View source for Jurek Becker

{{short description|German writer, film-author and GDR dissident (1937–1997)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}}{{no footnotes|date=September 2024}}
{{infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] --> 
| name          = Jurek Becker
| image         = Jurek Becker 2.jpg
| image_size    = 267
| caption       = Becker in 1993
| pseudonym     = 
| birth_name     = 
| birth_date     = {{c.}} {{birth date|1937|9|30|df=y}} 
| birth_place    = [[Łódź]], [[Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Łódź Voivodeship]], Poland
| death_date     = {{death date and age|1997|3|14|1937|9|30|df=y}}
| death_place    = {{ill|Sieseby|de}} ([[Thumby, Schleswig-Holstein|Thumby]]), [[Schleswig-Holstein]], Germany
| resting_place = 
| occupation    = 
| language      = German
| nationality   = German
| education     = 
| alma_mater    = 
| period        = 
| genre         = 
| subject       = 
| movement      = 
| notableworks  = ''[[Jacob the Liar]]''
| influences    = 
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| signature     = 
}}

'''Jurek Becker''' ({{IPA|de|ˈjuːʁɛk ˈbɛkɐ|lang|De-Jurek Becker.ogg}}; {{c.|30 September 1937}} – 14 March 1997) was a Polish-born German writer, screenwriter and [[East Germany|East German]] dissident. His most famous novel is ''[[Jacob the Liar]]'', which has been made into two films. He lived in [[Łódź]] during [[World War II]] for about two years and survived the [[Holocaust]].

==Childhood==
Jurek Becker was born in a Jewish family, probably, in 1937. His birth date is not entirely clear because his father gave a birth date that was intended to protect the child from [[Nazi war crimes in occupied Poland during World War II|deportation]]. After the war Becker was claimed by a father (Jurek was never sure if he was his real father)<ref name=SanderGilman>{{cite web|url=http://www.new-books-in-german.com/featur28.htm|title=A Rare Bird Sander Gilman on writing the biography of Jurek Becker|author=Sander Gilman|date=2002|access-date=October 5, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040515142803/http://www.new-books-in-german.com/featur28.htm|archive-date=May 15, 2004|df=mdy-all}}</ref> who said he no longer remembered Jurek's correct birth date. It is probable that Jurek Becker was some years younger than is generally reckoned.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

He lived in the [[Łódź Ghetto]] as a child. When he was five, he was sent to the [[Ravensbrück concentration camp]] and later to [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]]. His mother was murdered in the Holocaust, but his father survived; father and son were reunited after the war and settled together in [[East Berlin]].{{cn|date=September 2024}}

==Career==
After completing his national service in the East German army in the 1950s, during which time he became firm friends with the actor [[Manfred Krug]], Becker studied philosophy in [[East Berlin]] but was expelled for expressing non-conformist views. In the 1960s he wrote film scripts, one of which, ''Jakob der Lügner'' (''[[Jacob the Liar]]''), he turned into a novel when the film production was halted. It was [[Jacob the Liar (1975 film)|made into a film]] by the East German film company [[DEFA]] in 1974, and in 1975 became the only East German film ever to be nominated for an [[Academy Award]] (in the foreign-language film category), though it did not win. A [[Jakob the Liar|1998 remake]], starring [[Robin Williams]] in the title role, had limited success.

By the mid-1970s differences of opinion with the [[East Germany|GDR]] authorities were becoming apparent, and Becker was one of the original twelve signatories of the petition against the expulsion of writer and singer [[Wolf Biermann]] in November 1976. In 1977 he moved from East to [[West Berlin]], though somewhat unusually he retained his East German citizenship. He continued to publish novels and short stories, some on Jewish themes, others not.

==Death==
Becker died in 1997 of [[colon cancer]] that was diagnosed in December 1995.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

==Works==

===In German===
Becker was primarily a novelist, but he also wrote film and TV scripts. Several of his novels deal with the victims of the Holocaust: ''Jakob der Lügner,'' ''Der Boxer,'' and ''Bronsteins Kinder.'' ''Jakob der Lügner'' remains his most successful work.

