Clara Müller-Jahnke

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Memorial plaque on Lassallestr 67, in Berlin-Wilhelmshagen
Gravestone, Saarower Weg 51, in Berlin-Wilhelmshagen
Blackboard with the life story of Müller-Jahnke

Clara Müller-Jahnke (born February 5, 1860 in Lenzen , Belgard district as Clara Müller ; † November 4, 1905 in Wilhelmshagen near Berlin ) was a German poet , journalist and women's rights activist . She was considered the leading socialist poet of her time and, with her agitational worker poems, drew attention to the situation of workers and women.

Life

Clara was the daughter of Pastor Wilhelm Müller. The democratically-minded Protestant taught his daughter Latin and Greek himself , but died in 1873. Wilhelm Müller initially worked as a shepherd on an estate and later began to study. In 1848 the farmers of Lenzen brought Müller into their church as pastor. The farmers had to protest in front of the Belgard town hall before the pastor, who had already been elected twice by them, was actually confirmed. They considered Müller a democrat. After Wilhelm Müller's death, mother and daughter ran into financial difficulties. First the mother, Clara and her younger sister moved from Lenzen to Belgard. Clara went to Berlin and graduated from business school in 1877. She worked as an accountant for a wallpaper manufacturer in Berlin. She left the company again when the boss asked his little "white slave" to do more than keep the books of accounts. But also for health reasons (severe bleaching ) she had to give up Berlin again. She returned to her mother in Belgard. In 1884 Clara Müller moved to Kolberg , where she worked as a primary school teacher. From 1889 she worked as a journalist. She became editor of the newspaper for Pomerania and also wrote for the German novel, Gesellschaft, Neuland, Breslauer monthly papers, the monthly magazine for new literature and art as well as for the social democratic satirical magazine Derreal Jacob . She published her first socially critical poems in the social democratic magazines Neue Welt und Gleichheit. In 1899 her first volume of poetry appeared: "With red cresses". The women's rights activist Clara Zetkin then devoted herself to this work in several issues of the magazine “Die Gleichheit”. Your review is a true hymn of praise. In 1901 the volume "Sturmlieder vom Meer" was printed.

An inheritance made her able to live as a freelance writer since 1900. Her mother died in December 1899. From then on, Clara Müller began traveling. In Italy she met the oriental painter Oskar Jahnke. In 1902 both married on Capri . Oskar Jahnke also worked in Berlin, among other things as an architect for the Zehlendorf district office . Clara Müller-Jahnke and her husband were familiar with the Friedrichshagener poet circle . Julius Hart later wrote the introduction to Müller-Jahnke's volumes of poetry. In 1904 Clara Müller-Jahnke's autobiographical prose "I confess" was published. In it, she processes her bitter factory experiences and humiliations from illegitimate motherhood. But it is also a book of love, an evocation of inner freedom. Life in her house in the Berlin suburb of Wilhelmshagen - in today's Lassallestrasse 67 - was only short. Clara Müller-Jahnke died of influenza on November 4, 1905 . Oskar Jahnke created an impressive tomb for his wife with a ten-ton boulder on a slope of the Protestant cemetery in Wilhelmshagen. It can still be viewed today, and Jahnke's house is still well preserved.

Works

  • Clara Müller: With red cresses. A book of poems . Baumert & Ronge, Großenhain 1899.
  • Clara Müller: Storm songs from the sea . JHW Dietz, Stuttgart 1901.
  • I confess. A woman's story . Vorwärts bookstore (Paul Singer), Berlin 1904.
    • I confess. A woman's story . Preface by Clara Bohm-Schuch . JHW Dietz Nachf., Berlin 1920.
  • Collected poems. Lattmann, Goslar 1907.
    • Wake up! Last poems .
    • Winter seed. Last poems .
  • Poems . Edited and illustrated by Oskar Jahnke. Weber, Berlin 1910.
  • Freedom to own, poems edited by Oliver Igel, trafo verlag 2007. ISBN 978-3-89626-699-6 .

literature

  • Clara Zetkin : "A poet of freedom", in: The equality . Zeitschrift für die Arbeiterinnen 9 (1899), no. 6, March 15, 1899, pp. 44–46, continued in no. 7, March 29, 1899, pp. 52–54, continued in no. 8, 12 April 1899, pp. 60-63.
  • Margarethe Hilferding-Hönigsberg : Klara Müller-Jahnke, I confess. A woman's story. Berlin, Goslar Leipzig, published by FA Lattmann . In: The new time . Weekly of the German Social Democracy . 23.1904-1905, 1st volume (1905), issue 23, pp. 763-764. Digitized
  • ( Franz Mehring ): Clara Müller-Jahnke, Gesammelte Gedichte. Edited by Oskar Jahnke. Winter seed. Last poems. 100 pages. Wake up! Last poems. 142 pages. Published in 1907 by FA Bettmann, Goslar . In: The new time. Weekly of the German Social Democracy . Vol. 26 (1907-1908), Volume 2 (1908), Issue 9, pp. 971-972. Digitized (= Franz Mehring. Collected Writings Volume 11, Berlin 1961, p. 478 ff.)
  • Clara Müller-Jahnke . In: Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Deceased personalities . Vol. 1. JHW Dietz Nachf., Hanover 1960, p. 227.
  • Müller-Jahnke, Clara . In: Lexicon of socialist German literature. from the beginnings to 1945. Monographic-biographical presentations . Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1964, pp. 369-370.
  • Ursula Münchow: Labor movement and literature. 1860-1914 . Berlin and Weimar 1981 (= contributions to the history of German socialist literature in the 20th century, Volume 7).
  • Müller, Clara . In: Gisela Brinker-Gabler , Karola Ludwig, Angela Wöffen: Lexicon of German-speaking women writers 1800-1945 . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1986. ISBN 3-423-03282-0 , p. 225.
  • Oliver Igel (Ed.): Clara Müller-Jahnke. “Owning freedom”. Poems (= search for traces. Forgotten female authors rediscovered , Volume 8). Trafo Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89626-699-6 .
  • Oliver Igel: Clara Müller-Jahnke, b. Müller . In: District Office Treptow-Köpenick of Berlin (ed.): Women's mosaic. New women's biographies from the Berlin district of Treptow-Köpenick . Trafo Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-89626-862-4 , pp. 141-154.

Web links

Commons : Clara Müller-Jahnke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Clara Müller-Jahnke  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ In other sources, the year of birth is given as 1861.
personal data
SURNAME Müller-Jahnke, Clara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müller, Clara (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German socialist poet, journalist and women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Lenzen , Belgard district
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1905
Place of death Wilhelmshagen near Berlin