Carl Zuckmayer
German writer and playwright (1896–1977)
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Key Takeaways
- Carl Zuckmayer (27 December 1896 – 18 January 1977) was a German writer and playwright.
- His first two dramas were failures.
- He also wrote plays, including The Captain of Köpenick (1931), Des Teufels General (1946), Barbara Blomberg.
- Zuckmayer was a recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including the Kleist Prize, Medal of the city of Göttingen, the Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature, and the Ring of Salzburg.
- When he was four years old, his family moved to Mainz.
Carl Zuckmayer (27 December 1896 – 18 January 1977) was a German writer and playwright. His older brother was the pedagogue, composer, conductor, and pianist Eduard Zuckmayer.
His first two dramas were failures. In 1929, he wrote the script for the movie Der blaue Engel, for which he received the Georg Büchner Prize. He also wrote plays, including The Captain of Köpenick (1931), Des Teufels General (1946), Barbara Blomberg. Ein Stück in drei Akten (1949), and Kranichtanz. Ein Akt (1967).
Zuckmayer was a recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including the Kleist Prize, Medal of the city of Göttingen, the Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature, and the Ring of Salzburg.
Life and career
Born in Nackenheim in Rhenish Hesse, he was the second son of Amalie (1869–1954), née Goldschmidt, and Carl Zuckmayer de (1864–1947). When he was four years old, his family moved to Mainz. With the outbreak of World War I, he (like many other high school students) finished Rabanus-Maurus-Gymnasium with a facilitated "emergency" Abitur and volunteered for military service.
During the war, he served with the German Army's field artillery on the Western Front. In 1917, he published his first poems in the pacifist journal Die Aktion and he was one of the signatures of the "Appeal" published by the Antinational Socialist Party after the German Revolution of 9 November 1918. By this time, Zuckmayer held the rank of a Leutnant der Reserve (Reserve Officer).
After the war, he took up studies at the University of Frankfurt, first in humanities, later in biology and botany. In 1920, he married his childhood friend Annemarie Ganz, but they were divorced just one year later, when Zuckmayer had an affair with actress Annemarie Seidel.
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