Hermann Burte

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Self portrait

Hermann Burte (born February 15, 1879 in Maulburg as Hermann Strübe , † March 21, 1960 in Lörrach ) was a German poet , writer and painter . His most famous literary works include the novel Wiltfeber published in 1912 , the Eternal German and the tragedy Katte published in 1914 . Burte is best known as an Alemannic dialect poet . Burte had been an advocate of ethnic ideology since 1912 at the latest, and later a supporter of National Socialist ideas.

Life

Hermann Strübe's father Friedrich Strübe (1842–1912) was a clerk's assistant, while his mother Elisabeth, née Kuhny, (1847–1917) ran a small shop at times. Her son Hermann attended the elementary school in Maulburg and the high school in Schopfheim . In 1896 the family moved to Lörrach, and in 1897 Strübe passed his Abitur at the secondary school in Freiburg im Breisgau . Then he first attended the arts and crafts school in Karlsruhe , where he won several prizes. He then studied like his younger brother Adolf Strübe at the Karlsruhe Art Academy with Ludwig Schmid-Reutte (1863–1909). From 1900 to 1904 Strübe taught by the hour at the arts and crafts school. For his achievements he received a scholarship to study in England .

Due to the close contact with English literature , especially with William Shakespeare , John Milton and William Wordsworth , Strübe was drawn more and more to poetry, but without giving up painting entirely. During a subsequent stay in Paris in 1905 he took part in a German competition for a “folk novel” with the fragment “The blonde devil” and won a consolation prize. Strübe then decided to become a writer and chose the name of his first protagonist as a pseudonym.

Jeremias Gotthelf , Friedrich Nietzsche and Carl Spitteler were Hermann Burte's literary models. The ideological influence of Nietzsche and the “ völkisch movement ” is - like the general mood in the German-Völkisch cultural scene at the end of the Wilhelmine epoch - the eternal German in the novel Wiltfeber. The story of a homeland seeker (1912) is unmistakable. In it Burte wrote among other things: "You are a man of German blood, but German means folkish, and Aryan means imperious ...". This book was a resounding success and, according to Ernst Klee, became the “cult book of the national youth movement”. In 1941, the poet noted for his Wiltfeber in living poets around the Upper Rhine S. 356: "This first idea of the swastika as the healing symbol of power has become radiant truth in Germany and the world." In 1913 Wiltfeber retroactively to the Kleist Prize awarded for 1912.

The Central Office for Foreign Service , a propaganda authority of the German Empire, founded shortly after the beginning of the First World War, was headed by Hermann Strübe in 1916 as a member of the intelligence service.

Burte quickly became an advocate of völkisch ideology and ultimately also a supporter of National Socialism , which after 1933 he allowed himself to be more and more absorbed. The swastika appears as "Germanic" healing symbol as early as 1912, long before Hitler and without reference to any political party, in Wiltfeber . In 1925 he had a desk with swastika motifs made according to his own design. In 1931, while still a German national, he wrote under the title Der Fuehrer consecration verses on a political leader whom he himself later wanted to understand as Adolf Hitler and which he later had reprinted in Bühner's anthology The Fuehrer .

From 1924 to 1932, Burte contributed to the weakening of the Weimar Republic and its institutions as co-editor and key contributor to the bi - weekly German-national- folk magazine Der Markgräfler in Lörrach . For example: B. the motto of January 15, 1925: "The Markgräfler fights ruthlessly and without fear of people the democratic parliamentarism (...)."

As a church-influenced German national, Burte initially had an ambivalent attitude towards National Socialism and expressed reservations. The churchgoer Strübe-Burte wrote sarcastically on June 12, 1933 to his party friend Herman Nohl : “Among the Jewish books that are almost officially burned next Sunday in Karlsruhe, the Bible is missing!” (Letter exhibited in the special exhibition “Hermann Burte and National Socialism "in the Museum am Burghof , Lörrach)

Burte was a member of the DNVP from 1919 until the self-dissolution of the party in June 1933. In January 1936, just in time before the award of the first Johann-Peter-Hebel-Preis to him on May 10th, Burte applied for admission to the NSDAP , (Entry: April 1, 1936, membership no .: 3734637). In his work Sieben Reden (1943), Burte paid tribute to Schiller , Grabbe and Hebel and the poet Adolf Bartels , an avowed anti-Semite. But Burte also gave Hitler hymns. The “Führer” thanked them for their 65th birthday with 15,000 Reichsmarks.

