Karl-Herbert Scheer (19 June 1928 in

Harheim Harheim () is a borough (''Ortsbezirk'') of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is a possible birthplace of the Minnesinger (; "love song") was a tradition of lyric- and song-writing in Germany and Austria that flourished in the Middle High Germ ...

(now part of

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

) – 15 September 1991) was a German

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 uni ...

writer, usually credited as K. H. Scheer. Scheer was born in the Hessian town of Harheim in 1928. Towards the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he began training as a marine engineer, but the war ended before he was called to active service. After the war, he started working on science fiction novels. His novel ''Stern A funkt Hilfe'' ("Star A distress call"), which started his successful career in German science fiction, was possibly first published in serialised form in 1948 (sources differ), but certainly in 1952 as a library edition hardcover. Scheer created the science fiction series "ZbV", which ran from 1958 to 1980. In 1960 he joined forces with

Walter Ernsting Walter Ernsting (13 June 1920 – 15 January 2005) was a German science fiction and fantasy author who mainly published under the pseudonym Clark Darlton. He grew up in Koblenz and was drafted into the German Wehrmacht shortly after the beginn ...

(under the pen name Clark Dalton). Together, they developed the

Perry Rhodan ''Perry Rhodan'' is a West German/ German space opera franchise, named after its hero. It commenced in 1961 and has been ongoing for decades, written by an ever-changing team of authors. Having sold approximately two billion copies (in novel ...

series, which has since become the world's largest science fiction series, with uninterrupted weekly publication of a new novel/novella since ''Unternehmen Stardust'' in 1961, and a circulation exceeding 1.5 billion volumes. Scheer wrote over 70 of the novels in the series, as well as the synopses for the first ca. 650 volumes, before passing on the role as lead author to

William Voltz William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

. He also developed the concept for Perry Rhodan's sibling series ''Atlan'', which published 850 instalments between 1969 and 1988. In the 1970s, health issues caused him to withdraw from ''Perry Rhodan'', but continued to work on other projects. He returned to his biggest creation in the 1980s. Scheer died in 1991 at the age of 63 in

Friedrichsdorf Friedrichsdorf () is a town of the Hochtaunuskreis, some north of Frankfurt am Main in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Friedrichsdorf is located in the Taunus area, ranking third among the Hochtaunuskreis boroughs after Bad Homburg vor der ...

Science fiction

* ''Pirates in between Mars and Earth'' (1952, Arthur Moewig)

References

External links

*
K. H. Scheer on Perrypedia
1928 births 1991 deaths Writers from Frankfurt German science fiction writers German speculative fiction editors Science fiction editors 20th-century German novelists German male novelists 20th-century German male writers {{sf-writer-stub