Dieter Noll
Encyclopedia
Dieter Noll was a German
writer
. His best known work is the two volume novel Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt from the early 1960s which had sold over two million copies by his death.
, Saxony
to a pharmacist
. His mother, who was half Jewish, suffered from repression after the Nuremberg Laws
were enacted in Nazi Germany
. Noll attended an Oberschule before being drafted as a Luftwaffenhelfer
, or assistant in the Nazi air force. Noll served as Luftwaffe support personnel in the Schweren Heimatflakbatterie 210 in Borna district of Chemnitz
, though at the end of 1944 he became a soldier in the Wehrmacht
. Towards the end of the war, he was captured as prisoner of war
by the Americans. After his release, he took his Abitur
, or school-leaving certificate, in Chemnitz. He began a study
of art history
, philosophy
and German
at the University of Jena in 1948. After 1950 he lived in Berlin
as a contributing editor
of the Bodo Uhse
published newspaper Aufbau and an employee of the socialist Neues Deutschland
. From 1956 onwards, he worked as an author
. Noll lived in Köigs Wusterhausen, where he also retired.
Noll belonged to the Communist Party of Germany
after 1946. From 1964 to 1967, he was a member of the SED Bezirk (district) of the party's Berlin leadership. Because of his faithfulness to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
, Noll resisted the protest with which numerous East German authors had reacted to the naturalization
of Wolf Biermann
after 1976. In May 1979 Noll described in an open letter
to Erich Honecker
the authors Stefan Heym
, Joachim Seyppel and Rolf Schneider as "kaputte Typen" (broken types) who, allegedly, were turning their craving for admiration into no lesser an evil than an actual class
enemy might have been. These questionable letters helped bring about exclusion of new authors from the Schriftstellerverband of East Germany in June 1979.
Perhaps most notably, Dieter Noll reported in the early 1950s about the building phase of East Germany. His main work is the two-volume autobiographical
ly shaped novel
Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt. In the first volume, Holt's development, through Nazism
, shaped candidates for the Luftwaffenhelfer and Wehrmacht to the military prison. The reader can follow Holt's beginning doubts by the end of the Third Reich. The second volume portrays the difficult development of a Wehrmacht soldier during the beginnings of Socialism
. The work has been published, selling two million copies. The first volume was filmed and integrated into the East German school curriculum.
Dieter Noll was a member of the Schriftstellerverband (Writer's League) of East Germany beginning in 1954, and from 1963 to 1966 was acting chairman of the organization's Berlin chapter. He belonged to the Akademie der Künste
in East Berlin
after 1969. He received the following awards: the 1955 Literature Prize of the Free German Trade Union Federation
(FDGB), the 1961 Heinrich Mann Prize
, the 1963 and 1979 National Prize of East Germany
, Second Class, the 1964 Johannes R. Brecher Medal in Gold as well as the 1979 Art Prize of the FDGB.
His son Hans, born in 1954, goes by Chaim Noll and lives as an Israeli writer. Dieter Noll died in the night of February 6 of cancer in Zeuthen.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. His best known work is the two volume novel Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt from the early 1960s which had sold over two million copies by his death.
Life
Dieter Noll was born in RiesaRiesa
Riesa is a town in the district of Meißen in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is located at the river Elbe, approx. 40 km northwest of Dresden.The world's first 110 kV power line was inaugurated between Riesa and Lauchhammer in 1912....
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
to a pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
. His mother, who was half Jewish, suffered from repression after the Nuremberg Laws
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
were enacted in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. Noll attended an Oberschule before being drafted as a Luftwaffenhelfer
Luftwaffenhelfer
Luftwaffenhelfer are terms commonly used for German students deployed as child soldiers during World War II....
, or assistant in the Nazi air force. Noll served as Luftwaffe support personnel in the Schweren Heimatflakbatterie 210 in Borna district of Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
, though at the end of 1944 he became a soldier in the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
. Towards the end of the war, he was captured as prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
by the Americans. After his release, he took his Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
, or school-leaving certificate, in Chemnitz. He began a study
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
of art history
History of art
The History of art refers to visual art which may be defined as any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions or, in general, a worldview...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and German
German studies
German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents, and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German history, and German politics in addition to the...
at the University of Jena in 1948. After 1950 he lived in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
as a contributing editor
Contributing editor
A contributing editor is a magazine job title that varies in responsibilities. Most often, a contributing editor is a freelancer who has proven ability and readership draw. The contributing editor regularly contributes articles to the publication but does not actually edit articles, and the title...
of the Bodo Uhse
Bodo Uhse
Bodo Uhse was a German writer, journalist and political activist. He was recognised as one of the most prominent authors in East Germany.-Early years:...
published newspaper Aufbau and an employee of the socialist Neues Deutschland
Neues Deutschland
Neues Deutschland is a national German daily newspaper. It was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , which governed the German Democratic Republic , and as such served as one of the party's most important organs...
. From 1956 onwards, he worked as an author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. Noll lived in Köigs Wusterhausen, where he also retired.
