SKRZYPOSZEK Christian

Born on 14 September 1943 in Königshütte (now Chorzow, Poland) into a Polish-Silesian-German family; son of the German Margarete, and the Silesian Wilhelm Skrzyposzek, who was registered as a Volksdeutscher and director of a branch of Deutsche Bank. His father was accused of conspiring against Germans during World War II and sent to concentration camps. Christian Skrzyposzek spent his youth in Tarnowskie Góry, where he completed his secondary education at the Stanisław Staszic Grammar School. He also learned piano. He moved to Warsaw to study, graduating with a degree in Polish philology from the University of Warsaw (UW) in 1967. He made his debut in 1966 with a review of the short story collection Nie wierzcie tulipanom (Don't believe the tulips). The review was published as Kazimierza Koszutskiego literatura o ludziach prostych (Kazimierz Koszutski's literature about simple folk) in "Miesięcznik Literacki" (no. 4). He made his debut as a prose writer in 1967 with an excerpt of his novel Kabotyn (Buffoon), which appeared in the weekly "Kultura" (no. 16). The full piece was to appear with the Czytelnik publishing house but most probably around a year later it was rejected by censors with the print run subsequently pulped. In the late 1960s, he was associated with the periodical "Współczesność" (1967-69), while also publishing reviews and literary essays in "Odra" (1968), "Polityka" (1969) and "Twórczość" (1969). On various occasions, he opposed the ruling authorities' cultural policies, including at the 1967 Congress of Young Writers in Warsaw and at a meeting of the commission for coordinating the interests of the Union of Socialist Youth and of Young Writers in 1968. He published his debut play, Pat (Stalemate), in the theatre journal "Dialog" in 1969 (no. 1). Most probably the events of March 1968, together with his conflicts with censors, led him to leave Poland in August 1969 together with Alicja Gottlieb (who would become his first wife in 1970). They initially moved to Austria and then Sweden, where he made unsuccessful attempts to establish the political periodical "Pokolenie". He then moved to West Germany, where he was given citizenship. He and his wife lived in Detmold for a time, living off her grant as a student of sound engineering. He moved to West Berlin in 1971, where he lived with his second wife, Petra Hillig, who was originally from East Germany. While in the city, he focussed on completing his novel Wolna Trybuna (Free Stand), which he had begun in autumn 1969. As a result of drug addiction, he suffered severe neurological problems in 1975. He most probably died by suicide on 10 [Ireneusz Szpara's "Słownik pisarzy śląskich" (Dictionary of Silesian Writers) gives the date of death as 8 May, and the cause of death as an accident caused by illness and mobility restrictions; see: I. Szpara: Christian Skrzyposzek. In: Słownik pisarzy śląskich. Katowice 2013 p. 92.] May 1999 in Berlin.