Giwi Margwelaschwili

Giwi Margwelaschwili ( Givi Margvelashvili; 14 December 1927 – 13 March 2020) was a German-Georgian writer and philosopher. Born in Berlin to anti-communist Georgian refugees, he was raised as a German. After World War II, his father and he were abducted by the Soviet NKVD secret police. His father, Tite Margwelaschwili was shot by the NKVD and Giwi was imprisoned in the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp for 18 months and then, speaking neither Russian nor Georgian, he was released to Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, where he had relatives. He learned both languages and studied English, working as a language teacher. He wrote novels and philosophy books in German. He returned to Germany and became a German citizen in 1994. In 2011, he moved back to Tbilisi again.

Biography

He was born in Berlin, the son and second child

For the first time since 1946, in 1969, he was allowed to travel to West Germany as a translator for the Rustaveli Theatre.