Edith Klatt

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Edith Klatt née Mischke (born January 24, 1895 in Berlin ; † December 14, 1971 in Ribnitz-Damgarten ) was a German doctor and writer.

Life

Edith Mischke was born in Berlin in 1895 as the daughter of the writer Karl Mischke (1863–1932), a student of Friedrich Engels . She spent her childhood in Japan, where she attended the International School in Yokohama . She toured India and Siberia with her parents. These trips in her early youth were formative and aroused her ethnographic interest. In 1912 the family returned to Germany. After graduating from high school in 1916, she studied medicine in Berlin and Munich without completing it. In 1919 she married the reform pedagogue, writer and draftsman Fritz Klatt . From this marriage came a son, Ullrich, and a daughter, Elisabeth. Encouraged by Käthe Kollwitz , Edith Klatt began building a children's rest home for International Workers' Aid in Prerow , a Baltic seaside resort on the Darß , in the early twenties ; to the displeasure of the locals, who probably feared a deterrent effect on wealthy bathers. Despite this resistance, the Klatts began in 1921 to convert the home into a primary school and to organize holiday courses. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933 , the home could only be used for a few years in a significantly reduced form as a leisure and recreation home. In 1934, her first literary work, Jupp und Peter kann zaubern, appeared . In 1935 the marriage with Fritz Klatt was divorced. In 1936 she resumed her medical studies, which she had broken off in 1921, passed her state examination in 1939, the year the convalescent home in Prerow was finally closed, and was immediately ordered to serve in the war. She did this as a doctor in Freiburg, Dresden, Arnstadt and Stralsund until 1944. In the meantime, another early literary work had appeared in 1937, the short story The Dog .

Edit Klatt's gravestone in the churchyard of the Seemannskirche Prerow from 2019

Edith Klatt was buried in a bomb attack and suffered such severe head injuries that she was no longer able to work as a doctor. Her son Ullrich died in the fighting on the Oder in the last year of the war, and there was no trace of daughter Elisabeth after the end of the war; one had to assume that she had been killed in the concentration camp . A second marriage to Dr. Werner Meyer was divorced in 1946. Edith Klatt moved back into the house in Prerow, which was built around 1923, and devoted herself to her literary work. In 1967 she was accepted into the German Writers' Association (DSV). In her domicile she led a modest, withdrawn life until her death in December 1971. Anyone who met her in later years is reminded of a reserved, friendly woman, always in a worn tracksuit, her white hair loosely pulled together. Appearances were nothing to her. And yet her most important, in some cases excellent literary works appeared in these years: children's and youth literature, but also books for adults, which saw numerous reprints. Preferred locations for her stories and novels were the far north of Scandinavia, North and South America. Most of the time, the focus is on the life of the local natives.

She found her final resting place in the church cemetery of the Prerow seaman's church . The Klatt grave site was closed around 2001, and the gravestone was moved to the southern cemetery wall.

In spring 2019, on the initiative of the Association for the Promotion of Homeland Care and the Darß Museum eV Ostseebad Prerow, the tombstone was restored and is now back in its place in the cemetery. The association has also taken care of Edith Klatt's grave site.

Works

  • Jupp and Peter can do magic. Herbert Stuffer-Verlag, Berlin 1934.
  • The dog. A story. , Herbert Stuffer-Verlag, Baden-Baden / Berlin, 1937.
  • Funny fairy tales from around the world. Old Berlin publishing house Lucie Groszer, Berlin 1956.
  • Neitah, a girl in the far north. Old Berlin publishing house Lucie Groszer, Berlin 1956.
  • Bergit and Andaras. Old Berlin publishing house Lucie Groszer, Berlin 1958.
  • The sleigh journey. Old Berlin publishing house Lucie Groszer, Berlin 1958.
  • Indian animal tales. Old Berlin publishing house Lucie Groszer, Berlin 1958.
  • Thanks to Adler. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1960.
  • Our years are girdling. Roman from ancient Mexico. Union-Verlag, Berlin 1961.
  • Ildini. Indian children's stories. Altberliner Verlag Lucie Groszer, Berlin 1961.
  • Bunthaut and Hadaho. Told from Indian tales. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1963.
  • The bridge over the Apurímac. Novel. Union-Verlag, Berlin 1965.
  • The owl and the little yellow mouse. Funny animal tales. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1966.
  • Funny fairy tale. Collected and retold by Edith Klatt. Altberliner Verlag Lucie Groszer, Berlin 1968.
  • Djiyin an Indian girl. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1969.
  • The growing mountain. Told from Indian tales. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1969.
  • The last sleigh trip. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1970.
  • Enchanted in the realm of salmon. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1986.

Quotes

To person

“Her temperament is youthful, her language resolute. [...] She hates the gesture and the appearance. Your laugh is hearty. She almost never speaks about herself. "

- Alfred Könner : New Germany , 1966

To the work

“Edith Klatt's texts reveal the loving care of an author who recognizes pedagogy and literature as two sides of a whole, who regards knowledge and understanding as things that belong together. She has the talent to write vividly and poetically. "

- Alfred Könner : New Germany, 1966

“Edith Klatt had a child-friendly spelling; It brought foreign countries in their scenic beauties, their joys and their problems very close to the small and large readers. The author always knew how to describe the country and its people with a lot of empathy and to combine historical knowledge and ethnographic issues in an interesting way. "

- The Democrat , Schwerin, 1972

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edith Klatt. In: deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de. Retrieved August 13, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Elke Erdmann: Edith Klatt - doctor and writer from Darß. Memories of the life of an unusual woman on her 120th birthday. In: ostsee-zeitung.de. January 25, 2015, accessed August 13, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Alfred Könner: Bridges of Understanding . In: New Germany . Berlin edition. February 9, 1966 (not verifiable in the ND's digital archive; possibly only in the “Berlin edition”).
  4. ↑ Edith Klatt Archive. In: adk.de. Retrieved August 13, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b c Regina Hansel: The great man - her big topic. Edith Klatt will be 75 years old tomorrow . In: Berliner Zeitung . January 23, 1970.
  6. ^ Antje Hückstädt and René Roloff: The cemetery in Prerow. Memories, people, history . (= Volume 4 of the series of publications of the Association for the Promotion of Home Care and the Darß Museum eV). Association for the Promotion of Home Care and the Darß Museum, Prerow 2012, ISBN 978-3-9810791-8-0 , p. 40
  7. ↑ Edith Klatt in memory . In: The Democrat . Schwerin January 14, 1972.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Klatt, Edith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1971
Place of death Ribnitz-Damgarten