Carl Einstein

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Anita Rée : Portrait of Carl Einstein , oil on canvas, before 1921, private property

Carl Einstein , actually Karl Einstein , (born April 26, 1885 in Neuwied , † July 5, 1940 near Pau in France near the Spanish border) was a German art historian and writer .

life and work

Origin and childhood

Carl Einstein came from a Jewish German family; he was the second child of Sophie and Daniel Einstein, a teacher who was an active member of the local Jewish community and had been appointed director of the Israelite teachers' college in 1888. Carl was a year younger than his sister Hedwig, who became known as a concert pianist and married the sculptor Benno Elkan . A third child of Daniel and Sophie Einstein died in 1889. The young Carl Einstein lived in Karlsruhe for the first 16 years, attended the Bismarck-Gymnasium there from 1894 and came in 1903 after passing the Abitur exam in Bruchsal and an aborted banking apprenticeship in the Karlsruhe bank Veit L. Homburger to Berlin .

Study time

Memorial plaque on the house at Zeltinger Strasse 54 in Berlin-Frohnau

From the winter semester 1904/05 he studied philosophy, art history, history and classical philology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität . He heard lectures by Georg Simmel and Alois Riehl and attended Riehl's seminars on Schopenhauer and Kant's Prolegomena . He probably also took part in events by Otto Hintze , Heinrich Wölfflin , Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and Kurt Breysig .

The first chapters of Bebuquin appeared in Franz Blei's magazine Die Opale in 1907 , and in Hyperion in 1908 four legends under the title Metamorphoses . In 1908 Einstein broke off his studies after the summer semester and from then on made a name for himself in literary circles.

Further life

Einstein had been friends with the anarchist poet and critic Ludwig Rubiner since his university days, around 1910 Franz Blei introduced him to Kurt Hiller and Franz Pfemfert . Einstein published his first art criticism in the Democrats supervised by Pfemfert (1910), theoretical and literary texts have appeared regularly since 1912 in the famous political-expressionist magazine Pfemfert, the Aktion . The novel Bebuquin or the Dilettantes des Miracles (1912) triggered a small philosophical-literary sensation (acausal "absolute prose").

Einstein married Maria Ramm, a translator, in 1913. The daughter Nina was born in 1915. Maria's sister Alexandra and Franz Pfemfert had married in 1912.

In parallel to his literary work, he wrote numerous art studies. Einstein, in the wake of painters like Pablo Picasso , was one of the first scientists to study the “art of the primitive” of Africa, whereby he was not interested in ethnological but in aesthetic aspects. But there was also no in-depth anthropological preoccupation with African art at that time. In 1915 Einstein's book Negerplastik was published .

He was one of the first art scholars to deal with cubism , especially with Georges Braque . Einstein had met Braque, Picasso and Juan Gris during his first stay in Paris in 1907. At the beginning of the 1920s he dealt with Russian Constructivism and after 1928 in Paris with Surrealism .

Einstein was a war volunteer in 1914. First stationed in Upper Alsace in 1915, in 1916 after being wounded he was assigned to the civil administration of the General Government of Brussels , Colonies Department. He was able to work in the library of the Colonial Office in the Congo Museum in Tervuren . At that time he met Carl and Thea Sternheim , in whose house Clairecolline also Gottfried Benn (stationed as a military doctor in Brussels), Friedrich Eisenlohr , Otto Flake and Hermann Kasack frequented. Einstein was accompanied on these visits by his girlfriend Aga von Hagen or by the civil commissioner for Brussels, Hermann von Wedderkop , who later was the editor of the successful Ullstein magazine Der Cross-Section . At the Sternheims Einstein also met the children's tutor, the Belgian Dadaist writer Clément Pansaers .

According to a testimony from Aga vom Hagen, Einstein was denounced, removed from his post in the colonial administration at the end of 1917 and had to leave Brussels. But Einstein took part in the “November Revolution” in Brussels in 1918.

On November 10th, the Central Soldiers Council in Brussels was founded under the leadership of USPD member Hugo Freund. The officers of the Government General offered no resistance, the parliament building was occupied and the red flag was hoisted. Einstein quickly realized that revolutionary ideas were out of place. He took on important organizational tasks and negotiated with the German authorities, Belgian politicians and representatives of neutral countries (Holland, Spain) in order to prevent looting and shootings on the streets, to secure supplies for the population and to evacuate the German soldiers. Einstein also organized the soldiers' council's press service.

