Borchert, Wolfgang

(1921-1947)

   Playwright. Borchert is best known for Draussen vor der Tür (The Outsider), which was originally performed on radio in early 1947. He was briefly an actor before being drafted into the German army at age 19; he later survived wounds in battle and endured frequent clashes with officers on charges of insubordination. Borchert was imprisoned for "defeatist comments" in 1942 and sent to the Eastern Front, where he contracted hepatitis. After confinement to a field hospital, he was released from the army in 1943. Returning to Berlin, Borchert worked up a cabaret act in which he parodied Joseph Goebbels. For that offense, he was sentenced to prison in Moabit and later reassigned to infantry duty on the Western Front. In 1944 he was captured by the French but later released because his illnesses had worsened. He went to Hamburg and began working as a director's assistant at the Kammerspiele. Borchert then wrote The Outsider, which was perhaps the most frequently performed German play of the postwar period. The stage premiere took place at the Hamburg Kammerspiele one day after he died, 19 November 1947. It became an international hit, with thousands of performances around the world in more than 20 languages.