Carl Amery (9 April 1922 – 24 May 2005), the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of Christian Anton Mayer, was a German

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and environmental activist. Born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, he studied at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

. He was a participant of

Gruppe 47 Gruppe 47 (Group 47) was a group of participants in German writers' meetings, invited by Hans Werner Richter between 1947 and 1967. The meetings served the dual goals of literary criticism as well as the promotion of young, unknown authors. In a de ...

. He died in Munich. Amery won the Deutscher Fantasy Preis in 1996.

Personal life

Son of art historian Anton Mayer-Pfannholz, in his childhood he predominantly lived in

Passau Passau (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's popu ...

and

Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising ''Landkreis'' (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the Is ...

. At Passau he attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium Passau, at Freising the Dom-Gymnasium. Both cities left traces in his work. Passau appears in his novels ''Der Wettbewerb'' and ''Der Untergang der Stadt Passau''. Freising appears in his novel ''Das Geheimnis der Krypta''. He was a scholarship student of and studied

Philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

and at

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

. He was drafted into the army in 1941. In 1943 he became a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

in the

Tunisian campaign The Tunisian campaign (also known as the Battle of Tunisia) was a series of battles that took place in Tunisia during the North African campaign of the Second World War, between Axis and Allied forces from 17 November 1942 to 13 May 1943. The ...

. He returned to Munich in 1946 and resumed his studies in

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

. He began to write, starting with short stories under the name Chris Mayer. Then he choose the pseudonymous Carl Amery, Amery being an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

of Mayer. He died of

emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...

on May 24, 2005 and was buried at

Ostfriedhof (Munich) The Ostfriedhof (''Eastern Cemetery'') in Munich, situated in the district of Obergiesing, was established in 1821 and is still in use. It contains an area of more than 30 hectares and approximately 34,700 burial plots. The buildings were const ...

May 30, 2005.

Work

In 1954 Amery's first novel ''Der Wettbewerb'' was published. In 1958, now a member of the writers' association

, his novel ''Die große Deutschlandtour'' established his reputation as a

satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Under Contemporary, 1930-1960 ...

. In 1963 his publications ''Die Kapitulation oder Deutscher Katholizismus heute'' and ''Das Ende der Vorsehung. Die gnadenlosen Folgen des Christentums'' revealed another side of his work. He allotted the global

ecocide Ecocide is human impact on the environment causing mass destruction to that environment. Ten nations have codified ecocide as a crime. Activities that might constitute ecocide in these nations include substantially damaging or destroying ecos ...

to Christianity and that predestined him as thought leader of political ecology. Further publications, particularly ''Die ökologische Chance'', and his personal engagement emphasised this leadership. He was an early member of

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

, and in 1980 founded the independent

E. F. Schumacher Ernst Friedrich Schumacher (16 August 1911 – 4 September 1977) was a German-British statistician and economist who is best known for his proposals for human-scale, decentralised and appropriate technologies.Biography on the inner dustjacket ...

society. From 1967 to 1971 he was the director of the Munich Municipal Library . In 1974 he turned to

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

. For a "high literature" author an unusual step, influenced in particular by

G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...

. His SF novels were '' Das Königsprojekt'' (1974), ''Der Untergang der Stadt Passau'' (1975) and ''An den Feuern der Leyermark'' (1979). In the view of the scholar of German environmental literature, Axel Goodbody, ''Der Untergang der Stadt Passau'' skilfully dramatises ecology through the medium of science fiction. Two further novels address fantasy and bavarian spirituality: ''Die Wallfahrer'' (1986) and ''Geheimnis der Krypta'' (1990). Goodbody comments that these have a more complex structure than his earlier science fiction, and are more elaborately

intertextual Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text, either through deliberate compositional strategies such as quotation, allusion, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche or parody,Gerard Genette (1997) ''Paratexts'p.18/ref>H ...

. In his view, Amery's "entertaining use of the mechanism of time travel, his play with fiction and historical reality, his colourful juxtaposition of competing genre forms and linguistic registers, and his idiosyncratic use of metaphor, allusion and quotation belie a deeply serious underlying message." In ''Geheimnis der Krypta'', as in ''An den Feuern der Leyermark'' or ''Das Königsprojekt'', Amery, like e.g. L. Neil Smith, discussed the effect of minor changes in specific historic circumstances on changing overall history. He won the Deutscher Fantasy Preis in 1996. From 1985 onwards his collected works were published as single releases by of Munich. In 2001 Amery stated in an interview that he would not publish any novels for health reasons.

Novels and short stories

Essays

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amery, Carl 1922 births 2005 deaths Writers from Munich Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German science fiction writers All-German People's Party politicians Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Alliance 90/The Greens politicians Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Catholic University of America faculty Burials at the Ostfriedhof (Munich) German male writers Deutscher Fantasy Preis winners