Müller, Heiner |
| DRAMATIST, WRITER, DIRECTOR (GERMANY) |
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BORN 9 Jan 1929, Eppendorf, Sachsen - DIED 30 Dec 1995, Berlin CAUSE OF DEATH lung cancer GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Dorotheenstädtischen Friedhof, Chausseestrasse (CAL-2R-41/42 (Ehrengrab)) |
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Son of a socialist who was imprisoned in a concentration camp by the nazis. After the war he was imprisoned himself by the Americans for a while because he had been a member of the Volkssturm. In 1947 he joined the SED and from 1950 onwards he worked as a literary critic. His first marriage with an already pregnant nurse lasted only for a short time and in 1954 he married the poet Ingeborg Schwenkner-Meyer. In 1958 he was employed at the Gorki Theatre in Berlin in a scientific position and from that time he started writing plays on a regular basis. In 1959 he received the Heinrich-Mann Prize together with Inge, but in 1961 his "Die Unsiedlerin" was stopped after one performance and he was expelled from the writer's union. After several failed attempts, Inge committed suicide in 1966. In 1970 he married the director Ginka Tscholakowa (b.1945) in Bulgaria. In 1970 he found employment at the Berliner ensemble. His "Mauser" was rejected by the censors in the DDR but it was performed in the USA in 1975. In 1976 he signed the petition against the banishment of Wolf Biermann and in 1977 he created his best known work "Die Hamletmachine". He divorced Ginka in 1980. In 1984 he became a member of the Academy of Arts in the DDR and in 1986 of the Academy of Arts of West Berlin. In 1990 he became the president of the Academy in East Berlin. In 1992 he married the young photographer Brigite Maria Mayer. They had a daughter. He debuted as an opera director in 1993 in Bayreuth with "Tristan und Isolde". In 1995 he died of lung cancer in Berlin. |
| Images |
 The grave of Heiner Müller at the Dorotheenstädtischen Friedhof, Berlin. Picture by Androom (21 Jan 2004) |
