March 17, 2026 would have been the 100th birthday of Siegfried Lenz (1926–2014), one of the most significant postwar German authors. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wagner offers his congratulations and points out that Lenz was extremely productive and successful in the media industry as well, working as a writer, journalist, editor, and radio playwright.
- For the 3sat cultural documentary “Siegfried Lenz und die Kraft des Gewissens: Vom ernüchterten Soldaten zum prägenden Chronisten der Nachkriegszeit” [Siegfried Lenz and the Power of Conscience: From Disillusioned Soldier to Influential Chronicler of the Postwar Era], Wagner contributed an interview discussing the significance of radio plays in Lenz’s life.
- For epd medien, Hans-Ulrich Wagner wrote the article “Produktiver Medienarbeiter: Siegfried Lenz als Journalist und Hörspielautor” [Productive Media Professional: Siegfried Lenz as Journalist and Radio Playwright].
For the project Broadcasting Pieces by Siegfried Lenz, Hans-Ulrich Wagner spent five years conducting archival research and published everything the renowned writer Siegfried Lenz wrote for radio from the 1950s through the 1970s in three comprehensive volumes. Most of these works were produced for NDR.
Lenz was one of the most prolific “media workers” in the Federal Republic of Germany. For a long time, he earned more from his radio serials, features, impromptu stories, radio plays, and “nighttime program” broadcasts, as well as from his book reviews, essays, and commentaries than he did from his novels. Radio enabled Lenz to make a living as a freelance writer.
Drawing from Lenz’s estate and the archives of radio stations in Hamburg, Bremen, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, and Munich, Hans-Ulrich Wagner has made 164 broadcasts available. Most of these broadcasts have never before been published. The broadcasts reveal Lenz as a young writer searching for new forms of media expression and an attentive journalist grappling with political, social, and academic issues. Lenz discovers the radio formats of debate and dialogue and applies them in numerous contributions. Even as a successful author, Lenz remained committed to radio.
This three-volume edition comprises volumes 23, 24, and 25 of the major “Hamburger Ausgabe der Werke” [Hamburg Edition of His Work], published by Hoffmann und Campe and sponsored by the Siegfried Lenz Foundation.