Burte did not even shy away from spying reports to the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD). In the final phase of the Second World War , Adolf Hitler included him in the list of the most important writers in August 1944 .

After the end of the Second World War and nine months of internment in the Lörrach prison, he had to give up his right to live in the “Flachsländer Hof” and stayed with friends in Efringen-Kirchen , where he stayed until 1958. In the course of denazification in 1949, Hermann Strübe was classified as a “minor offender” by the Freiburg Chamber for Political Cleansing . He was given a two-year suspended sentence and banned from political activities. During this time he was primarily active as a translator of French poetry. He was then an honorary member of the right-wing extremist German Cultural Association of European Spirit . His last volume of poems, forehead under the stars , again contained some poems whose interpretation was controversial, such as German will , which can be interpreted in a revisionist manner. During the last years of his life he lived in his native Maulburg. At the age of 81 Burte died in Lörrach of a liver disease; he was buried in Maulburg.

Act

As a painter and as a poet, Burte had the same goal in mind: shaping the landscape and the people, their imprint through the homeland from which they grow. His poems in Alemannic dialect are juxtaposed with the paintings, for which he was primarily inspired by the landscape of the Markgräflerland , but with which he also documented the change and destruction of this landscape through industrial development.

Burtes Alemannic poems with which he gained a reputation as the most effective poet of the Alemannic language according to Johann Peter Hebel remain, while his confession Wiltfeber with its "ethnic-racial argumentation with magical-religious implications" as well as his stage plays are almost forgotten. His paintings also attract attention, although Burte himself always valued his poetic work more highly than his painting.

When commissioned to create an opera libretto from Eichendorff's novella Das Schloß Dürande , he was "obviously overwhelmed by developing the ambivalent characters in the story into operatic characters."

In the Soviet occupation zone, a list of the literature to be segregated was published from 1946, including supplements until 1953, in order to implement the “orders of the military government”, “according to which all writings that have fascist or militarist content, contain political expansionist ideas are to be withdrawn from use represent National Socialist racial doctrine or turn against the Allies . ”Burte was represented six times on these lists: People and art in the Markgräflerland from 1934; the selection People and Art as well as Vom Hofe, which perished in 1935; Seven speeches from 1943; Hermann Burte against John Masefield from 1944. The text On the 60th Birthday of the Poet , which was published by the Oberbadischer Volksblatt in 1939, was also considered to be excluded.

The use of the school name "Hermann-Burte-Schule" was forbidden in 1979 by the Freiburg Oberschulamt in consultation with the Freiburg Regional Council as the upper legal supervisory authority of today's "Efringen-Kirchen elementary, secondary and secondary school". In a press release on this decision it was stated that “Hermann Burte's work contains strong nationalistic, brutal Social Darwinist and, last but not least, anti-Semitic passages, that is to say elements that are essentially based on National Socialist ideology. [...] Because it is not incidental and one-off, but rather symptomatic and continuous parts of Hermann Burtes' work that are diametrically opposed to the educational mandate of the school, as laid down in the Basic Law , the State Constitution and the School Act . "The decision was preceded by public discussions, In Efringen-Kirchen the gym, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the school, was named after Burte instead. From 1989, there was a similar dispute in Müllheim over a street named after Burte. In the meantime, this street name was changed again on November 29, 2007 by a resolution of the municipal council of the city of Müllheim. However, streets in Maulburg, Burtes birthplace and in Efringen churches are still named after him.

