Heinz Czechowski

Education

After training in surveying and graphic design, he studied at the Johannes R. Becher Institute of Literature in Leipzig, where he was strongly influenced by Georg Maurer and the Saxon school.

Career

At the age of ten, Czechowski survived the highly destructive bombing of his birthplace of Dresden. His first published poems appeared in 1957 in an issue of Neue Deutsche Literatur. From 1961 to 1965, he worked at the Mitteldeutscher Verlag publishing house in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt.

Between 1971 and 1973, he wrote plays for the city of Magdeburg, after which he became a freelance writer

Czechowski produced free translations of the work of foreign poets (eg Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Lermontov, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Yiannis Ritsos). 1961: Kunstpreis der Stadt Halle.

Achievements

• 1961: Kunstpreis der Stadt Halle 1970: Goethepreis der Stadt Berlin (collective prize) 1976: Heinrich-Heine-Preis des Ministeriums für Kultur der Deutsche Demokratische Republik 1984: Heinrich-Mann-Preis der Akademie der Künste der Deutsche Demokratische Republik 1990/1991: Stadtschreiber von Bergen 1996: Hans-Erich-Nossack-Preis des Kulturkreises der deutschen Wirtschaft 1998: Dresdner Stadtschreiber 1999: Doctor Manfred Jahrmarkt-Ehrengabe der Deutschen Schillerstiftung 2001: Brüder-Grimm-Preis der Stadt Hanau.

Membership

He was a founding member of the Leipzig Free Academy of the Arts.