Fritz Rudolf Fries (19 May 1935 – 17 December 2014) was a German writer and translator.

Life

Fritz Rudolf Fries was born in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

, Spain. His mother was a German of Spanish descent, and his father a German businessman who was shot during the Second World War by Italian partisans. In 1942 the family moved to

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, a city which was heavily bombarded at the end of the war. After studying English and Romance literature under

Werner Krauss Werner Johannes Krauss (''Krauß'' in German; 23 June 1884 – 20 October 1959) was a German stage and film actor. Krauss dominated the German stage of the early 20th century. However, his participation in the antisemitic propaganda film ''Jud S ...

and

Hans Mayer Hans Mayer (19 March 1907 in Cologne – 19 May 2001 in Tübingen; pseudonym: ''Martin Seiler'') was a German literary scholar. Mayer was also a jurist and social researcher and was internationally recognized as a critic, author and musicologist ...

at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig, he became a freelance translator from English, French and Spanish (

Calderón Calderón () is a Spanish and Sefardi occupational surname. It is derived from the Vulgar Latin "''caldaria''" ("cauldron") and refers to the occupation of tinker. Calderón, or Calderon, may refer to: * Alberto Calderón, Argentine mathematician ...

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

, Neruda, Buero Vallejo and others), an interpreter (in Prague and Moscow, and elsewhere) and a writer. In 1964 he travelled to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. He also made his name as editor of a four-volume edition of the works of

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

. From 1960 to 1966 he worked as an assistant with Werner Krauss at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in Berlin. ''Das Luftschiff'' was filmed by

Rainer Simon Rainer Simon (born 11 January 1941) is a German film director and screenwriter. He directed 17 films between 1964 and 2000. His '' How to Marry a King'' (1969) and ''Six Make it Through the World'' (1972) are highly imaginative adaptations of ...

. In 1972 he became a member of the PEN Center of East Germany and shortly afterwards was elected to the presidency. His first novel, ''Der Weg nach Oobliadooh'' ("The Road to Oobliadooh"), was not approved for publication in the GDR, but with the help of

Uwe Johnson Uwe or UWE may refer to * Uwe (given name) * University of the West of England, Bristol * UML-based web engineering * University Würzburg's Experimental miniaturized satellites for space research UWE-1 and UWE-2 * Uwe - Wreck in Blankenese Blank ...

it appeared in West Germany in 1966, under the imprint of the Suhrkamp publishing house. Gabriele Wohmann remarked that "Fries's work belied the stereotype of the technically awkward, thematically constrained, stylistically cautious and staidly narrational East German writer." In 1996 it was revealed that he had worked as an informant for the Ministry for State Security (from 1972 to 1985 under the codename "Pedro Hagen"). As a result, he resigned from many of the associations of which he was a member (PEN, the Academy of Arts in Berlin, Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, and the German Academy for Language and Literature). A semi-autographical novel, ''Alles eines Irrsinns Spiel'', was published in 2010. Fries lived in

Petershagen Petershagen is a town in the Minden-Lübbecke district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies on the Westphalian Mill Route. The core is formed by the districts of Petershagen and Lahde, located opposite each other on the Weser. Geography ...

, Berlin and contributed articles to several daily newspapers until his death in 2014.

Selected works

* ''Der Weg nach Oobliadooh''. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp 1966. * ''Der Fernsehkrieg'' (Short Stories with illustrations by

Nuria Quevedo Nuria Quevedo Teixidó (born 18 March 1938) is a Spanish painter and graphic artist, affiliated with the Communist Party, who has lived in Berlin since age 15. Biography Nuria Quevedo's father, José Quevedo Fernández, was an aviator of the Spa ...

). Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 1969;

Suhrkamp Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010 the ...

