Peter Hacks (21 March 1928 – 28 August 2003) was a German playwright, author, and essayist. Hacks was born in Breslau (Wrocław),

Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( pl, Dolny Śląsk; cz, Dolní Slezsko; german: Niederschlesien; szl, Dolny Ślōnsk; hsb, Delnja Šleska; dsb, Dolna Šlazyńska; Silesian German: ''Niederschläsing''; la, Silesia Inferior) is the northwestern part of the ...

. Displaced by

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Hacks settled in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

in 1947, where he made acquaintance with

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

and

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

. Hacks then followed Brecht to

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...

in 1955. However, a continued cooperation between him and Brecht did not arise. From 1960 Hacks worked as a dramaturge at the Deutsches Theater (DT) in Berlin. When the staging of his play "Die Sorgen und die Macht" (1962) sparked criticism from officials, he gave up his position as a dramaturge at the DT and lived again as a freelance writer. His success on the world stage – most notably with "Ein Gespräch im Hause Stein über den abwesenden Herrn von Goethe" (A Discussion in the Stein Home about the Absent Mr.

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

) – led to his literary acceptance within GDR and West-Germany. Hacks was a communist and supported the East German government's 1976 expatriation of the singer

Wolf Biermann Karl Wolf Biermann (; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song " Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976. Early life Biermann was ...

. His correspondence with the communist historian

Kurt Gossweiler Kurt Gossweiler (November 5, 1917, Stuttgart – May 15, 2017, Berlin) was a German Marxist–Leninist historian and economist specializing in the history and economic structure of fascism. Biography Born in to a communist family, he was a me ...

has been published. He won the

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis The (German Youth Literature Award) is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's and young adult literature. It is Germany's onl ...

. Hacks died in Groß Machnow. Together with his wife Hacks used the pseudonym Saul O’Hara through which they could write and publish boulevard comedies (''Risky Marriage'').

Publications

* With

, in: ''Am Ende verstehen sie es: Politische Schriften 1988–2003''. (Edited by André Thiele.) Berlin: Eulenspiegel, 2005. * '' Der Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin'', fairy-tale, base for an opera by Udo Zimmermann

References

External links

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Peter Hacks
at Internet Off-Broadway Database 1928 births 2003 deaths Writers from Wrocław People from the Province of Lower Silesia East German writers Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Heinrich Mann Prize winners Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany German male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights German-language poets German male poets 20th-century German male writers {{Germany-writer-stub