Wolfgang Borchert facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Wolfgang Borchert
Last photo as a civilian in the summer of 1941
Born	(1921-05-20)20 May 1921 Hamburg, Germany
Died	20 November 1947(1947-11-20) (aged 26) Basel, Switzerland
Resting place	Ohlsdorf Cemetery, Hamburg, Germany
Language	German
Nationality	German
Citizenship	German
Literary movement	Trümmerliteratur ("Rubble literature")
Signature

Wolfgang Borchert (20 May 1921 – 20 November 1947) was a German author and playwright. His writings were greatly shaped by his experiences during a dictatorship and his time serving in the army during World War II.

His work is a famous example of "Trümmerliteratur" (which means "Rubble literature"). This style of writing came from Germany right after World War II. Borchert's most famous work is a play called Draußen vor der Tür (The Man Outside). He wrote it soon after the war ended. His stories and plays always talked about important ideas like what it means to be human. He is still one of the most popular German writers from the time after the war. Students in German schools often study his works today.

Wolfgang Borchert's Life Story

Wolfgang Borchert was born in Hamburg, Germany. He was the only child of a teacher, Fritz Borchert, and an author, Hertha Borchert. His family had open-minded views and were part of Hamburg's smart social groups.

Early Life and Challenges

Wolfgang did not like his required time in the Hitler Youth, which was a youth group of the Nazi party. He often missed meetings and was eventually allowed to leave. Before the war, from 1938 to 1940, he wrote things that went against the Nazi government. In April 1940, the Gestapo (the secret police) arrested him, but they later let him go.

That same year, he started an apprenticeship at a bookshop in Hamburg. He secretly shared anti-Nazi poems with his co-workers. While working there, Borchert also took acting lessons without telling his parents at first. He left the bookshop early in 1941. After passing his acting test, he began working for a traveling theater company. However, his acting career was cut short when he had to join the army in June 1941.

War Experiences

Borchert was sent to the Eastern Front during World War II. There, he saw the terrible reality of the war. Soldiers suffered greatly from battles, cold weather, hunger, and not having enough supplies.

In February 1942, he returned from guard duty with a missing finger. He said a Russian soldier had attacked him, and his rifle went off during the fight. At his trial, the military prosecutor wanted a very serious punishment. But the court believed Borchert's story and found him not guilty.

However, he was immediately arrested again. This time, it was for saying things against the government. He was found guilty of "statements endangering the country." He was sentenced to six weeks in a strict prison. After that, he was sent back to the Eastern Front to "prove himself." There, he got frostbite and several illnesses. He was then given medical leave.

While on leave, he acted again in a nightclub in Hamburg, which was now badly damaged by bombs. He later returned to his barracks and successfully asked to join an army theater group. He was moved to a camp in Koblenz. One evening, he told jokes about the Nazi propaganda minister. Another soldier reported him. Borchert was arrested and, in August 1944, sentenced to nine months in prison.

His prison sentence was put off until after the war. So, he was sent back to the army, spending most of his time in barracks in Jena. In March 1945, he was sent to the area around Frankfurt-am-Main. His company surrendered to the French army in March 1945. While being taken to a prisoner of war camp, Borchert and others jumped off the truck and escaped. He then walked all the way home to Hamburg, a journey of about 370 miles. He arrived on May 10, completely exhausted, a week after Hamburg had surrendered to the British.

After the War

After the war, Borchert's health continued to get worse. In 1946, a doctor told his mother that Wolfgang might not live much longer. However, Borchert himself was never told this sad news. He went back to working in the theater and kept writing. He wrote short stories and published a collection of poems called Laterne, Nacht und Sterne (Lantern, Night and Stars) in December 1946.

In late 1946 or early 1947, he wrote his famous play, The Man Outside (Draußen vor der Tür). Even before it was published, the play was performed on the radio in February 1947 and received great praise. Later in 1947, Borchert went to a special hospital in Basel, Switzerland, because of his serious illness. There, he continued writing short stories and wrote his strong statement against war, Dann gibt es nur eins! [de] (Then there is only one thing!). He passed away shortly after from liver problems.

Wolfgang Borchert's Poems

Borchert loved poetry from his teenage years. Readers felt that his poems were influenced by famous poets like Shakespeare and Rainer Maria Rilke. Rilke was a big role model for him. Borchert even signed one of his works "Wolff Maria Borchert" to show his respect. He looked up to many poets as his source of artistic inspiration. For example, when he was about to join the army, he wrote that he was hungry for art, mentioning poets like Baudelaire and Schiller.

Writing poetry came more easily to Borchert than writing prose (regular stories). He could write about five to ten poems a day. His father would review his work, which Wolfgang saw as a sign of approval. He became known for expressing himself through poems whenever he felt the need, no matter what others thought. Borchert's writings show that he cared less about the perfect quality of his poems and more about the feeling of creating them. This desire to express himself later led him to become an actor.

