August Scholtis

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August Scholtis (born August 7, 1901 in Bolatitz , Hultschiner Ländchen , † April 26, 1969 in West Berlin ) was a German writer who also published under the pseudonym Alexander Bogen .

Life

August Scholtis was born in Bolatitz in the Hultschiner Ländchen ( Upper Silesia ), an area that fell to the newly founded Czechoslovak state after the First World War . Coming from a family of farm workers, he grew up largely self-taught, first became a bricklayer and then worked as a valet and secretary for the foreign policy specialist Karl Max von Lichnowsky .

He later worked in property management, banks and authorities and finally, after a few years of unemployment, came to Berlin in 1929 as a writer and journalist. There, in a few weeks, he wrote his first novel Ostwind , which appeared in 1932, shortly before Hitler came to power in January 1933, by the respected S. Fischer Verlag and became a sensation on the book market. (Even decades later, this novel had an extremely formative influence on Günter Grass , who is reflected in his novel The Tin Drum .) The subject of the Upper Silesian uprisings and the hero Kaschpar Theophil Kaczmarek brought a completely new language into the literary scene. This was followed by the novels Baba and Her Children and Jaś, der Flieger , both of which were published by the Jewish publisher Bruno Cassirer . The contemporary critics praised Scholtis as a natural narrative talent with unusual language and visual power.

During National Socialism he made his way - sometimes uncritically and close to the system - in Berlin. It is unlikely that Scholtis, as he himself repeatedly claimed, was banned from writing for seven years (from 1933 to 1934 and from 1941 to 1945). It is credible that after 1933 he was unable to publish for a little over a year because he initially refused to join the Reichsschrifttumskammer . It is also true that a massive attack against him was launched in 1941 in the National Socialist magazine Die Weltliteratur . This attack probably did not result in a formal writing ban. He published various articles in the National Socialist weekly newspaper Das Reich .

After the end of the war, his book The Encounter. Two stories in the Soviet zone of occupation were placed on the list of literature to be sorted out.

August Scholtis tried a comeback and wrote short stories, novellas, essays and travelogues, but quickly realized that the time for native literature from the Silesian region was over.

Honorary grave of August Scholtis in the Heerstrasse cemetery in Berlin-Westend

He wrote his memoirs under the title A gentleman from Bolatitz . In 1959 he was awarded the Andreas Gryphius Prize . Since 1950 he was a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry .

In the early 1960s, Scholtis campaigned for an understanding with Poland and Czechoslovakia and wrote a travel report that in some places described the importance of communism in a very positive way.

August Scholtis died on April 26, 1969 at the age of 67 in Berlin. His grave is in the state-owned cemetery Heerstraße in Berlin-Westend . By resolution of the Berlin Senate , the last resting place of August Scholtis (grave location: 6-B-9) has been dedicated as an honorary grave of the State of Berlin since 1970 . The dedication was extended in 1997 by the now usual period of twenty years. The decision on a further extension is pending (as of November 2019).

The estate of August Scholtis is in the manuscript department of the Dortmund City and State Library .

Works (selection)

  • Obituary . 1927.
  • East wind . 1933.
  • Baba and her children . 1934.
  • Yes, the plane . 1935.
  • Wilhelm Cathedral . An East German life for art . Rabenpresse , Berlin 1935
  • Thirty-three songs from Hultschin. Moravian folk songs. With pen drawings by Wilhelm Doms . Rabenpresse, Berlin 1935.
  • The ironworks . 1938.
  • Silesian dance of death. Narratives . 1938.
  • The ironworks . Gutenberg Book Guild , Berlin 1939.
  • The Moravian wedding . 1940.
  • The encounter. Two stories . Vorwerk-Verlag, Berlin & Darmstadt 1940.
  • The Countess' Toy and other short stories. Series: Books of the New Line. Verlag Otto Beyer , Leipzig 1940
  • The desertion . 1948.
  • The magic crutch . 1948.
  • The cat in the Silesian closet . Oberschlesischer Heimatverlag, Augsburg 1958.
  • A gentleman from Bolatitz ( autobiography ). 1959.
  • Trip to Poland. A report . 1962.
  • Fürstenkron Castle . Novel. Horst Bienek (Ed.), August 1987.
  • Stories, dramas, novels . Selection, ed. And commentary by Joachim J. Scholz, Berlin 1991–1992.
  • Letters, Part I and II. Selection, Ed. And Commentary by Joachim J. Scholz, Berlin 1991–1992.
  • Columnist short prose . Selection, ed. And commentary by Joachim J. Scholz, Berlin 1993.