Einstein went back to Germany and witnessed the fighting to suppress the Spartacus uprising in the Berlin newspaper district. He, his wife, her sister and his brother-in-law Pfemfert were arrested on January 15, 1919, the day Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered, but were soon released. Einstein agitated and spoke at congresses and meetings, including at Rosa Luxemburg's funeral on June 13th. During his arrest, he stated that he was a member of the Communist Party in Charlottenburg and a workers' council.

Einstein worked on Wieland Herzfelde magazine The collapse in the Malik-Verlag with and was, together with George Grosz , the numbers 3 to 6 of political satire magazine The bloody Ernst out. The anarchist drama The Bad Message about the Crucifixion of Christ, published by Rowohlt in 1921 , sparked a scandal; Einstein and his publisher Ernst Rowohlt were fined in October 1922 for blasphemy .

At the end of 1922 Einstein met Tony Simon-Wolfskehl. He divorced Maria Ramm in spring 1923 (she later married the writer Heinrich Schaefer ), but it did not come to a marriage with Tony Simon-Wolfskehl, but to the separation from the Frankfurt banker's daughter. Aga vom Hagen remained his long-time friend.

Einstein had given up direct political work since 1920 and concentrated on art criticism . He wrote for Das Kunstblatt , from 1922 for the cross section and the action from Paris. The Art of the 20th Century was published in 1926 by Propylaen-Verlag. Extended second and third editions followed in 1928 and 1931.

exile

After a few trips through Italy, Einstein moved to Paris in 1928. He founded Documents magazine with Georges Bataille and Georges Wildenstein . He got to know Michel Leiris and worked intensively on surrealism. Einstein also wrote for the English literary magazine transition by Eugène and Maria Jolas.

In 1932 Einstein married the French Lyda Guévrékian, an Armenian who grew up in Persia, and Georges Braque was best man. In 1934 a Braque biography was published by him. He is working with Jean Renoir on the script for the film Toni .

After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , he went to Barcelona in the summer of 1936, his wife followed him. He got to know the anarchist ( IAA ) Helmut Rüdiger and became a member of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT-FAI ( Confederación Nacional del Trabajo - Federación Anarquista Ibérica ). He was active in the Grupo Internacional of the Colonna Durruti on the Aragon Front and was soon elected téchnico de guerra in the Durruti column. His wife worked as a nurse and was also a member of the CNT.

Even before the struggles of the communists and anarchists in Barcelona, ​​Einstein began to distance himself from the politics of the anarcho-syndicalists. He voiced criticism and lost most of his friends in the CNT over money disputes. After Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War, Einstein fled to Paris in 1939 . Einstein and his second wife stayed with the Leiris for a while. As a German citizen, interned near Bordeaux in the spring of 1940 and released in June, he committed suicide after the defeat of France . He was buried in the Coarraze cemetery.

Einstein in the fine arts

The sculptor Benno Elkan created the bronze bust of the poet Carl Einstein until 1914 . Elkan had married Carl Einstein's older sister, the pianist Hedwig Judith Einstein. Because of his personal acquaintance with numerous artists, Einstein was also repeatedly depicted by other painters and sculptors.

reception

Although Einstein had great success with his work The Art of the 20th Century (1926, 1931 in the third edition), he was forgotten. The rediscovery of early Expressionism resulted in new editions of his literary works in the 1960s. Reliable biographical studies of Sibylle Penkert emerged, and the interest in council communism led to the publication of the great draft Die Fabrikation der Fiktionen (written in the 1930s) in Rowohlt's paperback series das neue buch . This thorough, tiring polemic against the arrogance of the intellectuals arose from Einstein's dissatisfaction with the radical Parisian circles. These notes caught interest in 1973 as an attempt at a theory of artistic creation based on dialectical materialism .

In 1984 the Carl-Einstein-Gesellschaft / Société-Carl-Einstein was founded at the University of Bayreuth by German Germanists, Romanists and comparatists as well as French art historians, which is dedicated to researching the life and work of Carl Einstein. It was founded with the approval of the daughter of Carl Einstein and Maria Ramm, Nina Einstein-Auproux, who lives in the south of France. Since then, the society has organized a number of international colloquia, the results of which have also been published. She is also involved in the new edition of Einstein's works.

