Erich Scheurmann

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Erich Scheurmann (born November 24, 1878 in Hamburg , † May 4, 1957 in Armsfeld ) was a German painter and writer. He became known as the author of the bestseller The Papalagi (1920). One of the downsides of his biography is that he subscribed to Nazi ideology in the 1930s .

Life

Karl Erich Scheurmann was born in Hamburg, where he attended high school in Altona. At the age of nineteen he went hiking through Germany. After attending art schools in Hamburg and Nuremberg, he studied at the Munich Art Academy until 1900 . From 1903 he lived on Lake Constance on the Höri peninsula . There he met Hermann Hesse , who was almost the same age, from 1904 to 1907 .

In 1914 he received from the Berlin publisher Gustav Müller-Grote (1867-1949) an advance payment of 1000 marks for a South Seas story. Scheurmann traveled to Samoa , the western part of which was still under German colonial rule at that time. There he was surprised by the outbreak of World War I and the takeover of the colony by New Zealand troops. In 1915 Scheurmann managed to leave Samoa for the USA. There he wrote what is probably the most famous text in German Samoa literature, entitled The Papalagi . He took inspiration for this from the fictional travelogue The research trip of the African Lukanga Mukara into Germany by Hans Paasche , published in 1912/1913 in the magazine Der Vorrupp . He also worked as a preacher for the German Red Cross . In 1916 he was interned as an enemy alien. He returned to Germany shortly before the end of the war. In 1919 he took over the failed sanatorium on Monte Verità in Ascona for some time and ran it as a hotel.

From 1930 he lived in Armsfeld near Bad Wildungen and worked there as a landscape painter. One of his pictures is said to have hung in Hitler's house in Munich. Scheurmann also sold pictures of "the Führer" on various occasions. During the Nazi dictatorship Scheurmann was dependent on financial support from the artist's social security fund of the Propaganda Ministry . From 1937/38 he was a member of the NSDAP (No. 5400638). He was active as a Volkstumswart and block warden and was involved as the leader of a local group of the Association of Germans Abroad. In order to be able to exhibit as a painter, Scheurmann became a member of the Reich Chamber of Arts . In order to be able to publish, he applied for admission to the Reichsschrifttumskammer . There he denounced the Grote publishing house in Berlin because, contrary to the National Socialist worldview, it preferred foreign authors. The publisher had rejected the publication of Scheurmann's novel Urte despite its close reference to Nazi ideology for literary and entrepreneurial reasons. Scheurmann maintained contact with the Ludendorffs Verlag and corresponded with Gustav Frenssen , who became known as a colonial writer . During the Second World War he worked as an "assistant teacher" (as the head of an elementary school).

reception

Scheurmann's only literary success was and remained after his death in 1957 The Papalagi. The speeches of the South Sea Chief Tuiavii from Tiavea (1920). The Samoa booklet expresses a contemporary discomfort in culture. As a critic of civilization, the fictional figure of Tuiavii represents positions that identify him not as a Samoan, but rather as a representative of the German life reform movement. His speeches eventually became a cult book of the 1968 cultural revolution and the green alternative movement. The new edition of a Swiss publisher is also distributed by the Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag without mentioning the author's sympathies for Hitler and his arrangement with the Nazis. For this reason, Der Papalagi is a tried and tested reading (Hessen) in German curricula of the 21st century in order to promote or treat intercultural education (Berlin), dealing with the foreign (Bremen) or criticism of civilization (North Rhine-Westphalia).

Works (selection)

  • One way . Grote, Berlin 1911.
  • Offside. Narratives . Grote, Berlin 1913.
  • Paitea and Ilse. A South Sea story . Grote, Berlin 1919.
  • The papalagi . The speeches of the South Sea Chief Tuiavii from Tiavea . First edition Felsen, Buchenbach (Baden) 1920. New edition by CWLeske 1952, numerous issues from 1973, e.g. B. Tanner & Staehelin, Zurich 1977; Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag (dtv), Munich 1991.
  • Adam. A legend . Felsen, Buchenbach (Baden) 1921.
  • Awakening. A South Sea novel. Felsen, Buchenbach (Baden) 1921.
  • Handbook of Kasperei. Complete textbook of hand puppetry . Felsen, Buchenbach (Baden) 1924.
  • The high song of culture . Felsen, Buchenbach (Baden) 1924.
  • Samoa. A picture work . 1st edition self-published in 1926; 2nd edition, See, Konstanz 1927. Edited new edition: Samoa yesterday. A documentation with photographs from 1890–1918 and text by Erich Scheurmann . Tanner & Staehelin, Zurich 1978. Samoa from the Papalagi's perspective. A report with many historical photographs . Heyne, Munich 1990.
  • The light bringers. The story of the decline of a primitive people. Life and Poetry in Nineteen Pictures (1927/28). Ludendorffs, Munich 1935.
  • Around the world in human tracks. A book of longing and fulfillment . Brunnen, Berlin 1929.
  • Memories from the occupation of Samoa . Bing, Korbach 1935.
  • Two kinds of blood. A South Seas novel . Ludendorffs, Munich 1936.
  • Ulf's gender. A story from Germanic prehistory . German Revolution, Düsseldorf 1938.
  • Under the spell of passion. The novel of a great love . Family friend, Stuttgart 1954.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen von Stackelberg: Crossing borders. Studies in literature, history, ethnology and ethology . Universitätsverlag Göttingen, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-940344-04-5 , therein the chapter The story of the “noble savages”, from Columbus to Gauguin , pp. 113–124, here p. 115.
  2. ↑ Thomas Steinfeld : "Story of a success. Home on the island. The once extremely successful Samoa booklet" Der Papalagi "by Erich Scheurmann served the dropout dreams of the 68 generation - under racist auspices . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 6th 2016, p. 12.
personal data
SURNAME Scheurmann, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, painter, puppeteer and preacher
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 4th 1957
Place of death Armsfeld