Paul Oskar Höcker
[Heinz Grevenstett] , 1865 - 1944
Paul Oskar Höcker (pen name Heinz Grevenstett) (1865–1944), originally from Meiningen, was a German writer and editor, author of children’s books, comedies, historical novels, crime novels and war memoirs. Though he studied composition at the Berliner Musikhochschule and even worked as a conductor, he decided to devote himself to writing. He was an editor of Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, where young authors were published. In 1914 he reported from the war for the Berliner Lokalanzeiger, Feldpostbriefe and was asked to establish and edit Liller Kriegszeitung. In the memoirs An der Spitze meiner Kompanie. Drei Monate Kriegserlebnisse (1914), Ein Liller Roman (1917) and Die Stadt in Ketten (1918), he described his experiences from the Great War. He became the author of many bestsellers for children and adult readers, some of which have been adapted to films. In 1933 he signed the German writers’ declaration Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft, a pledge of loyalty to Nazi Germany and the Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Thus, his autobiography Gottgesandte Wechselwinde. Lebenserinnerungen eines Fünfundsiebzigjährigen (1940) was banned after WW2 in the German Democratic Republic (DDR).
Source:
Schulz, Eckhard, “Höcker” in Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 9, Hess–Hüttig, Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, ed., Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1972, 305–306.
Filmography at IMDb (accessed: October 5, 2021).
“Novelist-Soldier’s Narrow Escapes” in The New York Times Feb. 7, 1915. (accessed: October 5, 2021).
Bio prepared by Marta Pszczolińska, University of Warsaw, m.pszczolinska@al.uw.edu.pl
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