Werner Vordtriede

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Werner Vordtriede (born March 18, 1915 in Bielefeld , † September 25, 1985 in İzmir , Turkey ) was a German-American literary scholar , translator , editor and writer . Since he was persecuted as a “ half-Jew ” at the time of National Socialism , Vordtriede had to emigrate as a young man .

Life

Werner Vordtriede grew up in Bielefeld for the first seven years. Due to the First World War and the early divorce of his parents, he moved with his single mother, the later famous journalist Käthe Vordtriede and his sister Fränze Vordtriede to Todtmoos in the Black Forest in 1922 . In spring 1923 they moved to Freiburg in Baden. From 1926 Werner Vordtriede grew up in the Haslach district . He never saw his father, the factory owner Gustav Adolf Vordtriede (1882–1929). He died in an accident in Herne .

Vordtriede was interested in German-language literature and poetry from an early age and corresponded with literary greats such as Kurt Tucholsky , Arthur Schnitzler and André Gide . His mother worked to ensure that he could attend high school. The school fees put a strain on the already tight budget. At the age of sixteen he won a stay in Paris with the school competition who writes the best letter of understanding? In 1933, the year the National Socialists seized power, the eighteen-year-old passed his matriculation examination at the Realgymnasium Freiburg (later Kepler-Gymnasium ) and emigrated to Switzerland that same year. There he worked as a private tutor and wrote articles and book reviews for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung . In order not to attract the attention of the Swiss immigration police , Vordtriede published under the pseudonyms Werner Salasin , re and Werner Stoutz . At the same time he majored in German and a minor in English at the University of Zurich . His professors were Emil Ermatinger and Bernhard Fehr . In 1934 he met the philosopher Edith Landmann in Basel and thus came into close contact with the George Circle . In 1937 he received a travel grant and spent a summer in the university city of Cambridge .

In 1938 Werner Vordtriede went into exile in the USA . The elderly English novelist Robert Hichens made it possible for him to take the Niew Amsterdam to New York. With the help of the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom , he received a scholarship. Vordtriede continued his studies at the University of Cincinnati and achieved his Magister Artium in 1939 with a thesis on the poet Friedrich Hölderlin . He then worked as a tutor at Northwestern University in Evanston (Illinois) . During a visit to Europe, Vordtriede was surprised by the outbreak of World War II in France and interned as an enemy alien . It was only through interventions that he was released months later and allowed to go back to America. In 1941 he met his mother , who also emigrated to the USA, in New York , who from 1942 also lived at Evanston. In exile Vordtriede made the acquaintance of the poet Saint-John Perse , the novelist Richard Beer-Hofmann and the scientist Christiane Zimmer . In May 1943 he met the Secretary General Prince zu Löwenstein in Oberlin , who was doing public relations work for the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom.

This was followed by positions at Rutgers University and Central Michigan University . 1945 Acquisition of the Ph.D. at Northwestern University, with a dissertation on the French poets Stéphane Mallarmé and Stefan George : The Conception of the Poet in the Works of Stéphane Mallarmé and Stefan George . Before that, his subjects were changed to Romance studies as a major and German studies as a minor. Then Vordtriede worked as a lecturer in French and German literature, including at Princeton University . There he met the historian Erich von Kahler and the writer Hermann Broch . In 1946 the scientist became a citizen of the United States . In 1947 he followed a call from the University of Wisconsin , where he became professor of German studies. In the same year his sister Fränze also emigrated to the USA. In 1957 Vordtriede received a Guggenheim grant ( Guggenheim Fellow ). Until the end of the 1950s he made regular study trips to Europe; he also visited his old home in Freiburg.

In 1961 Werner Vordtriede returned to post-war Germany and settled as a freelance writer in Munich. In 1962 he was initially a private lecturer in literary studies at the University of Munich and in 1963 also visiting professor at Ohio State University . In 1965 he was re- qualified as Professor Dr. phil. In the 1960s Vordtriede was a regular guest at the Schelling Salon literature meeting , near the university. In 1966 Christiane Zimmer moved into the same house as Vordtriede. Until his retirement in 1976 he held guest lectures at the universities of Berlin , Heidelberg and Göttingen . Among his most famous students included Dieter Borchmeyer , Joseph von Westphalen and Werner Herzog . Vordtriede was also close to the George Circle . In 1985 he celebrated his 70th birthday. A chapter of his fourth novel was presented for the first time. However, the work could no longer be published.

Werner Vordtriede died at the end of September 1985 on a trip to Turkey. The study trip was organized by the Friends of the Glyptothek in Munich. Months before, he had suffered a first heart attack. The urn burial in Munich's north cemetery took place on October 25, 1985. Werner Vordtriede had no offspring. The literary scholar Dieter Borchmeyer, a former student and friend, took over the administration of the estate . Part of the legacy was later given to the Marbach literature archive . There he is listed as a Germanist . With Victor Lange and Arno Schirokauer , Vordtriede was one of the Germanists of German origin who have achieved remarkable importance in America. His diary , written in exile , is now part of exile literature and the subject of research . As the only family Vordtriede, he successfully managed to re-migration . In 2015 his grave was dissolved.

Appreciations

The Vordtriede-Haus in Freiburg has been dedicated to the immigrated Vordtriede family since 2014 . She lived from 1926 to 1938 at Fichtestrasse 4 in Freiburg-Haslach. In addition to Käthe Vordtriede, the children at the time Fränze and Werner Vordtriede are also part of it. It was their last home together. From 2016 to 2017 Werner Vordtriede was mentioned next to his mother as part of the exhibition “ National Socialism in Freiburg” at the Augustinermuseum . An English Wikipedia entry has been available since 2018.

