Albert Ehrenstein
Albert Ehrenstein (born December 23, 1886 in Ottakring , Austria-Hungary , † April 8, 1950 in New York ) was a German-speaking poet and narrator .
Life
1886-1913
Albert Ehrenstein was born as the son of Hungarian Jews in the later 16th district of Vienna, Ottakring (documents indicate December 23rd as his birthday, while Ehrenstein insisted throughout his life that he was born on December 22nd). The father was a cashier at the Ottakringer brewery and the family was poor. His younger brother was the poet Carl Ehrenstein (1892–1971). His mother's ambition ensured that Ehrenstein was able to attend the Vienna Piarist High School, where he suffered from anti-Semitic hostility. From 1905 to 1910 he studied history and philosophy at the University of Vienna and graduated with a doctorate in 1910 (with a thesis on Hungary in 1790 ). In the meantime, however, he had already decided on literature, which he described as follows: “Hardly any university studies; but through five years of alleged study I secured myself the freedom: time for poetic work. By tolerantly ignoring questions directed at me and being offended by too easy, I even earned my doctorate. "
In 1910 he became known overnight through the poem Wanderers Lied , which Karl Kraus published in Der Fackel . The poem can be assigned to Expressionism , which is just beginning . In 1911 Ehrenstein's story Tubutsch was published with illustrations by his friend Oskar Kokoschka . Through Kokoschka he came into contact with Herwarth Walden and subsequently published in his magazine Der Sturm , later also in Franz Pfemfert's magazine Die Aktion . Ehrenstein quickly became one of the most important voices in Expressionism and was in close contact with Else Lasker-Schüler , Gottfried Benn and Franz Werfel . Not everyone liked his poetry. The mocking verse written by Anton Kuh was circulating : "The stones of honor are highly valued, only their verses disturb one."
1914-1932
At the beginning of the First World War , Ehrenstein was obliged to work in the Vienna War Archives because he was not fit for military service . While many other artists initially let themselves be carried away by the enthusiasm for war, Ehrenstein was a staunch opponent of war from the start , which he clearly articulated in a series of articles and poems (for example, Der Mensch Schrei ). During the war he came into contact with Walter Hasenclever and Martin Buber . In 1916/17 he belonged to the circle around the first Dadaist magazine Die Neue Jugend , in which he published alongside Franz Jung , George Grosz and Johannes R. Becher ; the magazine took a clearly anti-Wilhelmine stance and was quickly banned. Becher and Ehrenstein were working at the same time as editors at Kurt Wolff Verlag .
After 1918 he supported the revolution in Germany and signed the manifesto of the anti-nationalist socialist party together with Franz Pfemfert and Carl Zuckmayer . During the war, Ehrenstein had already met the actress Elisabeth Bergner (whom he helped achieve), with whom he fell hopelessly in love and to whom he dedicated numerous poems. In the 1920s he traveled with Kokoschka, among others, through Europe, Africa, the Middle East and China, where he stayed for a while. He turned to Chinese literature and wrote numerous adaptations from Chinese and, based on a Chinese model, the very successful novel Murderer of Justice (1931). At the end of 1932 Ehrenstein went to Brissago, Switzerland .
1933-1950
Ehrenstein's name, along with many other authors, was blacklisted by the Nazi student body . During the book burning on May 10, 1933, his books were thrown at the stake. In the next few years he published in exile journals . In 1934 he traveled to the Soviet Union, in 1935 he took part in the “Congress for the Defense of Culture” in Paris. As a foreigner in Switzerland, he was threatened with deportation to Germany. Although Hermann Hesse stood up for him, the result was nothing more than a temporary residence permit. To prevent extradition, he accepted Czechoslovak citizenship. Finally he went to England to his brother Carl, from there to France, until he was finally able to travel from Spain to the USA in 1941.
In New York, other exiles, including Thomas Mann , Richard Hülsenbeck and George Grosz , obtained residence permits for him. Ehrenstein learned English but could not find a livelihood and lived on the income from a few articles he wrote for the newspaper Aufbau , and from grants from George Grosz. In 1949 he returned first to Switzerland, then back to Germany, but couldn't find a publisher and finally returned to New York disappointed. After two strokes, he was taken to a poor hospice on Welfare Island , where he died on April 8, 1950. After his death, friends raised money so that his urn could be shipped to England, where his brother Carl still lived. Ehrenstein's ashes were eventually buried in Bromley Hill Cemetery , London.
estate
Albert Ehrenstein's extensive estate was transferred to the National Library of Israel just a few years after his death , where it was recently re-listed. His extensive correspondence with many well-known authors and artists of his time is remarkable.