Noll belonged to the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
after 1946. From 1964 to 1967, he was a member of the SED Bezirk (district) of the party's Berlin leadership. Because of his faithfulness to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
, Noll resisted the protest with which numerous East German authors had reacted to the naturalization
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
of Wolf Biermann
Wolf Biermann
Karl Wolf Biermann is a German singer-songwriter and former East German dissident.-Early life:Biermann's father, who worked on the Hamburg docks, was a German Jew and a member of the German Resistance....
after 1976. In May 1979 Noll described in an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
to Erich Honecker
Erich Honecker
Erich Honecker was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 until 1989, serving as Head of State as well from Willi Stoph's relinquishment of that post in 1976....
the authors Stefan Heym
Stefan Heym
Helmut Flieg was a German-Jewish writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym. He lived in the United States between 1935 and 1952, before moving back to the part of his native Germany which was, from 1949–1990, German Democratic Republic...
, Joachim Seyppel and Rolf Schneider as "kaputte Typen" (broken types) who, allegedly, were turning their craving for admiration into no lesser an evil than an actual class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
enemy might have been. These questionable letters helped bring about exclusion of new authors from the Schriftstellerverband of East Germany in June 1979.
Perhaps most notably, Dieter Noll reported in the early 1950s about the building phase of East Germany. His main work is the two-volume autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
ly shaped novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt. In the first volume, Holt's development, through Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, shaped candidates for the Luftwaffenhelfer and Wehrmacht to the military prison. The reader can follow Holt's beginning doubts by the end of the Third Reich. The second volume portrays the difficult development of a Wehrmacht soldier during the beginnings of Socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
. The work has been published, selling two million copies. The first volume was filmed and integrated into the East German school curriculum.
Dieter Noll was a member of the Schriftstellerverband (Writer's League) of East Germany beginning in 1954, and from 1963 to 1966 was acting chairman of the organization's Berlin chapter. He belonged to the Akademie der Künste
Akademie der Künste
The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
in East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
after 1969. He received the following awards: the 1955 Literature Prize of the Free German Trade Union Federation
Free German Trade Union Federation
The Free German Trade Union Federation, in German Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund , was the trade union federation in East Germany. It was part of the National Front and had representatives in the Volkskammer....
(FDGB), the 1961 Heinrich Mann Prize
Heinrich Mann Prize
The Heinrich Mann Prize is a literary award given annually by the Berlin Academy of Art . The prize given for works with socially critical aspects in a character that would honor Heinrich Mann...
, the 1963 and 1979 National Prize of East Germany
National Prize of East Germany
The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic was an award of the German Democratic Republic given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, and other meritorious achievement...
, Second Class, the 1964 Johannes R. Brecher Medal in Gold as well as the 1979 Art Prize of the FDGB.
His son Hans, born in 1954, goes by Chaim Noll and lives as an Israeli writer. Dieter Noll died in the night of February 6 of cancer in Zeuthen.
Works
- Neues vom lieben närrischen Nest, Leipzig 1952
- Die Dame Perlon und andere Reportagen, Berlin 1953
- Sonne ・er den Seen, Heitere und bedenkliche Abenteuer eines Schleppkahnpassagiers, Berlin 1954
- Mutter der Tauben, Berlin 1955
- Mecklenburgische Landschaft, Dresden 1958 (together with Renate Rösing and Roger Rösing)
- Die Abenteuer des Werner HoltDie Abenteuer des Werner HoltDie Abenteuer des Werner Holt is a novel in two parts by East German author Dieter Noll. The first tomb was released at 1960 and the second in 1963. Noll won the National Prize of East Germany for the book, and it sold some two million copies. The novel was incorporated into the country's school...
, Berlin- 1. Roman einer Jugend, 1960
- 2. Roman einer Heimkehr, 1963
- Kippenberg, Novel, Berlin and Weimar 1979
- In Liebe leben, Poems 1962・982, Berlin and Weimar 1985
Editorial work
- Kisch-Kalender, Berlin 1955 (together with F. C. WeiskopfFranz Carl WeiskopfFranz Carl Weiskopf was a German-speaking writer. Born in Prague, he was often referred to as F. C. Weiskopf, he also used the pseudonyms Petr Buk, Pierre Buk and F. W. L. Kovacs. He died in Berlin....
)
Literature
- Elzbieta Glanc-Boteva: Die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Faschismus in der DDR-Literatur, Berlin 1979
- Bernd Schick: Persönlichkeitskonzeption und Roman, Berlin 1981
- Martina Langermann: Die Herausforderung eines Gegenstandes, Greifswald 1987
External links
- Literature by and on Dieter Noll in the catalog of the German National LibraryGerman National LibraryThe German National Library is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany...
- Dieter Noll at imdb
- Wer war wer in der DDR? Dieter Noll (Who was who in East Germany? Dieter Noll) by the Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-DiktaturBundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-DiktaturThe Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur is a government-funded organisation established in 1998 by the German parliament.Its mandate is to assess the history of the socialist regime of the German Democratic Republic , and its impact on the now reunified Germany.As its logo, the...
- Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt oder: Mein Jugendfreund Dieter Noll (The Adventure of Werner Holt or My Childhood Friend Dieter Noll)
- Dieter Noll gestorben (Dieter Noll died) Mitteldeutscher RundfunkMitteldeutscher RundfunkMitteldeutscher Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt...
February 6, 2008 - Das Ende des Werner Holt (The End of Werner Holt) article by Torsten Harmsen in the Berliner ZeitungBerliner ZeitungThe Berliner Zeitung, founded in 1945, is a German center-left daily newspaper based in Berlin, published by Berliner Verlag. It is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since unification. In 2003, the Berliner was Berlin's largest subscription newspaper—the weekend...
from February 7, 2008