Artur Streiter

Artur Streiter self-portrait (1929)

Artur Streiter (born January 17, 1905 in Neuruppin ; died October 25, 1946 in Schönow ) was a German graphic artist , writer , painter and anarchist .

Life

Streiter grew up in Berlin, lived from around 1930 to 1940 in Berlin-Wittenau and after 1940 in Schönow near Berlin, where he re-established the still-preserved community library after the Second World War. He completed an apprenticeship as a technical draftsman and an apprenticeship as a craftsman. As a teenager he left his parents' home and became active in the settlement and reform movement. He traveled through Germany with a puppeteer group for a few months before joining the “Goldberg Commune” at the age of 16. This commune, founded by Heinrich Goldberg , later moved to France, with Streiter remaining in Germany. Between 1926 and 1930 he lived with his wife Erna in a community in the Roten Luch . Located on the railway line from Berlin to Küstrin, a parcel of around 2 hectares was leased there for 180 DM for three years. Streiter saw himself as an anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist at the time . His participation in the individual municipalities was influenced by Gustav Landauer , Leo Tolstoy and partly by Erich Mühsam . As an autodidact, Streiter published his numerous articles in literary (prose), artistic (drawings, portraits) and journalistic (politics, culture) articles in the magazines " Der Kunde ", Der Syndikalist , "Contra", "Der Vagabund" and Reflection and departure . As an artist he painted portraits of Alfred Döblin , Theodor Lessing , Erich Mühsam and Ernst Toller . At times he was a member of the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD). In the 1920s he was interested in the bohemians and the vagabonds, about whom he wrote numerous texts and poems for the “Steinklopfer Verlag” (formerly: Werk-Tat Verlag) together with Paul Heinzelmann (pseudonym: Heinz Elmann) and Rudolf Geist. During the Weimar Republic he maintained close contacts with the Brotherhood of Vagabonds and worked for the magazines Der Kunde and Der Vagabund published by Gregor Gog . In addition to his interest in vagabondness, he advocated the anarchist thesis: "I do not say: as little state as possible, but emphasize: no state at all". He saw the workers as slaves, for him the strike was a legitimate means of political revolution, and in his opinion the institution of the church was closely linked to the exercise of state power. In 1930 he finished his numerous publications in "Der Syndikalist" for reasons that are still unknown. Possibly because one of the editors, Helmut Rüdiger , did not publish all of the manuscripts he sent in, and there were also disagreements with FAUD.

Streiter corresponded with Hermann Hesse , Thomas Mann , Stefan Zweig , Else Lasker-Schüler and others.

In 1936 he was arrested by the Gestapo after a denunciation .

Artur Streiter was married and the father of two children. He died at the age of 41 of pulmonary tuberculosis, which his daughter said he contracted while in custody at the Gestapo.

literature

• Walter Fähnders (Ed.): Nomadic Existences, Vagabondage and Boheme in Literature and Culture of the 20th Century . Conference proceedings May 11, 2007. Series: Writings of the Fritz Hüser Institute for German and Foreign Workers' Literature Vol. 16. Klartext Verlag , Essen 2007. ISBN 978-3-8986-1814-4 (For information on Streiter and others see Walter Fähnders: Vagabondage and vagabond literature, pages 33–54 and Artur Streiter bibliography, pages 131–148)
• Ulrich Linse : The anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist youth movement, on the history and ideology of the anarchist, syndicalist and unionist children and youth organizations from 1919 to 1933 . Dipa, Frankfurt 1976. ISBN 3-7638-0218-5
• Walter Fähnders & Henning Zimpel (ed.): The era of the vagabonds. Texts and pictures. Klartext, Essen 2009. ISBN 978-3-89861-655-3 (From / to Artur Streiter: Pages 27–29, 66, 119, 123, 136–137, 161, 165, 175–177, 273, 276, 278 , 279, 280, 283, 286, 293–294, 305)
• Hartmut Rübner: Freedom and Bread. The Free Workers' Union of Germany. A Study of the History of Anarcho-Syndicalism . Libertad Verlag , Potsdam 1994. ISBN 3-922226-21-3 (On A. Streiter: Pages 180, 213, 251, 294)

Works

• The war traitor Heinz Elm-Mann. To the verses of a soldier . Werk-Tat-Presse, Berlin 1932
• Wanderings in the land of the Chinese Ju ang dsi . Steinklopfer, Berlin 1933

Lectures (selection)

• Homeless religious founders . On May 15, 1928, on a vagabond evening in the youth home in East Berlin. He was also involved in at least six other exhibitions.

Web links

• Short biography and information on Artur Streiter's work at Literaturport
• Artur Streiter by Henning Zimpel and Walter Fähnders in the Lexicon of Anarchy
• Finding aid Artur Streiter at the Fritz-Hüser-Institut , arr. Walter Fähnders, 2007; with bio and bibliography
• In the IISG inventory Nettlau, a letter from 1931, microfilm ( Max Nettlau Papers No. 1163)
• Artur Streiter in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Short biography and information on Artur Streiter's work at Literaturport , accessed on April 9, 2010
2. ^ Artur Streiter in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors , accessed on March 16, 2012
3. ↑ Santiago Tovar: The Red Luch and La Kaverno di Zaratustra ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . From January 12, 2011. Accessed on June 21, 2018. More detailed description of the “Red Luch” in: Ulrich Linse, The anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist youth movement 1919–1933 . Contribution by Bruno Zimmermann. Retrieved April 9, 2010 
4. ↑ Cf. on this: A. Streiter, Der Vagabund, attempt at a psychology of his being . In: W. Fähnders, H. Zimpel, Die Epoch der Vagabunden . Page 175
5. ↑ Cf. on this: “Der Syndikalist”, No. 8, 1926. Supplement: “Der Frauenbund”, page 4