Schaper, Edzard (Ostrovo, Posen, since 1919 Ostrów Wielkopolski, 1908-84, Berne), the son of a military official, began to study music, but, as one of eleven children, had to give up his ambition and go out to work. He was an assistant stage manager for a time and then went to sea as a trawler hand. In 1930 he settled in Estonia and began to write. He later repudiated the three novels (Der letzte Gast, 1927; Die Bekenntnisse des Försters Patrik Doyle, 1928; and Erde über dem Meer, 1934) and reckoned the novel Die Insel Tütarsaar (1934) as his first work. The occupation of Estonia by the Russians in June 1940 put him in a critical position, as sentence of death had been passed on him in absence by both Germans and Russians. He succeeded in escaping to Finland; four years later he was in danger of being handed over to the Russians and fled to Sweden, where he worked on the land and then became secretary to the organization concerned with the welfare of prisoners of war. In 1947 he established a home at Brigue in Switzerland, moving later to Cologne. In 1951 he left the Greek Orthodox and entered the Roman Catholic Church.

Though Die sterbende Kirche appeared in 1935 and Der Henker (later retitled Sie mähten gewappnet die Saaten, 1956) in 1940, most of Schaper's works of fiction belong to the postwar period. Der letzte Advent, a sequel to Die sterbende Kirche, appeared in 1949. The novels Die Freiheit des Gefangenen (1950) and Die Macht der Ohnmächtigen (1951, both set in the time of Napoleon I and later published together as Macht und Freiheit, 1961) deal with the psychological problems of those who exercise power and of those who are victims of its abuse. Der Gouverneur (1954), set in Reval in the 18th c., investigates the scope of conscience. There followed Die letzte Welt (1956), Attentat auf den Mächtigen (1957), Das Tier oder die Geschichte eines Bären, der Oskar hieß (1958), Der vierte König (1961), Am Abend der Zeit (1970), Taurische Spiele (1971), Sperlingsschlacht (1972), Degenhall (1975), and Die Reise unter dem Abendstern (1976).

Schaper also wrote shorter narrative works: Der große offenbare Tag (1950, in which the faith of a village is revived by the fate of a blaspheming Russian soldier), Hinter den Linien (1953, three stories set in the Russo-Finnish war), Die Söhne Hiobs (1962, two stories), Der Aufruhr der Gerechten (1963, described as a Chronik), Dragonergeschichte (1963, a story of the Thirty Years War), Einer trage des anderen Last. Eine Elegie auf den letzten Gepäckträger (1965), and Schicksale und Abenteuer (1968). Gesammelte Erzählungen (1965) contains all stories up to that date. Schaper's theme is almost always conscience in connection with power, responsibility, or freedom. The ubiquitous religious standpoint is unobtrusive. The terse style generates tension.

Schaper's slim dramatic output consists of Der Gefangene der Botschaft (1964), Das Feuer Christi. Leben und Sterben des Johannes Hus in siebzehn dramatischen Szenen (1965), and some radio plays. Other works are Das Leben Jesu (1936) and essays, including Untergang und Verwandlung (1952), Bürger in Zeit und Ewigkeit (1956), Verhüllte Altäre (1962), and Auf der Brücke der Hoffnung (1968). Geschichten aus vielen Leben appeared in 1977.

The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.