Erwin Magnus

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Siegmund Erwin Magnus (born November 24, 1881 in Hamburg , † March 31, 1947 in Copenhagen ) was a German writer , literary agent and translator .

Life

Erwin Magnus was the son of the Jewish Berlin banker Max Magnus and his wife Anna Hedwig Elisabeth, b. Laborious. After attending high school , he began training in banking, but broke it off and switched to the arts and crafts . He headed the Hamburg United Workshops for Arts and Crafts . At the beginning of the First World War he was drafted into the Navy . However, an illness soon led to his discharge . From 1917 to 1921 Magnus stayed in neutral Denmark , where he was in the management of the Nyt Nordisk Forlag and alongside theDanish language also learned Swedish and Norwegian . Erwin Magnus returned to Germany in 1921 . He lived in Berlin-Friedenau and worked as a journalist . In addition, translated it literary works from English , Danish , Norwegian and Swedish . At the same time, as a literary agent, he brokered texts from these countries for German publishers.

Magnus' most important achievement is the translation of the majority of Jack London's works into German.

After the National Socialists came to power , Erwin Magnus emigrated to Denmark and later to Sweden . Since he was not given a work permit in exile and the royalties from his extensive translation work did not materialize, Magnus was largely impoverished in the last years of his life.

Works

  • Lichtspiel and Leben , Berlin 1924

Translations (selection)

  • Nini Roll Anker : Liv and I , Berlin 1929
  • Olai Aslagsson : "Buffalo" and "The Wolf of Manitoba" , Berlin 1933; The Coyote , Leipzig 1922; Dreizeh , Berlin 1932; The desert , Berlin [u. a.] 1923; The Lord of the Steppe , Berlin 1929; Animals of Solitude , Berlin 1924; Trampleben , Potsdam 1926
  • Herman Bang : The big boat , Berlin 1919
  • Georg Brandes : Cajus Julius Caesar , Berlin: 1 (1925), 2 (1925); Hellas, then and now , Berlin 1923 and others
  • Johannes Buchholtz : The miracles of Klara von Haag , Potsdam 1928
  • Peter Freuchen : The Eskimo , Berlin 1928; The escape into the white land , Berlin 1929; Ivalu , Berlin 1931; Life goes on , Zurich 1941 and more
  • Gunnar Gunnarsson : Die Eidbrüder , Munich 1934; The Outlaw , Berlin 1928; Night and Dream , Munich 1929; Ships in the Sky , Munich 1928; The inexperienced traveler , Munich 1931
  • Halldór Laxness : Der Freisasse , translated by Erwin Magnus under the pseudonym Eleonore Voeltzel , Leipzig / Vienna / Berlin 1936. Includes the first part of Laxness' novel Sjálfstætt fólk .
  • Knut Hamsun : The last chapter , Leipzig; 1 (1924), 2 (1924)
  • Agnes Henningsen : The perfect woman , Potsdam 1926
  • Harald Høffding : Experience and Interpretation , Stuttgart 1923
  • Helge Ingstad : Fur Hunters Life in Canada , Berlin 1933
  • Johannes V. Jensen : The stages of the spirit , Berlin 1929; Transformation of the animals , Berlin 1927
  • Thit Jensen : Die Erde , Leipzig 1922; The King of the Sands , Leipzig 1922
  • Helge Kaarsberg : My Sumatra Book , Berlin [u. a.] 1923
  • Anker Kirkeby : Russian Diary , Berlin 1924
  • Kelvin Lindemann : The house with the green tree , Berlin 1948
  • Jack London : Adventurer of the Railroad , Berlin 1924; Alaska Kid , Berlin 1931; On the white border , Berlin 1933; The iron heel , Berlin 1927; The ride of the Snark , Berlin 1930; The happy islands , Berlin 1930; The mistress of the big house , Berlin 1929; In the forests of the north , Berlin 1925; Berande Island , Berlin 1926; Jerry, der Insulaner , Berlin 1927; Joe among pirates , Berlin 1930; Kid & Co. , Berlin 1931; King Alcohol , Berlin 1925; Call of the gold , Leipzig 1926; Martin Eden , Berlin: 1 (1927), 2 (1927); People of the Deep , Berlin 1928 and 15 other London works
  • Sophus Michaelis : The judge , Leipzig 1922
  • Henri Nathansen : Jew or European , Frankfurt 1931
  • Adam Oehlenschläger : Aladdin or The Magic Lamp , Berlin 1919
  • Thomas Olesen-Lökken : The Great Moor , Berlin 1930
  • Jacob Paludan : The fields are ripening , Potsdam 1927; The new world , Berlin [u. a.] 1923; Birds around fire , Berlin 1926
  • Svend Rindom : Copper Wedding , Berlin 1929
  • Otto Rung : When the water fell , Berlin 1923; The angel with donkey ears , Hamburg 1925
  • Sophus Thalbitzer : Moods, Feelings and Emotional Movements , Berlin [u. a.] 1920

literature

  • Peter Friedrich : Erwin Magnus. The man who invented professional translation. An artist's fate. In: Helga Pfetsch (Hrsg.): Language in the technical age . SpritZ, special issue of Sovereign Bridge Builders . 60 years of the Association of Literary Translators. Böhlau, Cologne 2014, ISSN  0038-8475 , ISBN 978-3-412-22284-0 , pp. 268-272.
  • Christian Blees: Please make sure that I get something! Jack London explorer Erwin Magnus' struggle for survival. Cologne 2017 ( radio manuscript ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Archives Hamburg, 332-5 / 8961 birth certificate no. 4235
  2. ↑ Germersheim translators lexicon , Germersheim translators lexicon , Lemma: Bund German translator 1928-1933
  3. ^ Wilhelm Friese: Knut Hamsun and Halldór Kiljan Laxness . Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2002, ISBN 3-7720-2780-6 , p. 74 .
personal data
SURNAME Magnus, Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1947
Place of death Copenhagen