Jurek Becker. The author of “Jacob the Liar”

Success and emigration
 

In the years that followed, Becker also won awards and accolades for his other works, while at the same time remaining a thorn in the side of the GDR system. In 1976, he signed a letter, along with eleven other authors, condemning the expatriation of Wolf Biermann. The singer-songwriter, who was equally popular in East and West Germany, had been refused re-entry to the GDR following a concert tour in the Federal Republic of Germany. After taking sides with Biermann, Becker was ejected from the SED and lost his seat on the board of the writers’ association of the GDR. During this time, he was also under scrutiny by the Ministry for State Security. In 1976, under the codename “Lügner” (“Liar”) – a clear reference to the title of his successful novel – a file on him was created and the surveillance of his movements intensified.[10] One year after Biermann’s expatriation, he voluntarily left the writers’ association of the GDR and, with the consent of the GDR authorities, he moved to West Germany.

Becker continued his successful career as a writer, with novels, short stories and TV scripts. During this time, he again collaborated with Manfred Krug (1937–2016), whom he had known since the mid-1950s and with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. The two men worked on the popular award-winning series “Liebling Kreuzberg”. Krug was one of the best-known actors in the GDR. He, too, had criticised Biermann’s expatriation, fell out of favour with the authorities and resettled in the West at the end of the 1970s. There, he continued his career as an actor, writer and singer.

Death in Sieseby
 

Becker found out that he had cancer while he was working on new programmes for the “Liebling Kreuzberg” series. The disease was so advanced that no cure was possible. Jurek Becker died on 14 March 1997 at his home in Sieseby in Schleswig-Holstein, where he is also buried. He left behind three sons from two marriages. Becker did not survive to witness the new screen version of his most famous work. In 1999, a quarter of a century after the first film, “Jacob the Liar” was released, starring Robin Williams and the star of the first film, Armin Mueller-Stahl.

Once, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, the famous literary critic, was asked whether Jurek Becker was a happy person. The “literary guru”, who himself had survived the Warsaw Ghetto as a young man, replied: “He was a talented, funny, friendly, loveable person. Was he happy? He was a Jew, and I’m not sure whether a Jew who has been through what Becker has can ever be happy.”[11]

Sebastian Garthoff, March 2025

Sources:

Gilman, Sander L.: Jurek Becker. Die Biographie, Berlin 2004.
Kutzmutz, Olaf: Jurek Becker. Frankfurt am Main 2008.
https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/dbo009219.html#dbocontent
https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/das-ist-wie-ein-gewitter-a-e89164b3-0002-0001-0000-000008681869
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/schriftsteller-jurek-becker-froehlich-wie-selten-100.html
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/fragen-sie-reich-ranicki/fragen-sie-reich-ranicki-die-streitbarkeit-des-unpolitischen-1859988.html