Joachim Werneburg


Joachim Werneburg is a German writer who publishes lyric-epic texts and short prose.

Life

Joachim Werneburg is the son of the artist Walter Werneburg. From 1973 to 1977, he studied theoretical electrical engineering at Technische Universität Ilmenau and was a member at circle of writing students. From 1977 to 1990, he performed a double life as poet and engineer at a microelectronics company in Erfurt. After the Peaceful Revolution in Eastern Germany, he was working at an environment association and, from 1997 to 2019, as government employee.

Oeuvre

Still in GDR-times, a mythology of Thuringia – including geology, plant, and animal beings – was written in the volume "Thüringer Meer". One aspect of this book is the creative conflict between the Slavic immigration and the western conquests. A response to the zeitgeist of GDR-times can be found in sharp-tongued epigrams.
By the end of the 1980th, free adaptations from the work of the Chinese poet Pe-lo-thien were written. These are particularly characterized by bewitching images of nature combined with social critics. Werneburg recognized Pe-lo-thien as a kindred spirit and discovered comparable existential experiences.
The lyric-epic poems of Werneburg written since 1980 belong to a Great Cycle, a world-poem. The Cantos of Ezra Pound served the paragon for such an approach. Of about 100 planned poet cycles, four fifth are already present. The poem-books published since 2002 illustrate cultural landscapes of the Provence, Cornwall, and portray the mythical conflict between the antique Mediterranean or the ancient Celtic Wales. An Andalusian poem cycle refers to Islamic motifs. Pulsatively, Werneburg returns back to Thuringia with his works, such as in a series of ten nature lyric elegies, which are united in the volume "Die Klage der Gorgonen". Younger text lead to Asia, a dancing dervish, the Yellow Dragon, or the Nō-play.
Werneburg writes a work-journal with a selection provided in the book "Das Kupferbergwerk". It reflects the process of writing poems and the life in a totalitarian state. The "Notizen auf der Felswand" are from the time after the political turn in Eastern Germany and illustrate the changed situation of the author – now under the conditions of an actual capitalism.
From 1979 to 1994 Walter Werneburg created colored printed graphics for 21 poem cycles. The complete joined work was published in the book "Die Rabenfibel" Joachim Werneburg reports about this cooperation.

Works

;Lyrics:
;Prose:
;Free adaptation: