Eduard Koelwel

Eduard Koelwel (born May 14, 1882 in Zweibrücken , † October 17, 1966 in Berlin-Pankow ) worked as both a writer and a painter .

Life

Koewel came from a wealthy family of engineers. His father was Karl Eduard Gottfried Koelwel, who eight years before the birth of his only son in Zweibrücken had founded the flourishing civil engineering company for gas and water works (from 1909: Wagenbrenner company ). Eduard himself spent harmonious childhood years in a politically relatively stable time and attended the Herzog-Wolfgang-Gymnasium in his hometown until 1901 . He then studied at the Karlsruhe Art Academy , and in later years also in the master class of Professor Wilhelm Trübner . He then went on to study painting in Munich and Antwerp, and continued his linguistic education in Geneva and Munich before making further study trips to Holland, France, Spain and Italy.

In 1917 he (35 years old) was drafted into the First World War and dismissed as a non-commissioned officer. In 1920 he married his lifelong partner Johanna Scheurer, in 1926 he organized his first exhibition with almost 100 pictures, the proceeds of which he donated to the local museum. He donated the picture of the rear wall of the stage to the newly built festival hall. In 1927 he moved to Berlin. There he became managing director of the language maintenance office. During this time he devoted himself more and more to the written word, both in linguistic and literary terms.

He came to terms with the political situation, which became more difficult in the following years, without any problems: without ever becoming a member of a political party, he managed to always express himself true to the line and was also managing director of the Reichsschrifttumskammer during the Nazi era . Even after the end of the war, great conformity was achieved with the “new leaders”: Koelwel became a scientific teacher at the East Berlin Humboldt University in 1947 and, from 1950, an additional lecturer and a little later a full professor at the university of education there. During this time he translated Russian poems into German.

In the last years of his life, he was no longer allowed to visit his old hometown again, which he said he would have liked to see again. Koelwel bequeathed part of his estate to the Zweibrücken City Museum before 1961 (the year the Wall was built ), while another part, which was also transferred in his will in 1962, only found its way there many decades after his death.

Honors

Koelwel received two medals for excellent achievements (1954 and 1957) by the GDR . In 1957 he was also awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze. His hometown Zweibrücken awarded him its plaque of honor as early as 1952, and in 1959 he was awarded the Rheinpfalz Prize of Honor.

Literature (selection)

• The Beryl (novella), 1919
• Forest, water and pixie fairy tales , described and illustrated by Eduard Koelwel, Bielefeld-Leipzig, 1935
• The painter in flames (novel), Berlin 1939
• ETA Hoffmann : Doge and Dogaressa , edited by Eduard Koelwel, 1942
• Spuk im Westrich (stories), Potsdam 1943
• Good German style , Berlin 1947
• Inge on the island of Imelin, Berlin, 1948
• Little German language teaching , Berlin 1948
• Advice on good German , Berlin 1956
• Agitator and language educator. In memory of Hermann Duncker , Berlin 1965
• The short novel Das Amulett (1929) and his estate manuscripts remained unpublished : short stories, novels, poems

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: history of the Wagenbrenner company , Zweibrücken
2. ↑ Order of Merit awarded . In: " Neue Zeit ", June 5, 1957, p. 2

literature

• Richard B. Hudlet: Eduard Koelwel. Life and work . In: The changes of the beautiful Mechthild , Historischer Verein Zweibrücken 1992
• Reiner Marx: Eduard Koelwel . In: Time brings fruit - Saarpfälzisches Automobillexikon , special issue 2008, Homburg 2008, pp. 80–83, ISSN  0930-1011