Richter, Hans Werner

Richter, Hans Werner 

Born Nov. 12, 1908, in Bansin, on the island of Usedom. West German writer.

Richter was a soldier from 1940 to 1943. From 1943 to 1945 he was a prisoner of war in the USA. He helped found Group 47, an association of progressive West German writers. Richter’s novel The Defeated (1949), translated into many languages, was one of the first important antiwar works of West German literature. The novel Linus Fleck, or the Loss of Honor (1959; Russian translation, 1965) satirically depicted the anti-humane moral atmosphere in West Germany during the period of the “economic miracle.” The short-story collection False Alarm: Stories From Bansin (1970) is based on Richter’s reminiscences of his childhood and youth.

WORKS

Du sollst nicht töten: Roman. Frankfurt am Main-Berlin, 1962.
Menschen in freundlicher Umgebung. Berlin, 1965.
Rache für den Ziegenbock. Vienna-Heidelberg, 1973.
In Russian translation:
Ne ubii. Moscow, 1960.

REFERENCES

Fradkin, I. M. Literatura novoi Germanii, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1961.
Rozhnovskii, S. “Gruppa47.” Voprosy literatury, 1963, no. 3.
Mlechina, I. “Utrachennoe dostoinstvo.” V mire knig, 1966, no. 3.
Suchkov, B. “Politika i literatura.” Literaturnaia gazeta, Feb. 3, 1971.