Theo Harych

Theo Harych

Bodo Uhse and Theo Harych
Born Theo Harych
(1903-12-19)19 December 1903
Doruchow, Posen, German Empire
Died 22 February 1958(1958-02-22) (aged 54)
East Berlin, East Germany
Occupation Writer
Nationality German
Citizenship East German
Period 1950s
Notable awards Heinrich Mann Prize
1954

Theo Harych (19 December 1903 – 22 February 1958) was a German writer.

Life

Born in Doruchow, Province of Posen, Theo Harych was the son of a farmer. From 1910 to 1918, he worked as a herder and servant in Silesia. He stopped attending a Volksschule after 1916. He went to Central Germany in 1919 where he worked in a sugar factory and in a coal mine in Mücheln. As a member of the Miner's Labor Union, he participated in the Mitteldeutschen Aufstand (Central German Rebellion) in the Gieseltal (Giesel Valley). He attended a driving and servant school in Halle (Saale), subsequently he was a journeyman in Saxony on the way. For a short time, he was a valet of an Adel though would be instantly dismissed, admittedly after five minutes, because of Communist propaganda. He followed with a refreshed journey and a time as a driver in Berlin. From 1930 to 1936, Harych was unemployed and worked as a locksmith from 1936. He drove deliveries with one of his own panel van from 1936 to 1944. He would indeed be drafted to the Wehrmacht in 1944 however fared poorly because of ear problems. He was assigned to "Ear Company" and soon released.

After World War II, he worked renewed as a valet in East Berlin. His writing talent would be discovered in 1950 and enable him an existence as a freelance writer. Harych was a member of the Deutscher Schriftstellerverband and received the 1954 Heinrich Mann Prize. He died of suicide in Berlin in 1958.

Theo Harych published besides a children's book, 3 novels of which Hinter den schwartzen Wäldern (Behind the Black Forests) describes Harych's poor childhood. Themes of In Geiseltal are misery and rebellion in the Central German coal mines until the insurrection of 1921. The third novel, Im Namen des Volkes (In the Name of the People), is the documentary of the assimilation of the "Fall of Jakubowski one of the authentic miscarriage of justice whose victim had been a polish farm worker in the 1920s.

Theo Harych indeed personified that early East German cultured image of the writing worker however surpassed as a storied natural talent and in his documentary realism the most representative of the stately patronage of proletarian literature.

Works

Literature

Serke, J.: Zu Hause im Exil (To the House in Exile). München, Zürich 1998

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