Borchert's poems were shared with anyone who was interested. This widespread sharing later contributed to his arrest by the Gestapo. Even though his work was widely known, Wolfgang was not fully satisfied with it. He felt it was more about his own need to express himself:

"But for some time now, I've stopped seeing my poems as something important that shouldn't be lost. If out of the few thousand – there are gradually that many – only two or three remain that are worthwhile, then I'll be content. But if I still keep writing ones that are often no good at all, it's only to get rid of them – nothing else."

As Wolfgang grew older, he refined his work by destroying many poems that no longer felt important to him. In his eyes, the poems that remained were not of very high quality. Therefore, most of his surviving poems were found in his letters to friends. These poems were not originally meant to be published. However, in 1960, his mother and an American scholar gathered about two hundred poems to be published. This finally happened in 1996, when Allein mit meinem Schatten und dem Mond (Alone with my shadow and the moon), a collection of his poems, was released.

When critics study Wolfgang's poems, they usually focus on his later works that he approved for publishing. This is because many of his earlier poems were written for specific events or people, or were just for fun.

Here is a part of one of his longer poems, Laterne, Nacht und Sterne:

Ich möchte Leuchtturm sein In Nacht und Wind- für Dorsch und Stint- für jedes Boot- und bin doch selbst ein Schiff in Not!

This translates to:

Lantern, Night and Stars: I would like to be a lighthouse at night and wind – for codfish and smelt – for any boat – and am myself A ship in need!

Wolfgang Borchert's Style and Influence

Wolfgang Borchert's unique writing style was not just in his poems, but also very clear in his short stories. The difficult experiences he went through during the war deeply shaped how he wrote. His works show the emotional pain he suffered.

Themes and Language

Borchert's writings often show images of the war front, the life of a prisoner, a soldier returning to a destroyed Germany, and a small hope for the future after the war. Because of this, his stories often have sudden and broken images. He usually describes people and things without using common labels from society. For example, he might mention "men," "soldiers," or "widows" instead of giving specific names.

Even with this lack of specific names, people felt the pain in his writing. This shows how well he connected with people on a human level. The simple language he used also helped him share the message of suffering that he and others experienced during the war.

His play Draußen vor der Tür (The Man Outside) was about a soldier returning home. It had a very sad and hopeless theme. It showed how nothing seemed worth living for and everything was ruined. There was a strong feeling of guilt everywhere, even blaming God. There was no acceptance of what had happened. This reflected Borchert's own feelings and how he wanted to make the audience feel. He aimed to present broken events like a shattered mirror, letting the audience feel the story instead of just watching it.

Borchert's writings do not follow the usual way of telling a story. This is because of the intense experiences he went through. Instead, readers find his stories divided into parts that show despair, guilt, loneliness, and a lack of hope. These feelings came from his confused mind, shaken soul, and mixed emotions caused by the war.

Literary Influences

Wolfgang Borchert's work became famous later on, especially for its strong connection to war experiences. It is considered some of the best war literature. He used styles from other poets like Rainer Maria Rilke and Holderlin in his poems and short stories.

Rilke often used metaphors (comparing things without using "like" or "as") and contradictions. Borchert used many metaphors in his writings. For example, in his short story "The Kitchen Clock," he used the clock as a metaphor to remind him of his mother and his lost family. This story is very similar to "trauma literature," which explores the effects of shocking experiences.

Holderlin also inspired Borchert. Holderlin was known for using symbols in his writings instead of giving people and places their usual names. In "The Kitchen Clock," Borchert uses symbols to describe characters. For instance, when describing the returning soldier, he says:

"... He looked at his clock and shook his head thoughtfully. No, dear sir, no, you are wrong about that. It has nothing to do with the bombs. You should not keep talking about the bombs. No. At 2:30. At night I mean. Nearly always at 2:30. That is just it..."

The character is not named here, but the message is clear. Many people who lived through World War II had their own "Clock" moments and could understand his situation.

Borchert was a keen reader and read works by poets from other countries. He was influenced by the American Civil War poet Walt Whitman. For example, Borchert's poem "Laterne, Nacht und Sterne" is very similar to Whitman's "Youth, Old Age, and Night." Both poems share images of not being able to sleep, darkness, cold, hunger, and long hours spent outside.

Later in Borchert's life, his work became known beyond Germany. It was translated into other languages, especially English. His most famous work, The Man Outside, was a play first performed in 1947, just one day after he died. This play has a similar feeling to "The Kitchen Clock," describing a prisoner of war returning home.

The first English translation of The Man Outside was in 1952. Later, in 1998, an English producer created a new translation for a performance in London. The translation of Borchert's work helped people in other countries study "trauma literature," which is very present in his poems and short stories. In 1988, a group of people interested in Wolfgang Borchert's work started the International Wolfgang-Borchert Society. This group aims to encourage the study of Borchert's writings around the world.

See also

In Spanish: Wolfgang Borchert para niños

• Wolfgang Borchert Theater

Sources

• Wolf, Rudolf. 1984. Wolfgang Borchert. Werk und Wirkung. Bouvier Verlag. Bonn.
• Gumtau, Helmut. 1969. Wolfgang Borchert. Colloquium Verlag. Berlin.
• Rühmkopf, Peter. 1961. Wolfgang Borchert. Rowohlt. Reinbeck bei Hamburg.