Wilhelm Grütter

Wilhelm Grütter (1936-2001) was an multilingual (Afrikaans, English, German) actor, dramatist, theatre critic, publisher and arts editor.

Biography

Born Johannes Adolf Wilhelm Grütter in Kingwilliamstown on 3 Februarie 1936, he matriculated at the Hoërskool Pietersburg in 1952, then went to the University of Stellenbosch in 1954, where he completed a B.A. degree with English and German as majors. While at university he served as arts editor of Die Matie (the student newspaper), was the typographical editor of Prisma and a founding member and secretary of the university chess club.

He started out as a reporter at The Cape Argus in Januarie 1957, but soon moved into the field of publicity for the following few years, beginning as a copy-writer at Central Advertising Limited, and thereafter also serving with the companies J. Walter Thompson and Van Zijl en Robinson, before joining the Cape Performing Arts Board for a five month stint as manager of the publicity section in Februarie 1964, but then returned to the publicity world, becoming the managing director of the firm Tony Williams-Short and Company in March, , and managing director of the firm from October 1974 to June 1979.

In addition to his publicity work, he also became a freelance journalist from May, 1966, writing regular reviews for the Cape Argus, and also taking photographs and doing translations. Over the years he wrote articles for and had columns in a range of publications, (including Dagbreek en Sondagnuus, and The Cape Argus) and anchored a number of radio programmes over the years, including Arts review, Bookshelf, Kunskroniek, In die voorportaal and Skrywers en boeke.

In July 1979 he once more became a freelance journalist and publisher, founding the publishing house Reijger Uitgewers in 1970. In this period he was responsible for the wine column in Die Burger. Other interests were philately (he edited the South African Philatelist from 1989 till his death) and sailing.

In 1992 he became a full-time member of the arts section, writing a column and editing the book reviews. In 1996 he became the full-time arts editor of Die Burger.

He married the writer and poet Petra Müller () in 1958, and the couple three sons, Anton, Herman and Philip. He died of cancer in Cape Town on 13 June 2001.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

In the mid-1980s he was commissioned to write a history of the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB), but the history he produced was deemed too critical for the then administration, and it was never published. A copy is held by the Centre for Theatre and Performance Studies in Stellenbosch.

Was married to the award-winning Afrikaans author Petra Müller.

https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Gr%C3%BCtter

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