Aquilino Ribeiro

Aquilino Ribeiro, drawing

Aquilino Gomes Ribeiro (born September 13, 1885 in Carregal da Tabosa , Sernancelhe , † May 27, 1963 in Lisbon ) was a Portuguese writer who was primarily active as a novelist and had close ties to Germany . He is best known in Portugal as an independently thinking author of numerous profound novels.

Life

Aquilino Ribeiro was born in 1885. In 1907 he fled to Paris and began studying philosophy and sociology at the Sorbonne . In Paris he met his future wife, the German Grethe Tiedemann (1890–1927), whom he married in Schwerin in 1913 . In 1914 their son Anibal Aquilino Fritz Tiedemann Ribeiro was born. His first book was also published in 1913. In 1912 he came to Germany for the first time, namely to Berlin and Parchim . Then he lived in Paris until 1914. As the war started, the family moved to Portugal. In 1918 he became a curator at the National Library of Lisbon . In 1928 he visited Paris again.

Aquilino Ribeiro made an important trip through Germany in 1920 and recorded his impressions in articles for the Portuguese newspaper A Pátria , especially of the encounters with ordinary people for whom the writer from a distant country was exotic. He was very fond of Germany. On his trip he visited the following cities: Berlin , Parchim , Schwerin , Hildesheim , Hameln , Pyrmont , Hanover , Hamburg , Cologne . This work is therefore a valuable one, as it shaped the image of Germany in Portugal for decades. From a German perspective, too, his precise and reflective observation of the changed Germany, its political and social developments, and its peculiarities are important.

After he was already committed to the republic as a young man, he also became an opponent of the dictatorship that emerged from the military coup of 1926, from which the semifascist regime of Salazar emerged. He is also commonly referred to as the founder of native literature in Portugal. Only one work and his travel notes have been translated into German so far.

After a brief illness, Aquilino Ribeiro died in 1963 in the hospital of the industrial group Companhia União Fabril (CUF). Today he is buried in the national pantheon.

Works (selection)

• O Malhadinhas , 1922, short stories.
• Andam Faunos pelos bosques (Fauns roaming the woods), 1926. Novel.
• When the wolves howl , 1958, German 1965, novel.
• Germany 1920. A trip from Portugal to Berlin and Mecklenburg , German 1997, Atlantik-Verlag.

literature

• Sophie Weiland: Portuguese folklore in the mirror of Portuguese narrative literature. [Hamburg studies on the folk and culture of the Romans; Volume 37]. Hamburg-Wandsbek, Hansischer Gildenverlag, 1945.
• A. Ribeiro: Germany 1920 ... (preface), Atlantik Verlag, 1997.
• Major works of Spanish and Portuguese literature, Kindler's Literature Lexicon.
• Knauer's Lexicon of World Literature.

Web links

Commons : Aquilino Ribeiro  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Literature by and about Aquilino Ribeiro in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography at Instituto Camões (Portuguese)
• Biography of Aquilino Ribeiros on the website of the municipality of Carregal (port.)
• Entry in the Infopédia , the online encyclopedia of the Porto Editora (port.)