Günther Krupkat (5 July 1905 in Berlin – 14 April 1990 in Berlin) was a German fiction writer, known as one of the leading science fiction writers of East Germany.
Biography Born in Berlin in 1905, Krupkat studied engineering before dropping out for lack of means to support himself. He wrote his first novel, Od, at age 19, having been inspired by Soviet writer Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy's 1923 novel Aelita. Its publication in pre-war Germany was rejected due to the leftist ideas propounded by Krupkat.
Active in the Communist Resistance against the Third Reich, Krupkat fled to Czechoslovakia at the close of the Second World War. He settled in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) after the Nazis' defeat, writing science fiction stories, screenplays, and novels, first fully devoting himself to a writer's career in the mid-1950s, following a decade of working as an editor.
Krupkat became chairman of the East German Writers Union's Science Fiction Working Group upon its formation in 1972. He was succeeded by Heiner Rank in 1978.Simon, Erik, and Olaf R. Spittel. Science-fiction: Personalia zu einem Genre in der DDR. Berlin: Verlag Das Neue Berlin, 1982. Pp. 25–27.
Works
Novels 1957: Das Schiff der Verlorenen 1958: Das Gesicht 1960: Die große Grenze 1963: Als die Götter starben 1968: Nabou
Stories 1956: Gefangene des ewigen Kreises 1956: Die Unsichtbaren 1957: Kobalt 60 1957: Nordlicht über Palmen 1969: Insel der Angst 1974: Das Duell 1975: Bazillus phantastikus 1975: Der Mann vom Anti
References
Bibliography
Fritzsche, Sonja. Science Fiction Literature in East Germany. Oxford; New York: Lang, 2006. Neumann, Hans-Peter. Die grosse illustrierte Bibliographie der Science Fiction in der DDR. Berlin: Shayol, 2002. Steinmüller, Angela and Karlheinz. Vorgriff auf das Lichte Morgen. Passau: Erster Deutscher Fantasy Club, 1995.