Klabund

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Klabund

Alfred Georg Hermann "Fredi" Henschke , called Klabund (born November 4, 1890 in Crossen on the Oder , † August 14, 1928 in Davos ) was a German writer .

pseudonym

Henschke chose the pseudonym Klabund - after first publications - in 1912. Based on Peter Hille , he pretended to be a vagabond poet . The name Klabund goes back to a family name (pharmacist's name) common in North and Northeast Germany and is explained by the author as a combination of the two words Klabautermann and Vagabund . From 1916 he gave the pseudonym a further meaning, namely "change". He was alluding to his change of heart during the First World War . After he had initially welcomed the war, his attitude changed under the influence of his partner (and later wife) Brunhilde Heberle .

Other pseudonyms that Henschke used are: Jucundus Fröhlich in the magazine Jugend and Pol Patt for the erotic poems Carmencita , Marianka and Mady-Foxtrott .

Life

Alfred ( Fredi ) Henschke was the son of the pharmacist Alfred Henschke from Frankfurt (Oder) and his wife Antonia. During a hike through the Krkonoše Mountains at the age of 16, he fell ill with pleurisy and then with tuberculosis due to a cold that was dragged on . doctors initially falsely diagnosed pneumonia . The illness was to accompany Klabund throughout his short life and, along with many trips to health resorts (Italy, Davos, etc.), cause him major financial problems.

After graduating from high school , which he passed with top grades at the Humanist Friedrichsgymnasium in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1909 , he first studied chemistry and pharmacy in Munich , but soon switched subjects and studied philosophy , philology and theater studies in Munich, Berlin and Lausanne . Back in Munich he gained access to bohemianism through the theater scholar Artur Kutscher and made the acquaintance of Frank Wedekind , among others . In 1912 he broke off his studies.

A first volume of poems was published in Berlin in 1913 under the title Morgenrot! Klabund! The days are dawning! His first novel is entitled The Ruby. A young man's novel . Klabund had completed the manuscript in May 1914 and sent it to Berlin from Arosa to his mentor Walther Heinrich. The novel was to be published by Erich Reiss ; the beginning of the First World War and disputes between the author and publisher prevented the publication. The novel by a young man was published posthumously by Phaidon in Vienna in 1929.

Emil Orlik : The poet Klabund, lithograph around 1915

In 1913 I got in touch with Alfred Kerr's magazine PAN ; he also published in the youth and in the Simplicissimus . From 1914 on he worked for the magazine Die Schaubühne , which was later renamed Die Weltbühne . At first he welcomed the First World War enthusiastically, like quite a few other writers, and wrote a number of patriotic soldiers' songs. Klabund was not drafted into the military because it had meanwhile been diagnosed that both lungs were infected with tuberculosis. In the years up to his death, he often stayed in Swiss lung sanatoriums.

Anthology of the Far Eastern works of Klabund from 1929

During this time he began to deal with Far Eastern literature, which he subsequently translated and edited frequently. For example, he translated poems by the Persian poet Hafiz under the title Der Feueranbeter into German. As a result of his tuberculosis disease, he met the young Austrian poet Hans Kaltneker in Davos in 1915 . Klabund made the statement “One would have to write a literary history of consumptives, this constitutional disease has the property of changing the soul of those afflicted by it. They bear the Cain mark of inward-looking passion. "

In the course of the war, Klabund turned into an opponent. He was influenced in this change by Brunhilde Heberle, his future wife, whom he had met in the lung sanatorium. He called her by her middle name Irene, which means "the peaceful one". In Ticino he joined a group of pacifist German emigrants who were closely connected to the Monte Verità of Ascona. At the same time, Ernst Bloch , Hermann Hesse , Emmy Hennings , Else Lasker-Schüler and the nature prophet Gusto Gräser lived or frequented the “Villa Neugeboren” in Monti sopra Locarno, which he moved into with his lover . In 1917 the Neue Zürcher Zeitung published Klabund's open letter to Wilhelm II, calling for his abdication . Thereupon proceedings were initiated against Klabund for treason and lese majesty. In Switzerland he belonged to the circle around René Schickele , for whose pacifist White Papers he also wrote. The fact that Klabund was able to travel back and forth between Switzerland and Germany unmolested despite his pacifist stance can be explained by a fact that became known in 2007: During 1917/1918 he worked as an informant for the German military intelligence service, Department IIIb. Its representative at the Lindau border crossing admitted in April 1918 that Klabund was “continuously working satisfactorily in the military intelligence service in Switzerland”.