literature

  • Hedwig Gunnemann u. a .: August Scholtis. List of works and bequests; Texts and materials . Research Center East Central Europe, Dortmund 1993, ISBN 3-923293-43-7 .
  • Jürgen Joachimsthaler: Text margins. The cultural diversity in Central Europe as a problem of representation of German literature. Winter. Heidelberg 2011, Vol. 3: Third Rooms , pp. 39–60; ISBN 978-3-8253-5919-5
  • Sonja Klein:  Scholtis, August. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 447 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Wolfgang Koeppen : My friend August Scholtis , epilogue to August Scholtis: Jas der Flieger ( library Suhrkamp ; 961). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1987, ISBN 3-518-01961-9 .
  • Roman Kopřiva: Z Bolatic až na konec Berlína (From Bolatitz to the end of Berlin). (Short portrait in Czech with a focus on a stay with Karl Max and Mechtilde Lichnowsky at Kuchelna Castle , references to Czech literature. Accompanying the translation of Scholtis' feuilletons ). In: Kulturni noviny . Brno, 20 (2015), ISSN  1804-8897 online
  • Wojciech Kunicki : "Ostwind" by August Scholtis . In: Hendrik Feindt (Ed.): Studies on the cultural history of the German image of Poland, 1848–1939 . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-447-03664-8 , pp. 194-212.
  • Bernd Witte (Ed.): August Scholtis 1901–1969. Modernity and regionality in August Scholti's work . Lang, Frankfurt / M.2004, ISBN 3-631-52187-1 .
  • Marek Zybura : August Scholtis 1901–1969. Studies of life, work and impact . Schöningh, Paderborn 1997, ISBN 3-506-79837-5 .
  • Marek Zybura: A big scoundrel and an antichrist ...? August Scholtis (1901–1969). In: Ders .: lateral thinker, mediator, border crosser. Contributions to German and Polish literary and cultural history . Neisse-Verlag, Dresden 2007, ISBN 978-3-934038-87-5 .

Translations

To Czech

  • Roman Kopřiva: Domove, drahý domove (At the comforting homeland goal. Short feuilleton prose). In: Kulturní noviny . Brno, No. 19 (2015), ISSN  1804-8897 kulturni-noviny.cz
  • Roman Kopřiva: Národ ho volil . (The people voted for him. Short feuilleton prose). Můj trestní rejstřík (My criminal record. Short feuilleton prose). In: Kulturní noviny . Brno, No. 20 (2015), ISSN  1804-8897 kulturni-noviny.cz
  • Roman Kopřiva: Autobiographical grotesques: Přítel bydlí na Západě (My friend lives in the west). S kladným pozdravem (With positive regards). Tvar. In: Obtýdeník živé literatury . Praha, 20 (2015), p. 11, ISSN  0862-657X [itvar.cz]
  • Wulli instead of Wilhelm . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1960 ( online - detailed review by Der Herr aus Bolatitz ).

Web links

Commons : August Scholtis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 544.
  2. ↑ polunbi.de
  3. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 . P. 494.
  4. ↑ Honorary graves of the State of Berlin (as of November 2018) . (PDF, 413 kB) Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, p. 78; accessed on November 17, 2019. Submission - for information - about the recognition and further preservation of graves of well-known and deserving personalities as honorary graves of Berlin . (PDF) Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 13/2017 of September 12, 1997, Section B, p. 3; accessed on November 17, 2019.
  5. ↑ Scholtis wrote the eponymous novel. Not listed under his name at the DNB . The other authors and titles of the volume are: Werner Bergengruen : Life story of Pfeffermanns des Jüngeren ; Erich Naujoks: Tobias opens his mouth ; Josef Martin Bauer : The thick head ; Georg Britting : Danube fisherman and girl trafficker ; Walther Georg Hartmann : Coming and Going ; Martin Luserke : The strange prediction ; Wilhelm von Scholz : The death of King Heinrich I ; Hans Friedrich Blunck : Dam break ; Ulrich Sander : A ridiculous bullet ; Hermann Stahl (writer) : The forest house ; Erwin Wittstock : An excursion with Uncle Flieha ; Paul Alverdes : The traveling circus ; Bruno E. Werner : Borck ; Hellmut von Cube : The garden by the sea
personal data
SURNAME Scholtis, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bogen, Alexander (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Bolatitz , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 1969
Place of death West Berlin , Germany