Erich Krems

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Erich Krems, around 1913

Wilhelm August Kurt Erich Krems (* 1898 in Magdeburg ; † March 10, 1916 near Verdun , France ) was a German student who belonged to the " wandering bird " within the youth movement ( Bündische Jugend ). Due to his very close friendship with the youngest son of the sculptor Käthe Kollwitz and his contact with Walter Benjamin , Gustav Wyneken and others, he became a figure of contemporary history, which is in the artist's diary and therefore also in secondary academic literature, in encyclopedias, the press and a filmed historical documentary. He was depicted in a well-known work by the artist together with her second son.

Fragmentary traditions

Krems was born in Magdeburg and grew up in Berlin. Most recently he lived at Merseburger Strasse 12 in Berlin-Schöneberg. His father, the consistorial councilor Wilhelm Louis August Kurt Krems, died in 1901. Erich Krems belonged to the " Wandervogel " movement, together with Walter Benjamin , Hans Blüher , Ernst Joëll , Fritz Klatt , the brothers Hans and Walter Koch, Hans Kollwitz , Alfred Kurella and Alexander Rüstow also formed the so-called Westend Circle , which brought together the left wing of the bourgeois youth movement . Klatt was probably the intellectual and journalistic engine of this union.

Peter Kollwitz , 1914

Krems was very close friends with Peter Kollwitz , the son of the sculptor Käthe Kollwitz , who dealt intensively with her son's friends. She was very impressed by the personality and character of Erich Krems.

Erich Krems became the protagonist of the youth magazine Der Anfang . Hans Kollwitz became the author, Peter Kollwitz contributed his own drawings and other texts, two Kollwitz cousins ​​also worked on drawings, their “foster brother” Georg Gretor wrote articles and acted as editor. Initially hectographed , the beginning appeared in print from 1911. Georg Gretor published under a pseudonym as Georges Barbizon, after his hometown Barbizon near Paris. The youngsters Walter Benjamin , Siegfried Bernfeld and the equally scandalous and extremely contentious Gustav Wyneken were there as authors , the latter as editor. The beginning was banned in all schools in Bavaria .

While Peter Kollwitz left school at Easter 1912, Erich Krems, who was two years younger than him, stayed until the summer holidays of 1914 in the reform-pedagogical boarding school of the Free School Community in Wickersdorf near Saalfeld in the Thuringian Forest . There he was one of the favorite students of Gustav Wyneken , who indulged in "educational eros" and who practically vied for Erich's friendship. Wyneken had been released in 1910, but continued to have a strong influence on the rural education home . Wyneken required his students to recognize his decision-making power and thus his personal claim to power, to quit the church, to abstain from alcohol and to hand over their property to the community. His original goal was the creation of an "order of noble boys and young men", in which a selection of the best would take place in order to bring about a new cultural era in this way.

On October 11th and 12th, 1913, all of the then 100 students and the teachers of the boarding school took part in the Free German Youth Day on the Hohe Meißner , at which both headmistress Martin Luserke and Wyneken gave their speeches in front of around two thousand listeners, including one Walter Benjamin, Selig Bernfeld , Eugen Diederichs , Adolf Grimme , Julius Groß , Ludwig Gurlitt , Fritz Helling , Ludwig Klages , Enno Narten , Herman Nohl and Bernhard Uffrecht . This youth day had an emancipating function and effect. For those involved, as well as for the critics, it was a felt rebellion against the official chauvinist jubilee events taking place at the same time for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig against Napoleon Bonaparte at the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, inaugurated on October 18, 1913, and for the 25th anniversary of the throne of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Wyneken warned of a war: “When I see the shining valleys of our fatherland spread out here before our feet, I cannot help but wish: May the day never appear when the war's hordes romp through. And may the day never appear when we are forced to carry the war into the valleys of a foreign people ”. However, he also called on the German youth, whom he apostrophized as “warriors of light”, in a clearly patriotic way: “Save yourselves Germany, because the world needs Germany; save it as the brightest and sharpest weapon of the world spirit ”.

Erich, Julius Hoyer, Hans Koch , Peter Kollwitz, Gottfried Laessig and Richard Noll had formed a friendship and love alliance, which served to develop a close sense of community. At least Peter Kollwitz had always felt lonely inside and didn't want to play alone as a child. Some of his friends began to address his mother Käthe as “mother”, an expression of the close relationship that was cultivated. The solstice in June 1914 celebrated Erich, Hans Koch, Peter Kollwitz and Richard Noll with garlands of flowers in her hair on the lakeshore of Rauchfangswerder in Koepenick .