*''[[Jacob the Liar|Jakob der Lügner]]'' (1969)
*''Irreführung der Behörden'' (1973)
*''Der Boxer'' (1976)
*''{{ill|Sleepless Days|de|3=Schlaflose Tage|lt=Schlaflose Tage}}'' (1978)
*''Nach der ersten Zukunft'' (1980) – short story collection
*''{{ill|Aller Welt Freund|de}}'' (1982)
*''Bronsteins Kinder'' (1986)
*''Amanda herzlos'' (1992)
*''Warnung von dem Schiftsteller'' (1990) – lectures
*''[[Liebling Kreuzberg]]'' (1986 and 1988) – TV series

===In English translation===
*''{{ill|Sleepless Days|de|3=Schlaflose Tage|lt=Sleepless Days}}'' (1986)
*''[[Jacob the Liar]]'' (1990)
*''Bronstein's Children'' (1999)
*''The Boxer'' (2002)
*''My Father, the Germans and I'' (2010)

== Filmography ==
*''[[Jacob the Liar (1975 film)|Jacob the Liar]]'', directed by [[Frank Beyer]] (1975, based on the novel ''[[Jacob the Liar]]'')
*''The Boxer'', directed by {{ill|Karl Fruchtmann|de}} (1980, TV film, based on the novel ''The Boxer'')
*''Sleepless Days'', directed by {{ill|Diethard Klante|de}} (1982, TV film, based on the novel ''{{ill|Sleepless Days|de|3=Schlaflose Tage|lt=Sleepless Days}}'')
*''{{ill|Shortcut to Istanbul|de|So schnell es geht nach Istanbul}}'', directed by [[Andreas Dresen]] (1991, short film, loosely based on the story ''Romeo'')
*''{{ill|Bronstein's Children|de|3=Bronsteins Kinder (Film)|lt=Bronstein's Children}}'', directed by [[Jerzy Kawalerowicz]] (1991, based on the novel ''Bronstein's Children'')
*''Sleepless Days'', directed by Gabriele Denecke (1991, TV film, based on the novel ''{{ill|Sleepless Days|de|3=Schlaflose Tage|lt=Sleepless Days}}'')
*''While All Germans Sleep'', directed by [[Frank Beyer]] (1995, TV film, based on the story ''Die Mauer'')
*''[[Jakob the Liar]]'', directed by [[Peter Kassovitz]] (1999, based on the novel ''[[Jacob the Liar]]'')

===Screenwriter===
*''[[Ohne Pass in fremden Betten]]'' (dir. Vladimír Brebera, 1965)
*''[[Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir]]'' (dir. [[Günter Reisch]], 1969)
*''{{ill|Meine Stunde Null|de}}'' (dir. {{ill|Joachim Hasler|de}}, 1970)
*''[[Jacob the Liar (1975 film)|Jacob the Liar]]'' (dir. [[Frank Beyer]], 1975)
*''{{ill|Das Versteck|de}}'' (dir. [[Frank Beyer]], 1977/78)
*''[[David (1979 film)|David]]'' (dir. [[Peter Lilienthal]], 1979)
*''[[Liebling Kreuzberg]]'' (1986–1998, TV series)
*''[[The Passenger – Welcome to Germany]]'' (dir. [[Thomas Brasch]], 1988)
*''{{Ill|Neuner (film)|de|3=Neuner (Film)|lt=Neuner}}'' (dir. {{ill|Werner Masten|de}}, 1990)
*''{{ill|Bronstein's Children|de|3=Bronsteins Kinder (Film)|lt=Bronstein's Children}}'' (dir. [[Jerzy Kawalerowicz]], 1991)
*''{{ill|Wir sind auch nur ein Volk|de}}'' (1994–1995, TV series)
*''While All Germans Sleep'' (dir. [[Frank Beyer]], 1995, TV film)

== References ==
{{Commons category}}
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
*{{Citation |author-link=Sander Gilman |last=Gilman |first=Sander L. |title=Jurek Becker: A Life in Five Worlds |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-226-29393-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/jurekbeckerlifei0000gilm }}.
*{{Citation |chapter=Jurek Becker |title=The Oxford Companion to German Literature |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |pages=67–68 }}.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Jurek}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:1997 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Łódź]]
[[Category:East German writers]]
[[Category:Łódź Ghetto inmates]]
[[Category:Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:Heinrich Mann Prize winners]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish Jews]]
[[Category:Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:German people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer in Germany]]
[[Category:20th-century German novelists]]
[[Category:German male novelists]]
[[Category:Jewish concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:20th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:Polish emigrants to East Germany]]
[[Category:Members of the German Academy for Language and Literature]]