Lutz Rathenow is a dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

 German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 who was haunted by the Secret Police

Stasi

The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...

 until the German reunification

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

. From then on, his fortunes changed, and he received several literary

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 honors and award

Award

An award is something given to a person or a group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field; a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signifiedby trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, or ribbons...

s.

Life and work

Born in Jena

Jena

Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...

, Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

, which in 1952 was part of the German Democratic Republic

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

 (GDR), Rathenow studied at the University of Jena after serving in the military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

. In 1976 he was relegated because he was one of the students who protest

Protest

A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...

ed against the expatriation of Wolf Biermann

Wolf Biermann

Karl Wolf Biermann is a German singer-songwriter and former East German dissident.-Early life:Biermann's father, who worked on the Hamburg docks, was a German Jew and a member of the German Resistance....

, a prominent German singer and songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

.

Moving to Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Rathenow began to write, but he could not at all start his career as a free-lance writer. Having published his first collection of stories in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Ratenow was arrested in December 1980. This first book of the young author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, like many to follow, was considered unflattering to the German Democratic Republic. When released a month later after international protest, Rathenow continued to write satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

s, sketch

Sketch comedy

A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

es and poem

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

s, refusing to emigrate

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...

. Moreover, the author was in a way acting as a spokesman

Spokesman

A spokesperson or spokesman or spokeswoman is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others.In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have received formal training in journalism, communications, public relations and...

 for dissident writers within the GDR. Inside this country, his works were suppressed by the Ministry of Culture, but circulated privately. Such was the pantomime

Pantomime

Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

, Keine Tragödie ("No Tragedy"), cancelled a couple of days before its scheduled performance in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 in 1984.

Despite close surveillance

Surveillance

Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...

 by the notorious Secret Police

Stasi

The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...

 (Staatssicherheit or Stasi), Rathenow and his friends managed to smuggle

Smuggling

Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...

 manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

s out to the West

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

 to be published there. Outstanding among his books are:

• Boden 411 ("Floor 411"), 1984), a collection of short plays
  Play (theatre)
  A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
  
  ;
• Die lautere Bosheit ("Outright Mischief", 1992), a collection of satires and short prose
  Prose
  Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
  
  ; and
• Der Wettlauf mit dem Licht ("Racing with Light", 1999), a collection of poems.

The last pieces of Rathenow are two prose collections which appeared in 2004: a book entitled Fortsetzung folgt ("To Be Continued") of 144 pages, and, under the same German title, various texts which are read by the author himself.

After the German reunification, Rathenow received several literary honour

Honour

Honour or honor is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or corporate body such as a family, school, regiment or nation...

s and prizes, e.g. the Deutschlandpreis for his collection of short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

, first published under the title, Sisyphos in 1995 ("Sisyphos. Erzählungen"; Berlin Verlag, 2004, 4th ed., 160 p.). As a cultural figure, Rathenow fills in the function of arts

ARts

aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....

 editor for the quarterly magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

, "Liberal" (sponsored by Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung at Berlin), in an honorary capacity.
Since 1977, Rathenow has lived as a free-lancer at Straußberger Platz, in the centre of Berlin, the new and old German capital.

His books

The following is a list of all the books written by Rathenow, and published by Xenox Books and Jaron Publ., unless otherwise stated, in English and German:

