Novelist, born in Leipzig, EC Germany. He worked in a second-hand bookshop and also took up acting. A socialist and communist, he was frequently detained, finally in the Buchenwald concentration camp. After World War 2 he moved to Leipzig and became a journalist and theatre manager, then moved to East Berlin (1955) and began his writing career. His novels depict national socialism and the resistance to Hitler from the viewpoint of victim and socialist. Nackt unter Wölfen (1958), dealing with the rescue of a child in Buchenwald, has been translated into some 30 languages.
Bruno Apitz (28 April 1900–7 April 1979) was a German writer.
He was born in Leipzig as the 12th child of a washer woman. During the First World War he was a passionate supporter of German communist party leader Karl Liebknecht. In 1919 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and in 1927 the more radical Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He was repeatedly imprisoned under Nazi rule in various Concentration Camps for spreading socialistic Anti-War propaganda and being an active member of the Communist Party.
After 1945 he worked for the East German state film company Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft and as a radio play author. He was one of the founding members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which became the dominant party in East Germany.
Apitz was a member of the Academy of Arts and the PEN-Clubs of the DDR. His novel Naked under Wolves Nackt unter Wölfen was first published in 1958.
Bruno Apitz was made a Citizen of Honour by his home town Leipzig in 1976.
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