Carl Amery (9 April 1922 – 24 May 2005), thepen name ofChristian Anton Mayer, was a Germanwriter and environmental activist. Born inMunich, he studied at theUniversity of Munich. He was a participant ofGruppe 47. He died in Munich.
Amery won theDeutscher Fantasy Preis in 1996.[1]
Son of art historian Anton Mayer-Pfannholz, in his childhood he predominantly lived inPassau andFreising. At Passau he attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium Passau, at Freising the Dom-Gymnasium. Both cities left traces in his work. Passau appears in his novelsDer Wettbewerb andDer Untergang der Stadt Passau. Freising appears in his novelDas Geheimnis der Krypta. He was a scholarship student ofStiftung Maximilianeum [de] and studiedPhilology atLudwig Maximilian University of Munich and atCatholic University of America.[2]
He was drafted into the army in 1941. In 1943 he became aprisoner of war in theTunisian campaign.[3] He returned to Munich in 1946 and resumed his studies inlinguistics andliterary criticism. He began to write, starting with short stories under the name Chris Mayer. Then he choose the pseudonymous Carl Amery, Amery being ananagram of Mayer.[2]
He died ofemphysema on May 24, 2005 and was buried atOstfriedhof (Munich) May 30, 2005.[2]
In 1954 Amery's first novelDer Wettbewerb was published. In 1958, now a member of the writers' associationGruppe 47, his novelDie große Deutschlandtour established his reputation as asatirist.[2]
In 1963 his publicationsDie Kapitulation oder Deutscher Katholizismus heute andDas Ende der Vorsehung. Die gnadenlosen Folgen des Christentums revealed another side of his work. He allotted the globalecocide to Christianity and that predestined him as thought leader ofpolitical ecology. Further publications, particularlyDie ökologische Chance, and his personal engagement emphasised this leadership. He was an early member ofAlliance 90/The Greens, and in 1980 founded the independentE. F. Schumacher society.[2]
From 1967 to 1971 he was the director of the Munich Municipal LibraryMünchner Stadtbibliothek [de].
In 1974 he turned toscience fiction andfantasy. For a "high literature" author an unusual step, influenced in particular byG. K. Chesterton. His SF novels wereDas Königsprojekt (1974),Der Untergang der Stadt Passau (1975) andAn den Feuern der Leyermark (1979).[2]In the view of the scholar of German environmental literature, Axel Goodbody,Der Untergang der Stadt Passau skilfully dramatises ecology through the medium of science fiction.[3]
Two further novels address fantasy and bavarian spirituality:Die Wallfahrer (1986) andGeheimnis der Krypta (1990). Goodbody comments that these have a more complex structure than his earlier science fiction, and are more elaboratelyintertextual.[3] In his view, Amery's "entertaining use of the mechanism of time travel, his play with fiction and historical reality, his colourful juxtaposition of competing genre forms and linguistic registers, and his idiosyncratic use of metaphor, allusion and quotation belie a deeply serious underlying message."[3]InGeheimnis der Krypta, as inAn den Feuern der Leyermark orDas Königsprojekt, Amery, like e.g.L. Neil Smith, discussed the effect of minor changes in specific historic circumstances on changing overall history.[2]
He won theDeutscher Fantasy Preis in 1996.[1]
From 1985 onwards his collected works were published as single releases byList Verlag [de] of Munich. In 2001 Amery stated in an interview that he would not publish any novels for health reasons.[2]
| Title | Year |
|---|---|
| Der Wettbewerb | 1954 |
| Die große deutsche Tour | 1958 |
| Das Königsprojekt (Czech:Kralovsky projekt) | 1974 (Czech: 1997) |
| Der Untergang der Stadt Passau | 1975 |
| An den Feuern der Leyermark | 1979 |
| Im Namen Allahs des Allbarmherzigen | 1981 |
| Nur einen Sommer gönnt Ihr Gewaltigen | 1985 |
| Die starke Position oder Ganz normale MAMUS | 1985 |
| Die Wallfahrer | 1986 |
| Das Geheimnis der Krypta | 1990 |
| Title | Year |
|---|---|
| Die Kapitulation; oder, Deutscher Katholizismus heute (English:Capitulation: an Analysis of Contemporary Catholicism) | 1963 (English: 1967) |
| Fragen an Welt und Kirche. 12 Essays | 1967 |
| Das Ende der Vorsehung. Die gnadenlosen Folgen des Christentums | 1972 |
| Natur als Politik. Die ökologische Chance des Menschen. | 1976 |
| G. K. Chesterton oder der Kampf gegen die Kälte | 1981 |
| Leb wohl, geliebtes Volk der Bayern | 1982 |
| Die ökologische Chance | 1985 |
| Das ökologische Problem als Kulturauftrag | 1988 |
| Hitler als Vorläufer. Auschwitz – der Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts? | 1998 |
The following text is a shortened version of a paper given in April 1998 at the annual Conference of University Teachers of German. A longer version can be found inFrom Classical Shades to Vickers Victorious: Shifting Perspectives in British German Studies, ed. Steve Giles and Peter Graves, Bern, etc. 1999, pp. 77-96.
