Ernst Bertram (writer)

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Ernst August Bertram (born July 27, 1884 in Elberfeld (now in Wuppertal ), † May 3, 1957 in Cologne ) was a German professor of German studies at the University of Cologne , but also a poet and writer who was part of the circle around the poet Stefan George was close.

Life

Ernst Bertram was born as the son of the Evangelical Lutheran overseas merchant Ernst Bertram and his wife Johanne Müller. At the Protestant grammar school in his hometown, today's Wilhelm-Dörpfeld-Gymnasium, he passed the Abitur in spring 1903 . Bertram then studied German literary history , modern art history and philosophy in Berlin , Munich and Bonn . On July 9, 1907, he received his doctorate with a dissertation written by Berthold Litzmann on Adalbert Stifter's novel technique at the University of Bonn .

The year 1906 was marked by two key encounters for him: On the one hand, he found access to Stefan George through Saladin Schmitt . On the other hand, he got to know his partner Ernst Glöckner at the beginning of the summer semester . Both understood their love as a “great mystery” and celebrated their “ You Day ” with Beethoven music and Thomas Mann reading. George's courtship for Glöckner led to a triangular relationship because Glöckner stuck to Bertram.

Various essayistic writings on Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Stefan George, Theodor Fontane , Gustave Flaubert , Conrad Ferdinand Meyer and Thomas Mann followed . Bertram was close friends with the latter for a long time and even became the godfather of his daughter Elisabeth .

In 1918 Bertram's book Nietzsche - Attempt at a Mythology was published , with which he quickly became known in literary circles. The surviving letters from Mann to Bertram (256 documents in the DLA Marbach ) as well as Mann's observations of an apolitical , which appeared almost at the same time , whose emergence was accompanied by an intensive exchange of ideas, testify to the influence on Thomas Mann during that time . In 1919 Bertram was appointed lecturer at the University of Bonn, and in 1922 he received a professorship at the University of Cologne . In his poems in the Nornenbuch he emphasized the inequality of peoples.

After the “ seizure of power ” by the National Socialists , Bertram greeted the book burning on May 10, 1933 with consecration verses: “Discard what confuses you / Prohibit what seduces you! / What pure will did not grow / Into the flames with what threatens you ”. To what extent Bertram distanced himself internally and externally from National Socialism over the next twelve years cannot be conclusively assessed.

In September 1945 an internal university denazification commission came to the conclusion that Bertram “has been identified as a man” “who is one of the breadwinners of National Socialism”. In 1946 Ernst Bertram was relieved of his teaching post; in 1950, following a review of the denazification process, he was rehabilitated and retired. He was no longer active as a university professor.

Bertram also appeared as a poet throughout his life . Most of his volumes of poetry (including “Der Rhein” , “Strasbourg” , “Patenkinderbuch” , “Greekseiland” ) were published by Insel Verlag . He also wrote various so-called “Spruchdichtungen”, ie successive and related aphorisms ( “The Wanderer of Milet” , “Proverbs from the Book of Arja” , “Deichgrafensprüche” ), which are used in this form in the German literature of the 20th century have a single position.

Honors

Works (in selection)

  • On the linguistic technique of Adalbert Stifter's novellas . Ruhfus, Dortmund 1907
  • Poems . Insel, Leipzig 1913
  • Nietzsche. Attempt a mythology . Bondi, Berlin 1918
  • Strasbourg. A circle of poems . Insel, Leipzig 1920
  • Two poems from the unpublished book of the Rhine . Private print (?), Weilburg 1921
  • Rheingenius and Génie du Rhin . F. Cohen, Bonn 1922
  • The book of norns . Leipzig, Insel 1925
  • Beethoven's picture. Speech at the Beethoven memorial ceremony . Oskar Müller, Cologne 1927
  • German fate , poems. Leipzig Island 1933
  • Wartburg. Proverbs . Leipzig, Insel 1933
  • German characters. Ceremonial and commemorative speeches . Insel, Leipzig 1934
  • Greece country . Insel, Leipzig 1934
  • Michaelsberg . Insel, Leipzig 1935
  • The white horse . Insel, Leipzig 1936
  • Of the freedom of the word . Leipzig, Insel 1936 ( Insel-Bücherei 485/1)
  • Proverbs from the book of Arja . Leipzig, Insel 1938
  • Persian proverbs . Leipzig, Insel 1944 (Insel-Bücherei 87/3)
  • Hrabanus. From the Michaelsberg manuscript . Leipzig, Insel 1939
  • Konradstein. Narration . Insel, Wiesbaden 1951
  • Moselle villa. Flavus to Veranius . Bachem (on commission), Cologne 1951
  • Prospero's homecoming. A commemorative music for the return of William Shakespeare's death anniversary . Auer, Donauwörth 1951
  • The Wanderer of Miletus . Insel, Wiesbaden 1956
  • Options. A Legacy , ed. v. Hartmut Buchner. Neske, Pfullingen 1958 (with bibliography Ernst Bertram pp. 273–282)

