The Modern Novel

Biography

Uwe Johnson was born in Kammin, near Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) in 1934. Towards the end of the war his family had to flee to Mecklenburg, while his father was deported to Ukraine, where he died in 1948. In 1946 they moved to Güstrow in Mecklenburg (home of the expressionist artist Ernst Barlach), where Johnson attended school. He continued his education in Rostock, where he was suspended for not supporting the condemnation of the Junge Gemeinde (a religious youth organization). He was reinstated and then continued his studies in Leipzig. He wrote his first novel (Ingrid Babendererde) but the East German publishers he sent it to all rejected it. His professor, Hans Mayer, sent it to Peter Suhrkamp. The novel was only published after Johnson’s death.

Johnson’s mother and sister left East Germany but Johnson stayed, working as a translator. Only on publication of Mutmassungen über Jakob (Speculations about Jakob) by Suhrkamp did he go to the West. His subsequent writings reflect the problems of a divided Germany. He got into a dispute with the writer Hermann Kesten because, Kesten maintains, Johnson said the building of the Berlin Wall was justified. The statement was repeated in parliament by foreign minister Brentano. Johnson denied the charge. Johnson married Elisabeth Schmidt in 1962 and in 1966 they moved to New York, where he worked as an editor of books for schools. In 1968 they returned to Berlin where he started work on his massive magnum opus Jahrestage (Anniversaries). In 1974 they moved to the English seaside town of Sheerness. He separated from his wife, convinced that she was spying on him for the Czech and East German police. He was found dead in 1984 in his house in Sheerness, from a heart attack.

Other links

Uwe Johnson
Uwe Johnson (in German)
Uwe Johnson (in German)
Uwe Johnson (in German)
Uwe Johnson zerstörte deutsche Heiligenbildchen (in German)
Uwe Johnson-Gesellschaft (in German)