Werke : Gedichte

by Wolfgang Hilbig, Jörg Bong (Herausgegeben), Jürgen Hosemann (Herausgegeben)

Als Wolfgang Hilbig am 2. Juni 2007 starb, verlor die deutschsprachige Literatur eine einzigartige Stimme. Bis zuletzt gelangen ihm Gedichte von dunkler, träumerischer Schönheit – sie waren der Anfang und das Ende seines Schreibens. Selbst in seinen großen Romanen war der lyrische Ton unüberhörbar. Ausgehend von den Traditionen der Romantik, des Symbolismus, des Expressionismus und geprägt von den Alltagserfahrungen eines Arbeiterlebens in der DDR, schuf er sich seine eigene Sprache: leidenschaftlich und voll brennender Sehnsucht, elegisch, grüblerisch, zärtlich. Es spricht ein Widerständiger und Verletzter, ein »Traumverlorener, ein versprengter Paradiesgänger« (Süddeutsche Zeitung) – es spricht ein Dichter, ein Mensch.

als sie noch jung waren die winde
war ich verworren
und blind und taub
für ihren gesang
jetzt wenn ich das land durchstreife
und nicht mehr weiß
wo ich bin
und nichts mehr wissen will
in meinem herzen
denk ich an die winde
die alt geworden sind

Wolfgang Hilbig

544 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Wolfgang Hilbig was born on 31 August 1941 in the small town of Meuselwitz in Saxony, Germany, about 40 kilometers south of Leipzig. Hilbig’s childhood in Meuselwitz, a target for Allied bombings during World War II and later the site for a thriving brown coal industry (much to the detriment of the environment) during the East German era, has had an influence on much of the writer’s work. Hilbig grew up with his mother and her parents in Meuselwitz, never having known his father, who was reported missing in 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad.

At first Hilbig favoured poetry, but his works
remained unpublished in the GDR. He received attention from the West however, as a result of his poems in the Anthology 'Cries For Help From The Other Side' (1978). His first volume of poetry, Absence (1979) was published by S. Fischer Verlag in Frankfurt am Main. For this, Hilbig was fined.

At the end of the 1970s, Hilbig gave up his day job and began to work exclusively as a writer. With the support of Franz Fühmann, a few of his poems were printed in a GDR newspaper for the first time. His prose anthology, Unterm Neomond (1982) was published by S. Fischer, followed by Stimme Stimme (1983), a prose and poetry anthology published by Reclam in Leipzig

In 1985 Hilbig gained a visa for West Germany valid until 1990. During this time he published not only further poetry and prose, but also his first novel, Eine Uebertragung (1989), which was received well by literary critics.

Even after reunification, the main themes of his work remained the dual-existence of working and writing in the GDR and the search for individuality. His further works include: his second novel, Ich (1993); his collections of short stories, such as Die Arbeit an den Oefen (1994) and Die Kunde von den Bäumen (1996); and his third novel Das Provisorium (2000). Autobiographical themes are often prevalent.

Awards
1983 Hanau Brothers-Grimm-Prize
1989 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize
1993 Brandenburg Literature Prize
1997 Fontane Prize (the Berlin Academy of Arts)
2002 Georg Büchner Prize