Gorch Fock (author)
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Gorch Fock | |
|---|---|
 Gorch Fock | |
| Born | Johann Wilhelm Kinau 22 August 1880 |
| Died | 31 May 1916 (aged 35) |
| Nationality | German |
| Other names | Jakob Holst and Giorgio Focco |
| Occupation | author |
| Known for | Seefahrt ist Not! |
Johann Wilhelm Kinau (22 August 1880 – 31 May 1916), better known by his pseudonym Gorch Fock (German pronunciation: [ɡɔʀx fɔk][1]), was a German author. Other pseudonyms he used were Jakob Holst and Giorgio Focco.
Life
Kinau was the eldest child of fisherman Heinrich Wilhelm Kinau and his wife, Metta Holst, on the
. He married Rosa Elisabeth Reich in 1908, with whom he had three children. In 1904, Kinau started publishing poetry and stories in his native Low German dialect. In 1913, he published his most popular work, the novel Seefahrt ist Not!, in which he describes the life of the deep sea fishermen of his home island.In the
Letzter Wunsch / Sterb ich auf der stolzen See, / gönnt Gorch Fock ein Seemansgrab. / Bringt mich nicht zum Kirchhof hin, / senkt mich tief ins Meer hinab. / Segelmacher näh mich ein. / Steuermann, ein Bibelwort. / Junge, nimm deine Mütze mal ab... / Und dann sinnig über Bord...
Int Morgenrot, int Morgenrot / sleit Michel de Franzosen dot; / tor middagstied, tor middagstied / fegt he de Russen an de Siet; / un in de Obendschummeree / smitt he de Briten in de See!
— Gorch Fock[2]
In 1938, his widow was invited to take part in the first voyage of M/V Wilhelm Gustloff to Madeira.
The German Navy named two training
Burial
Gorch Fock is buried on the Stensholmen in Bohuslän the northernmost part of the Swedish west coast. He was buried in the War cemetery on Stensholmen in 1920 by the pastor C. Norborg in Fjällbacka alongside two British and thirteen German sailors found dead in the archipelago and brought to land by local fishermen.
Works
- 1910 Schullengrieper und Tungenkrieper
- 1911 Hein Godenwind
- 1913 Hamborger Janmaten
- 1913 Seefahrt ist Not! (ISBN 3-499-14148-5)
- 1914 Fahrensleute
- 1914 Cilli Cohrs (play)
- 1914 Doggerbank (play)
- 1914–15 War poems in Plattdüütsch
- 1918 (posthumously) Sterne überm Meer (Diary notes and poems)
References
- ^ "Fock, Gorch", in Webster's Biographical Dictionary (1960), Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
- ^ cit. by: Arnold Schölzel: Schrottkahn des Tages: Gorch Fock. In: Junge Welt vom 15. März 2019. S. 8
Further reading
- Gorch Fock. Mythos, Marke, Mensch. Aufsätze zu Leben, Werk und Wirkung des Schriftstellers Johann Kinau (1880–1916), ed. by Rüdiger Schütt. Nordhausen 2010, ISBN 978-3-88309-575-2
External links
Media related to Gorch Fock at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by or about Gorch Fock at Internet Archive
- Works by Gorch Fock at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Gorch Fock biography (in German)
- Short Gorch Fock biography (in German)
- Article about the cemetery on Stensholmen, by Peter Danielsson (in Swedish)
- Newspaper clippings about Gorch Fock in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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