Volker Braun
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Volker Braun was Professor of Grimm Poetics at the University of Kassel (GhK) in 2000.
Known for his dramas Die Kipper and Hinze und Kunze, among others, as well as numerous volumes of poetry, Braun is a member of several academies and has been awarded numerous prizes (see below).
Image: SpreeTom (Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0)Volker Braun was born in Dresden on May 7, 1939. After leaving school, he initially tried in vain to get a place at university. In 1957/58 he worked as a printer in Dresden, in 1958/59 as a civil engineering worker at the Schwarze Pumpe combine, in 1959/60 as a skilled worker and machinist at the Burghammer open-cast mine. From 1960-1964 he studied philosophy in Leipzig. From 1965 to 1990 he worked at several Berlin theaters.
From 1970 he was a member of the PEN Center of the GDR; 1973 member of the board of the Writers' Association; 1975 start of "operational processing" by the State Security Service for "political-ideological diversion"; 1977 corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz.
In 1982 Braun left the Writers' Association of the GDR. During this time, his works increasingly dealt with the image of a resigned life in the GDR.
The actors in his plays are depressed in a rigid environment that leaves no room for maneuver. In 1987, he nevertheless became a member of the presidium of the Writers' Association.
In 1990, he became a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin (West), whose "Literature" section he headed from 2006 to 2010. Braun was the first signatory of the appeal "For our country", advocating an independent "third way" for the GDR.