Bruno Brehm

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Bruno Brehm, ca.1929

Bruno Brehm (born July 23, 1892 in Laibach , Krain ; † June 5, 1974 in Altaussee ) was an Austrian writer (pseudonym: Bruno Clemens ) and from 1938 to 1942 editor of the journal Der getreue Eckart . Brehm was a member of the Bamberg circle of poets .

Life

Bruno Brehm was the son of 1916 (due to the rules on the system related Adel ) ennobled kuk officer Josef Joachim Brehm in Krain born. Brehm spent his childhood and youth in the garrison towns of Pilsen , Prague , Eger and Znaim . After graduating , Brehm studied German language and literature for one semester in Vienna .

When the First World War broke out , he volunteered and did his one-year military service in Vienna. During the war he was promoted to officer and in September 1914 was taken prisoner by Russia , where he met the later seriously wounded writer Edwin Erich Dwinger . In 1916 he was exchanged for Russian prisoners and shortly afterwards seriously injured again at Asiago .

Degree and freelance writer

After returning from the war as a captain , Brehm studied art history at the University of Vienna , and later prehistory in Gothenburg and Stockholm . Brehm successfully completed his studies in Vienna with the dissertation " The origin of Germanic animal ornamentation ". After receiving his doctorate , he became a publisher and bookseller in Vienna in 1922 and also worked briefly as an assistant at the University of Vienna.

In 1928 Brehm settled in Vienna as a freelance writer . He first became known for his partly nostalgic, partly cheerful confrontation with the end of the monarchy. Several titles were created in quick succession, which were very popular in his time and established his success. The books "Apis und Este" (1931), "That was the end" (1932) and "Neither Kaiser nor König" (1933) form a trilogy from this thematic environment.

“Anschluss” of Austria and World War II

After Austria's annexation to the German Reich in 1938 , which Brehm celebrated in verse in the Confessional Book of Austrian Poets (published by the Association of German Writers in Austria ), he became councilor of the city of Vienna. In the same year he took over the monthly “ Der getreue Eckart ”, which he published until 1942. In 1939 Brehm received the National Book Prize for his "Trilogy" ("Apis and Este", "That Was the End", "Neither Emperor nor King") . In 1941 he became President of the Vienna Cultural Association .

During the Second World War Brehm was an orderly officer in Greece , Russia and North Africa . Brehm's anti-Semitic attitude corresponded to the diction of the National Socialists. In 1941 he took part in the Weimar poets' meeting and spoke of "Jewish agitators" who prevented peace. In 1942 he wrote: "If the Jews complain about their fate to the whole world, then we have to tell them that it was they who conjured up this fate." In August 1944, at the end of the war, Brehm became Hitler included him in the God-gifted list of the most important writers, which saved him from further military service and a front line assignment. He then held poetry readings, with a “morning celebration” planned for January 14, 1945 in occupied Poland, the so-called Generalgouvernement .

post war period

In 1945 Brehm was arrested for his political involvement, but released a short time later. Leo Perutz , who emigrated to Palestine, stood up for him in Brehm's denazification process . Perutz wrote about this in a letter to his friend Hugo Lifczis in 1947:

“In June 1938, when such a visit could already be dangerous for an Aryan, Bruno Brehm appeared in my apartment and offered me his help. I can completely forget a person's rascals, but I am unable to simply erase a courageous, decent and amicable attitude from my memory. [...] Dr. Brehm was a real friend, and that's why I'm not leaving him in the lurch today when things are bad for him . "

In the Soviet occupation zone , many of his writings were placed on the list of literature to be segregated, followed in the German Democratic Republic by The Border Through the Heart (1938).

From 1953 to 1955, Brehm took part in the Pürgger Poet Weeks , which were initiated by Alfred Rainer , a member of the state parliament of the Styrian ÖVP . There Brehm is said to have replied to the journalist Friedrich Torberg , who introduced himself with the words "Friedrich Torberg, from the New Age ": "Bruno Brehm, from the old time."

From 1960 Brehm was a member of the right-wing extremist society for free journalism . He tried in the trilogy (1960–1961) The Twelve Years' Reich to come to terms with the Second World War. In the dispute with Adolf Hitler , Brehm failed both formally and with his arguments.

Bruno Brehm died on June 5, 1974 in Altaussee at the age of 82.

His estate is in private hands.

