Artur Schweriner

Artur Schweriner (born March 31, 1882 in Czarnikau , † October 30, 1941 in Miami , Florida ) was a German writer and journalist .

Life

Artur Schweriner, initially Arthur Schweriner , was born the son of a Jewish merchant in Czarnikau; he later dropped the 'H' in Arthur. After school and attending a Jewish teacher training college, he came to the Principality of Lippe in 1903 . Schweriner became a teacher and preacher for the Jewish community in Bad Salzuflen . During his three years of activity he wrote as a freelancer for the Lippische Landes-Zeitung of the left-wing liberal Adolf Neumann-Hofer . Under the pseudonym spectator he published numerous articles that denounced grievances or turned against "venerable" dignitaries with puns . The result was legal proceedings for insult. Schweriner was probably also the author of a sensational article on the title page of the August 11, 1906 issue. In this, the anonymous writer was indignant about the lack of social and political equality among Jews in Lippe.

Artur Schweriner's commitment to the left-wing liberals under Neumann-Hofer in Lippe evidently met with reservations within the community. Both the brochure Und Lippe laughs ... and the publication of a separate paper, the Salzufler Zeitung , in Bad Salzuflen, which was co-financed by the Lippische Landes-Zeitung , contributed to this. In 1906 the Jewish community no longer extended his contract. During his time in Lippe, Schweriner had already written two small literary works.

Schweriner went to Berlin, where he worked as a Reichstag journalist and frequently wrote articles and glosses for Jewish newspapers and magazines. He presumably also wrote for the Vossische Zeitung , where his brother, the journalist and novelist Oskar Theodor Schweriner , worked. As a lecture traveler against anti-Semitic tendencies, he also appeared in many German cities. In the winter of 1911/12 he was again in Lippe, where he supported his party, the Liberal Association , and his friend Adolf Neumann-Hofer as a speaker in the Reichstag election campaign against the conservatives and the anti-Semitic Christian Socialists.

After another interlude in Berlin, Schweriner moved to Lüdenscheid in 1912 with his wife Else, whom he had married in 1909 . Here he took over a daily newspaper and made it a widely read organ of the liberals. After arguments with anti-Semites within his own party and his own community as well as his switch to social democracy , Schweriner returned to Berlin in 1920.

In Berlin he worked as in-house counsel for the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith (CV) in Greater Berlin. He continued to write for various daily newspapers and also appeared as a speaker for the Reichsbanner . In 1925 he published anecdotes from his life as cheerful ones from the diary of a steadfast man .

The dangers of National Socialism were constantly evoked by him. With other journalists, he founded a modern and controversial weekly political newspaper, the Alarm , in 1929 . Battle sheet against the enemies of the republic . After the Nazis came to power, the journalist fled to the USA via Italy and France in 1933. In New York he worked for the German-language and social democratic weekly newspaper Neue Volkszeitung . Here he wrote articles and novels under the pseudonym gaudeamus and under the name Artur Fischer .

In 1940 Artur and Else Schweriner became American citizens. In autumn 1941 Schweriner wanted to work on a German-language newspaper in Florida. Sudden illness required surgery in Miami, which he did not survive. He died on October 30, 1941.

Works

• The good tone at Hillel . Berlin 1905
• Uncle Wolff, the small town dweller . Berlin 1924
• A botched life? Cheerful news from the diary of a steadfast man . Berlin 1925
• From Tillesen to Schmelzer . Magdeburg 1928
• The party of the phrase . Magdeburg 1930 (anonymous for the Reichsbanner)
• How far shall we go? . New York 1935

literature

• Jürgen Hartmann: “To be a Jew means to be a fighter!” The journalist Artur Schweriner (1882–1941) . In: Heimatland Lippe, No. 2/2009, pp. 36–37
• Jürgen Hartmann, Dietmar Simon: Artur Schweriner (1882–1941). A project outline . In: Rosenland Lippe , No. 3 (2006), pp. 31–38. Download (PDF; 1.2 MB)
• Jürgen Hartmann: Völkische Movement and National Socialism in Lippe until 1925. A contribution to the development and early days of the NSDAP . In: Lippische Mitteilungen aus Geschichte und Landeskunde , Vol. 60 (1991), pp. 149–198.
• Jürgen Hartmann / Dietmar Simon: An unwavering Jewish fighter. Artur Schweriner and his "botched life" . In: Medaon 13 (2019), 25 ( online ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Artur Schweriner in the catalog of the German National Library