Works
Poetry, prose, essays
- Tubutsch , 1911 (modified edition 1914, frequent new editions)
- A cat's suicide , 1912
- The White Age , 1914
- Man screams , 1916
- Not there, not there , 1916
- The red time , 1917
- The murdered brothers , 1919
- Karl Kraus 1920
- The night becomes. Poems and Stories , 1920 (collection of old works)
- Eternal Olympus. Novellas and Poems , 1921 (collection of old works)
- Vienna , 1921
- The return of the falcon , 1921 (collection of old works)
- Letters to god. Poems in prose , 1922
- Autumn , 1923
- People and Apes , 1926 (collection of essayistic works)
- Knight of death. The stories from 1900 to 1919 , 1926
- My song. Poems 1900–1931 , 1931
- Poems and prose. Edited by Karl Otten. Neuwied, Luchterhand 1961
- Selected essays. Edited by MY Ben-gavriêl. Heidelberg, L. Schneider 1961
- Death red. A selection of poems . Berlin, Hochroth Verlag 2009
Translations and revisions
- Ski King. Adaptations of Chinese poetry , 1922
- Pe-Lo-Thien. Adaptations of Chinese poetry , 1923
- China sues. Adaptations of revolutionary Chinese poetry from three millennia in 1924; New edition, Authors Edition , Munich 1981 ISBN 3-7610-8111-1
- Lukian , 1925
- Robbers and soldiers. Roman based on the Chinese , 1927; New edition 1963
- Justice murderer , 1931
- The yellow song. Adaptations of Chinese poetry , 1933
literature
- Fritz Martini: Ehrenstein, Albert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 355 ( digitized version ).
- Stefan Zweig : Albert Ehrenstein's poems. In: Reviews 1902–1939. Encounters with books . 1983, ( E-Text ).
- Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945 . Volume 2.1. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 239
- Karl-Markus Gauß : When does the night end? About Albert Ehrenstein - an essay . Edition Moderne, Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-907010-24-8 .
- Albert Ehrenstein. Reading as part of the Wiener Festwochen 1993. Edited by Werner Herbst & Gerhard Jaschke (series: Forgotten Authors of Modernism , Volume 67), Universitätsverlag, Siegen 1996, ISSN 0177-9869 .
- Ehrenstein, Albert. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 6: Dore – Fein. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-598-22686-1 , pp. 110-132.
- Günter Helmes : Albert Ehrenstein: Works Vol. 1–3 / II . Edited by Hanni Mittelmann. Munich 1989–1995. In: Arbitrium 2/1998, pp. 232-238.
- Günter Helmes: "The cultivated style of misery as a born of art and joy". About Albert Ehrenstein's early stories. In: Narrative structures II. Studies on the literature of the turn of the century (= Acta Germanica 10). Edited by Károly Csúri and Géza Horváth. Budapest 2000, pp. 110-122.
- Martin Anton Müller: Visits to Arthur Schnitzler. Private records from Albert Ehrenstein, Victor Klemperer, and Robert Adam . In: Hofmannsthal-Jahrbuch zur Europäische Moderne, H. 27 (2019), pp. 131–163.
Web links
- Literature by and about Albert Ehrenstein in the catalog of the German National Library
- Short biography and reviews of works by Albert Ehrenstein at perlentaucher.de
- Works by Albert Ehrenstein in Project Gutenberg ( currently not usually available for users from Germany )
- Works by and about Ehrenstein Albert at Open Library
- Works by and about Albert Ehrenstein at Open Library
- Annotated link collection of the university library of the FU Berlin ( Memento from October 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Ulrich Goerdten)
- Correspondence with Arthur Schnitzler : Arthur Schnitzler - Correspondence with authors. Edited by Martin Anton Müller, Gerd-Hermann Susen, online
- The Estate of Writer and Poet Albert Ehrenstein at the National Library of Israel
- Entry on Albert Ehrenstein at litkult1920er.aau.at , a project of the University of Klagenfurt
- Veronika Hofeneder: Portrait module on Albert Ehrenstein at litkult1920er.aau.at , a project of the University of Klagenfurt
Individual evidence
- ↑ New edition of the 12 b / w pictures in Armin Wallas: AE: Mythenzerstörer und Mythenschöpfer , Boer, Grafrath 1994, with detailed. Interpretation of Wallas
- ↑ Johannes R. Becher: Diary entry from May 2, 1950 . In: Adolf Endler , Tarzan am Prenzlauer Berg. Sudel Blätter 1981–1993 . Leipzig: Leipzig, 1994. p. 178 f.
- ↑ A tribute to Albert Ehrenstein on his 125th birthday and a brief description of the estate in the National Library of Israel
- ^ New version under the title Report from a mad house , 1919
- ↑ delivered in 1916
- ↑ New version under the title Magic Tales , 1919
- ↑ 37 pages, including 2 pages from the "New German Biography" - Lots of short texts across his work, no sources, a kind of collage
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Ehrenstein, Albert |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Poet, narrator |
DATE OF BIRTH | December 23, 1886 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Ottakring |
DATE OF DEATH | April 8, 1950 |
Place of death | New York , USA |