During the summer vacation of 1914, these four close friends went hiking to Norway by ship , where they learned of the declaration of war by Austria-Hungary on the Kingdom of Serbia and the subsequent German Empire . There they came up with the plan to volunteer in the First World War and broke off their vacation immediately.

Käthe Kollwitz , 1913

Käthe Kollwitz, whose sons Hans (1892–1971) and Peter rated the youth movement as “very important”, wrote in her diary in the spring of 1914 that it was evidently “a movement emerged from the youth themselves” that came along with strong pathos, a “ A new birth of the German youth ”. With this she gave a sensitive characteristic of the atmosphere of the time, which can be aptly outlined with the keyword “vague religiosity”, as a religiously motivated search for meaningful offers in the broadest sense. In the age group of her children, Käthe Kollwitz observed pronounced idealistic tendencies, a tendency towards the visionary-prophetic and a pronounced receptivity for soulful and pathetic formulas of departure. She raved about Erich Krems: “Still the undiluted, wonderful idealism of the first weeks. He does not expect to come back, he hardly wants to, then the gift would be shortened. You can hardly call it a victim, a victim presupposes overcoming. This is just a radiant, proud presentation of life ”. She was determined to follow this youth into the future.

Hans Koch's father was a high official in the Prussian War Ministry , possibly the Real Secret Admiralty Councilor Paul FH Koch from Groß-Lichterfelde , who had to let his relationships play out in order not only to accommodate the friends in a regiment at all, but also in the same, because there were more than enough volunteers at that time.

Erich Krems, June 1915

The letters from Erich Krems to Gustav Wyneken have survived from the time of the war. Erich passed on the news of Peter Kollwitz's death during the First Battle of Flanders in a Belgian ditch on the night of October 22nd to 23rd, 1914 by field post to his revered teacher Gustav Wyneken. Erich wrote: “Don't believe any of the usual sayings about the“ excellent spirit in our army ”. There is nothing the soldier outside wants more than peace ... The feeling is general: What a senseless, terrible thing war is! Like nobody wanted him, not the Belgian who is aiming at me, not the Englishman who I am aiming at ”.

After the war death of her son Peter, Käthe Kollwitz tried harder to get Hans Koch, Erich Krems and Richard Noll, his regimental comrades, who had been near and in contact with her son in the last days and hours of her son's life. She wrote them letters, invited them over and stood by them.

“Berlin, January 4, 1915. Dear Erich Krems! […] Six weeks ago Walter Koch brought us the first news. Then we went to Hans Koch's hospital and he told us more about it. Your letter also reported that to us, and what was not in Hans Koch's report was in your letter, the love and pain for Peter. I love you, Krems, because you love Peter and he loved you. You lost your friend. A rift has come into our lives that will never be healed. Shouldn't either. To give birth and raise a child and after eighteen delicious years to see how all plants unfold, how abundantly the tree wants to bear fruit - and then out. I have a job in mind, honoring Peter. That is a goal. You write that you are loyal to Peter. You do it i know Here is a picture that Regula Stern [a niece of Käthe Kollwitz] took back then. Goodbye, Erich Krems. "

- Käthe Kollwitz

As early as the spring of 1915 the boys were disaffected and disillusioned; the initial patriotic conviction and willingness to make sacrifices had become a duty. Erich Krems' report was very close to her: the boy shared her pain; he felt the loss himself. Every time he was on leave from the front he came to Weissenburger Strasse, where Kollwitz lived. Käthe Kollwitz wrote in her diary: “Krems was there this evening. Before he left he was over with Peter [in his room]. He put 4 beautiful roses on his bed for him. When he came out of his room his face shone with joyful love ”. She felt motherly feelings for Erich Krems, who reminded her of her fallen son in his idealism, his passion and impatience and the simplicity of his service: "He was looking for nothing, he just gave himself and without any words". She hoped he would survive.

Erich Krems fell in the Battle of Verdun as a lieutenant in the reserve of Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 23, which was under the 12th Infantry Division . The only one of the group who survived the war was Hans Koch. He was so badly wounded in the summer of 1915 that he was discharged from the military. Käthe Kollwitz mourned Erich Krems; he was her favorite of Peter's friends.

