Ernst Morwitz

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Ernst Morwitz (born September 13, 1887 in Danzig ; † September 20, 1971 in Muralto ) was a German lawyer, writer , German studies specialist and Senate President .

Life

Morwitz was established in 1887 in what was then the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Reich belonging Gdansk born. His Jewish-German parents were the merchant Wilhelm Morwitz and Rosalie Aaronsohn. Morwitz attended the Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium in Berlin-Charlottenburg . During his school days he made contact with the German writer Stefan George . A relationship of trust and a close friendship developed that lasted until his death in 1933. "For St (efan) G (eorge), M (orwitz) was not only important as a younger friend and companion as well as an advisor and 'last resort' in all matters of the district - in the 1920s St (efan) G ( eorge) M (orwitz) 'Minister' - but he felt closely connected to him through two central moments: On the one hand, St (efan) G (eorge) saw him as a poet, on the other hand as an educator ”. In the Seventh Ring (SW VI / VII, p. 173) Stefan George wrote a four-line poem entitled The Poet to Morwitz. After graduating from high school, he studied law in Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg and Berlin. From 1906 Morwitz was involved in all central activities of the George circle . George also lived with him several times in Berlin. George later revised his decision to make him his universal heir in favor of Max Kommerell and Johann Anton, after the rift with the former and the suicide of the latter in his will of 1932 in favor of Robert Boehringer . But George had his rejection of an honorary salary on the part of the Nazi regime and the presidency of the Prussian Academy of the Arts communicated through Morwitz, to whom Senior Government Councilor Kurt Zierold had turned on the matter. Morwitz was also present on George's deathbed in Minusio and played a prominent role at the funeral service. Even after George's death and his emigration to the USA, Morwitz kept in close contact with members of the circle such as Walter Kempner , the Bothmer brothers, Clothilde Schlayer and Renata von Scheliha , and since 1954 he has traveled to Europe every year. There he visited Wolfgang Frommel in Amsterdam. In 1906 Morwitz took over the private training of the brothers Bernhard and Woldemar Graf Uxkull-Gyllenband in addition to his studies . He also introduced other boys to Stefan George and his work as a “mentor and older friend”, such as Sven Erik Bergh, the brothers Bernard von Bothmer and Dietrich von Bothmer , with whom he also kept in touch while in exile in the US - the refusal of The release of Ernst Morwitz's estate by Dietrich von Bothmer, who was appointed as the sole heir, has prevented its scientific evaluation and publication to this day - as do Hans Brasch , Adalbert Cohrs, Ottmar Hollmann and Silvio Markees. Obviously, both pedophile tendencies played a role. Morwitz began to be active as a writer. He published several poems in series 8 to 11/12 of the Blätter für die Kunst as well as a volume of poems dedicated to Stefan George , which was published in 1911. The poem Nachklang , with which Morwitz had responded to the sending of the three-part cycle To the Children of the Sea , which George had composed for Hans Troschel and Woldemar Graf Uxkull-Gyllenband , included this as the fourth part of the cycle in the volume Das neue Reich . In 1910 Morwitz received his doctorate in law with a dissertation on a detailed question in connection with deprivation of consent in the case of alcoholism.

In the First World War Morwitz worked as a paramedic. In 1918, the suicide of his student Bernhard Graf Uxkull-Gyllenband on July 28, 1918 hit him very hard. In the 1920s Morwitz lived in Berlin, where he lived with his younger friend Silvio Markees. Morwitz got a job as a judge at the district court in Fürstenwalde and later rose to the court council in Berlin.

After the death of Stefan George, with whom he was friends up to this point in time, Morwitz published the work Die Dichtung Stefan Georges in Berlin's Georg Bondi Verlag in 1934 . In 1935, Morwitz was forced into retirement from the Nazi state due to his Jewish origins. He then emigrated to the USA . His two stepsisters Ella and Käte, who did not go into exile, were murdered by the Nazi regime. Morwitz worked as a German teacher for the US Army during the Second World War and received US citizenship in 1947 . He was given a teaching position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Together with Carol North Valhope (Olga Marx) he translated Stefan George's works into English.

