Rainer Kirsch (17 July 1934 – 4 September 2015) was a German writer and poet.

Life and career

Kirsch was born in

Döbeln Döbeln (; , ) is a town in Saxony, Germany, part of the Mittelsachsen district. It sits on the banks of the Freiberger Mulde, Freiberger Mulde river. Location and geography Döbeln is situated in the Central Saxon Hills, Central Saxon Hill co ...

in 1934. After graduating from high school, he studied history at the Klosterschule Roßleben and philosophy at the

Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public university, public research university in the cities of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German State o ...

and the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

in 1953. In 1957 he was relegated, and in 1958 he was expelled from the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...

(SED). After that, he worked as a laborer in a print shop, as a chemical worker, and in agriculture. From 1960 until his death in 2015, he was a freelance writer and published his first poems. From 1963 to 1965, he studied at the

German Institute for Literature The German Institute for Literature (German: ''Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig'', DLL) is a part of Leipzig University and offers university education for writers. It was founded in 1955 under the name Johannes R. Becher-Institut, at that time ...

in Leipzig. He was considered a representative of the Saxon School of Poetry. From 1960 to 1968, he was married to the writer

Sarah Kirsch Sarah Kirsch (; 16 April 1935 – 5 May 2013) was a German poet. Biography Sarah Kirsch was originally born Ingrid Bernstein in Limlingerode, Prussian Saxony but had changed her first name to Sarah in order to protest against her father's ...

. In 1973, he was excluded from the SED for the second time due to disputes over his comedy ''Heinrich Schlaghands Höllenfahrt''. After the peaceful revolution in

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 ...

in 1990, he was president of the East German Writers' Association, in the same year a member of the

Academy of Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

in Berlin. Kirsch was also a member of the Saxon Academy of Arts. Kirsch emerged as a writer of poetry, plays, short stories and essays, radio plays and children's books. He also produced numerous translations and adaptations from Russian (

Osip Mandelstam Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam (, ; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school. Osip Mandelstam was arrested during the repressions of the 1930s and sent into internal exile wi ...

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,. ...

Sergei Yesenin Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (, ; 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century. One of his narratives was "lyrical evocations ...

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...

Daniil Kharms Daniil Ivanovich Kharms (; – 2 February 1942) was a Russian avant-gardist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist in the early Soviet era. Early years Kharms was born as Daniil Yuvachev in Saint Petersburg, then the capital of the Ru ...

Yevgeny Yevtushenko Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko (; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, publisher, actor, editor, university professor, and director of several films. Biography Early lif ...

Vladimir Vysotsky Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (25 January 193825 July 1980) was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor who had an immense and enduring effect on Soviet culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which ...

, and

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

), Georgian (

Vazha-Pshavela Vazha-Pshavela ( ka, ვაჟა-ფშაველა), simply referred to as Vazha ( ka, ვაჟა) (14 July 1861 – 10 July 1915), is the pen name of the Georgian poet and writer Luka Razikashvili ( ka, ლუკა რაზიკა� ...

), English (

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

) and French (

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with th ...

) languages. Kirsch died in Berlin on 4 September 2015 at the age of 81.Rainer Kirsch, German author & poet, died at 81

Works

*Berlin-Sonnenseite, Reportage (with

) (1964) *Gespräch mit dem Saurier, Gedichte (with Sarah Kirsch) (1965) *Heinrich Schlaghands Höllenfahrt (1973) *Wenn ich mein rotes Mützchen hab, Kinderbuch, Kinderbuchverlag, (Ost-)Berlin (1974) *Kopien nach Originalen, Porträts 1974, mit einem Report über seine Schulzeit in Roßleben *Das Wort und seine Strahlung, Essays zur Dichtungstheorie (1976) *Vom Räuberchen, dem Rock und dem Ziegenbock, Erzählung (with Hans Ticha) (1978) *Auszog das Fürchten zu lernen, Gedichte (1978) *Das Land Bum-Bum, Oper (Music by

Georg Katzer Georg Katzer (; 10 January 1935 – 7 May 2019) was a German composer and teacher. The last master student of Hanns Eisler, he composed music in many genres, including works for the stage. Katzer was one of the pioneers of electronic new music ...

) *Ausflug machen, Gedichte (1980) *Die Perlen der grünen Nixe, ein mathematisches Märchen (1983) *Der kleine lila Nebel, Kinderbuch (with Johannes K. G. Niedlich) (1985) *Ordnung im Spiegel, Essays, Notizen, Gespräche, Reclam, Leipzig, 1985; 2. Auflage, Reclam, Leipzig (1991) *Sauna oder die fernherwirkende Trübung, Erzählungen (1985) *Kunst in Mark Brandenburg, Gedichte, Hinsdorff, Rostock 1988, 3-356-00151-5; Hanser, München (1989) *Anna Katarina oder Die Nacht am Moorbusch, eine sächsische Schauerballade nebst dreizehn sanften Liedern und einem tiefgründigen Gespräch. Illustriert von Renate Totzke-Israel, Hinstorff, Rostock (1991) *Die Talare der Gottesgelehrten, Kleine Schriften. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (1999): *Werke (4 Bände), Eulenspiegel, Berlin (2004) *Band 1: Gedichte & Lieder. *Band 2: Erzählungen & Porträts. *Band 3: Stücke & Libretti. *Band 4: Essays & Gespräche. *Der Menschenfeind. Komodie von Molière, nachgedichtet von Rainer Kirsch, Eulenspiegel, Berlin (2009)

Audiobooks

*In: Dichtung des 20. Jahrhunderts: Meine 24 sächsischen Dichter (collaborated with Gerhard Pötzsch), 2 CDs, Militzke, Leipzig (2009)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirsch, Rainer 1934 births 2015 deaths People from Döbeln Socialist Unity Party of Germany members 21st-century German writers 21st-century German male writers 20th-century German writers Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni University of Jena alumni Leipzig University alumni