Ziem, Jochen 1932-1994
ZIEM, Jochen 1932-1994
PERSONAL: Born 1932, in Magdeburg, Germany; died, 1994; immigrated to West Germany (now Germany), 1955. Education: Studied German literature at Hälle and Leipzig universities.
CAREER: Novelist, short-story writer, and scriptwriter. Worked as a laborer, a reporter, and editor of a magazine. Full-time freelance writer, beginning late 1960s.
WRITINGS:
Die Einladung: Schauspiel in drei Akten (play; originally published in Theater Heute, July, 1967), Suhrkamp (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), 1967.
Nacrichten aus der Provinz (play), produced in West Berlin, Germany, 1967.
Zahltage (short stories), Suhrkamp (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), 1968.
Die Versöhnung (play; sequel to Die Einladung; originally published in Theater Heute, June, 1971), Theater Heute (Velbert, Germany), 1971.
Die Klassefrau (short stories), Luchterhand (Darmstadt, Germany), 1974.
Der Junge: eine Engtwicklung in sieben Bildern, Fischer Taschenbuch (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), 1980.
Uprising in East Germany and Other Stories, translated by Jorn K. Bramann and Jeanette Axelrod, Adler (Rochester, NY), 1985.
Boris, Kreuzberg, 12 Jahre (novel), Erika Klopp (Berlin, Germany), 1988.
Author of television scripts; contributor to periodicals, including Theater Heute.
SIDELIGHTS: Jochen Ziem grew up during the Nazi era and witnessed the defeat of Germany at the conclusion of World War II. While living in East Germany, Ziem studied German literature at Hälle and Leipzig universities. After moving to West Germany in 1955, he worked as a laborer, a reporter, and as an editor of a magazine. He became a full-time freelance writer by the late 1960s.
Prior to his death in 1994, Ziem penned a number of novels and short-story collections as well as plays and television scripts. He gained a reputation in Germany as a scriptwriter of "high social conscience." Ulrike S. Rettig, a reviewer in Library Journal, described the ten stories by Ziem that were translated and published as Uprising in East Germany and Other Stories as "realistic portrayals of everyday life" in post-World War II Germany. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly stated that taken "together," the stories "produce a haunting image of emptiness and despair." Martin Tucker, reviewing Uprising in East Germany and Other Stories for the New York Times Book Review, claimed that Ziem "speaks in the voice of the exile pleading for a return to wholeness while knowing he can do little to alter the course of history."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Literary Exiles in the Twentieth Century, Greenwood Press (New York, NY), 1991.
PERIODICALS
Library Journal, March 15, 1985, Ulrike S. Rettig, review of Uprising in East Germany and Other Stories, p. 74.
New York Times Book Review, September 15, 1985, Martin Tucker, review of Uprising in East Germany and Other Stories, p. 24.
Publishers Weekly, March 22, 1985, review of Uprising in East Germany and Other Stories, p. 56.*