Antoni Sobanski

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Antoni Graf Sobański (born May 1, 1898 in Obodówka, Podolia , † April 1941 in London ) was a Polish writer and essayist .

Life

origin

The title of nobility was given to his grandfather, Feliks Sobański, by Pope Leo XIII. awarded in 1880. In his book Childhood in Three Countries , written in London in 1940, Antoni Sobański was the first country to mention Ukraine " ... he will never forget its nature and landscape near Zbruch and on the Dniester ". In Kiev he passed the Abitur . In 1919 he was drafted into the Polish army and served as a radio operator and translator in the Polish war against Soviet Russia. In 1922 he began to study philosophy and humanistics at Warsaw University (among others with Marcel Handelsmann), which he broke off two and a half years later.

Palace ruins in Guzów

This did not prevent him from gaining attention, respect and almost admiration among the intellectuals of Warsaw. The English consul in Warsaw, Frank Savery, later said of him: " He is one of the most interesting people in Warsaw ". Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz called Sobański a “ good and clever friend ” and wrote about him in the book Die Allee der Freunde : “ He was impressive [...] tall, sporty and very elegant (a special kind of elegance that we called 'le style Tonio' ), a bit too eloquent, but very humorous, cultural, curious about everything, from politics to art, extremely sociable, never talking negatively about anyone, and if sometimes ironic, then immediately funny, an ideal of the gentleman, and above all excellent for it predisposed to be a journalist. “ Witold Gombrowicz keeps him in his memory after years:“ Strange person, this Tonio Sobański! Very exemplary for what was once Warsaw and the upheaval in Poland. Graf, owner of the wonderful Guzow, was like a gypsy, did not like country life, no longer clung to the traditions, sunk into the intellectual and artistic swamp, was actually disinherited and drove all his countless aunts mad. Extremely intelligent, European, culturally, excellent manners, considerable personality. [...] Tonio was not a snob or a mannered elegant - he simply belonged to the elite. Such people were needed. Was one of the enlightened Polish aristocrats, and that too mattered. [...] In my opinion, his role in the Warsaw art scene was very important as he was representative of elegance, artistic taste or distinguished manners - virtues that we considered 'superficial' or 'unmanly', definitely not enough 'heroic' and 'stocky'. Tonio was convinced that the charm of a nation is more powerful than cannons, that the best way to inspire the world is with style, form and artistic appeal. "

The development of the political situation in Poland after the death of Marshal Piłsudski worried Antoni Sobański very much, especially the growing Polish nationalism and the increasingly threatening anti-Semitism . In 1937 he took part in a controversial discussion in the magazine " Wiadomości Literackie " (" Literary News "). The subject of this discussion: Polish writers and the Jewish question . Sobański says in his statement, under the significant heading “ Jewish question - does not exist ”, that the deterioration in Polish-Jewish relations is only temporary and that peaceful coexistence must return. “ The excretion of Jews from the Polish economy means an economic catastrophe and the abolition of a stable and secure link with Western Europe ”. He does not believe in an immediate mass migration of Jews to Palestine or their forced resettlement to Madagascar , nor does he find a real explanation for Polish anti-Semitism: " Sometimes I believe that four years after the victory of the National Socialists in Germany, their anti-Semitic poison somehow ate its way through our border and sprinkled all of Poland with hatred of Jews. [...] Which of course is not an explanation at all. "

Count Tonio had a perfect command of six European languages, both spoken and written, and was constantly on the move - spending months in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna or Petersburg - but not only in Europe, also in the US. In the 1930s he bought a piece of land with a house in Santa Fe, New Mexico . There he spent Christmas 1938 and wrote " Christmas in San Filipe ".

News from Berlin 1933–1936

Between 1933 and 1936 he reported for the Polish magazine Wiadomości Literackie ( Literary News ). Wiadomości Literackie were founded in Warsaw in 1924, a few months after the Hitler putsch. From the beginning this magazine observed the developments in the western neighbors. Immediately after the 1933 election in Germany, the editorial staff felt the need for information about the emerging Third Reich . In order to fulfill this, it was decided to send someone to Berlin who knows the German culture and language perfectly and at the same time has many friends and acquaintances there. Count Antoni Sobański was ideally suited for this mission, and so he went to Berlin at the end of April 1933. His first report “ In Germany after the upheaval. Berlin, May 1933 “published the Wiadomości Literackie on June 18, 1933. The next reports appeared regularly in the following issues of the magazine until August 6, 1933 - all in all 8 reports were published and finally published as a book (Verlag Towarzystwo Wydawnicze" Rój ", Warsaw 1934). The later reports by Antoni Sobański were no longer printed in book form, they were published again after 70 years.

In the spring of 1936 Antoni Sobański visited Gdansk and wrote a report from there “ Humor of fateful things ”, published in Wiadomości Literackie (May 3, 1936, no. 19). Because for reasons of objectivity - Danzig was a free city in 1936 - this report was not included in the book “ Nachrichten aus Berlin 1933-36 ” (the content of which looks at the events in the Third Reich), it is worth taking a brief look here: “ One must not forget them dangerous and empty meaning of the word - prestige. Germany frees itself from Versailles chains, drives up military equipment, invades Rhineland - in the name of that word. The coming war will cost the lives of millions of soldiers and even more civilians - for the sanctity of that word. [...] Everything will be lost in this massacre [...] A war that destroys both Germany and Poland. "

His reports as a Polish correspondent from National Socialist Germany describe political events such as the Nuremberg party congress of the NSDAP , but also details that allow a glimpse into the reality of life in the Third Reich:

Above all, the members of the NSDAP never get tired when it comes to collecting money: whether in a nightclub, in a restaurant or in a café, a martial-looking, tall guy comes to the table and offers a postcard with the picture of the Führer to buy . At the beginning it makes a good impression, so it takes a certain moral courage to reject the trade. I don't feel pressured myself; However, if I had Semitic facial features, I should probably leave Berlin with dozens of pictures of the guide in my suitcase ...

Antoni Sobański also had personal reasons to travel to Berlin as a reporter in the spring of 1933. In the foreword to the first report he wrote: “ I want so much to maintain my affection for this wonderful nation [...] I have so much respect for the Germans [...] I'm very afraid of losing both [...] But I will only write the truth. [...] I'm just an old-fashioned liberalist who the younger generation accuses of objectivity. They despise objectivism and claim that the strong and creative should not act objectively to build something. I don't want to edify right now, I just want to save my ridiculous, liberal and dying world. "

Second World War

The beginning of the Second World War surprised him in Warsaw. Sobański and two other writers left Warsaw on September 5th and drove to nearby Kazimierz on the Vistula to “wait” for the war there - Sobański was a friend of the Jews, the English and love between men. Tonio's exile odyssey begins soon - via Romania, Yugoslavia and Italy to Great Britain. In London he found employment as a journalist and correspondent for the BBC and “ Wiadomości Polskie ” (“ Polish News ”). In 1941 Sobański died in London of a lung disease.

Works

  • 18 lat? !!! . Warsaw, 1929
  • Wigilia w San Filipe . Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1938
  • Trzy kraje lat dziecinnych . In: Kraj lat dziecinnych . Kolin, London 1942
  • Cywil w Berlinie . Sic !, Warsaw 2006. ISBN 83-88807-91-9 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sobański, Antoni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sobański, Antoni Graf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish writer and essayist
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Obodówka, Podolia
DATE OF DEATH April 1941
Place of death London