Günther Krupkat (5 July 1905,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

14 April 1990,

) was a German fiction writer, known as one of the leading

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 ...

writers of

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Biography

Born in

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia ( Shostakovich's 11th Symphony ...

, Krupkat studied engineering before dropping out for lack of means to support himself. He wrote his first novel, ''Od'', at age 19, having been inspired by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

writer

Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (russian: link= no, Алексей Николаевич Толстой; – 23 February 1945) was a Russian writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels. Despite having ...

's 1923 novel ''

Aelita ''Aelita'' (russian: Аэли́та, ), also known as ''Aelita: Queen of Mars'', is a 1924 Soviet silent science fiction film directed by Yakov Protazanov and produced at the Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio. It was based on Alexei Tolstoy's 1923 ...

''. Its publication in pre-war Germany was rejected due to the leftist ideas propounded by Krupkat. Active in the Communist Resistance against the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, Krupkat fled to

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

at the close of the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

. He settled in the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

(East Germany) after the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

' defeat, writing

stories, screenplays, and novels, first fully devoting himself to a writer's career in the mid-1950s, following a decade of working as an editor. Krupkat became chairman of the East German Writers Union's Science Fiction Working Group upon its formation in 1972. He was succeeded by Heiner Rank in 1978.Simon, Erik, and Olaf R. Spittel. ''Science-fiction: Personalia zu einem Genre in der DDR''. Berlin: Verlag Das Neue Berlin, 1982. Pp. 25–27.

Works

Novels * 1957: ''Das Schiff der Verlorenen'' * 1958: ''Das Gesicht'' * 1960: ''Die große Grenze'' * 1963: '' Als die Götter starben'' * 1968: '' Nabou'' Stories * 1956: ''Gefangene des ewigen Kreises'' * 1956: ''Die Unsichtbaren'' * 1957: ''Kobalt 60'' * 1957: ''Nordlicht über Palmen'' * 1969: ''Insel der Angst'' * 1974: ''Das Duell'' * 1975: ''Bazillus phantastikus'' * 1975: ''Der Mann vom Anti''

References

Bibliography

* Fritzsche, Sonja. ''Science Fiction Literature in East Germany''. Oxford; New York: Lang, 2006. * Neumann, Hans-Peter. ''Die grosse illustrierte Bibliographie der Science Fiction in der DDR''. Berlin: Shayol, 2002. * Steinmüller, Angela and Karlheinz. ''Vorgriff auf das Lichte Morgen''. Passau: Erster Deutscher Fantasy Club, 1995. {{DEFAULTSORT:Krupkat, Gunther 1905 births 1990 deaths Writers from Berlin Communists in the German Resistance East German writers German communists German science fiction writers German male screenwriters German male writers Film people from Berlin 20th-century German screenwriters