Early years Kamnitzer was born into a Jewish family in Berlin at the height of the
First World War. His father was a pharmacist. His younger brother Peter (1921–1998) was an architect and a professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at UCLA, who emigrated to Los Angeles. In 1931 he joined the Socialist school students' League, and in Autumn 1933, while still at school, Kamnitzer was arrested for undertaking illegal political work. He had already had a lectureship in History from the Humboldt since 1946, and in 1949/50 he became a professor at the
Brandenburg Regional Academy (as it was then known) in
Potsdam. In 1950 Kamnitzer married the actress Irene Eisermann; they remained together till her death in 1997. Between 1950 and 1954 he had a full lectureship as professor for "The History of the German People" at the
Humboldt University. From 1952 he served as director of the Institute for the History of the German People, and from 1953 till 1955 he worked as one of three co-editors on the monthly Marxist–Leninist
Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft (academic journal). His academic career came to an end following a
plagiarism scandal. A review in the
Historische Zeitschrift (Historical Journal) disclosed that in a publication about
Thomas Müntzer which Kamnitzer had produced in collaboration with Alfred Meusel, most of the historical documents on the
Peasants' War had been lifted, without attribution, from a 1926 work by the Agrarian Historian
Günther Franz. Because the original documents used had clearly been "worked on" by Franz, who was still very much alive, it was considered that Kamnitzer had plagiarized the senior historian's work. He was relieved of his position as director of The Institute, surrendered his professorship, and embarked on a career as a freelance writer.
Writing career He published numerous non-fiction books and works of poetry. His best known book is
Der Tod des Dichters (
"The Death of the Poet") which concerns the death of
Arnold Zweig. He has also been an editor of Zweig's works. Kamnitzer also undertook work for
DEFA, the state-owned film studio. He wrote the scripts for various films including Mord an Rathenau (
Murder of Rathenau) (1961) written in collaboration with , (
Maiden of 1914) (1969) co-written with
Egon Günther and Erziehnung vor Verdun (
Education before Verdun) (1973), also with Egon Günther. In addition he did television work.
Other activities From 1970 till 1989 Kamnitzer was president of the writer's association
PEN in the German Democratic Republic. He resigned the presidency in October 1989 during the run up to
German reunification, and resigned his membership of the organisation in 1995. Between 1978 and 1989 Heinz Kamnitzer was listed in the
Stasi files as an
Informal Collaborator under the alias "IM Georg". ==Awards and honours==