Franz Fühmann's literary career is primarily associated with the German Democratic Republic, the adopted homeland which he refused to abandon despite his increasing disillusionment at its failure to develop the “socialism with a human face” to which he was committed. His many-sided creative achievement is however far more substantial than the cliché of the “East German author” suggests, and the dramatic fluctuations in his biography can be seen to exemplify the turbulent era in European history through which he lived.
Franz Peter Fühmann was born on 15 January 1922 in the small town of Rochlitz (Rokytnice nad Jizerou) on the Southern side of the Riesengebirge, the range of mountains which separate what was then the newly created state of Czechoslovakia from a German Reich
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Citation: Tate, Dennis. "Franz Fühmann". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 January 2004; last revised 02 March 2019. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5583, accessed 23 November 2024.]
