Professor Daniel Pietrek visiting Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts

At the invitation of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Prof. Daniel Pietrek, Vice-Rector for Research, participated in a lecture and discussion on Horst Bienk’s ‘Diaries’. The meeting took place on 27 January 2025 in Munich.

‘The Diaries’ constitute, according to the writer’s co-publisher and friend, Michael Krüger, ‘Horst Bienk’s second great novelistic project next to his epic on Silesia’. It was also featured on the November ‘Bestenliste’ of the German station SWR.

The book was published by the renowned Carl Hanser Verlag publishing house. Bienek, who was a German-language writer, translator, publicist and director, also wrote, inter alia: ‘The First Polka’ (1975), “September Light” (1977), “Time without Bells” (1979), “Earth and Fire” (1982) and “Journey into the Land of Childhood” (1988).

Horst Bienek was a native of Silesia. He was born on 7 May 1930 in Gliwice where he spent his childhood. In 1945 he was deported to Germany. From 1951 to 1955, he was imprisoned in the Vorkuta Labour Camp, from which he was released on the basis of an amnesty. He spent the following years in West Germany. He died on 7 December 1990 in Munich. Bieniek always considered himself a German-speaking Silesian.

Photo: V. Hapke, BAdSK and Isolde Ohlbaum