Works and anthologies

  • Bebuquin or the dilettantes of wonder . A novel. Publisher of the weekly Die Aktion (Franz Pfemfert), Berlin-Wilmersdorf, 1912. 2nd edition, as Bebuquin. A novel , 1917 ( action library of the Aeternists. Vol. 5). Further editions 1963 ( IB 801 ), 1974, 1985.
  • Remarks. Publishing house of the weekly Die Aktion (Franz Pfemfert), Berlin-Wilmersdorf, 1916 ( Action Library of the Aeternists. Vol. 2). Collected Essays.
  • New leaves. Baron, Berlin 1912.
  • Wilhelm Lehmbruck's graphic work. Cassirer, Berlin 1913.
  • Negro sculpture. White Books Publishing House (Kurt Wolff), Leipzig 1915.
  • The steadfast Platonist. Kurt Wolff, Leipzig 1918. Three stories (Contains: The steadfast Platonist , GFRG (Society for Religious Foundations), The Girl in the Village ).
  • African plastic. Wasmuth, Berlin 1921 ( Orbis pictus: Weltkunst-Bücherei . 7).
  • The bad news. Rowohlt, Berlin 1921.
  • The earlier Japanese woodcut. Wasmuth, Berlin 1922 ( Orbis pictus: Weltkunst-Bücherei. 16).
  • African fairy tales and legends. Carl Einstein (ed.). Rowohlt, Berlin 1925. New edition by Medusa, Berlin 1980.
  • Europe Almanac. Painting - literature - music - architecture - sculpture - stage - film - fashion - also not unimportant aside remarks. Carl Einstein and Paul Westheim (eds.). Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Potsdam 1925, reprint Leipzig 1984.
  • The art of the XX. Century. Propylaea, Berlin 1926. ( Propylaea art history. Vol. 16). New edition 1931. Reprint Reclam Leipzig 1988.
  • Articles Rossignol (nightingale) and Absolu (absolute). In: Dictionnaire critique from the magazine Documents, Issue 1, 1929, reprinted in German translation in: Kritsches Wörterbuch. Contributions by Georges Bataille, Carl Einstein, Michel Leiris and others Merve Verlag Berlin 2005.
  • Draft of a landscape. Kahnweiler, Paris 1930.
  • Giorgio de Chirico . Flechtheim Gallery, Berlin 1930.
  • The fabrication of fictions . Manuscript from 1933/34 in five books, edited by Sibylle Penkert from the Paris estate. Rowohlt, das neue buch 17, Reinbek 1973
  • Georges Braque . Editions des chroniques du jour, Paris, Zwemmer, London and E. Weyhe, New York 1934. Publication of the German original from the estate manuscript under the title About Georges Braque and Cubism. , presented by Uwe Fleckner, diaphanes, Zurich-Berlin 2013.
  • Carl Einstein . Issue 75 of the magazine "alternative. Journal for Literature and Discussion, Berlin, December 1970. With articles by Carl Einstein, Katrin Sello, Hartmut Rosshoff and Sibylle Penkert (estate report).

Work editions

  • Collected Works. Published by Ernst Nef. Limes, Wiesbaden 1962.
  • Works. 3 volumes. Vol. 1-2, Medusa, Berlin 1980, 1981; Vol. 3, Medusa, Vienna 1985.
  • Bebuquin or The Dilettantes of Miracles. Prose and Writings 1906–1929 . Edited by Hermann Haarmann and Klaus Siebenhaar . Kiepenheuer, Leipzig, Weimar 1989 (including issues).
  • Works. Berlin edition . Edited by Hermann Haarmann and Klaus Siebenhaar. 5 volumes (volumes 1–3 taken from the Medusa edition), Fannei & Walz, Berlin 1992–1996; Volume 4: Works from the estate (1992), Volume 5: The art of the 20th century (1996)

Radio play editing

  • Bebuquin or the dilettantes of wonder . Radio play in two parts. With Ingo Hülsmann , Sven Lehmann . Composition: Daniel Dickmeis, Director: Ulrich Gerhardt . BR radio play and media art 2012. As a podcast / download in the BR radio play pool

