Background

Herbert Achternbusch was born on November 23, 1938 in Munich, Upper Bavaria, Germany to Adolf Achtembusch and Louise Schild. He spent his early years with his mother in Munich. In 1943 his grandmother brought him to the small Bavarian town of Breitenbach.

Education

Herbert attended primary school in Mietraching. He attended secondary school in Deggendorf until he was expelled for fathering the child of a classmate. He finished high school in Cham, and began taking fine arts courses at the Art Academy in Nuremberg. He took his father’s surname through formal adoption proceedings. Achtembusch continued his studies at the Art Academy in Munich, and supported his family with odd jobs.

Career

Achtembusch’s upbringing in Bavaria has filtered into his writings, serving as the regional backdrop to his settings and characters.

Following the positive critical reception of Die Alexanderschlact (1971; “The Battle of Alexander”), Achternbusch left the visual arts for his writing career. His first drama, Ella, premiered in Stuttgart on January 27, 1978.

Achternbusch’s next two plays, Susn and Kuschwarda City, premiered together on October 23, 1980, at the Bochum Playhouse. Though he makes great demands on his audience, Achternbusch has been praised by critics for his sharp and clever use of farce and language.

Achternbusch wrote three autobiographical works in the early 1980s, Mein Herbert (“My Herbert,” published, 1982), Weg (“Away,” published 1985), and Gust (published, 1980; performed, 1984).

Achternbusch’s provocative films have met with both awards and bannings. His 1981 film Servus Bayern (“Bye Bye Bavaria,” published, 1977) was banned from television in Bavaria, while Das letzte Loch (1982; “The Last Hole,” published, 1982) won the Film Journalists’ Study Group Prize, the West German Film Prize, and the Special Prize of the Locarno Film Festival. Achternbusch began using the prize money from Locarno for his next film, Das Gespenst (“The Ghost,” published, 1983). Its criticism of the Church prompted the Office of Voluntary Censorship to ban it in West Germany, and the second and third installments of the Locarno Prize money were withheld. When Das Gespenst was finally released in West Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, Achternbusch reached his largest audience ever.

Achternbusch made reference to the lost second and third installments of the Locarno Prize money in his 1987 play, Weisser Stier (“White Bull”). A man is offered fifty thousand marks to find a white ox, but his frenetic hunt leads him to only misfortune and defeat. Achternbusch answers to critics’ complaints that the quality of his work suffers from its quantity; his double in Weisser Steir says that such plays would not have to be made if he had sufficient financing for his films. An example of one of Achternbusch’s less successful plays is An der Donau (“On the Danube,” 1987, published, 1982). The drama disintegrates into chaos as gods, workers, elephants, and apes parade the stage. Despite criticism, Achternbusch won the Tukan Prize of Munich in 1989. The following year, he directed his play Aufverlorenem Posten (“'Last Stand,” published, 1990). Following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, an East German realizes his life-long desire to travel to see the Alps, where he meets two other East Germans. The three men discuss the Romanian uprising at Temesvar, communism, capitalism, and happiness.

In the 1980s Achternbusch began sculpting and painting again. Throughout his career as a dramatist and screenwriter he has also written poetry, novels, short stories, radio plays, and commentaries.

Achievements

• Herbert Achtembusch is a versatile and prolific dramatist and film maker. Including poetry, fiction, commentaries, screenplays, and dramas, he has written over forty works. He remains known for his absurdist but timely dramas and films, and for his characters’ stream of consciousness monologues and dialogues. Despite the wide variety in his oeuvre, his work remains unified in its reliance on autobiography and its defiant tone. His work reflects the chaos of both his life and his political climate. He received many different awards during his career.

Works

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  • Herbert Achternbusch, der Maler
  • Mixwix
  • Der gelbe Hahn der Nacht: Vier Theaterstücke
  • Das Ambacher Exil
  • Wohin?
  • Die Einsicht der Einsicht: Theaterstücke
  • Breitenbach
  • Duschen: 20 Tuschen

Connections

Herbert married Gerda Oberpaul in 1962. They have four children: Rut, Andreas, Rita and Judit.

Father:

Adolf Achtembusch

Mother:

Louise Schild

Spouse:

Gerda Oberpaul

Daughter:

Rut Oberpaul

Son:

Andreas Oberpaul

Daughter:

Rita Oberpaul

Daughter:

Judit

References

• Contemporary Authors: Vol 182