Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Childhood, School, Apprenticeship: 1921–1940
- 2 “The Happiest Time of My Life': January–June 1941
- 3 The Eastern Front and Courts-Martial: 1941–1943
- 4 Actor Turned Writer: Jena, Hamburg, and Basel: 1944–1947
- 5 The Poems
- 6 Draussen vor der Tür
- 7 The Short Stories
- 8 The Reception of Borchert's Life and Works
- Conclusion
- Published Works Cited
- Index
1 - Childhood, School, Apprenticeship: 1921–1940
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Childhood, School, Apprenticeship: 1921–1940
- 2 “The Happiest Time of My Life': January–June 1941
- 3 The Eastern Front and Courts-Martial: 1941–1943
- 4 Actor Turned Writer: Jena, Hamburg, and Basel: 1944–1947
- 5 The Poems
- 6 Draussen vor der Tür
- 7 The Short Stories
- 8 The Reception of Borchert's Life and Works
- Conclusion
- Published Works Cited
- Index
Summary
Family Background: The Early Years in Hamburg, 1914–33
WOLFGANG BORCHERT WAS BORN at three o'clock on what his mother later recalled as the most splendid spring morning of 20 May 1921, as the only son of Hertha and Fritz Borchert. At the time of his birth, they were living at 82 Tarpenbekstrasse, in the Hamburg suburb of Eppendorf.
On the morning of his twenty-fifth birthday, Borchert placed a letter at his mother's bedroom door, recalling and embellishing the night of his birth, and wondering whether his attempt to live in this world had failed. At the same time, however, Borchert the writer and optimist shows through:
Heute nacht nach 25 Jahren, früh 3 Uhr, trennen uns nur 6 Meter und eine Wand. Der Himmel rauscht einen wohligen Regen durch das Dunkel auf die Erde, der die Pflanzen im Schlaf vor Lust seufzen macht. Oder weint er Trä nen der Reue, daß er tatenlos schwieg, als ich mich vor 25 Jahren untreu und dumm davonstahl? Hätte ich bleiben sollen? […] Die Trennung ist unwiderruflich. Doch ich muß probieren, die nächsten 25 Jahre nicht restlos zu versagen und zu verzagen. (Unpublished manuscript, WBA)
From an early age, Borchert was prone to illness, catching one disease after another and with his father repeatedly taking him to the doctor. Nevertheless, as his mother was later to recall, despite all their difficulties, the early years of Borchert's life, before he went to school, were the happiest the family experienced.
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- Information
- The Life and Works of Wolfgang Borchert , pp. 9 - 43Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2003