Lutz Rathenow

Lutz Rathenow (born 22 September 1952 in Jena) is a dissident German writer and poet who was haunted by the Secret Police until the German reunification. From then on, his fortunes changed, and he received several literary honors and awards.

Born in Jena, Thuringia, which in 1952 was part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Rathenow studied at the University of Jena after serving in the military. In 1976 he was relegated because he was one of the students who protested against the expatriation of Wolf Biermann, a prominent German singer and songwriter.

Moving to Berlin, Rathenow began to write, but he could not at all start his career as a free-lance writer. Having published his first collection of stories in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Ratenow was arrested in December 1980. This first book of the young author, like many to follow, was considered unflattering to the German Democratic Republic. When released a month later after international protest, Rathenow continued to write satires, sketches and poems, refusing to emigrate. Moreover, the author was in a way acting as a spokesman for dissident writers within the GDR. Inside this country, his works were suppressed by the Ministry of Culture, but circulated privately. Such was the pantomime, Keine Tragödie ("No Tragedy"), cancelled a couple of days before its scheduled performance in Leipzig in 1984.

Despite close surveillance by the notorious Secret Police (Staatssicherheit or Stasi), Rathenow and his friends managed to smuggle manuscripts out to the West to be published there. Outstanding among his books are:

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