Woodcut Die Freiwilligen , as part of the cycle Der Krieg by Käthe Kollwitz , 1922/23 - from left: Death, Peter Kollwitz, Erich Krems (3rd from left), 1 figure not identified, Walter Meier, Julius Hoyer

Käthe Kollwitz mentioned Erich Krems in her diary on October 11, 1916: “Peter, Erich, Richard, all of them put their lives under the idea of ​​love for the country. The English, Russian, and French youths did the same. [...] So has the youth in all these countries been betrayed? Has their dedication been used to bring about the war? [...] Was it a mass madness? And when and how will you wake up. "

In 1920 Käthe Kollwitz produced the work “The Volunteers” as part of her woodcut series “War”, which depicts them as they follow the drumming death, so to speak, in a trance . She will have had the group of friends around her son Peter vividly before her eyes. Käthe Kollwitz identified the people on this woodcut by initials on a duplicate as her fallen son Peter Kollwitz (2nd from left), Erich Krems (3rd from left), Walter Meier (2nd from right) and Julius Hoyer (far right) . The unidentified figure depicted as the third from the right could represent Richard Noll (probably) or Gottfried Laessig. Käthe Kollwitz lined up the figures chronologically from left to right according to their date of death.

A video about Erich Krems is available online from Deutsche Welle and on YouTube. His portrait as a soldier was shown in the station's themed graphics.

