Ernst Alexander Rauter (27 April 1929 in Klagenfurt – 8 March 2006 in Munich) was an Austrian uncommitted leftist author, journalist and selfâÂÂtaught language critic.
His mother died when he was still young, and as a result he had a difficult childhood. He spent many years in institutions and workplaces. It seems that the little time he âÂÂsufferedâ school wasnâÂÂt enough to ruin his love for learning. He also loved language studies, to which he since stuck, describing himself as a âÂÂsprachgastâÂÂ, meaning âÂÂguest of languageâÂÂ. His perception that âÂÂwords have their own lifeâ dominated his life and work ever since. His thirst for learning urged him to travel around the world. From these trips he made money by writing his impressions in tourist guides. He settled in Majorca for several years, after having learned Spanish.
He was considered a "cult" author of the '68 generation. In the 1960s he actively participated in the west â German, extra â parliamentary opposition, AuÃÂerparlamentarischen Opposition â (ÃÂáÃÂ) and took part in many public demonstrations besides its leader Rudi Dutschke. In 1968 he became popular to the rebellious youth of the time, thanks to his book âÂÂHow an opinion forms in the mind. Creating subject peopleâÂÂ. There, densely and comprehensively, he described the mechanism of enslavement and manipulation of the people by political and economical rulers. The most interesting point of his analysis is the statement that information being âÂÂplantedâ into our heads is responsible for forming our judg(e)ments and beliefs, which in turn determine our actions, and our life as a whole. âÂÂIn school people are created. The process of creating people is called education. Since a manâÂÂs actions determine the course of his life, the information he receives, determines the way heâÂÂll live. Schools not only create people, they also create biographiesâÂÂ.
From his many books, the distinguished one, is the dynamic social critic book : âÂÂFrom the biface to the factoryâ (1977). He wrote articles for the leftist magazine Konkret, wrote theater plays for Berlin cabarets, and later organized seminars about writing and journalism on behalf of ëMünchener Akademie der Bayerischen Presseû and ëSalzburger Kuratorium für Journalistenausbildungû.
During his last years he was married to a teacher, and father of several children (at least one daughter and one son) as a result of former relationships. He died on March 8, 2006, at the age of 76 in a Munich hospital, due to wounds from falling.
Fellow author Hermann Peter Piwitt described him as "one of the greats of the German language".
"Many colleagues fool themselves into believing that one may need half a year to learn how to butcher a pig, or three years to learn to sow a suit, but that everybody can write if he is a little excited."