Johannes Bobrowski
Johannes Bobrowski (originally Johannes Konrad Bernhard Bobrowski; 9 April 1917 – 2 September 1965) was a German lyric poet, narrative writer, adaptor and essayist.
Johannes Bobrowski

OTFW, Berlin · Self-photographed · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1917. · Sovetsk.
- Died
- 1965. · East Berlin.
- Nationality
- German Democratic Republic.
- Occupation
- military personnel, poet, translator, literary editor, writer, editing staff and narrator.
- Fields
- prose.
- Honours
- Heinrich Mann Prize, Charles Veillon prize in the German language and F.-C.-Weiskopf-Preis.
- Languages
- German.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Johannes Bobrowski (originally Johannes Konrad Bernhard Bobrowski; 9 April 1917 – 2 September 1965) was a German lyric poet, narrative writer, adaptor and essayist.
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Note VALÉORINE
Johannes Bobrowski (1917–1965) was an editing staff, literary editor and military personnel, among other activities, a national of German Democratic Republic. The editing staff was born in Sovetsk and died in East Berlin. Johannes Bobrowski worked in Berlin.
The work spans prose. Languages used include German. Honours include Charles Veillon prize in the German language, F.-C.-Weiskopf-Preis and Heinrich Mann Prize.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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gnd · 1091611157 · wikidata · Q77438 · wikipedia · Johannes Bobrowski
In this article
Life
Life
Bobrowski was born on 9 April 1917 in Tilsit in East Prussia. In 1925, he moved first to Rastenburg, then in 1928 on to Königsberg, where he attended the Gymnasium. One of his teachers was Ernst Wiechert. In 1937, he started a degree in art history at the Humboldt University in Berlin. As a member of the Confessing Church, Bobrowski had contact with the German resistance against National Socialism. He was a lance corporal for the entire Second World War in Poland, France and the Soviet Union. In 1943 he married Johanna Buddrus. From 1945 to 1949 Bobrowski was imprisoned by the Soviet Union, where he spent time working in a coal mine. On his release, he returned home to his family in the suburban Berlin district of Friedrichshagen, in the Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. He worked as an editor, first for the Altberliner Verlag, a children's publisher run by Lucie Grosner, and then, from 1959 on, for the Union Verlag publishing house. Bobrowski's work was influenced by his knowledge of Eastern European landscapes and of the German, Baltic, and Slavic cultures and languages, combined with ancient myths. His first poems were published during the war, in 1944, in the Munich-based journal Das innere Reich. In 1960 he read his poems at a meeting in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, of the influential West German literary association Group 47 (Gruppe 47). The following year his first book of collected poems, Sarmatische Zeit (Sarmatian Times), was published in both West and East Germany. After having missed the fall 1961 meeting of the Group 47, since it took place just after the building of the Berlin Wall, he was able to attend the subsequent meeting, held in October 1962 at the Wannsee, in West Berlin. On that occasion he read seven poems from those that would later appear in his collection Wetterzeichen (Weather signs), and was awarded the group's prestigious literary prize. In 1964, Bobrowski became a member of the PEN Club. Bobrowski died as a result of a perforated appendix in East Berlin on 2 September 1965, and was buried in the Friedrichshagen cemetery. Since 1992, the Foundation for Prussian Maritime Trade (Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung) has donated funds towards the Johannes Brobrowski Medal.
