Werner Bräunig
Werner Bräunig (May 12, 1934 – August 14, 1976) was a German author. He is best known for his posthumously published novel Rummelplatz (German for "Fairground"). The novel was to be part of a Communist Party campaign to establish a new kind of working class literature by encouraging talented labourers to write fiction about their everyday lives.
Werner Bräunig
Wolfgang Kluge · Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G0705-0017-001 / Kluge, Wolfgang / CC-BY-SA 3.0 · This image was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the German Federal Archive (Deutsches Bundesarchiv) as part of a cooperation project. The German Federal Archive guarantees an authentic representation · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
- Name
- Werner Bräunig
- Born
- 12 May 1934
- Birthplace
- Chemnitz, Germany
- Died
- 14 August 1976
- Place of death
- Halle an der Saale, East Germany
- Occupation
- Novelist
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Biography
Biography
Bräunig started work on his only novel Rummelplatz in 1960. The novel deals with work in the Soviet owned uranium mines of the Wismut AG and covers the time span from the foundation of the GDR in 1949 to the uprising in East Germany on June 17, 1953. Though the novel clearly shows the author's conviction that capitalism always ends up in Fascism and therefore communism is the only chance for mankind, the preprinted chapters of the book were heavily criticized by the 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany as defaming the working class and the Soviet Union. In contrast to official propaganda, Bräunig portrayed the Wismut miners not as a kind of working-class elite, but as ordinary people struggling to make a living after World War II, spending their spare time in pubs or at the local fairground ("Rummelplatz") and with little interest in politics. In 2007 the novel was published and nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. An English translation by Samuel P. Willcocks was published in 2015 by Seagull Books. The 2012 film Barbara was partially inspired by the novel.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Werner Bräunig • Born — 12 May 1934 • Birthplace — Chemnitz, Germany • Died — 14 August 1976 • Place of death — Halle an der Saale, East Germany • Occupation — Novelist • Period — 1957–1974 • Notable Works — Rummelplatz ("Fairground")
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Werner Bräunig, revision 1371738818 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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- 1.Angela Drescher: "Aber die Träume, die haben doch Namen". Der Fall Werner Bräunig. In: Werner Bräunig: Rummelplatz. Roman. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-351-03210-4, S. 632–633, 638
- 2.Leipziger Volkszeitung. Ein Kalender zeigt, wo wichtige Literaten in Markkleeberg wohnten. 2024-12-01.
- 3.Kultur: Und suchten in Wahrheit ein Vaterland. 1865-2263.
- 4.Werner Bräunig: Notizen. In: Erkenntnisse und Bekenntnisse. Halle (Saale) 1964, S. 48
- 5.Angela Drescher: "Aber die Träume, die haben doch Namen". Der Fall Werner Bräunig. In: Werner Bräunig: Rummelplatz. Roman. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-351-03210-4, S. 647
- 6.Kahlschlag. Das 11. Plenum des ZK der SED 1965. Studien und Dokumente. Hrsg. von Günter Agde. Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH 1991
- 7.Angela Drescher: "Aber die Träume, die haben doch Namen". Der Fall Werner Bräunig. In: Werner Bräunig: Rummelplatz. Roman. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-351-03210-4, S. 653
- 8.Werner Bräunig. Rummelplatz: Roman. 2011-12-14. 978-3-8412-0422-6.
- 9.zitiert nach: Gunnar Decker: 1965. Der kurze Sommer der DDR. Bd. 1598, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bonn 2015. ISBN 978-3-8389-0598-3, S. 370
- 10.Bericht bei Litertopia.de, Abruf am 13. November 2025
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