Donald Wedekind

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Donald Lenzelin Wedekind (born November 4, 1871 , † June 5, 1908 in Vienna ) was a German-Swiss writer. His siblings include the writer Frank Wedekind and the opera singer Erika Wedekind .

Life

Donald Wedekind grew up in Lenzburg Castle in the Swiss canton of Aargau, which his father bought . At the age of 16 he left high school and went to Livorno for a commercial apprenticeship . Financially independent after the death of his father in 1888, he first traveled to the USA . In 1892 he made up his school leaving examination at the grammar school of the Solothurn Cantonal School . In the same year he converted to the Catholic faith and went to Rome to be baptized there.

Attempts to gain a permanent position in the German cultural scene were unsuccessful, for example in Munich in 1898 because of an irascible failure. His literary products did not get the desired response. Having become addicted to morphine, he gambled away his inheritance. Sick of syphilis , he went to Baden near Vienna for a cure in 1906 . When his attempt to work as an editor ended with his dismissal, he drove to Vienna and shot himself in the Prater . He was buried in the Döblinger Friedhof in Vienna.

Donald Wedekind mainly wrote novels, some of them erotic, as well as numerous essays and feature sections. In addition, he wrote the novel Ultra Montes , in which he a. a. Big city, lesbianism and parliamentarianism criticized. Other themes in the novel are the difficulties adolescents have with sexuality and, as a leading theme with a surprising twist, the denominational opposition, which he views from an ultramontanist point of view. The scene of the action is an Aargau castle, which v. a. Contains elements from Wildegg Castle .

Works

  • Lenzburg Castle in history and legend (novellas, 1891, new edition Zurich 1956)
  • The red skirt (novellas, 1896)
  • Ultra Montes (novel, 1903, new edition Zurich 1956)
  • Bébé Rose (novellas, 1904)
  • Oh, my Swiss country! (Novellas, 1906)
  • Berlin (novel, begun 1904, unfinished)
  • further novellas in: The candidate at the golden gate (editor: Lorenz Jäger), Frankfurt / Main 1992

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wedekind, Donald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wedekind, Donald Lenzelin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Swiss writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1871
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1908
Place of death Vienna