ULRICH PLENZDORF, AUTHOR, SCREENWRITER, AND PLAYWRIGHT, is the second outstanding contemporary writer from the German Democratic Republik to come to Oberlin. Mr. Plenzdorf is accompanied by his wife, Helga, who is editor of an East German periodical concerned with the problems of handicapped children. The Plenzdorfs are visiting this country for the first time.

Ulrich Plenzdorf was born in Berlin in 1934. After completing his Abitur in 1954, he studied philosophy in Leipzig, then served as stagehand for the DEFA from 1955 to 1958. Following 18 months of military service, he completed a four-year training course at a film academy in 1963. Since that time he has worked as a scenarist for the DEFA Studio Babelsberg, and has written seven scenarios, five of which have been produced.

Karla (1965), one of his early scenarios, tells of a young substitute teacher who downgrades the compositions of a senior class written on the subject, “Was mir die Schule gegeben hat!” In her judgment, they have not only mouthed socialist doctrines without genuine sincerity but also have failed to exhibit any potential for independent opinion.

Perhaps Plenzdorf's best known film scenario is Die Legende von Paul and Paula (1974), which is currently enjoying considerable popularity in Western Europe. It depicts the long rocky road of a specialist in a foreign trade authority in his quest for a great love, which ends tragically. The film book concludes with one of Plenzdorf's few attempts at verse:

Ulrich Plenzdorf has not published extensively, but he quickly achieved international acclaim for his controversial yet highly regarded short novel, Die neuen Leiden des jungen W., which propelled him to the top among young writers of the German Democratic Republic (Der Spiegel). It is a short novel with obvious roots in Goethe's Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774). It presents the case of a young “Aussteiger,” or deserter from the socialist society.