Sigfrid Gauch

Last updated
Sigfrid Gauch in 2008 Sigfrid Gauch.jpg
Sigfrid Gauch in 2008

Sigfrid Gauch (born 9 March 1945) is a German writer. He lives in Mainz.

Gauch is the son of Hermann Gauch, a Nazi official and member of the SS. He was born in Offenbach-Hundheim in the last few weeks of the Second World War. His parents separated when he was a young boy. [1] He studied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Mainz.

He worked as a school teacher, teaching German, philosophy and ethics at the Integrierte Gesamtschule in Mainz. He was awarded a doctorate from the University of Mainz in 1985 for a dissertation on "Overt and covert spellings in literary Jacobinism". It was later published as Friedrich Joseph Emerich – ein deutscher Jakobiner. Studien zu Leben und Werk.

In the 1970s Gauch published essays and poetry. He made his name with his book Vaterspuren (Traces of My Father) in 1979, an influential memoir that began what later became a genre of literature about children of Nazi parents attempting to come to terms with their family's past. [2] He later published Fundsachen. Die Quellen zum Roman Vaterspuren, a collection of primary source material related to the book. His novels Winterhafen (2010) and Schattenbilder (2012) explore the same issues through fiction. [1]

In addition to his novels, short stories and poetry collections Gauch has co-edited numerous anthologies, especially with regard to literature from Rhineland-Palatinate, including, from 1994, the Rheinland-pfälzisches Jahrbuch für Literatur (Rhineland-Palatinate Yearbook of literature) published by Brandes & Apsel. Since 2002, this has come out under the title Jahrbuch für Literatur (Yearbook for Literature). Since 2004, he has edited the Edition Schrittmacher series of books, of which 30 volumes have been published.

Related Research Articles

William Radice is a poet, writer and translator. He is the senior lecturer in Bengali in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His research area is in Bengali language and literature. He has translated several Bengali works, and works by Rabindranath Tagore and Michael Madhusudan Dutt.

Daphne Marlatt, born Buckle, CM, is a Canadian poet and novelist who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Péter Nádas</span> Hungarian writer

Péter Nádas is a Hungarian writer, playwright, and essayist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfgang Jeschke</span>

Wolfgang Jeschke was a German science fiction author and editor at Heyne Verlag. In 1987, he won the Harrison Award for international achievements in science fiction.

Manfred Siebald is a German singer-songwriter and lecturer in American studies in Mainz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermann Gauch</span>

Hermann Gauch was a Nazi race theorist noted for his dedication to Nordic theory to an extent that embarrassed the Nazi leadership when he claimed that Italians were "half ape". Briefly adjutant to Heinrich Himmler, his career was later stalled by Himmler himself. During World War II he served with distinction in the Yugoslav campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Michael Lützeler</span>

Paul Michael Lutzeler is a German-American scholar of German studies and comparative literature. He is the Rosa May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Guzlowski</span> Polish-American author (born 1948)

John Guzlowski is a Polish-American author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum</span> Archaeological research institute and museum in Mainz

The Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (RGZM), Leibniz Research Institute for Archaeology, is headquartered in Mainz. It is supported by the Federal Republic of Germany and its states and is a member of the Leibniz Association of German research institutions.

Hellmut G. Haasis is a German historian, author, and broadcaster. He is particularly known for his biographies of Georg Elser who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1939; Reinhard Heydrich who was one of the main architects of the Holocaust; and Joseph Süß Oppenheimer who was executed in 1738 and in 1940 was the subject of a notorious Nazi anti-semitic propaganda film, Jud Süß. Haasis was born in Mühlacker, a town in the Swabia region of Germany, and has written two novels in Swabian dialect as well as a collection of poetry. He is the recipient of the Thaddäus Troll Literature Prize, the Schubart Literature Prize, and the Civis Media Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur</span> Academy of sciences in Mainz, Germany

The Academy of Sciences and Literature is a scientific academy in Mainz, Germany. It was established in 1949 on an initiative of Alfred Döblin. The academy's goal is to support science and literature, and in doing so to help preserve and promote culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Josef Heinz</span>

Franz Josef Heinz, known as Heinz-Orbis, was a Palatine separatist who briefly led the government of the "Autonomous Palatinate" during the French occupation of the Rhineland. He was assassinated by German nationalists in 1924.

Nanny Lambrecht, was a German writer who authored approximately 25 novels, several volumes of published short stories, books for young people, and a nonfiction book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eveline Lemke</span> German politician

Eveline Lemke is former German politician and member of the Alliance 90/The Greens. From 18 May 2011 until 18 May 2016, she was vice minister president of Rhineland-Palatinate and Minister for Economics, Climate Protection, Energy and Regional Planning. On 27 March 2011, she was elected into the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. She was the leading candidate for her party in the 2016 Rhineland-Palatinate state elections along with The Greens faction leader in the Landtag, Daniel Köbler, after having been leader of the party since 2006. As vice minister Lemke represented the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in the German Bundesrat. As author and speaker in green technological issues and Circular Economy, she founded Thinking Circular in 2017. This thinktank is listed in the Sustainable Development Goals Help Desk, a platform by the United Nations since July 2018. She is also working as consultant together with Prof. Michael Braungart, chemist and inventor of the design philosophy Cradle-to-Cradle, Martin Lees and David Wortmann (DWR-Eco-Innovation-Alliance).

Christa Jansohn is a German scholar of English literature and culture. From 2001-2023 she held the Chair of British Culture at the University of Bamberg in Germany.

The Eifel Literatur Festival is a volunteer-organized literature event held in the Eifel mountains in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate every two years as part of the state's "Cultural Summer".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Strecker Jr.</span> German music publisher and libretto author (1883–1978)

Ludwig Strecker Jr., also Ludwig Strecker der Jüngere, was a German music publisher and an author of opera librettos which he wrote under the pen name Ludwig Andersen. He authored, and published through the Schott Music publishing house, two of the most successful German contemporary operas of the 1930s, Egk's Die Zaubergeige and Reutter's Doktor Johannes Faust.

Eugen Ewig was a German historian who researched the history of the early Middle Ages. He taught as a professor of history at the University of Mainz and the University of Bonn. In the second half of the 20th century, he was considered the foremost expert on the Merovingian dynasty.

Werner Franz Josef Wilhelm Detlev Bornheim gen. Schilling was a German art historian and historic preservationist. From its establishment in 1946 until 1980, he headed the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate and the administration of the state palaces of Rhineland-Palatinate or their predecessor institutions as Landeskonservator.

Wolfgang Dieter Brönner is a German art historian and historic preservationist. From 1991 to 2005, he was the Landeskonservator of the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate in Mainz.

References

  1. 1 2 Copley, Antony, "Hitler's Children, A Preface to Sigfid Gauch's Vaterspuren", in Gauch, Sigfrid, Traces of My Father, trans. William Radice, Northwestern University Press, xi-xx.
  2. Figge, Susan, "Father books: Memoirs of the Children of Fascist Fathers", Revealing Lives, Yallom and Bell, eds, pp 196-200.