Annemarie von Nathusius

Annemarie von Nathusius (1874–1926), writer, with signature, 1909

Annemarie von Nathusius , actually Anna Maria Luise von Nathusius (born August 28, 1874 in Ludom near Posen , † October 17, 1926 in Berlin ), was a German writer . Her historical novel The Foolish Heart of Julie von Voss (1918) was reprinted until 1937. Your novella Malmaison was filmed by Paul Ludwig Stein in 1922 under the title It shines my love .

Life

Annemarie von Nathusius was born as the daughter of the conservative publicist and politician Philipp von Nathusius-Ludom and Anna Henriette von Nathusius, née Petzold (* 1842). She was a granddaughter of the writer Marie Nathusius and the publicist Philipp von Nathusius and thus great-great-granddaughter of the poet Philippine Engelhard . From 1882 to 1884 she lived with her family on the manor Nothwendig near Filehne , where her father administered the property of Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern zu Sigmaringen in Silesia, Posen and Pomerania with the title of "Princely Hohenzollern'schen Hofkammerrathes" . The family lived in Rudolstadt in Thuringia from 1885 to 1891 . From 1887 Nathusius was a student at the Freiadeligen Magdalenenstift in Altenburg , which she left in 1890 after confirmation.

Writer

After her marriage in 1896 to the second degree uncle and painter Thomas von Nathusius , she lived in Berlin. After the separation achieved by her in 1900, the childless marriage was divorced in 1904. Nathusius had already begun writing in the field of poetry and short prose at a young age at the end of the 1880s . The first publications were in 1901 and 1902. Around 1902 she met the writer Paul Ilg , with whom she traveled to the Engadin, the Riviera and northern Italy and lived together in a financially difficult situation in Munich in 1904 and 1905 . In 1904 she was able to sell her first novel "Die Glücksucherin" to the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung. In 1905 she returned to Berlin. In that year the second novel "The Lady on Bronkow" was published.

Between 1905 and 1909 she made the acquaintance of Prince Christian Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen , who supported her as a patron until his death in 1926, because despite all her literary successes and her hard work, Annemarie von Nathusius was only able to secure her livelihood with great difficulty. In 1910 the publication of “The proud rubbish”, which is considered a novel by the clef. It is a very precise processing of family relationships with a sharp distance from the ways of life and political views of the Prussian nobility. The publication was understood by the Prussian aristocratic society and the conservative camp as a declaration of war. She received a lot of attention. Violent controversies with hostility to the writer were the result. With this novel, she also called for the political and economic emancipation of women. This made her known in the radical women's movement, to which she cannot, however, be assigned. Helene Stöcker and Minna Cauer were close and permanent friends and she was on friendly terms with Lily Braun .

Political activity

In 1914, the publication of her novel “I Am the Sword” caused a heated debate that polarized the public and the press. Sections of the women's movement and left-wing liberal circles welcomed the book enthusiastically, while the nobility and the moderate bourgeoisie described the novel, according to the Kreuzzeitung on March 18, 1914, as a “pamphlet dictated by blind hatred”. It was about nothing less than the double standards in Wilhelminian Germany, about discrimination, dependence and oppression of women and the dictates of premarital abstinence of women determined by a male concept of morality and honor. Nathusius shocked to find out that premarital relationships are not the privilege of men. The marriage institute had become something questionable for her. On the other hand, through the novel, she urged women to live women's liberation and a self-determined life.

At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, she was initially enthusiastic about the war and came into contact with the pacifist and anti-militarist movement in Berlin, especially from the end of 1914 with the Bund Neues Vaterland and its most important representatives such as Georg Graf von Arco , Stefan Zweig , Albert Einstein , Alfred Hermann Fried and Clara Zetkin . Even Helene Stocker and Minna Cauer included this district, and as her close friends within the bonds of publicist and politicians are Hellmut von Gerlach and Hans Paasche to name. Annemarie von Nathusius was, as Hellmut von Gerlach reported, exceptionally well informed about classified military information and evidently ready to commit betrayal of secrets for the success of serious peace efforts.

