The directory «Plots»

Andres Stefan
(1906—1970)

Stefan Andres was born on June 20th, 1906, the son of a miller, in the Dhron valley, where the Breitwieser Mill was situated, near Trittenheim, a place near the river Mosel in Germany.

When the river dam was built, the mills below lost the basis of their existence. So, with the compensation they had received the Andres family bought a small farm in nearby Schweich. About the early years of childhood and youth in ´Dhrönchen´ and Schweich Andres tells in his novel ´Der Knabe im Brunnen´, a fascinating book, full of fantasy and humour. Behind the naive observation and perception of a child you can read religious and philosophical questions of basic importance.

Dedicated to be a priest he was very early aware of his literary abilities and destiny. After some short studies he became a freelance writer.

In 1937 he left Nazi-Germany and emigrated with his family to Positano, in southern Italy, a time when he had to make sacrifices, but a time of literary working as well (`Wir sind Utopia´, `Das Tier aus der Tiefe´). Back in Germany in 1951 and living in Unkel/Rhine, Andres becomes a politically engaged poet, fighting against nuclear armament, and for reconciliation with the East and for European unification (´Hochzeit der Feinde´). In 1961 he moved to live in Rome, the center of antiquity and Christianity, an important source of his inspiration. In his last work of literature, `Die Versuchung des Synesios´, published in 1971, one year after his early death, Andres masterly brought together the central motives of his artistic working: antiquity – Christianity, guilt – atonement, using force – mercy.

With a number of 3 million copies published by now, Stefan Andres should be one of the mostly read authors of German language in postwar times. His works were translated into more than a dozen languages.

What Stefan Andres has lived, written and fought for, is still and will be a topic in future times: the passionate search of truth and God, the thought of tolerance and humanity, the engagement against any claims of power in church and state, the defence of the responsible and free citizen, disarmament and overcoming the thinking of block systems in politics, the reconciliation with the eastern European states, and the unification of Europe.

His widow, the International Stefan-Andres- Society in D-54338 Schweich still take great care of his works. The literary bequest is to be found in the Deutsche Literaturarchiv in Marbach.

German Federal Republic, 2006, Books of Andres

German Federal Republic, 2006.06.08, Berlin. Stefan Andres

German Federal Republic, 2006.06.08, Bonn. Stefan Andres

German Federal Republic, 2006.06.26, Trittenheim. Stefan Andres