Herbert Häußler

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(8 May 1912 – 11 December 1973)

Herbert Häußler, also typed in the simplified transliteration Häussler (Fancyclopedia 1 and others since had a mistaken single-s Häusler; omitting the umlaut to mere Haussler was frequent in English too. Pronounce "Hoys") was Germany's first scientifictionist, among the only three pre-War Fans Outside Angloparlantia, that is in Continental Europe. He corresponded with Forrest J. Ackerman since 1935. He had also been an Esperantist since the age of 16, which brought the two into contact, after he received SF magazines from an earlier contact and became a Science Fiction League member #952.

During the World War II Häußler was in the Wehrmacht, Russia, a hospital with frostbite and finally US captivity; his letter on this to VOM #49 (July 1946) is reprinted in Beyond Fandom. His son (1937–45), mentioned there as died of pneumonia, was actually killed in the Nazi "euthanasia" program as mentally disabled.

Released, Häußler returned to his wife to in his native Reichenbach in what was now the Soviet zone and soon German Democratic Republic. However he managed to maintain correspondence, although limited, with the US and later the West Germany as its fandom grew. In September 1957, he was even somehow able to meet Ackerman in the West on their way to Science Fiction Club Deutschland's first convention in Bad Homburg.

Around that time, Häußler was active in "Stellaris-Gruppe Saturn" in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now again Chemnitz), the GDR's first sf club infamously suppressed by the authorities. In Sirius 1 (June 1959) he was named among three of "ca. 10" members of the "East German branch" of International Science Fiction Society interested in correspondence. In 1962 Häußler published an Esperanto fanzine Kosma informo ("Cosmic Information"), preceding the GDR's first carbonzine Phantopia by almost 5 years.

At the Heicon, which Häußler couldn't attend, Ackerman awarded him with the E. Everett Evans Big Heart Award and then brought it East to him. Häußler died rather soon, his health damaged in the war. His wife survived him by two decades and apparently sold his collection piecemeal, with his correspondence lost. However some information was preserved in Häußler's Stasi (secret police) file, including printed matter confiscated from the mail.

Häußler's thoroughly researched biography by Wolfgang Both et al. was published as the issue #148 of SFCD's Andromeda SF Nachrichten (2002, 80 pages, with an introduction by Ackerman; the cover photo shows Häussler posing with his award). This was variously quoted and summarized later, most recently by Hans Frey in Vision und Verfall: Deutsche Science Fiction in der DDR (2023), partly browsable at Google Books.

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

Person 1912—1973
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