Awards and honors

Hermann Burtes awards are controversial to this day. In the 1950s, the liberal politician and then Federal President Theodor Heuss rejected the honorary citizenship of the city of Lörrach on the grounds that he did not want to be lined up with a man who represented "gross anti-Semitism and a bramble-based nationalism".

Quotes

Quotes from Burte

Under the headline "The coming Reich", Hermann Burte conjured up the " Third Reich " in 1924 :

“The German Empire of January eighteenth, 1871, perished in a world war and a coup; in its place came the German Reich of November 9th, 1918. Its constitution, the Weimarer, is actually ineffective today. The thesis of January eighteenth wrestles with its antithesis of November ninth; from this struggle arises the synthesis of the coming kingdom! When nationalism has become social and socialism national, the Third Reich grows in strength and remains. "

- Hermann Burte : The coming empire. In: The Markgräfler. April 4, 1924.

Burte the "war declarer in permanence" (Adolf von Grolman in: Wesen und Wort am Oberrhein. P. 207) stated in his poem "Deutscher Wille" in summary:

"... We do not think of war and fire and murder; / We do not consider ourselves further exquisite. / Everyone continues to work in his place, / patiently, faithfully, as if nothing had happened! ..."

- Hermann Burte : Forehead under the stars, p. 85; Burda, Offenburg, 1957.
Voices over Burte

The editor-in-chief Erich Wirsig wrote about "Burte in the intellectual war front":

“There are only a few poets in the Reich who are so representative and active in the war effort of the spiritual front of our people as Hermann Burte. It is no coincidence that he is to be found in the forefront of those personalities of German intellectual life with unprecedented devotion who lead the intellectual struggle, but corresponds to the law of probation, calling and achievement, and the knowledge that only Spirit and sword guarantee our people victory over the forces of culturelessness. (...) "

- Erich Wirsig : Burte in the intellectual war front. In: Oberbadisches Volksblatt. December 24, 1942.

In his expanded bestiary of literature in 1924 , Franz Blei characterized Burte as follows:

“THE BURT. This is a Black Forest deer and a passionate soloist. He wears his many-ended, in some places somewhat hooked antlers with great pride. He is extremely impressed by his strength. His voice is so strong that it can make its own echo seven times. "

- Franz Blei : The great bestiary of literature . Rowohlt, Berlin 1924.

Kurt Tucholsky remarked about Burte as early as 1929:

“When Baby has finished the ink bottle, give him a sheet of Hermann Burtes blotting paper to eat. Experience has shown that this remedy is gladly taken by the little ones, and soaked adults often benefit from it too. Well-cared for children in middle-class households should take this cure from time to time - the little steppe you see in the picture has not known what moisture is since he was born. No people without blotting paper! Hermann Burte & Hans Grimm , blotting paper in bulk. "

- Kurt Tucholsky : The Mona Lisa's smile . Rowohlt, 1929.

On November 10, 1935, Thomas Mann noted in his diary:

“Anger over Alemannic blood talk by the writer Burte, who demands understanding for Germany's 'rebirth'. It's too stupid. Where is there something in and about Germany that a poet might feel and call 'rebirth'? "

- Thomas Mann : Diaries 1935–1936. Fischer, 1977.

In a letter to the editor , the Minister of Culture of Baden-Württemberg (1958–1964) Gerhard Storz commented on the problem of public honors as follows:

“I have to admit that I don't know Burtes books and so I can't judge how his literary qualities are and whether he can be regarded as a“ Nazi poet ”without further ado. That is why I asked the German Academy for Language and Poetry for an opinion when they suggested that Burte should be publicly honored months ago. Based on the statement by the academy, I then refrained from taking any steps in favor of Burtes, and the state government then proceeded in the same way. "

- GERHARD STORZ : Der Spiegel from June 10, 1959, pp. 10-11.