, Frankfurt a.M. 1970; VEB Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 1975 (2nd ext. ed.). * ''Das Luftschiff'', Rostock 1974, Piper . * ''Lope de Vega'', Leipzig 1977, Insel 1979 . * ''Alexanders neue Welten'', Berlin and Weimar 1982. * ''Verlegung eines mittleren Reiches'', Berlin 1984. * ''Die Väter im Kino'', Berlin and Weimar 1989. * ''Die Nonnen von Bratislava''. München: Piper Verlag, 1994. . * ''Don Quixote flieht die Frauen oder die apokryphen Abenteuer des Ritters von der traurigen Gestalt''. Berlin-Köpenick: Katzengraben-Presse, 1995. . A limited edition of 999 copies includes work by Manfred Gruber. * ''Im Jahr des Hahns'' (diaries). Leipzig: G. Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1996. . * ''Septembersong'', Hamburg 1997. * ''Der Roncalli-Effekt''. Leipzig: G. Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1999. . * ''Diogenes auf der Parkbank'' (Erinnerungen). Berlin: Verlag Das Neue Berlin, 2002. . * ''Hesekiels Maschine oder Gesang der Engel am Magnetberg''. Berlin: Verlag Das Neue Berlin, 2004. . * ''Blaubarts Besitz''. Leipzig: Faber & Faber, 2005. . * ''Dienstmädchen und Direktricen''. Leipzig: Faber & Faber, 2006. . * ''Alles eines Irrsinns Spiel''. Verlag Faber & Faber, Leipzig 2010. 330 S.

Prizes

Heinrich Mann Prize The Heinrich Mann Prize () is an essay prize that has been awarded since 1953, first by the East German Academy of Arts, then by the Academy of Arts, Berlin. The prize, which comes with a €10,000 purse, is given annually on 27 March, Heinrich Ma ...

of the

Academy of Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

, Berlin, 1979 (with a speech by

Karl Mickel Karl Mickel (12 August 1935 – 20 June 2000) was a German writer. Life Mickel was born in Dresden into a working-class family. There, he attended primary school from 1941 to 1949 and experienced together with his mother the bombing of Dresde ...

) *

Order of Isabella the Catholic The Order of Isabella the Catholic ( es, Orden de Isabel la Católica) is a Spanish civil order and honor granted to persons and institutions in recognition of extraordinary services to the homeland or the promotion of international relations a ...

, 1987 *

Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize The Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize (''Marie Luise Kaschnitz-Preis'') is a German literary prize, awarded approximately every two years by the Tutzing Protestant Academy Evangelische Akademie Tutzing. It recognizes the lifetime achievements of writers ...

, 1988 * Bremen Literature Prize, 1991 * Prize for Literature of the City of Brandenburg, 1991 * War Blind Society Prize for Radio Plays, 1995

Bibliography

* Frauke Bolln: ''Zwischen Beat-Generation und „Ankunftsliteratur“: Fritz Rudolf Fries' Roman „Der Weg nach Oobliaooh“''. Bielefeld: Aisthesis-Verlag, 2006. . * Mirjam Gebauer: ''Der Pikaro im deutschen Roman der 1990er Jahre''. Trier: WTV, 2006. . *

Karsten Kruschel Karsten Kruschel (born 1959 in Havelberg) is a German science fiction writer, essayist and critic, who lives near Leipzig. His best known works are the Deutscher Science Fiction Preis winning novels ''Vilm'' and ''Galdäa''. Some of his short stor ...

: ''Fritz Rudolf Fries''. In:

Erik Simon Erik Simon (born 21 August 1987 in Karl-Marx-Stadt) is a German ski jumper. He came in on 30th place in Kuopio 2009 as his best result in the World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually ...

, Olaf R. Spittel (Hrsg.): ''Die Science-fiction der DDR. Autoren und Werke. Ein Lexikon.'' Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1988, , S. 132–134. * Joachim Walther: ''Sicherungsbereich Literatur. Schriftsteller und Staatssicherheit in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik''. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 1996. .

References

External links

"Der hohe Preis der Reisefreiheit"
von Cornelia Geißler (Berliner Zeitung, 27. November 1996)
Erich Loest: "Wider die Dunkelmänner unserer Zeit", Die Zeit, 13. Juni 2002

provided by the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fries, Fritz Rudolf 1935 births 2014 deaths Writers from Bilbao East German writers Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin 20th-century German translators 20th-century German male writers People of the Stasi German male non-fiction writers