Horst Bienek

Horst Bienek (7 May 1930 in Gleiwitz – 7 December 1990 in Munich) was a German novelist and poet.

In 1951, he was arrested by NKVD and sentenced in a show trial to 25 years of labour for "anti-Soviet incitement" and alleged espionage on behalf of the United States, and sent to the Rechlag Gulag labor camp in Vorkuta and later to construction works in Sverdlovsk, Russia.

When he was released as the result of an amnesty in 1955, he settled in West Germany.

His best-known work is the four-volume series of novels dealing with the prelude to World War II and the war itself, Gleiwitz, Eine oberschlesische Chronik in vier Romanen.

Three of his works were adapted for film: Four of Bienek's novels have been translated into English:

Plaque on the house in which Horst Bienek was born (in Polish)
Plaque on the house in which Horst Bienek was born (in German)