In Memory of Ulrich Plenzdorf
News20.10.2024
On 26 October 2024, author and playwright Ulrich Plenzdorf would have celebrated his 90th birthday. Plenzdorf was born in 1934 in Berlin and passed away on 9 August 2007. His parents were both members of the Communist Party and were imprisoned multiple times by the Nazi regime. In 1950, the family moved from West to East Berlin to settle in the newly founded German Democratic Republic.
Plenzdorf studied Marxism-Leninism and philosophy in Leipzig, but broke off his studies and later studied film in Babelsberg, before going on to work as a scriptwriter and dramaturge.
He rose to prominence with his work The New Sorrows of Young W. Originally written for film, this tragicomic work of social critique became a hit in both East and West Germany, and has since been translated into more than 30 languages. Critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki described the work as the »Catcher in the GDR Rye«
Plenzdorf is also known as the writer of the 1973 cult film The Legend of Paula and Paula, which Plenzdorf then expanded into a novel under the title The Legend of Happiness Without End.
After a long illness, Ulrich Plenzdorf passed away on 23 August 2007 near Berlin, having carved a unique place in the history of German culture, on both sides of the iron curtain.
Plenzdorf studied Marxism-Leninism and philosophy in Leipzig, but broke off his studies and later studied film in Babelsberg, before going on to work as a scriptwriter and dramaturge.
He rose to prominence with his work The New Sorrows of Young W. Originally written for film, this tragicomic work of social critique became a hit in both East and West Germany, and has since been translated into more than 30 languages. Critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki described the work as the »Catcher in the GDR Rye«
Plenzdorf is also known as the writer of the 1973 cult film The Legend of Paula and Paula, which Plenzdorf then expanded into a novel under the title The Legend of Happiness Without End.
After a long illness, Ulrich Plenzdorf passed away on 23 August 2007 near Berlin, having carved a unique place in the history of German culture, on both sides of the iron curtain.