The songwriter

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Cover illustration for Julius Stinde's novel Der Liedermacher (Berlin 1893)

Der Liedermacher is a Berlin artist novel by Julius Stinde , first published in 1893 and not reprinted since.

Julius Stinde had reached the ripe old age and the great sales successes of his Buchholz books were behind him. With the songwriter he tried to work on other topics: the failure of a songwriter in a money-sick society in which art is also subject to the laws of the market. The songwriter Sophus Witt comes from a sheltered background to metropolitan Berlin and finds social contacts in the home of the wealthy Termens. The woman of the house has renounced an acting career and wants her daughter to realize her lost dreams on behalf of her. To this end, she gathers musicians and writers in her evening parties who are supposed to make her life interesting and to help her daughter achieve artistic success. The young poet is enlightened by the musician Viktor Monna, who is experienced in society, about art's dependence on money and the mutual exploitation of art and society. Sophus Witt then becomes entangled in these relationships, which he is not able to cope with physically and psychologically, from which he perishes. The songwriter becomes a victim of the "artificial thugs" (265) who are after his money and his songs with exploitative greed. The dedication of the book reads: Mrs. Agnes Freund geb. Dedicated to Voss, the art-loving wife of my publisher, with sincere admiration.

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