In 1959 Theodor Heuss refused to become an honorary citizen of Lörrach and justified it as follows:

“I definitely don't want to be lined up with this man of crude anti-Semitism and bram-based nationalism, maybe even see him as an honorary fellow citizen at some party. He may be as gifted as a poet as many people seem to think he is. To highlight him as the home figure alongside the subtle rationalist Johann Peter Hebel is downright grotesque for my historical feeling. But I owe it to myself and my office, even if I no longer hold it, to keep an absolute distance from this type. (...) "

- Wolfgang Heidenreich : remeasurement of the Alemannic poet, speaker and painter Hermann Burte . Broadcast manuscript of the Südwestfunk, Landesstudio Freiburg dated November 19, 1978 and February 10, 1979.

Works (selection)

  • Wiltfeber the eternal German. The story of a homeland seeker. Leipzig 1912.
  • Katte. A show in 5 acts. Leipzig 1914. First performance at the Dresden Court Theater on November 6, 1914.
  • Madlee. Alemannic poems. Leipzig 1923.
  • Ursula. Poems. Leipzig 1930.
  • Anchor on the Rhine. A selection of new poems. Leipzig 1937.
  • Seven speeches. Hünenburg, Strasbourg 1943.
  • Salvation in the spirit. Poems. Burda, Offenburg 1953.
  • Forehead under stars. Poems. Burda, Offenburg 1957.