In 1918 he married his lover Brunhilde Heberle. She died that same year after giving birth prematurely. Four months later, on February 17, 1919, the child also died. In the year of his marriage, Klabund's most successful prose work, the novel Bracke , appeared, a Eulenspiegel story. In 1920 he dedicated the short romance novel Marietta to his girlfriend and muse Marietta di Monaco . On May 5, 1925, Klabund married the actress Carola Neher , with whom he had a turbulent marriage (frequent separations, Nehers affairs, etc.).

Klabund memorial plaque in Mainz

In 1925 Klabund's drama The Chalk Circle premiered in Meissen. The author had orientated himself on the Chinese poetry, the focus of which is the judge Bao Zheng and which he had before him in a translation by Anton Eduard Wollheim da Fonseca . The Berlin performance in the same year made the play a great success, so adaptations followed: Alexander von Zemlinsky composed the opera Der Kreidekreis (1933) on the basis of the drama and Bertolt Brecht wrote the play Der Caucasian Kreidekreis (1948). In the following years Klabund wrote regularly for cabarets such as Schall und Rauch . His popular poems and songs, based on the banter , reached their greatest popularity during these years.

During a stay in Italy in May 1928, he fell ill with pneumonia , which, together with his never-cured tuberculosis, became life-threatening. He was brought to Davos for treatment, where he died shortly afterwards with his wife Carola Neher at his side. He was buried in Crossen, today Krosno Odrzańskie ; the eulogy was given by his friend Gottfried Benn .

Honors

In 1933 the Klabundgasse in Vienna- Döbling (19th district) was named after him.

The Alfred-Klabund-Weg , laid out in 1988 in Hanover , Misburg-Nord district , was renamed Else-Ury -Weg in 2003 .

Since its opening in July 2004, the Walk of Fame “Stars of Satire” in Mainz has been showing a plaque for Klabund.

In 2012 the Polish city of Krosno Odrzańskie erected a bronze memorial for the poet Klabund in Poznańska Street . Opposite is a city park, which was a cemetery until 1945, where Klabund's grave was located.

Works

Klabund wrote 25 dramas and 14 novels, some of which were only published posthumously , many short stories, numerous adaptations, works on literary history and poems. Between 1998 and 2003 an edition of his works appeared in eight volumes.

The following is a selection from his work:

prose

  • 1912: Celestina. A book of Alt-Crossen stories.
  • 1914: Klabunds carousel. Rascals.
  • 1916: The sutler's car. A war book. Cover design by Lucian Bernhard . Tear, Berlin.
  • 1916: Moreau. A soldier's novel. Cover design by Max Slevogt . Tear, Berlin.
  • 1917: the disease. A story. Tear, Berlin.
  • 1917: Mohammed. A prophet's novel. Cover design by Max Slevogt; Frontispiece by Hans Meid . Reiss, Berlin ( online )
  • 1918: Bracke. A Eulenspiegel novel. Tear, Berlin.
  • 1920: German literary history in one hour. No. 12 of the cell library. Dürr & Weber, Leipzig.
  • 1920: Marietta. A romance novel from Schwabing. Steegemann, Hanover.
  • 1920: History of World Literature in One Hour. No. 52 in the cell library. Dürr & Weber, Leipzig.
  • 1921: Legends of saints. Dürr & Weber, Leipzig.
  • 1921: Francis. A little novel. Cover design by Erich Büttner . Tear, Berlin.
  • 1922: The mundane of the west. Grotesques; Collection of small prose texts from 1911 to 1921. Roland, Munich.
    • New edition 1967: Kunterbuntergang des Abendlandes. Poetry, short prose, diaries, letters. Rütten & Loening, Berlin.
  • 1922: Haunted. Novel. Tear, Berlin.
  • 1923: The last emperor. A story. Cover design by Erich Büttner. Heyder, Berlin.
  • 1923: Pjotr. Novel of a tsar. Cover design by Marcel Słodki . Tear, Berlin.
  • 1926: Störtebecker.
  • 1928: Borgia. A family novel. Cover design by Ludwig Goldscheider . Phaidon, Vienna.
  • 1929: Rasputin. Cover design by Ludwig Goldscheider. Phaidon, Vienna.
  • 1929: Francis - Illness - novel by a young man. Novels of longing. Phaidon, Vienna.
  • 1929: History of literature, German and foreign poetry from the beginning to the present. Phaidon, Vienna.
  • 1930: Klabund's war book. Phaidon, Vienna.
  • New edition 1986: The Ruby. A young man's novel. Afterword by Andrea Reidt. Edited by Norbert Altenhofer. Bouvier, Bonn, ISBN 3-416-01900-8 .

