Günther Weisenborn
Weisenborn, Günther, (Velbert, Rhineland, 1902-69, Berlin), studied medicine, drama, Germanistik, and philosophy in Cologne and Bonn and began to work as a stage producer. He first made his name as a playwright with his anti-war play U-Boot S 4 (1928), which was followed by SOS oder Die Arbeiter aus Jersey. Ein Passionsspiel aus unserer Barbarei (1930). Except for short spells in Argentina he lived from 1928/9 in Berlin, where he was influenced by Brecht (see also Neue Sachlichkeit), collaborating on Die Mutter. His first novel, Barbaren. Roman einer studentischen Tafelrunde (1931), was followed by radio plays (see Hörspiel) and the comedy Warum lacht Frau Balsam? (in collaboration with R. Huelsenbeck), which was banned by the National Socialists after its première in 1933. Using a pseudonym during the next few years, he had an outstanding success with his play Die Neuberin (1935) which, appearing under the name ‘Christian Munck’, deals with Friederike Neuber's opposition to the theatre of Gottsched and his school. Other works include the novel Das Mädchen von Fanö (1937; filmed 1941) and the anti-capitalist Die Furie. Roman aus der Wildnis (1937). From 1939 he was in charge of the productions of the Berlin Staatstheater, moving in 1941 to the ‘Großdeutscher Rundfunk’, where he used his position in the department of information to support the Resistance group Die rote Kapelle. Convicted of treason in the following year, he spent the remainder of the war in a prison in Luckau.
In post-war Germany he resumed his work for the theatre, was co-founder of the Hebbel-Theater, Berlin, editor of the satirical periodical Ulenspiegel (1945-7), and in the early 1950s the chief producer of the Kammerspiele in Hamburg, where he founded the Deutsche Akademie der darstellenden Künste. His writing includes the play Die Illegalen (1946), commemorating, like his film Der 20. Juli (1956), the Resistance Movements. In the mainly autobiographical prose pieces of Memorial (1948) he juxtaposes accounts of his imprisonment (‘Haftstück’) with peace-time memories (‘Privatstück’). In 1953 he published the volume Der lautlose Aufstand. Bericht über die Widerstandsbewegung des deutschen Volkes 1933-1945, based mainly on material collected by Ricarda Huch. His Göttinger Kantate, premièred by E. Piscator, is a documentary revue against nuclear armaments, Am Yangtse steht ein Riese auf (1961) a book on his travels to China, where he met Mao. Two of his novels are devoted to a critical review of conditions in West Germany: Auf Sand gebaut (1956) and Der Verfolger. Die Niederschrift des Daniel Brendel (1961, filmed in 1974). Der gespaltene Ho-rizont. Niederschriften eines Außenseiters (1964) is auto-biographical. In the early 1960s he was co-author of the script for the second film version (1963) of Die Dreigroschenoper.
His plays appeared as Theater (4 vols.) in 1964-7; Einmal laß mich traurig sein. Briefe, Lieder, Kassiber 1942-1943, ed. H. D. Tschörtner in collaboration with Joy Weisenborn, in 1984.