Fonts

  • Novalis and the French Symbolists. Stuttgart 1963.
  • The necromancer. Text for an opera. Munich 1968.
  • The abandoned house. Diary from the American exile 1938–1947. Munich 1975.
  • Secrets to the Lummer. Vienna 1979.
  • The insider. Munich 1981.
  • Ulrichs Ulrich or preparations for sinking. Munich 1982.
  • Ghazels. Munich 1985. (unpublished)

Journal articles (selection)

  • Death as an eternal moment. In: Modern Language Notes. Journal of the Modern Language Association . Issue 8, 1948, pp. 520-525.
  • Conversations with Beer-Hoffmann. In: New German Rundschau . Literary magazine. Issue 63, 1952, pp. 122-151.
  • Bettina's English venture. In: Euphorion . Journal of the History of Literature. Issue 51, 1957, pp. 271-294.
  • The origin of the symbol in poetry. In: Deutsche Rundschau . Journal of literature and science. Volume 88, Issue 8, 1962, pp. 744–749.
  • The German Alice. In: Mercury . German magazine for European thinking. Issue 194, 1964, pp. 392-394.
  • Preliminary thoughts on a typology of exile literature. In: Accents . Journal of Exile Literature. Issue 15, 1968, pp. 556-575.
  • Visit to Clara Rilke . In: Castrum Peregrini . Humanities journal. Issue 129, 1973, pp. 44-56.
  • Rudolf Borchardt and the European tradition. In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society . Issue 22, 1978, pp. 728-741.

Editing (selection)

literature

  • Dieter Borchmeyer , Till Heimeran: Weimar on the Pacific. Literary paths between the continents. Festschrift for Werner Vordtriede on his 70th birthday. de Gruyter, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-484-10521-6 .
  • Regina Weber: Werner Vordtriede (1915–1985). Estate report. In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society. Volume XXXII 1988. Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-520-88801-7 , pp. 406-422.
  • Vordtriede, Werner - literary scholar and writer. In: Brockhaus Encyclopedia, in 24 volumes. Volume 23: Us – Wej. FA Brockhaus-Verlag, Mannheim 1994, ISBN 3-7653-1123-5 , p. 448.
  • Gesa Schönermark: Telemach's change. Werner Vordtriede. A biography of the history of knowledge. Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-8316-7532-5 .
  • Regina Weber: The emigrated Germanist as a “leader” to German poetry? Werner Vordtriede in exile. In: Exile Research. An international yearbook. Volume 13. Cultural Transfer in Exile. Edited by Claus-Dieter Krohn et al., Verlag edition text + kritik, Munich 1995, ISBN 978-3-88377-501-2 , pp. 137-165.
  • Käthe Vordtriede : "It is still like a dream to me that I succeeded in this adventurous escape." Letters after 1933 from Freiburg i. Br., Frauenfeld and New York to their Werner. Edited by Manfred Bosch . Libelle Verlag, Lengwil 1998, ISBN 3-909081-10-X .
  • Beate Schmeichel-Falkenberg : It's no longer bearable here. Kathes and Werner's exile without end. In: Jewish intellectuals in the 20th century. Literature and cultural history studies. Verlag Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2003, ISBN 3-8260-2310-2 , pp. 151-165.
  • Vordtriede, Werner - literary scholar (1915–1985). In: Large Bavarian Encyclopedia by Hans-Michael Körner . de Gruyter Saur, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-097344-8 , pp. 456 and 2027.
  • Ulrich Raulff : Werner Vordtriede as a George disciple. In: Circle without a master. Stefan George's afterlife. An abysmal story. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-59225-6 , pp. 177, 296, 306, 312 and 503.
  • Vordtriede, Werner - literary scholar, poet and writer (1915–1985). In: man for man. Biographical lexicon on the history of love for friends and male-male sexuality in the German-speaking area by Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller . LIT Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3643106933 , pp. 1.211-1.213.
  • Ulrich Raulff: The abandoned house. Werner Vordtriede and the ghost islands of exile. In: Intellectuals in Exile. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0781-0 , pp. 261-276.
  • Walter Olma: Vordtriede, Werner, also: Werner Stoutz, Werner Salazin. In: Killy Literature Lexicon. Authors and works from the German-speaking cultural area. Volume 12: Vo – Z. de Gruyter, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-022038-4 , pp. 24-25.
  • Jürgen Lang: Werner Vordtriede. In: The Vordtriede Quiz. 50 questions and answers about the emigrated Freiburg family. BoD, Norderstedt 2015, ISBN 978-3-7392-0492-5 , pp. 17-18.
  • Klaus Weissenberger: The literary diary. The young generation: Werner Vordtriede and Jenny Aloni . In: The genres of non-fictional art prose in Nazi exile. Misunderstood forms of literary confirmation of identity. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-503-17446-1 , pp. 19-27.
  • Werner Vordtriede (1915–1985) - Bibliography. Compiled by Gesa Schönermark. In: German-language exile literature since 1933 in 5 volumes. Volume 4: Bibliographies. Writer, publicist and literary scholar in the USA by John M. Spalek (Ed.). de Gruyter Saur, Bern / Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-097553-6 , pp. 1922–1932.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Weinzierl: Europahaus, abandoned. New to discover: Werner Vordtriede's diary from his American exile 1938–1947. On: The world . February 1, 2003, accessed January 3, 2017.
  2. ^ Guggenheim Fellowship from Werner Vordtriede. From the directory of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (with pictures), accessed January 2, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Vordtriede, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Salasin, Werner (pseudonym); Stoutz, Werner (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author and literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Bielefeld
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1985
Place of death İzmir (Turkey)