Poems

  • 1913: Dawn! Klabund! The days are dawning! Tear, Berlin.
  • 1914: Soldiers songs. Gelber Verlag, Munich.
    • 1916: Extended new edition: Dragoons and Hussars. The soldiers' songs. Müller, Munich.
  • 1916: The ladder to heaven. New poems. Tear, Berlin.
  • 1917: Irene or the disposition. A song. Tear, Berlin.
  • 1919: The Heavenly Vagant. A lyrical portrait of Francois Villon . Roland, Munich.
  • 1919: Montezuma. Ballad.
  • 1919: Listen! Listen!
  • 1919: triad. A poetry.
  • 1920: The Sonnets on Irene.
    • 1928: Lamentation for the dead. Thirty sonnets. Phaidon, Vienna.
  • 1920: The Negro. Chamberlain, Dresden.
  • 1922: The hot heart. Ballads, myths, poems. Tear, Berlin.
  • 1926: Ode to Zeesen.
  • 1927: The Harp Jule. New poems of time, controversy and suffering. The forge, Berlin.
    • 1958: New edition: Die Harfenjule. Ballads and chansons. Edited by Otto F. Best . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne.
  • 1927: love song.

Editing

  • 1917: The organ grinder. Folk songs of the present. With drawings by Kurt Szafranski . Tear, Berlin.
  • 1920: The drunken song. The most beautiful drinking and drinking songs in world literature. Selected by Klabund. With drawings by Kurt Szafranski. Reiss, Berlin 1920.

Dramas

  • 1920: Hannibal's bridal trip. A sway in three acts and an aftermath. Tear, Berlin.
  • (1920): The Night Walkers. A play. Tear, Berlin.
  • 1925: The chalk circle. Game in five acts based on the Chinese. Spaeth, Berlin.
  • 1925: The vicious life of the world-famous magician Christoph Wagner, who was a family member and successor in the magic of Doctor Faust . An old German folk piece in a prelude and five acts. Spaeth, Berlin.
  • 1928: XY Z. Game of three in three acts. With a foreword by Otto Stoessl . Reclam, Leipzig.

Re-seals

  • Dull drum and intoxicated gong. Adaptations of Chinese war poetry, 1915.
  • Li tai-pe, 1916.
  • The epilogue of the Persian tent maker. New quatrains after Omar Khayyâm, 1916/1917.
  • The geisha O-Sen. Geisha songs based on Japanese motifs, 1918.
  • The fire worshiper. Re-enactments of Hafez, 1919.
  • Man, become essential! Laotse. Proverbs, 1920.
  • The flower ship. Adaptations of Chinese poetry, 1921.
  • La Rochefoucauld - Thoughts of Love, 1922/1923.
  • Young Aar. (L'Aiglon.) Drama in six acts, 1925.
  • The cherry blossom festival. Game based on the Japanese, 1927.

expenditure

  • Klabund: Works in eight volumes. Edited by Christian von Zimmermann a. a. Elfenbein Verlag , Heidelberg / Berlin 1998–2003.
  • Klabund: Complete Works. Rodopi et al. a., Amsterdam a. a. 1998 ff.
  • Klabund: German literary history in one hour. Annotated new edition, Textem Verlag, 2006 ( PDF (PDF)).
  • Klabund: dull drum and intoxicated gong. Adaptations of Chinese war poetry. Ivory Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-941184-01-5 .
  • Klabund: Kleine Klabund series (for the 110th birthday of the poet). Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt / Berlin 2009/2010.
  • Klabund: History of Literature. German and foreign poetry from the beginning to the present. Edited by Ralf Georg Bogner. Elfenbein Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-941184-18-3 .
  • Klabund: Bracke. A Eulenspiegel novel. With an afterword by Ralf Georg Bogner. Elfenbein Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-96160-005-2 .
  • Klabund: The last emperor. Narrative. Elfenbein Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-96160-007-6 .
  • Klabund: Borgia. A family novel. With an afterword by Ralf Georg Bogner. Elfenbein Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96160-009-0 .

literature

To Klabund and Carola Neher

Web links

Commons : Klabund  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Klabund  - Quotes
Wikisource: Klabund  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dietrich Nummert : "Kunterbuntergang" . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 8, 1998, ISSN  0944-5560 , p. 81-85 ( luise-berlin.de ).
  2. ↑ Andrea Reidt: Afterword. In: The ruby. A young man's novel. Edited by Norbert Altenhofer. Bouvier, Bonn 1986, pp. 120f.
  3. ↑ Klabund - Open letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II. In: Zeno.org . Retrieved October 29, 2014 .
  4. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: The border crosser. The poet Klabund as a propagandist and undercover agent in the First World War. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft, Volume 55, 2007, pp. 397-410, here p. 403.
  5. ↑ Helmut Zimmermann : Hanover's street names - changes since 2001. In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter , New Episode 57/58 (2003), pp. 277–286.
personal data
SURNAME Klabund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Henschke, Alfred Georg Hermann (real name); Henschke, Fredi (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Crossing the Oder
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1928
Place of death Davos