Through Hans Paasche, she met Maximilian Kirsch (1893–1963) in 1916. From this acquaintance, an intense but also conflictual friendship developed. Hans Paasche had written down and published the Lorraine's war experiences under the title "Foreign Legionnaire Kirsch - An adventurous journey from Cameroon into the German trenches in the war years 1914/15". The book, evidently conceived as an anti-war book, found a large readership.

The friendship with Maximilian Kirsch was an essential motive for Nathusius to travel by car through Persia in 1924 and to return together via Kurdistan. Your travel report about this trip was published in 1926 under the title “By car through Persia” with a dedication to Christian Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen.

Between 1918 and 1926 Nathusius took up historical material in novels and short stories in quick succession. “The foolish heart of Julie von Voss . A court story from the Zopfzeit ”and“ Rheinsberg . Ein Märkischer Roman “(1922) are dedicated to women from Prussian and Brandenburg history and culture. In the two stories "Josephine" and "Malmaison" in "My love shines" (1921), the French Revolution is the historical setting for love stories. In the social novel “In the sinking light. Roman from the 1980s ”(1922), the socio-political climate, conflicts and events of the Bismarckian era, such as socialist laws and the Africa conference, form the framework for action. Like counter-images to historical novels, Annemarie v. Nathusius wrote three time novels during this period in which social change and upheaval in the post-war years determine the background of the plot, "Eros" (1919), "The Unredeemed. A story for the immoral ”(1921) and“ The Liberator ”(1923). Some of the publications achieved high print runs, so that she can definitely be described as a successful author in the early phase of the Weimar Republic.

In addition to her literary work, she was a committed political champion and defender of the Weimar Republic. She was a frequent visitor to the “Reformist Stammtisch” in Café Josty. She was outraged by the coup attempts by the right, the political murders and the activities of right-wing volunteer corps, of which her friend Hans Paasche fell victim on May 21, 1920. Her obituary for Paasche in the magazine Die Zukunft (1920, pp. 250f.) Published by Maximilian Harden is an eloquent expression of her attitude: “I always hear the Soldateska is dead. After five years of insane unrestrained fury, in which everyone whose reason is resisted, were sent to hero's death, while most of those who preached and extolled him wisely guarded themselves against him (to now write lucrative memoirs), after these madhouse years came the revolution. She dethroned all the funny people who have long belonged in fairy tales and created a republic. However: a republic without republicans. "

She took part in the funeral ceremonies for Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in a demonstrative and exposed way , although she never developed an affiliation to the left-wing party spectrum. As early as March 8, 1910, she wrote to August Bebel : “Of course I am not a politician - not even a women's rights activist - I probably have very little idea of ​​the great blessings and huge works of the Social Democrats. But wherever someone fights for culture and justice, I'll be there! "

Sickness and death

In 1925, Nathusius stayed temporarily in Baden-Baden because of her always fragile state of health and a diabetes worsened by the trip to Persia. During this time she worked on the writing of the Persian travel diary and on the novels "The Separation" and "In the Queen's Rose Garden". On October 15, 1926, she traveled to Berlin to clarify the details of a book project. Nathusius died on October 17th in the Bethanien hospital in Berlin. The cremation and memorial service took place on October 21 in the Wilmersdorf crematorium. The urn was buried on May 31, 1927 in the Grunewald cemetery .

In spite of all political engagement, the attraction of art and the feeling for a commonality between writers and artists remained the decisive driving force in their own lives. The journalist and writer Hermann Kesser , a companion of her last years in Berlin, wrote in a tribute in 1928 in the Berliner Tageblatt. “She was only half a writer. The other half of this woman were glowing and protesting ... She died from her Berlinish, from her incessantness, always connecting one point of life with the other. A cavity remains for a long time ... As a woman who has shown what freedom means and yet has not been a woman of emancipation; as a product of Berlin, which has done great excesses in piercing walls and walls and has abolished all tradition ... A wreath on your grave! "

