Arnold Weiss-Rüthel

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Arnold Weiss-Rüthel (born February 21, 1900 in Munich as Arnold Weiss ; † June 26, 1949 in Munich) was a German author and publicist.

Life

Arnold Weiss was born on February 21st in Munich. He attended elementary school from 1906 to 1910 and the secondary and upper secondary school from 1910 to 1918. From 1918 he attended university for a few semesters. His interest in literature and theater brought him together with the Boheme circles in the 1920s. The name was changed to Weiss-Rüthel based on the artist and author Else Rüthel.

He lives from engagements at Bavarian provincial theaters, from 1924 he begins to write and earn his living as an author. His texts are mainly published in Uhu , Simplicissimus and Weltbühne . In 1929 his anti-militarist story "Musketier Reue" appeared in the anthology "24 neue deutsche Erzählers" by Hermann Kesten . The Nazi party press had probably already registered him at that time.

At the end of 1933 and beginning of 1934 Weiss-Rüthel took over the editorial management of the magazine Jugend . In 1934 one of his poems appeared in the Prague anthology "Songs of Emigrants" without his knowledge. The Nazi weekly newspaper The Movement denounces the pacifist poem. Following a declaration by Weiss-Rüthel, the National Socialists offered to cooperate: one could join forces. Weiss-Rüthel rejects the offer, which admittedly only had the aim of conformity, although it would have given him financial advantages. As a result, the movement targeted him particularly, abusing him as a pornographer, servant of Jews and defeatist. He had to deal with advertisements, but above all the SS weekly newspaper, Das Schwarze Korps , noticed him, as did the Reich Association of the German Press . This forbids him to work as editor because he is not a member. Last but not least, the Reich Ministry of Propaganda issued a warning. At the end of 1937 there was a ban on work. He retires to a friend's house but continues to write there. He is also working on a novel, the proceeds of which will enable him to flee the German Reich.

In 1939 he happened to get a clerk's position on the administrative committee of the Munich University, but after 3 months he lost it again at the instigation of the Gestapo, because he refused to join the NSDAP. After his diaries, which contained sharp criticism of the Nazis, were found during a house search at the end of 1939, a “ protective custody order ” was issued against him in March 1940 .

After a few weeks in the State Police Prison in Briennerstraße he is on 12 April 1940 in the concentration camp Sachsenhausen transferred since the Dachau concentration camp was overcrowded. On April 18, 1940, he entered protective custody and was given prisoner number 18710. He remained in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp until March 1945 . He later described this experience in his best-known work Night and Fog - Notes from Five Years of Protective Custody.

On March 3, 1945 he was released from the concentration camp for a five-week military training course. sent to the front, on April 20th he voluntarily went into Russian captivity. He spent some time in the POW camp in Posen and returned to Bavaria after his release.

After the collapse of the Third Reich, he was commissioned by the military government to de-Nazify the Wasserburg city library. He also becomes a public plaintiff at the Wasserburg am Inn court of justice . He got married for the second time in Wasserburg. Finally Arnold Weiss-Rüthel returned to Munich, where he worked until his death as chief dramaturge at Radio Munich, the forerunner of Bavarian radio. He works there u. a. Georg Büchner's drama Dantons Tod as a radio play that was recorded with Fritz Kortner .

Arnold Weiss-Rüthel died on June 26, 1949, his health never fully recovering from the consequences of the concentration camp. He is buried in the north cemetery in Munich.

Large parts of the estate are in private hands.

Works

  • Night and fog . 1st and 2nd editions with subtitles: Records from five years of protective custody . Kluger, Munich 1946 (157 pages); 3rd edition with subtitle: A Sachsenhausen Book VVN, Potsdam 1949 (195 pages)
  • The heart clock . Poetry anthology. Three pillars, Bad Wörishofen 1947
  • The Soldier Betrayed . Pflaum, Munich 1947
  • Gertraud or the tired heart . Kluger, Munich 1949
  • The eccentrics of the painter Carl Spitzweg . Described after paintings by the master by Arnold Weiss-Rüthel. Obpacher Kunstverlag, Munich 1952
  • Musketeer Reue , in: Hermann Kesten (Ed.): 24 new German narrators . Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag 1929

literature

  • Hans-Ulrich Wagner: Arnold Weiß-Rüthel (1900-1949), in: Radio and history. Communications from the study group broadcasting and history. Information from the German Broadcasting Archive. 26th year No. 1/2 - January / April 2000, s. 44.
  • Arnold Weiss-Rüthel: Night and Fog. Records from five years of protective custody. Kluger, Munich 1946

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Simone Barck: Antifa story (s) . Böhlau Verlag Cologne Weimar, 2003. Page 37
  2. ↑ https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/sendung/hoerspiel-und-medienkunst/hoerspiel-buechner-dantons-tod100.html
  3. ↑ grave cross
personal data
SURNAME Weiss-Rüthel, Arnold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weiss, Arnold (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author, publicist and radio dramaturge
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1949
Place of death Munich