literature

  • Manfred Bosch : The Johann Peter Hebel Prize 1936–1988. A documentation. Waldkircher, Waldkirch 1988, ISBN 3-87885-170-7 .
  • Otto Borst (Ed.): The Third Reich in Baden and Württemberg. (= Stuttgart Symposium. Volume 1). Theiss, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-8062-0563-9 .
  • Franz Burda (Ed.): Hermann Burte 80 years. Burda, Offenburg 1959
  • Wolfgang Heidenreich: "The Burte." Re-measurement of the Alemannic poet, speaker and painter Hermann Burte - texts, analyzes, conversations. Manuscript of the Südwestfunk broadcast, November 19, 1978.
  • Thomas Gräfe: Modernization as "De-Germanization"? Walther Rathenau and the ethnic writer Hermann Burte. In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine. 163, 2015, pp. 245-275.
  • Thomas Gräfe: Wiltfeber (novel by Hermann Burte, 1912). In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Volume 7: Literature, Film, Theater and Art. De Gruyter, Berlin 2014, pp. 544-547.
  • Ernst Loewy : Literature under the swastika. The Third Reich and its poetry. A documentation. Hain, Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-445-04760-X .
  • Kathrin Peters: Hermann Burte, the Alemanne. In: Rolf Düsterberg (Ed.): Poets for the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-89528-719-0 , pp. 19-48.
  • Hans Sarkowicz , Alf Mentzer: Literature in Nazi Germany. A biographical lexicon. Europa-Verlag, Hamburg et al. 2002, ISBN 3-203-82030-7 .
  • Gerd R. Ueberschär , Winfried Vogel : Serving and earning. Hitler's gifts to his elites. 2nd Edition. Fischer, Frankfurt 2001, ISBN 3-596-14966-5 .
  • Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators - helpers - free riders. Nazi victims from southern Baden (=  perpetrators - helpers - free riders . Band 6 ). 1st edition. Kugelberg, Gerstetten 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-06-7 , pp. 83 ff .
  • Quick-out-of-the-air honorary citizen . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1959, pp. 30 ( online ).
  • Piece of tragedy . In: Der Spiegel . No. 25 , 1968, pp. 132 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Complete quote from Ernst Klee : Das Kulturlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 90.
  2. ↑ Quotation from: Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 90.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 90.
  4. ↑ Federal Archives of the Federal Republic of Germany, 56075 Koblenz, order number R 901/72237
  5. ↑ Wiltfeber. Sarasin, Leipzig 1912, p. 88.
  6. ↑ Markgräfler Jahrbuch 1939. P. 102.
  7. ^ Exhibition Hitler and the Germans. Volksgemeinschaft and Crimes of the German Historical Museum in Berlin in 2010; Original exhibition of Burte's swastika desk
  8. ↑ That this is a sarcastic remark is shown by Burtes' subsequent statement: “Measured against the six thousand years in the course of which God's word proved to be true, the current movement in Germany is an episode. The Germans have completely the fighting methods of their mortal enemies - mortal enemies in essence! - accepted!"
  9. ↑ Erich Will: Burte, Hermann. In: Bernd Ottnand (Ed.): Badische Monographien. New series Volume II, Stuttgart 1987, p. 55.
  10. ↑ Hermann Burte: Der Führer (poem). In: Der Markgräfler , March 15, 1931 and Markgräfler Jahrbuch 1940/41. P. 64.
  11. ↑ Blümeli im Morast - Hermann Burtes Alemannic idylls are corrupted by his ideology. In: Sunday. July 8, 2007 and Burte - a stupid entangler. In: The Upper Baden . July 14, 2007.
  12. ↑ Federal Archives of the Federal Republic of Germany, Koblenz, order signature R 55/377 and R 43-II / 986 (honorary gift from Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels)
  13. ↑ Commons . No. 64/65, pp. 270-273.
  14. ↑ Brown poison in schools - literarily dosed. Pp. 1-8; Dr. Rolf Dietrich Bäurle; Basel; July 20, 1959.
  15. ↑ See Wolfgang Heidenreich: Der Burte - remeasurement of the Alemannic poet, speaker and painter Hermann Burte - texts, analyzes, discussions . Manuscript of the SWF radio broadcast of November 19, 1978, repeated on February 10, 1979. See also Wolfgang Heidenreich: Mein Alemannien. Notes about a living space in the middle of Europe . In: Ji. Issue 12, 1998.
  16. ↑ Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch: The Shoah and "The Reich that is coming". Joseph Goebbels' political religion and the religious content of Adolf Hitler's racial doctrine . In: theologie.geschichte. 3, 2008.
  17. ↑ How do you free an opera from Nazi ideas? , NZZ, May 29, 2018
  18. ^ German Administration for National Education in the Soviet Occupation Zone: Preliminary remark. In: the same (ed.): List of the literature to be sorted out . Preliminary edition as of April 1, 1946, Zentralverlag, Berlin 1946, p. 2 (emphasis in the original).
  19. ^ German administration for popular education in the Soviet zone of occupation: List of the literature to be sorted out . Zentralverlag, Berlin 1946; as well as the same, first supplement , Berlin 1947; same, second addendum. Berlin 1948; in conclusion: Ministry for National Education in the German Democratic Republic: List of literature to be sorted out . Third supplement based on the status of April 1, 1952, VEB Deutscher Zentralverlag, Berlin 1953. On the Internet in the 1946 , 1947 , 1948 and 1953 editions . Information on the relevant writings Burtes: Burte, Hermann: Volk und Kunst im Markgräflerland . Poltier-Weeber, Loerrach 1934. Burte, Hermann: People and art. A selection Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld, Leipzig 1935. Burte, Hermann: Vom Hofe, which went down . Diesterweg, Frankfurt am Main 1935 [section from the novel Wiltfeber]. Burte, Hermann: Seven speeches . Hünenburg, Strasbourg 1943. Burte, Hermann: Hermann Burte against John Masefield . Der Alemanne , Freiburg 1944. Hermann Burte. On the 60th birthday of the poet on February 15, 1939 . Upper bath. Volksblatt, Lörrach 1939.
  20. ↑ Markgräfler Tagblatt. February 6, 1979.
  21. ↑ See Wolfgang Heidenreich: Der Burte - remeasurement of the Alemannic poet, speaker and painter Hermann Burte - texts, analyzes, discussions . Manuscript of the SWF radio broadcast dated November 19, 1978, repeated on February 10, 1979.
  22. ↑ Federal Archives of the Federal Republic of Germany, 56075 Koblenz, order number R 55/1336
  23. ^ Brutal romance . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1989, pp. 80-83 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Burte, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Strübe, Hermann (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet, writer and painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Maulburg
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1960
Place of death Loerrach