Werner Bräunig (May 12, 1934 – August 14, 1976) was a German author. He is best known for his posthumously published novel ''Rummelplatz'' (German for ''"Fairground"''). The novel was to be part of a Communist Party campaign to establish a new kind of working class literature by encouraging talented labourers to write fiction about their everyday lives. Bräunig started work on his only novel ''Rummelplatz'' in 1960. The novel deals with work in the Soviet owned uranium mines of the Wismut AG and covers the time span from the foundation of the GDR in 1949 to the uprising in East Germany on June 17, 1953. Though the novel clearly shows the author's conviction that

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

always ends up in

Fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

and therefore

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

is the only chance for mankind, the preprinted chapters of the book were heavily criticized by the 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...

as defaming the working class and the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Union. In contrast to official propaganda, Bräunig portrayed the Wismut miners not as a kind of working-class elite, but as ordinary people struggling to make a living after World War II, spending their spare time in pubs or at the local fairground ("Rummelplatz") and with little interest in politics. In 2007 the novel was published and nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. An English translation by Samuel P. Willcocks was published in 2015 by Seagull Books. The 2012 film Barbara was partially inspired by the novel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braunig, Werner 1934 births 1976 deaths Writers from Chemnitz Socialist Unity Party of Germany members East German writers German male writers Working-class literature