Heiner Müller
| Heiner Müller | |
|---|---|
Heiner Müller speaking at the Alexanderplatz demonstration in East Berlin (November 4, 1989).
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| Born |
January 9, 1929 Eppendorf, Saxony, Germany |
| Died | December 30, 1995 (aged 66) Berlin, Germany |
| Occupation |
Dramatist • Theatre director • Dramaturg • Poet • Essayist • Short story writer |
| Genre |
Postdramatic theatre • Non-Aristotelian drama • Dialectical theatre • Poetry • Short stories • Interviews |
| Literary movement |
Postmodern • Postdramatic theatre |
| Notable works |
Hamletmachine The Mission Quartet |
| Spouse |
Rosemarie Fritzsche (1951–1953, 1953–1954) Inge Müller (1954–1966) Ginka Tscholakowa (1967–1986) Brigitte Maria Mayer (1992–1995) |
| Website | |
| www |
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Heiner Müller (German: [haɪnɐ mʏlɐ]; January 9, 1929 – December 30, 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. Described as "the theatre's greatest living poet" since Samuel Beckett, Müller is arguably the most important German dramatist of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdramatic theatre.
Müller was born in Eppendorf, Saxony. He joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) in 1947 and began serving for the German Writers' Association (Deutscher Schriftsteller-Verband, DSV) in 1954. Müller became one of the most important dramatists of the German Democratic Republic and won the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1959 and the Kleist Prize in 1990.
His relationship with the East German state began to deteriorate, however, with his drama Die Umsiedlerin (The Resettler Woman) which was censored in 1961 after only one performance. Müller was banned from the Writers' Association in the same year. The East German government remained wary of Müller in subsequent years, preventing the premiere of Der Bau (Construction Site) in 1965 and censoring his Mauser in the early 1970s. Yet despite these hardships, Müller's work began to gain popularity both in West Germany and internationally at this time. Many of his best-known plays from this period were premiered in the West: this includes Germania Death in Berlin, which was first performed in 1978 at the Munich Kammerspiele. Heiner Müller himself directed a production of The Mission (Der Auftrag) in Bochum in 1982. In Paris, Jean Jourdheuil directed the world premiere of Hamletmachine (Die Hamletmaschine) in 1979. English translations, first by Helen Fehervary and Marc Silberman, then by Carl Weber, introduced Müller to the English speaking world in the mid- and late 1970s; Müller's controversial play Mauser was first performed in 1975 in Austin, Texas.
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