Awards and honors

Works (in selection)

  • The storm on the publishing house , 1925
  • The laughing god , novel, 1928
  • Susanne and Marie , Roman, 1929 (reworked goodbye, Susanne! 1939)
  • A Count Plays Theater , Roman, 1930 (new: A Castle in Bohemia , 1942)
  • We all want to go to the opera redoubt. A humorous novel , 1930
  • The yellow maple leaf. A Life in Stories , 1931
  • Apis and Este. A Franz Ferdinand novel , 1931
  • That was the end. From Brest-Litovsk to Versailles , 1932
  • Thinking pillars from Austria. A study , 1932
  • Neither emperor nor king. The fall of the Habsburg monarchy , novel, 1933
  • Britta , Roman, 1934
  • The terrible horses. The catfish procession to Eldorado , Roman, 1934
  • Too early and too late. The Great Prelude to the Wars of Liberation , 1936
  • The white eagle feather. Stories from my life , 1937
  • Vienna. The border town in the German East , 1937
  • Happy Austria , 1938, first edition, Diederichs publishing house in Jena, with 32 illustrations
  • Fulfillment Day , 1939
  • The stupidest Sibiriak , short stories, 1939
  • The gentle violence , novel, 1940
  • Dear reader , 1940
  • In the Greater German Empire , 1940
  • About bravery. Breviary for young Germans , 1940
  • The king of back. Stories and what has been seen , 1942
  • The Reichsstil , 1942
  • The border right through the heart , 1944
  • Shadow of power. From the pharaohs to the last tsar , 1949
  • The Liar , novel, 1949
  • On the edge of the abyss. From Lenin to Truman , 1950
  • A Life in Stories , 1951
  • Home in Bohemia , Memoirs, 1951
  • From the Reitschul ' , novel, 1951
  • The four temperaments , short stories, 1952
  • Little Mozart is sick , amateur play, 1953
  • The image. People, animals, dreams and machines , 1954
  • Historia Sancti Christophori. Figure, legend, art , 1956
  • Then women have to strike , 1957
  • The Dream of a Just Regiment , 1960
  • The twelve year empire (trilogy)
    • Volume 1: The Drummer , 1960
    • Volume 2: The Bohemian Private , 1960
    • Volume 3: Woe to the vanquished all , 1961
  • Why we love them. Little pieces of mothers, flowers, colors, animals, children and the sun , 1963
  • In the end there was Königgrätz. Historical novel about Prussia and Austria , 1964
  • The Road to Red October , 1967

Editorial activity

  • Soldiers' Breviary , 1937

literature

  • Book of thanks. Bruno Brehm on his fiftieth birthday. Kraft, Karlsbad et al. 1942.
  • Austrian Landsmannschaft : Literature of the people loyalty , Eckartschriften Heft 54, Vienna 1975
  • Gerd Schattner: The dream of the empire in the middle. Bruno Brehm. A monographic representation of the operational character of the historical novel after the world wars. Lang Frankfurt am Main et al. 1996, ISBN 3-631-30342-4 ( studies on German and European literature of the 19th and 20th centuries 34).
  • Abdulkerim Uzagan: Fictionality and Reality in the novel trilogy “The Thrones Fall” by Bruno Brehm. Univ. Diss., Bielefeld 1999, (online)
  • Milan Tvrdík. "From Old Austria to National Socialism - Bruno Brehm (July 23, 1892 - June 5, 1974)". In: Walter Koshaben, Václav Maidl (Ed.): Hans Watzlik - a Nazi poet? Wuppertal: Arco Wissenschaft, 2006, pp. 91–111.
  • Franz Gall : Austrian heraldry. Handbook of coat of arms science. 2nd Edition. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1992, p. 366 (coat of arms v. Brehm), ISBN 3-205-05352-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arno Kerschbaumer, Nobilitations under the reign of Emperor Karl I / IV. Károly király (1916–1921) , Graz 2016, ISBN 978-3-9504153-1-5 , p. 83: Nobility for Josef Joachim Brehm, kuk Oberst i . R., due to the highest decision of Emperor Franz Joseph I (Vienna October 13, 1916), diploma issued by Emperor Karl I (Vienna February 23, 1917).
  2. ^ Bruno Brehm - Munzinger Biography. Retrieved May 1, 2020 .
  3. ^ Association of German Writers Austria (ed.), Confessional Book of Austrian Poets, Krystall Verlag, Vienna 1938.
  4. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , pp. 76-77.
  5. ↑ Complete quote from Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 77.
  6. ^ Sigurd Paul Scheichl: Judaism, anti-Semitism and literature in Austria 1918-1938 . in: Hans Otto Horch u. a. (Ed.): Conditio Judaica. Part 3: Judaism, anti-Semitism and German-language literature from World War I to 1933/38. Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1993 ISBN 978-3-484-10690-1 pp. 55-91, here p. 88
  7. ↑ polunbi.de
  8. ↑ polunbi.de
  9. ↑ polunbi.de
  10. ^ Robert Schindel: One last turn in: Die Presse , Spectrum, May 2, 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Brehm, Bruno
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clemens, Bruno (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Laibach , Carniola
DATE OF DEATH 5th June 1974
Place of death Altaussee