literature

  • Werner Bräuninger : "I didn't want to stand by it". Life plans from Alfred Baeumler to Ernst Jünger. Ares-Verlag , Graz 2006, ISBN 3-902475-32-3
  • Karl Otto Conrady : Völkisch-National Germanistik in Cologne. An unfestive memory. SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 1990. ISBN 3-923621-66-3
  • Erika Gerlach: Ernst Bertram . In: Wuppertal Biographies 1st episode . Contributions to the history and local history of the Wuppertal Volume 4, Born-Verlag, Wuppertal 1958, pp. 11-18.
  • Peter Goßens: Ernst Bertram. In: Christoph König (Ed.), With the assistance of Birgit Wägenbaur u. a .: Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950 . Volume 1: A-G. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015485-4 , pp. 164-165.
  • Hajo Jappe: Ernst Bertram. Scholar, teacher and poet. Bouvier, Bonn 1969
  • Inge Jens (Ed.): Thomas Mann to Ernst Bertram: Letters from the years 1910-1955. Neske, Pfullingen 1960
  • Norbert Oellers : Poet and Germanist in the "Third Reich". Ernst Bertram, for example. In: New Rhineland. Edited by the Rhineland Regional Council . Vol. 39, 1996, no. 8, p. 42f.
  • Friedemann Spicker : 3.5 Ernst Bertram. In: ders .: Studies on the German aphorism in the 20th century (Studies and texts on the social history of literature, Volume 79). Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 2000, pp. 80-89 in the Google book search.
  • Jan Steinhaußen: "Aristocrats in need" and their "philosophy of too high hanging grapes". Nietzsche reception and literary production of homosexuals in the first decades of the 20th century: Thomas Mann, Stefan George, Ernst Bertram, Hugo von Hofmannsthal a . a. Königshausen & Neumann , Würzburg 2001 (= Epistemata; Series Literaturwissenschaft, 326) ISBN 3-8260-1977-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Ernst Bertram, On the linguistic technique of Adalbert Stifter's novellas. Ruhfus, Dortmund 1907 (partial print), p. 67 (curriculum vitae).
  2. ^ Robert Boehringer: My picture by Stefan George - Part 1 , second, supplemented edition, Helmut Küpper formerly Georg Bondi, Düsseldorf / Munich 1967, p. 154
  3. ↑ Robert Boehringer (Ed.) & Georg Landmann (Ed.): Stefan George - Friedrich Gundolf, Briefwechsel , Helmut Küpper formerly Georg Bondi, Munich / Düsseldorf 1962, p. 231
  4. ^ Hajo Jappe: Ernst Bertram. Scholar, teacher and poet. , Bouvier, Bonn 1969, p. 311, note 1.-2.
  5. ^ Hajo Jappe: Ernst Bertram. Scholar, teacher and poet. , Bouvier, Bonn 1969, p. 30
  6. ^ Hajo Jappe: Ernst Bertram. Scholar, teacher and poet. , Bouvier, Bonn 1969, p. 35
  7. ↑ Thomas Karlauf, Stefan George. The discovery of the charism , Munich 2007, p. 382
  8. ↑ a b Quotation from Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 44.
  9. ^ Wuppertal City Library: Partial estate of Ernst Bertram: B - 6: Loyalty certificate: Recognition for 25 years of loyalty by the Minister of State and the Presidential Chancellery of Führer Theissner, November 13, 1939
  10. ↑ Awarding of the Wuppertal Art Prize on December 13, 1953. Retrieved March 19, 2019 .
  11. ↑ With a chapter on the Nazi magazine Das Reich . Furthermore about Arno Breker , Ernst Jünger , Winifred Wagner , Leni Riefenstahl , Ernst Kantorowicz , Alfred Baeumler , Hans Severus Ziegler , Hans Peter des Coudres , Himmler's librarian at the Wewelsburg , Christoph Steding and Ernst Bertram. Furthermore about the magazine "Das Innere Reich"
personal data
SURNAME Bertram, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bertram, Ernst August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal )
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1957
Place of death Cologne