Karl Mickel (12 August 1935 – 20 June 2000) was a German writer.
Life
Mickel was born in Dresden into a working-class family. There, he attended primary school from 1941 to 1949 and experienced together with his mother the bombing of Dresden in February 1945. The pictures of the following days never left him. From 1949 to 1953, he also attended secondary school in Dresden. He finished with the Abitur and was admitted to study in Berlin.[1]
From 1953 to 1958, Mickel studied economic planning and economic history with Hans Mottek and Jürgen Kuczynski at the Hochschule für Ökonomie Berlin [de]. In 1958, he was an employee of the magazine Die Wirtschaft, and from 1959 to 1963 editor of the magazine Junge Kunst. Afterwards, he was a scientific assistant at the Hochschule für Ökonomie in Berlin and a member of the management of the Berliner Ensemble, where he worked together with Ruth Berghaus, lastly professor at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. Mickel was assigned to the Sächsische Dichterschule [de]. Mickel had two children with his wife, furthermore, his relationship with the poet Sarah Kirsch gave a son.[2]
Mickel worked from 1959 to 1964 as IM "Michael" and from 1987 to 1989 as IMS "Bert" for the eastgerman Stasi.[3]
