Heiner Müller died 28 years ago. He´s missing."Wenn die Diskotheken verlassen und die Akademien verödet sind, wird das Schweigen des Theaters wieder gehört werden, das der Grund seiner Sprache ist."
- Heiner Müller
The german dramatist and playwright Heiner Müller was born in 1929 and died in 1995. Living in East Germany (GDR), he worked as managing, literary and artistic director at the Maxim-Gorki-Theatre (from 1958 on) and the Berliner Ensemble (from 1970 on), often staging his own productions.
The german dramatist and playwright Heiner Müller was born in 1929 and died in 1995. Living in East Germany (GDR), he worked as managing, literary and artistic director at the Maxim-Gorki-Theatre (from 1958 on) and the Berliner Ensemble (from 1970 on), often staging his own productions.
Müller showed strong socialist leanings and worked in the tradition of Brechtian theatre. His initial agreement with the East German regime began to dwindle in 1960s when severals plays of his were censored and banned. He then began to work with West German theatres and ensembles and succeeded with pieces such as "Hamletmaschine" (1979), earning him worldwide fame. Müller was also renowned for his prose and poetry ("Das Ende der Handschrift. Gedichte") and publications on the theory of drama.
Before the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, Heiner Müller was widely regarded, internationally and in both German states, as “the most important German dramatist since Brecht”. Subsequently, like other “heroes” of the GDR semi-dissident scene, he was the target of a concerted campaign accusing him, among other things, of collaboration with the Stasi (Staats-Sicherheitsdienst, the GDR political police) and crypto-Stalinist tendencies. His reputation, despite a short-term eclipse, will survive these inanities; the extended public wake held upon his death on 30 December 1995 gave expression to a deep sense of loss in the vibrant East Berlin cultural scene of which he was the most brilliant protagonist.
Born in Eppendorf, Saxony, on 9 January 1929, his conscious life-span mirrors that of the GDR – from the bloody end of World War II through the difficult years of socialist reconstruction to the profound disillusionment of the “years of stagnation” and the ultimate implosion of the GDR, which he survived by only five depressive years of black clownery.
After the fall of the Wall, Müller became president of the East German Academy of the Arts for a short time in 1990 before its inclusion in the West German Akademie. In 1992, he was invited to join the directorate of the Berliner Ensemble, Brecht's former company at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, as one of its five members along with Peter Zadek, Peter Palitzsch, Fritz Marquardt and Matthias Langhoff. In 1995, shortly before his death, Müller was appointed as the theatre’s sole artistic director.
During the last five years of his life, Müller continued to live in Berlin and work all over Germany and Europe, mostly directing productions of his own works. He wrote few new dramatic texts in this time, though, like Brecht, he did produce much poetry in his final years.
During the last five years of his life, Müller continued to live in Berlin and work all over Germany and Europe, mostly directing productions of his own works. He wrote few new dramatic texts in this time, though, like Brecht, he did produce much poetry in his final years.
Müller died in Berlin of cancer in 1995, acknowledged as one of the greatest living German authors and the most important German language dramatists since Bertolt Brecht.
Here´s his reading of some poems and prose at his 60s birthday, January 9, 1989, at the "Academy Of The Arts" in Berlin.
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(192 kbps, front cover included)
2 Kommentare:
This looks great. Would it be possible to make it available again?
Now there´s a fresh link. All the best!
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