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German and French polymath from Alsace. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. As a Lutheran minister, ...

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

and

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

The novels

# Bordbuch Delta VII (1970) # Verrat auf der Venus (1971) # Unternehmen Delphin (1972) # Aufstand der Roboter (1972) # Vorstoß zum Uranus (1972) # Die Vollstrecker (1973) # Testakte Kolibri (1973) # Raumsonde Epsilon (1974) # Salomon 76 (1974) # Aktenzeichen: Illegal (1975) # Operation Sonnenfracht (1975) # Alarm für die Erde (1976) # Countdown für die Erde (1976) # Kurier zum Mars (1977) # Die lautlose Bombe (1977) # Pilgrim 2000 (1978) # Der Spiegelplanet (1978) # Sirius-Patrouille (1979) # Astropolis (1980) # Triton-Passage (1981) # Blindflug zur Schlange (1981) # Raumposition Oberon (1982) # Vargo-Faktor (1982) # Astronautensonne (1983) # Planetaktion Z (1983) # Ikarus, Ikarus... (1984) # Der Pandora-Zwischenfall (1984) # Metropolis-Konvoi (1985) # Zeitspule (1985) # Die Eismensch-Verschwörung (1986) # Geheimsache Wetterhahn (1987) * Ambivalente Zone (1999)

Audio dramas

Between 2007 and 2015 a total of 23 adventures of the Mark Brandis series had been adapted into audio drama format and published on CD. # Bordbuch Delta VII (2007) () # Verrat auf der Venus (2008) () # Unternehmen Delphin (2008) () # Aufstand der Roboter (2009) () # Testakte Kolibri 1 & 2 (2009) ( / ) # Vorstoss zum Uranus 1 & 2 (2010) ( / ) # Raumsonde Epsilon 1 & 2 (2010) ( / ) # Die Vollstrecker 1 & 2 (2010) ( / ) # Pilgrim 2000 1 & 2 (2011) ( / ) # Aktenzeichen: illegal (2011) () # Operation Sonnenfracht (2011) () # Alarm für die Erde 1 & 2 (2011) # Sirius-Patrouille 1 & 2 (2012) # Lautlose Bombe 1 & 2 (2012) # Triton-Passage (2013) # Blindflug zur Schlange (2013) # Raumposition Oberon (2013) # Ikarus, Ikarus (2013) # Metropolis-Konvoi (2014) # Die Zeitspule 1 & 2 (2014) # Planetaktion Z (2014) # Geheimsache Wetterhahn (2015) # Der Pandora-Zwischenfall (2015)

External links

Official site
(German language)
Mark Brandis series official site
(German language)

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandis, Mark 1931 births 2000 deaths German science fiction writers German male writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century German novelists 20th-century German journalists Writers from Brandenburg German male novelists