Works

• Man and woman. Stories and Thoughts , Richard Eckstein, Nachf. H. Krüger, Berlin undated (1901), book decoration by Marcus Behmer (unnamed).
• Free words! Songs and sketches , with book decorations by Marcus Behmer , Richard Eckstein, Berlin approx. 1902
• Die Glücksucherin , Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, 1904; Book edition O. Janke, Berlin 1911. 1921
• The mistress of Bronkow. A manor history , Otto Janke, Berlin 1905.1907
• Erika. Short story , Kürschner's treasure trove of books: Novel and Novell Collection, No. 548, Hermann Hillger, Berlin and Leipzig 1907
• Sounds of home. 5 stories and 16 poems, Otto Janke, Berlin 1907
• Das Heidehaus , Weber's modern library No. 126, Otto Weber, Heilbronn aN, 1908
• Um die Heimat , Deutsche Roman-Zeitung 1908, No. 48–52; Book edition. Otto Janke, Berlin 0.J. (1909)
• The proud rubbish , Otto Janke, Berlin 1910, 10th edition 1914
• Thekla , In: Deutsches Frauenbuch, ed. by Hermann Beuthenmüller, Franz Moeser Nachf., undated Leipzig, Berlin (around 1910), pp. 329–343
• The Lord of the Floe , Seyfert, Dresden 1911
• The trip to Baden: Narration , Die Woche, Moderne Illustr. Journal, Volume 13, Vol. IV (Issue 40–52), August Scherl, Berlin 1911; Book edition, C. Reissner, Dresden-Blasewitz 1912
• The treasure of Sevengade. Princess Leonor. 2 stories , Hermann Hillger, Berlin and Leipzig 1913; Kürschner's Treasure of Books No. 805
• I am the sword! , C. Reissner, Dresden 1914
• The house with the roses , Hillger, Berlin and Leipzig 1917
• The foolish heart of Julie von Voss. A court story from the Zopfzeit , with 13 drawings by Dorothea Hauer , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart and Berlin 1918
• Wusterode Castle. Story , Hausfreund-Bibliothek, Vol. 183, Klambt Verlag, Neurode u. a. 1919
• Eros. Roman , German publishing house Bong & Co., Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna, Stuttgart 1919
• Dreams of a youth , Eckstein, Leipzig 1920
• It shines my love. Stories , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart and Berlin 1921
• The unsaved. A story for the immoral , W. Borngräber, Berlin 1921
• The lucky seeker , Otto Janke, Berlin 1921
• Rheinsberg. A Brandenburg novel , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart and Berlin 1922
• In the falling light. Novel from the eighties , Ullstein, Berlin 1922
• The Liberator , Schwert-Verlag, Berlin 1923
• Homeland. Novellas , Schwert-Verlag, Berlin 1923
• Countess Dorothee. Story , in: Westermanns MONTHS, Vol. 70 (Sept. 1925 - August 1926, Vol. 140 II, H. 839, pp. 501–508)
• In the car through Persia (travel report), C. Reissner, Dresden 1926
• In the Queen's Rose Garden , Illustrierte Kölnische Zeitung , 1926 (Issue 2.1.09.-Issue 13, November 25, 1926)
• The separation. Roman , KFKöhler Verlag, Berlin 1927

Web links

Commons : Annemarie von Nathusius  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Short portrait on the Nathusius family website ( memento from January 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Annemarie von Nathusius in the historical novel database project at the University of Innsbruck

literature

• Petra Budke and Jutta Schulze, writers in Berlin 1871–1945. A lexicon on life and work. The other look. Women's Studies in Science and Art , ISBN 3-929823-22-5 , Orlanda Frauenverlag, Berlin 1995
• Ruth Stummann-Bowert, “My love shines”. Annemarie von Nathusius (1874–1926). A noble rebel. Biography and work , ISBN 978-3-8260-4674-2 , Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2011

Individual evidence

1. ^ Herrmann Kesser: The linear Berlin. Floor plan of a stay. In: Berliner Tageblatt , June 10, 1928.