• Contacts The Poet's Press (1995)
• Die lautere Bosheit. Satiren - Faststücke - Prosa. Maulwurf Verlag, Remchingen (1992), 128 Seiten [ISBN 3-929007-11-8]
• Oder was schwimmt da im Auge; m. Abbildungen v. Reinhard Kleist, hrgg. v. Axel Kutsch. Verlag Landpresse: Ed. Lyrik, Weilerswist (1993), 20 Seiten [ISBN 3-930137-03-8]
• Sisyphos. Erzählungen. Berlin: Berlin Verlag, (1995), 4. Auflage (2000), 160 Seiten [ISBN 3-8270-0135-8]
• Jahrhundert der Blicke. Neue Gedichte. Landpresse, Weilerswist (1997), 48 Seiten [ISBN 3-930137-56-9]
• Der Wettlauf mit dem Licht. Letzte Gedichte aus einem Jahrhundert. Landpresse, Weilerswist (1999), 48 Seiten; (2001³) [ISBN 3-930137-82-8]
• Vom DDR-Bürger zum EU-Bürger. Spezifische Integrationsschübe und Integrationshemmnisse aus der Sicht eines ostdeutschen Schriftstellers. Universität Bonn; Zentrum für Europäische Integrationsforschung, Bonn (2000), 21 Seiten [ISBN 3933307651
• Es war einmal ein Wolf. Texte für Kinder jeglichen Alters. Burgverlag, Weißensee (2000), 144 Seiten [ISBN 3-931303-09-8]
• Sterben will gelernt sein. Ein Jahrhundert tritt ab. Lyrische Prosa und prosaische Lyrik. Bilder von Frank van der Leeuw, Landpresse, Weilerswist (2000, 2002³), 56 Seiten [ISBN 3-930137-94-1]
• The Fantastic Ordinary World of Lutz Rathenow: Poems, Plays & Stories; Deutsch/Englisch, Xenos Books. Riverside/CA (2001, 2002³), 202 p. [ISBN 1-879378-31-0]
• Vom DDR-Grenzsoldaten zum Bürgerrechtler; hrgg.v.Wissenschaftlichen Forum für Internationale Sicherheit; Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt. Temmen Verlag: Edition Temmen, Bremen (2002), 32 Seiten [ISBN 3-86108-023-0]
• Das RR-Projekt. Texte Töne Trash. Heinz Ratz singt liest spielt Lutz Rathenow. CD mit Booklet, ca. 45 Minuten; Edition HörZeichenVerlag, Leipzig, (2002, 2003²) [ISBN 3-934492-15-0]
• Die Fünfzig. Gedichte. Landpresse, Weilerswist (2002), 79 Seiten; (2005²) [ISBN 3-935221-10-X]
• Fortsetzung folgt. Prosa zum Tage. Illustrationen von Frank von der Leeuw. Landpresse, Weilerswist (2003), 144 Seiten [ISBN 3-935221-28-2]
• Der Himmel ist heut blau. Geschichten und Gedichte für Kinder. Illustrationen Egbert Herfurth, Schulbuchausgabe, Auer Verlag, Donauwörth (2004), 64 Seiten. [ISBN 3-403-04311-8]
• Fortsetzung folgt. Prosa zum Tage. Hörbuch, gelesen vom Author. 2 CDs im Digipack mit Booklet, ca. 137 Minuten; HörZeichenVerlag, Leipzig. (2005) [ISBN 3-934492-33-9]
• Ost-Berlin. Leben vor dem Mauerfall ("Life before the Wall fell"). Fotos von/photographed by Harald Hauswald. Jaron Verlag, Berlin (2005, 2005³), 128 p. [ISBN 3-89773-522-9]

Anthologies

Rathenow has contributed to several anthologies

Anthology

An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...

, e.g. "An Essay on the Path of Virtuousness" (Tugendvergewisserung: Ein Traum, was sonst? Preußische Tugenden, ed. Bernd Kaufmann; Wallstein, Göttingen, 2002); or his notes as a victim of the East German secret police ("Stasi") after having read his file (as published in: Stasi-Akten zwischen Politik und Zeitgeschichte. Eine Zwischenbilanz, ed. Siegfried Suckut/Jürgen Weber; Olzog, München 2003). He has published in numerous literary magazines, such as Muschelhaufen

Muschelhaufen

Muschelhaufen is a German annual, originally combining literature and graphic arts. It was founded by Erik Martin from Viersen in 1969 and published - with an interruption of 11 years - until 2008, when the last issue came out Muschelhaufen (heap of shells) is a German annual, originally...

.

Moreover, there is a bulk of texts, e.g. political comments and other short pieces, within the World Wide Web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

: * Meine Stasiaufarbeitung (Juli 1977: Wiener Journal);

• Literatur und Bücher (Juli 1998: Berliner Lesezeichen);
• Das Weiterwirken der DDR durch ihr Verschwinden (November 1999: Kommune);
• Akten, Fakten und Politiker (April 2000: Deutschland Radio);
• Die Routine der Verzweiflung (Juli 2000: Wiener Jornal).

Finally, a German scholar, Dr. Udo Scheer, published a study on the political and cultural opponents in Jena

Jena

Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...

— including Rathenow as a student — since the middle of the 1970s: Vision und Wirklichkeit. Opposition in Jena in den 70er und 80er Jahren (Christoph Links, Berlin (2000³))