Morwitz was retrospectively awarded the title of President of the Senate by the Federal Republic of Germany . As a writer, he accompanied the creation of the magazine Castrum Peregrini in Amsterdam . In old age he was looked after by his friend Clemens Bruehl . Morwitz died on September 20, 1971 in the same hospital in Muralto near Locarno in which Stefan George had also died.

Connection between the Brücke artists and the George Circle

The friendship with Erich Heckel led to diverse exchanges, which found expression on the one hand in paintings, on the other hand in the poem To a painter von Morwitz about his painter friend.

Works (selection)

  • On the question of whether a decision to repeal the deprivation of alcoholism can be repealed. Dissertation iur, Heidelberg, May 11, 1910. Buschhardt, Berlin 1910.
  • The poem Stefan Georges . Bondi, Berlin 1934. (2nd revised edition Helmut Küpper, Godesberg 1948)
  • Sappho. Poetry. Greek and German , Bondi, Berlin 1936 (2nd supplemented edition 1938)
  • Gustav Schwab: Gods & heroes. Myths & epics of ancient Greece . Pantheon Books, New York 1946.
  • with Olga Marx: The Works of Stefan George rendered into English . University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 1943 (expanded ed. 1974)
  • Commentary on the work Stefan Georges . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1969, ISBN 3-608-98284-1 .
  • Commentary on the prose, drama and youth poetry by Stefan Georges . Klett-Kotta, Munich / Düsseldorf 1962.
  • Selection of poems. (= Castrum Peregrini . Vol. 114-115). Castrum Peregrini Presse, Amsterdam 1974.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ See page of the Ludwig-Cauer-Grundschule, formerly Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium
  2. ^ M. Philipp: Ernst Morwitz. P. 1560, on the following ibid., Pp. 1561–1562.
  3. ↑ Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller : Man for man. Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-928983-65-2 , p. 521.
  4. ↑ Maik Bozza: Schlayer y Albages, Clothilde Adelaida Esperanza. In: A. Aurnhammer et al. (Ed.): Stefan George and his circle. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1617-1621; Maik Bozza: Kempner, Walter . In: A. Aurnhammer et al. (Ed.): Stefan George and his circle. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1480–1485 (on Schlayer) Christophe Fricker on Clothilde Schlayer, Minusio. Chronicle from the last years of Stefan George's life. Wallstein, Göttingen 2011. In: Welt on January 22, 2011
  5. ^ Eckhardt Grünewald: Uxkull-Gyllenband, Bernhard Maria Victor Graf von. In: A. Aurnhammer et al. (Ed.): Stefan George and his circle. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1719-1723; Eckhardt Grünewald: Uxkull-Gyllenband, Moritz August Woldemar Graf von. In: A. Aurnhammer et al. (Ed.): Stefan George and his circle. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1723-1727.
  6. ^ Alfred Grimm: Bothmer, Bernhard Wilhelm von. In: A. Aurnhammer et al. (Ed.): Stefan George and his circle. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1304-1307; Alfred Grimm: Bothmer, Dietrich Felix von. In: A. Aurnhammer et al. (Ed.): Stefan George and his circle. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1307-1309; Markus Pahmeier: Brasch, Hans David. In: A. Aurnhammer et al. (Ed.): Stefan George and his circle. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1309-1311; Eckhart Grünwald: Cohrs, Adalbert Philipp Friedrich Gustav. In: A. Aurnhammer et al. (Ed.): Stefan George and his circle. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1322-1324; Birgit Wägenbauer: Markees, Silvio. In: A. Aurnhammer et al. (Ed.): Stefan George and his circle. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1542-1544.
  7. ↑ Ludwig Thormaehlen : Memories of Stefan George , edited by Walther Greischel . Hamburg 1962, DNB 455058490 .
  8. ↑ Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller: Man for man. Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-928983-65-2 , p. 522.
personal data
SURNAME Morwitz, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author and judge
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH 20th September 1971
Place of death Muralto near Locarno