Olaf Saile (27 August 1901 – 29 June 1952) was a German
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...
born in
Weitingen,
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...
. Saile's principal claim to fame is the historical novel ''
Kepler, Roman einer Zeitwende'', first published in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
in 1938 and reprinted many times. It is an imagined
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...
of the life and times of the
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
and
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best know ...
. The novel was translated into
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Culture, language and peoples
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
* ''English'', an Amish ter ...
by
James A Galston and published in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in 1940 by
Oskar Piest, under the title ''
Troubadour of the Stars''. The novel has occasionally been interpreted as a coded protes
against the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
régime which Saile had experienced first hand. Following the banning of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Form ...
by the Nazis, in June 1933 as editor of the newspaper ''
Rathenower Zeitung'', during the subsequent wave of arrests Olaf Saile was briefly detained in the
Oranienburg
Oranienburg () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.
Geography
Oranienburg is on the banks of the River Havel, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.
Division of the town
Oranienburg consists of ni ...
Concentration Camp, during which time he was maltreated. His release was apparently secured after a friend and fellow-journalist Käthe Lambert used her journalistic credentials to enter the camp and then to write a report detailing conditions there. They subsequently married. Saile died at the age of 50 and was buried in the Church of St. Bernhardt in
Esslingen am Neckar
Esslingen am Neckar (Swabian German, Swabian: ''Esslenga am Neckor''; until 16 October 1964 officially '' Eßlingen am Neckar'') is a town in the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, seat of the Esslingen (district), Distri ...
. Käthe Saile is buried alongside her husband.
Other books by Olaf Saile include a novel, ''
Und wieder wird es Sommer...'' (Stuttgart, Fleischhauer & Spohn, 1937), an essay on
Swabia
Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.
The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...
, ''
Ãœber den Umgang mit Schwaben
''Ãœber'' (, sometimes written ''uber'' in English-language publications) is a German language word meaning "over", "above" or "across". It is an etymological twin with German ''ober'', and is a cognate (through Proto-Germanic) with English ...
'', (Verlag E. G. Seeger, Döffingen, 1950; reprinted Stuttgart, Theiss Verlag, 2006), and an anthology of Swabian writing: Saile, Olaf (Hrsg.), ''Schwäbische Erzähler. Mit 5 Städtebildern aus Stuttgart, Ulm u. Augsburg sowie 30 Bildnissen der Verfasser'' (Stuttgart, Fleischhauer & Spohn, 1.-6. Tsd., 1937)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saile, Olaf
1901 births
1952 deaths
People from Freudenstadt (district)
German male writers