See also

Literature on Carl Einstein

  • Einstein, Carl. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 6: Dore – Fein. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-598-22686-1 , pp. 159-187.
  • Ewald Wasmuth: “The dilettantes of the miracle”, experiment on Carl Einstein's “Bebuquin”. The month , April, 1962.
  • Sibylle Penkert: Carl Einstein. Contributions to a monograph. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1969 (Diss. Phil. Göttingen 1967).
  • Sibylle Penkert: Carl Einstein. Existence and Aesthetics, an introduction with an appendix to unpublished papers. Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden, 1970.
  • Carl Einstein. alternative , No. 75, 1970. With unpublished texts from the estate.
  • Carl Einstein. Edition Text + Critique, München 1987, ISBN 3-88377-259-3 ( Text + Critique . 95).
  • Hansjörg Diener: Poetry as Metamorphosis: a study of the relationship between art theory and poetry in the work of Carl Einstein . Zurich, 1982.
  • Rüdiger Riechert: Carl Einstein. Art between creation and destruction. Peter Lang, Frankfurt / M., Bern, New York, Paris, 1992.
  • Klaus H. Kiefer: Discourse change in the work of Carl Einstein. Max Niemeyer, Tübingen 1994, ISBN 3-484-63007-8 .
  • Johann Siemon: Einstein and Benn - History of a Distance? In: Klaus H. Kiefer (Ed.): Carl Einstein Colloquium 1994. Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1996, ISBN 3-631-47991-3 , pp. 89-104.
  • Reto Sorg: From the "Gardens of Signs". To Carl Einstein's “Bebuquin”. Fink, Munich 1997.
  • Dirk de Pol: The reception of Kant in the aesthetics of early Carl Einstein In: Philosophisches Jahrbuch , 104th year 1997, 1st half volume
  • Liliane Meffre: Carl Einstein, 1885–1940. Itinéraires d'une pensée modern. Presses de l'université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris 2002. Biography.
  • Carsten Wurm: Carl Einstein: 1885–1940. Foundation Archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin-Brandenburg 2002, ISBN 3-8311-2944-4 ( Findbuch editions ).
  • October. No. 107, Winter 2004, ISSN  0162-2870 . Carl Einstein number.
  • Alexander Emanuely : La paz que mata - Carl Einstein from the ashes. In: Context , Volume XXI, 2005, No. 3–4.
  • Helge Döhring: Carl Einstein. A German intellectual in the Spanish War . In: FAU-Bremen (Ed.): The CNT as a vanguard of international anarcho-syndicalism. The Spanish Revolution 1936 - Reflections and Biographies. Lich 2006, pp. 91-98.
  • Uwe Fleckner: Carl Einstein and his century. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-05-003863-6 .
  • Werner Portmann, Siegbert Wolf: Carl Einstein (1885-1940), dark enlightener between God and nothing. A search for clues . In: »Yes, I fought« From dreams of revolution, ›air people‹ and children of the shtetl . Unrast, Münster 2006, pp. 130–194. ISBN 978-3-89771-452-6
  • Marianne Kröger, Hubert Roland: Carl Einstein in Exile - Art and Politics in the 1930s . Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-7705-4565-0 .

Web links

Commons : Carl Einstein  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Carl Einstein  - Quotes
Wikisource: Carl Einstein  - Sources and full texts

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Short biography of the Reclam publishing house: http://www.reclam.de/detail/978-3-15-008057-3/Einstein__Carl/Bebuquin
  2. ↑ Michael Hübl: Modernism was his profession. Carl Einstein spent his childhood and youth in Karlsruhe (= Karlsruhe and his heads, episode 129). In: Badische Latest Nachrichten of June 10, 2015, p. 17.
  3. ↑ Exner, Lisbeth; Kapfer Herbert (Ed.): Pfemfert. Reminders and settlements. Texts and letters. Belleville Verlag, Munich 1999, p. 165 .
  4. ^ Wurm, Carsten: Carl Einstein 1885-1940 . Ed .: Foundation Archive of the Academy of Arts. Fidbuch editions, Berlin 2002.
  5. ^ Lyda Guévrékian (* 1898) was the sister of the well-known architect and landscape architect Gabriel Guévrékian (1892–1970). Her first marriage was to the architect Hans Adolf Vetter (1897–1963).
  6. ↑ Grave in Coarraze
  7. ^ Dietrich Schubert: Carl Einstein - portrayed by Benno Elkan , in: Bruckmanns Pantheon 43 (1985), pages 144–154, accessed on June 29, 2018
  8. ^ Benno Elkan: Bust of Carl Einstein , 1911
  9. ↑ Uwe Fleckner: Carl Einstein and his century. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2006, p. 59 ff.
  10. ↑ Katrin Sello in her "Leninist" epilogue, Zur 'Fabrikation der Fiktionen ' , Fabrikations , pp. 345–373.
  11. ^ Homepage of the company accessed on August 19, 2018
  12. ^ BR radio play Pool-Carl Einstein, Bebuquin or the dilettantes des miracles
personal data
SURNAME Einstein, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuwied
DATE OF DEATH 5th July 1940
Place of death near Pau , near the Spanish border