Bess Brenck potash

Bess Brenck-Kalischer , actually Betty Levy (born November 21, 1878 in Rostock , † June 2, 1933 in Berlin ), was a German poet, sister of the lawyer and legal historian Ernst Levy .

Attending a secondary school for girls, later a teachers' seminar until graduation. Training as a reciter , several semesters studying philosophy. 1903 Participation in theater performances by the literary department of the Berlin Free Student Union - she appears as Sulamith in the play "Hirtenliebe" by Peter Hille , directed by Erich Mühsam and Ludwig Rubiner . Beginning of friendship with Solomon Friedländer (Mynona, 1871–1946), in whose novel “Graue Magie” (1922) she appears as Bessie Knerb. 1905 first poems in the magazine " Charon ". 1906 Marries the writer Siegmund Kalischer (1880–1911), the daughter Ruth is born. Publication of poems and prose in the magazines " Neue Jugend " (1914) and "Die Schöne Rarität" (1917). At the latest since 1917 in Dresden - Hellerau (where she lived "Beim Gräbchen" and "Grüner Zipfel"). Co-founder of the Expressionist Working Group in Dresden , whose members include Rudolph Adrian Dietrich, Conrad Felixmüller , Oskar Maria Graf , Walter Rheiner (who called her a “sloppy Madonna”), Heinar Schilling and Felix Stiemer . Publication of the "Seal" collection (including the poem "Prometheus. Otto Gross ") as the first volume in the series "Seal of the Youngest" by the Dresden publishing house from 1917 and of poems in the magazine "Menschen". Participation in author evenings of the working group. A. Rudolf Leinert described her attempt to “dress up as a new Else Lasker student” as ridiculous. 1918 serious illness of blood poisoning. 1919 Contributions to the magazine “Der Einzige”. Back in Berlin from 1920, on friendly terms with the Stirnerbund and Anselm Ruest. Together with Berta Lask he founded the “Association of Proletarian Writers”. 1922 novel "Die Mühle" (Reprint Fürstenwalde: Ed. Sirene 1995). Emil Szittya characterizes her in his 1923 work “The Cabinet of Curiosities”: “She has strangely staring eyes, is ugly fat. Short gray hair. Writes poems and novels and is known for the fact that all of Berlin's writers have already advertised her love. " Alfred Richard Meyer attests to her that her works are" clearly characterized by strong artistic tendencies ". Receives support from the Notgemeinschaft des Deutschen Literatures and the German Schiller Foundation , becomes a protégé of the Association of German Writers. August 1927 journey with a transport of the International Workers' Aid to a spa in Russia, then to Moscow , participation in the rehearsals for "The Window into the Village" directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold . Back in Berlin she wrote theater reviews and died there in 1933 of the effects of a nervous disease.

Since September 2014, thanks to a fundraising campaign by the Jena association POESIE SCHMECKT GUT e. V. the previously untraceable grave of Bess Brenck-Kalischer and her husband Siegmund Kalischer a gravestone. The grave is located in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee in grave field E 3 (row 14, grave numbers 39725 and 87732).

literature

• Bess Brenck-Kalischer, in: Weiß, Norbert u. Jens Wonneberger: poet thinker literati from six centuries in Dresden. Dresden: Scheune 1997, p. 26
• Malcolm Green, epilogue, in: Brenck-Kalischer, Beß: Die Mühle. Fürstenwalde: Ed. Sirene 1995, pp. 69-77
• Bo Osdrowski / Tom Riebe (eds.): Bess Brenck-Kalischer. Versensporn - Booklet for lyrical charms No. 3, Edition POESIE SCHMECKT GUT, Jena. 2011. 100 copies.

Web links

• Literature by and about Bess Brenck-Kalischer in the catalog of the German National Library