The Coming ones (artists' association)

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Die Kommenden was an artistic-literary association founded in 1900 by Ludwig Jacobowski and Heinrich Hart , which met in the Café Nollendorf-Kasino in Berlin for readings and lectures.

The Nollendorf casino on Nollendorfplatz was the successor to the old literary café Kaiserhof . The meetings took place weekly on Thursdays in the rooms on the upper floor above the actual café. Participants or guests and speakers of the club were writers, scientists and artists, including:

The (full) members of the club were only a small group of about six people, mostly scientists. The members included Franz Colmers, Leo Frobenius , Heinrich Hubert Houben , probably also Alfred N. Gotendorf and Rudolf Steiner . Although he was there from the start, Steiner seems to have taken a detached stance, particularly towards the poets who perform. His second wife Marie Steiner von Sievers wrote about the readings:

“[…] The wings of those poets hung heavily on the ground; the everyday dust stuck to them. […] So they came forward and so they presented: Dolorosa, Maria Magdalena - these were the most preferred female poets. They looked strange and oppressive. Like an artificially overheated greenhouse. […] In between, Rudolf Steiner's pensive, yet friendly face, who also does something here to enhance and animate the whole thing. - But you notice it with a tired shoulder drop, as if he already knew that there was nothing to be done here. "

Especially the performances of the Dolorosa seem to have provoked some hateful comments. This is how Hans Ostwald writes about the poet:

"[...] those with the ugly face and the plump nose who threw a volume of poetry with a mystical Latin title into the world - became famous - and now writes such masochistic books that keep their publisher behind closed walls for a few months."

In addition, there were also less controversial lectures, among others by Steiner, on subjects such as “The Personality of Friedrich Nietzsche” or Georg Büchner .

Even after the death of the founder Jacobowski in December 1900, the meetings continued. In a publication also intended as a memorial book for Jacobowski, which appeared in 1901, five poems by Else Lasker-Schülers that appeared later in the volume of poems Styx are included as the first print , namely "Jealousy", "Nervus Erotis", "Karma", "Kühle" and " Chaos". Lists of participants in the club events can be found in the archive of the Rudolf Steiner Estate Administration in Dornach .

publication

  • The coming. First publication from the performances of the "Coming ones" on Thursday evenings in the Nollendorf casino. Book 1. Berlin 1901.

literature

  • Fred B. Stern (ed.): Prelude to the literature of the 20th century: letters from the estate of Ludwig Jacobowski. Vol. 1. Publications of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, Darmstadt, Vol. 41. Wallstein Verlag, Heidelberg 1974.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Address: Kleiststrasse 41
  2. ↑ Fred B. Stern (ed.): Prelude to literature. Heidelberg 1974, p. 262.
  3. ↑ Fred Poeppig: Rudolf Steiner, the great stranger. Vienna 1960, p. 121. Quoted from: Sigrid Bauschinger: Else Lasker-Schüler. Your work and your time. Stiehm, Heidelberg 1980, p. 60.
  4. ↑ Hans Ostwald: Berlin coffee houses . Semman, Berlin 1905, p. 36. This refers to Dolorosa's volume Confirmo te chrismate , published in 1902 .