Literary works
Literary works
Sarmatische Zeit (The Land of Sarmatia), poems, 1961 Schattenland Ströme (Shadowland), poems, 1962 Levins Mühle, 34 Sätze über meinen Großvater (Levin's Mill,34 Stories About My Grandfather) novel, 1964 Boehlendorff und Mäusefest, Short stories, 1965 Litauische Claviere (Lithuanian Pianos), novel, 1966 Wetterzeichen (Weathersigns), poems, 1967 Der Mahner" (The Admonisher), short stories, 1967 translated by Marc Linder into English with "Boehlendorff und Mausefest" as "I Taste Bitterness" in 1970 Im Windgesträuch (In the windy wilderness), poems chosen by Bobrowski's literary executor, 1970
Translations into English
Translations into English
Shadow Land, Selected poems, translated by Ruth Mead & Matthew Mead, Donald Carroll, 1966 Levin's Mill, Novel, translated by Janet Cropper, Calder & Boyars, 1970 Johannes Bobrowski & Horst Bienek, Selected poems, translated by Ruth Mead & Matthew Mead, Penguin, 1971 From the Rivers, A second selection of poems, translated by Ruth & Matthew Mead, Anvil, 1975 Shadow Lands, re-edited version of Shadow Land and From the Rivers with an introduction by Michael Hamburger, Anvil, 1984 Darkness and a Little Light, Stories, translated Leila Vennewitz, New Directions, 1994
Opera
Opera
Levins Mühle (Levin's Mill) by Udo Zimmermann, premiere in 1973, produced by Harry Kupfer
About Bobrowski and his work
About Bobrowski and his work
Dietmar Albrecht, Andreas Degen et al. (eds): Unverschmerzt. Johannes Bobrowski – Leben und Werk. Munich 2004. Andreas Degen: Bildgedächtnis. Zur poetischen Funktion der Sinneswahrnehmung im Prosawerk Johannes Bobrowskis. Berlin 2004. Sabine Egger: Dialog mit dem Fremden. Erinnerung an den "europäischen Osten" in der Lyrik Johannes Bobrowskis. Würzburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-8260-3952-2 Eberhard Haufe: Bobrowski-Chronik. Daten zu Leben und Werk. Würzburg 1994. Christoph Meckel: Erinnerung an Johannes Bobrowski. Munich, Vienna 1989. Bernd Leistner: Johannes Bobrowski – Studien und Interpretationen. Berlin 1981 Gerhard Rostin (ed.): Ahornallee 26 oder Epitaph für Johannes Bobrowski. Stuttgart 1978. ISBN 3-421-01831-6 Gerhard Rostin (ed.) Johannes Bobrowski – Selbstzeugnisse und neue Beiträge über sein Werk. Berlin 1975 Gerhard Wolf: Beschreibung eines Zimmers – 15 Kapitel über Johannes Bobrowski. Berlin 1975, Stuttgart 1972 Gerhard Wolf: Johannes Bobrowski – Leben und Werk. Berlin 1967 A more extensive bibliography can be found on (in German) Die Johannes Bobrowski Gesellschaft e.V.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1917
Johannes Bobrowski was born on 1 January 1917.
1965
Johannes Bobrowski died on 2 September 1965.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Sovetsk.
Birth place
East Berlin.
Death place
Films
Levins Mühle (Levin's Mill), filmed in 1980 by Horst Seemann for DEFA film studios, with Erwin Geschonnek, Christian Grashof and Katja Paryla. Grüsse aus Sarmatien für den Dichter Johannes Bobrowski (Greetings from Sarmatia for the Poet Johannes Bobrowski),1973 – Short film by Volker Koepp
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q77438: Johannes Bobrowski
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Johannes Bobrowski”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Johannes Bobrowski, 1917–1965, 2023
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2023
Prizes
Alma Johanna Koenig Prize, 1962 "Group 47" prize, 1962 Heinrich Mann Prize, 1965, for Levins Mühle (Levin's Mill) International Charles Veillon Prize, 1965 F. C. Weiskopf Prize, 1967
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Bobrowski, Johannes (1984). Shadow Lands: Selected Poems. London: Anvil Press Poetry.
- 2.Scrase, David (1995). Understanding Johannes Bobrowski. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. Chronology, p. xiii-xvi, and p. 2 (on the family's move to Friedrichshagen in 1937).
- 3.Wieczorek, John (1999). "Johannes Bobrowski und die Gruppe 47." In: Keith Stuart Parkes and John J. White (eds.), The Gruppe 47: Fifty Years on: A Re-Appraisal of its Literary and Political Significance. Amsterdam: Rodopi. p. 213-227.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Johannes Bobrowski, 1917–1965, 2023Crossref registry
Verifiedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q77438: Johannes BobrowskiWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
A further 1 witness is held back from this article because the person or object named in it is not yet resolved to this record. They are kept, not discarded, and return once the identity is established.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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