Video

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death register StA Schöneberg II No. 348/1916 .
  2. ↑ Death register StA Berlin III No. 616/1901 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Ulrike Koch: "I found out about it from Fritz Klatt" - Käthe Kollwitz and Fritz Klatt . In: Käthe Kollwitz and her friends: Catalog for the special exhibition on the occasion of the 150th birthday of Käthe Kollwitz . Published by the Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum Berlin, Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-8673-2282-9 , p. 65.
  4. ^ Anna M. Lazzarino Del Grosso: Poverty and wealth in the thinking of Gerhoh von Reichersberg . CH Beck, Munich 1973. p. 83.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Ulrich Grober : The short life of Peter Kollwitz. Report of a search for clues . In: Die Zeit , November 22, 1996, on: zeit.de
  6. ↑ Departure of the youth. German youth movement between self-determination and seduction (PDF file; 130 kB). Book accompanying the exhibition in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum , Nuremberg, from September 26, 2013 to January 19, 2014, in cooperation with the archive of the German youth movement. Verlag des Germanisches Nationalmuseums, Nuremberg 2013, p. 45, on: uni-heidelberg.de
  7. ↑ Peter Kollwitz: Fell in 1914 at the age of only 18 . In: vrtNWS, October 22, 2014, on: vrt.be
  8. ↑ Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller , Nicolai Clarus: Mann für Mann: biographical lexicon on the history of love for friends and male-male sexuality in the German-speaking area , part 1 (= social-scientific studies on homosexuality, edited by Rüdiger Lautmann ). LIT Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-6431-0693-3 , pp. 1301-1303.
  9. ^ Thijs Maasen: Pedagogical Eros. Gustav Wyneken and the Free School Community of Wickersdorf . Verlag Rosa Winkel, Berlin 1995. ISBN 978-3-8614-9032-6 , pp. 89-102.
  10. ^ Justus H. Ulbricht : Youth with George - Alfred Kurella's ideas from 1918. Attempt at contextualization . In: George-Jahrbuch , Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages 219-242, ISSN (Online) 1865-8881, ISSN (Print) 1430-2519.
  11. ↑ Jürgen Oelkers : Eros and rule. New look at reform pedagogy . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , July 22, 2010, on: fr.de
  12. ↑ Peter Dudek : Limits of education in the 20th century: omnipotence and impotence of education in educational discourse . Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 1999, ISBN 978-3-7815-0997-9 , p. 37.
  13. ↑ Peter Dudek: "Experimental field for a new youth". The Free School Community of Wickersdorf 1906–1945 . Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2009, ISBN 978-3-7815-1681-6 , p. 77.
  14. ↑ Gustav Wyneken: 1922, p. 56.
  15. ↑ Barbara Rendtorff: Upbringing and gender: an introduction . W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-1701-8660-6 , p. 42.
  16. ↑ Heiner Barz (Ed.): Handbook Educational Reform and Reform Pedagogy . Springer-Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-07490-6 , p. 81.
  17. ↑ Elisabeth Charlotte Maria Petra Badry: Pedagogical genius in an education for non-adaptation and for commitment. Studies on the founders of the early German Landerziehungsheim movement: Herman Lietz and Gustav Wyneken . Phil. Diss., Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn 1976, pp. 330f. OCLC 770663874
  18. ↑ Volker Weiß : Jung, free, German. Youth meeting on the Hoher Meissner . Die Zeit , No. 36 (2013), August 29, 2013, on: zeit.de
  19. ↑ Barbara Stambolis , Jürgen Reulecke : 100 years of Hoher Meißner (1913–2013). Sources on the history of the youth movement . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 3-8471-0333-4 .
  20. ↑ Werner Telesko : Redeemer myths in art and politics: between Christian tradition and modernity . Böhlau, Vienna 2004, ISBN 978-3-205-77149-4 , p. 168.
  21. ↑ Bernd Dollinger : The pedagogy of the social question. (Social) educational theory from the beginning of the 19th century to the end of the Weimar Republic . Springer Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15097-0 , p. 184.
  22. ↑ Barbara Stambolis, Jürgen Reulecke (ed.): 100 years of Hoher Meißner (1913–2013). Sources on the history of the youth movement . V&R unipress, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8471-0333-2 , p. 60.
  23. ↑ Roswitha Mair: Käthe Kollwitz: A life against any convention. Novel biography . Herder, Freiburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-451-81206-4 , Chapter VII.
  24. ↑ Thomas Nipperdey : German History 1800–1966 , Volume 1: Citizens' World and Strong State , CH Beck, Munich 1983, p. 508.
  25. ↑ Jutta Bohnke-Kollwitz, Käthe Kollwitz: Die Tagebücher 1989 . Siedler Verlag, Munich 1989, ISBN 978-3-8868-0251-7 , pp. 145f.
  26. ↑ a b c Yvonne Schymura: Käthe Kollwitz. Love, war and art . Ch. H. Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-4066-9872-9 , pp. 127, 147, 148, 149, 152.
  27. ^ Yury Winterberg , Sonya Winterberg : Kollwitz. The biography . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 2015. ISBN 978-3-5701-0202-2 .
  28. ↑ Volkmar Sigusch , Günter Grau (ed.): Personal Lexicon of Sexual Research . Campus 2009, ISBN 978-3-5933-9049-9 , p. 789.
  29. ^ Field post letter from Erich Krems to Gustav Wyneken, November 14, 1914. In: Archives of the German Youth Movement (AdJB), Ludwigstein Castle near Witzenhausen in Hesse, Wyneken estate, folder 658, signature N. 35.
  30. ^ Fritz Böttger : To New Shores: Women's Letters from the Middle of the 19th Century to the November Revolution of 1918 . Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1981, p. 542.
  31. ↑ Hans Kollwitz (Ed.): The Diary and Letters of Kaethe Kollwitz . Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, 1988, ISBN 978-0-8101-0761-8 , p. 144.
  32. ↑ Jutta Bohnke-Kollwitz (Ed.): Käthe Kollwitz. The diaries. 1908-1943 . btb Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 978-3-4427-3683-6 , p. 279.
  33. ^ Käthe Kollwitz: Follow War . In: Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum Cologne , on: kollwitz.de
  34. ^ "Die Freiwilligen", sheet 2 of the series "War", 1921/22, woodcut, Kn 173 (Kl 178), Verwertungsgesellschaft Bild-Kunst , Bonn 2005.
  35. ↑ Alexandra von dem Knesebeck, Käthe Kollwitz: Catalog Raisonné of Her Prints . Kornfeld, Bern 2002, cat.-no. 173, p. 515.
  36. ^ Claire C. Whitner (Ed.): Käthe Kollwitz and the Krieg Cycle . In: ders .: Käthe Kollwitz and the Women of War: Femininity, Identity, and Art in Germany During World Wars I and II . Yale University Press, New Haven. Connecticut, 2016, ISBN 978-0-3002-1999-9 , p. 104.
  37. ↑ Birgit Görtz: Erich Krems (6:00 min.). In: Deutsche Welle , June 20, 2014, at: dw.com
  38. ↑ 1914: Young and naive to the front. At 17… the century of youth (6:06 min.). In: YouTube.com, on: youtube.com
  39. ↑ At 17 ... The Century of Youth . In: Deutsche Welle , on: dw.com
personal data
SURNAME Krems, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Krems, Wilhelm August Kurt Erich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German student and Wandervogel member
DATE OF BIRTH 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1916
Place of death Verdun , France