Wolfgang Weyrauch

Wolfgang Weyrauch (15 October 1904 – 7 November 1980) was a German writer, journalist, and actor. He wrote under the pseudonym name Joseph Scherer.

Life and work[]

Wolfgang Weyrauch was born Königsberg, Prussia as the son of a surveyor. After attending gymnasium, and receiving his Abitur, he began going to acting school in Frankfurt am Main in 1924. Between 1925 and 1927, he acted in theaters in Münster, Bochum, and at the in Thale. From 1927 to 1929, Weyrauch pursued German history, German studies, and Romance studies at Goethe University Frankfurt.

In 1929, he began working as a freelance writer, from 1929 to 1933, at the Frankfurter Zeitung, from 1932 to 1938, at the Berliner Tageblatt, and, from 1933 to 1934, at the Vossische Zeitung. In the 1930s, Weyrauch also began to write radio plays, a newly emerged art form. During the 1930s, Weyrauch also worked as a literary editor, and published his first books. From 1940 to 1945, he worked in an air intelligence unit in World War II. In 1945, he was held in a Soviet prisoner of war camp, and was released in the same year.

After 1945, Weyrauch wrote radio plays, and narratives, and published numerous anthologies (see list below). From December 1945 to 1948, Weyrauch was the editor of Ulenspiegel, a satirical magazine,^[1][2] and Ost und West, both published in Berlin. He shaped the direction of "Kahlschlagliteratur" in Tausend Gramm, a 1949 anthology edited by him, characterizing and promoting the rebirth of German literature, after the end of the Third Reich. From 1950 to 1958, he was a literary editor at the Hamburg publisher, Rowohlt Verlag. Beginning in 1959, he returned to freelance writing, first in Gauting, near Munich, and in Darmstadt, after 1967.

Weyrauch was a member of the West German P.E.N., and the . In 1951, he began taking part in Gruppe 47 conferences, and, in 1967, he became a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung in Darmstadt, where he died.

Awards and honors[]

In 1997, the city of Darmstadt created the Wolfgang Weyrauch Prize to encourage young writers with an award, and stipend.^[3] The stipend is in the amount of €8,000.^[4] During his lifetime, Weyrauch himself was awarded several prizes.

• 1962 Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden
• 1972 Johann Heinrich Merck Ehrung, City of Darmstadt
• 1973 Andreas Gryphius Prize
• 1979

Works[]

General

• , Berlin 1934
• , Berlin 1938
• , Leipzig 1939
• , Berlin 1939
• , Leipzig 1943
• , Berlin 1946
• , Berlin 1946
• , Munich 1947
• , Hamburg u.a. 1948
• , Munich 1948
• , Hamburg 1950
• , Wien u.a. 1952
• , Karlsruhe 1952
• , Frankfurt a. M. 1953
• , Hamburg 1953
• , Hamburg 1956
• , Berlin 1956
• , Hamburg 1959
• , Olten u.a. 1959
• Das Jahr, München 1961
• , Weinheim 1961
• , Olten u.a. 1962
• , Stuttgart 1963
• , Olten u.a. 1963
• , Itzehoe-Vosskate 1965
• Komm, München 1965
• , Munich 1966
• , Olten u.a. 1966
• , Munich 1966
• , Neuwied u.a. 1969
• , Braunschweig 1970
• , Weinheim 1971
• , Neuwied u.a. 1971
• , Darmstadt 1972
• , Stuttgart 1973
• , Darmstadt 1974
• , Darmstadt u.a. 1975
• , Düsseldorf 1976
• , Pfaffenweiler 1977
• , Dreieich 1977
• , Frankfurt am Main 1978
• , Köln u.a. 1978
• , Darmstadt 1978
• , Darmstadt 1979
• , Hannover 1980 (with Fritz Deppert)
• , Darmstadt 1981
• , Würzburg 1982
• , Büdingen 1982
• , Assenheim 1983
• , Frankfurt am Main 1985
• , Frankfurt 1987
• Lebenslauf, Dreieich 1988
• , Darmstadt 1998

Translations

• Jehanne Jean Charles: , Bonn 1960 (with Margot Weyrauch)

Edited and published

• 1940, Berlin 1940
• , Leipzig 1941
• , Berlin 1947
• , Lorch, Württemberg and others 1948
• , Hamburg and others 1949
• , Munich 1959
• , Munich 1960
• , Munich 1965
• , Esslingen 1965 (with )
• , Munich 1966
• , Munich 1966 (with , Martin Gregor-Dellin, Heinz Piontek, and )
• , München 1967 (with )
• , Munich and others 1967 (with Johannes Poethen)
• , Berlin 1970
• , Darmstadt 1972 (with Fritz Deppert)
• , Darmstadt 1973
• , Munich 1975
• Vom Fischer und seiner Frau, Weinheim 1976 (with Hans-Joachim Gelberg and Willi Glasauer)
• , Köln 1977
• , Düsseldorf 1978
• , Modautal-Neunkirchen 1978
• , Darmstadt 1978 (with Fritz Deppert)
• Liebesgeschichten, Gütersloh 1979
• , Munich 1979 (with Fritz Deppert and Karl Krolow)
• , Frankfurt am Main
  • Vol. 1. , 1982
  • Vol. 2. , 1982

Sources[]

• Irmela Schneider (Ed.): Zu den Hörspielen Wolfgang Weyrauchs. Siegen 1981.
• Ulrike Landzettel: "Mein Gedicht ist mein Messer". Darmstadt 1991.
• Ulrike Landzettel: Wolfgang Weyrauch. In: Kritisches Lexikon zur deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur. Edited by Heinz Ludwig Arnold. 56. Nachlieferung. text + kritik, Munich 1997.
• Ulrike Landzettel: Identifikationen eines Eckenstehers. Der Schriftsteller Wolfgang Weyrauch (1904-1980). Dissertation an der Universität Marburg 2003.
• Werner Bellmann: Wolfgang Weyrauch: "Uni". In: Deutsche Kurzprosa der Gegenwart. Interpretationen. Edited by W.B. und Christine Hummel. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006. pp. 85–93.

References[]

External links[]

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Weyrauch in the German National Library catalogue