Alexander Eliasberg

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Alexander Eliasberg (born July 22, 1878 in Minsk , Russian Empire ; died July 26, 1924 in Berlin ) was a Jewish-Russian literary historian, translator, editor and author.

Life

Eliasberg emigrated to Munich in 1905 after studying in Moscow . There he married Zina Wassiliew in 1906, who, like Paul Klee , had studied at Heinrich Knirr's private painting school . His first translation appeared in 1907, an anthology of contemporary Russian poetry that he had compiled and introduced himself , including poems by Konstantin Balmont , Valeri Brjussow and Ivan Bunin . In Munich he also worked for the local publishers Georg Müller and C. H. Beck .

Paul Klee , 1911, photographed by Alexander Eliasberg

He later developed extensive translation and editing activities for the Leipziger Insel Verlag and published there in 1922 together with his brother David Eliasberg (1897-1920) in the Bibliotheca mundi series the Russian Parnassus (Русскій Парнас) . This collection of poems, published in the original Russian language, brings together authors from Lomonossow to Anna Akhmatova . Eliasberg also provided the translations for Russian titles in the Insel-Bücherei , such as Volkserzählungen (IB 68) and Der Schneesturm (IB 73) by Tolstoy or Die Gentle von Dostojewski (IB 116).

As a result, he made a number of new Russian storytellers, poets and publicists known in the German-speaking area, in particular Dmitri Mereschkowski as well as Alexei Tolstoy , Alexei Remisow and Ilja Ehrenburg , whose Julio Jurenito he translated into German. German editions of Polish and Yiddish-language works can also be traced back to him, including by authors such as Scholem Alejchem and Jizchok Leib Perez . In addition to the classic Russian authors already mentioned, he also translated works by Gogol , Pushkin and Chekhov .

Eliasberg was friends with Thomas Mann and contributed significantly to his reception of Russian novels.

As a cultural mediator between Russian and Yiddish literature on the one hand and German literature on the other, Eliasberg published anthologies of Russian and Yiddish literature as well as works on Russian art and literature. In 1915 he wrote about the book Russian Art - A Contribution to the Characteristics of Russians , which was published by Piper Verlag . His Russian literary history in individual portraits from 1922 remained a standard work in German Slavic studies for a long time .

Eliasberg had been stateless since 1917 . In connection with an alleged anti-German statement by his wife, which resulted in a trial, he was expelled from Bavaria in 1923 and found shelter with friends in Berlin, where he died the following year.

Eliasberg was married to Zinaida Chapsal, they had the son Paul Eliasberg (1907-1983).

Fonts (selection)

  • (Ed.): Russian Art. A contribution to the characteristics of Russians. Munich 1915.
  • (Ex.) :, Fyodor M. Dostojewskij: The legend of the Grand Inquisitor. German by Alexander Eliasberg. Furche Verlag, Berlin 1919.
  • (Ed. Together with David Eliasberg): Русскiй Пapнaccъ. (Russian Parnassus ), Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1920.
  • Simon Dubnow : The Latest History of the Jewish People . 3 volumes. Translation by Alexander Eliasberg. Berlin: Jewish publishing house, 1920/1923
  • (Ed.): Jüdisches Theater (A dramatic anthology of East Jewish poets), 2 volumes, Benjamin Harz Verlag, Berlin / Vienna 1920.
  • (Ex.): Fyodor M. Dostojewskij: Crime and punishment. German by Alexander Eliasberg. Kiepenheuer Verlag, Potsdam 1921.
  • (Ex.): Fyodor M. Dostojewskij: Diary of a writer. Edited and translated by Alexander Eliasberg. 4 volumes. Musarion-Verlag, Munich 1921–1923.
  • (Ex.): Fyodor M. Dostojewskij: Notes from a dead house. FM Dostoyevsky. Transferred by Alexander Eliasberg. Volksverband der Bücherfreunde / Wegweiser Verlag, Berlin 1923.
  • Russian literary history in individual portraits. With a preface v. D. Mereshkovsky and sixteen portraits. Beck, Munich 1922.
  • (Ed.): Russian architecture. Müller, Munich 1922.
  • Yiddish stories. 1963.
  • Rebbe's pipe pipe. 1969.

literature

  • Carmen Sippl: “ What kind of spirit is his opponent”: The translator Alexander Eliasberg in the First World War (from his correspondence with Igor 'Grabar'). In: Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch NF 2 (2014) pp. 165–175. ISBN 978-3-447-10181-3
  • Carmen Sippl: the translator Alexander Eliasberg (1878–1924) and the Russian writers in exile (Dmitrij Merežkovskij - Ivan Šmelev - Aleksej Remizov) . In: Adelbert JM Davids, Fedor B. Poljakov (ed.): The Russian Diaspora in Europe in the 20th Century. Religious and cultural life. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-56932-0 , pp. 195-213. (Русская культура в Европе / Russian Culture in Europe; 4)
  • Carmen Sippl: publishers and translators in the interwar period. In: Karl Eimermacher, Astrid Volpert (Ed.): Stormy departures and disappointed hopes. Russians and Germans in the interwar period. Fink, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7705-4091-3 , pp. 783-803.
  • Carmen Sippl: Max Brod in translation and judgment by Alexander Eliasberg (1911–1914). In: Austrian Literature: Modern and Present. Yearbook of the Austria Library in St. Petersburg (2003/2004) Vol. 6, pp. 128–138.
  • Carmen Sippl: The library of the translator Alexander Eliasberg: A search for traces . In: Imprimatur NF , XVI (2001), pp. 134-143. ISSN  0073-5620 .
  • Hartmut Walravens (Ed.): Alexander Eliasberg (1878-1924): The work of the fruitful translator from Russian and Yiddish . Berlin State Library, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-88053-191-8
  • Eliasberg, Alexander. 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. 310-324.

Web links

Wikisource: Alexander Eliasberg  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Alexander Eliasberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files


Individual evidence

  1. ↑ His widow is registered in the Berlin address book from 1925 to 1927 at Joachim-Friedrich-Straße 48 (Wilmersdorf); this should also have been his Berlin address. Eliasberg, Zina . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1925, part 1, p. 620.
personal data
SURNAME Eliasberg, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian translator
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Minsk
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1924
Place of death Berlin