estonia (magazine)

From 1985 to 2004, estonia was the name of an initially multilingual, later German-language magazine for Estonian literature and culture . It carried the ISSN  0930-8792 .

history

The establishment of a magazine that was to deal exclusively with Estonian literature was decided in January 1984 by the then Finno-Ugris students Cornelius Hasselblatt from Hamburg and Tapio Mäkeläinen from Helsinki during a meeting in Hamburg. After a year of preparation, the first issue appeared in February 1985.

For the first six years (1985 to 1990) the magazine was multilingual and appeared four times a year. The place of printing was Hamburg (except for 1990, when printing was done in Helsinki and Tallinn ). The cover was designed by Epp Meisner in Estonia (1989 and 1990 by Aavo Ermel ). The editorial team was spread over Hamburg and Helsinki.

The intention of the editorial team was to “publish an international, therefore polyglot and cross-border and border-crossing magazine”. In the first edition it says: "ESTONIA should be read everywhere: In Helsinki and Budapest , in Hamburg and Tallinn, in Moscow and Toronto , in Stockholm and Tartu ".

After the political turnaround of 1989/1991 and the regaining of Estonian independence, the magazine initially seemed to have fallen asleep, but in 1992 it was re-founded by the Frankfurt / Main- based dipa publishing house . From now on the magazine appeared only twice a year and was exclusively in German. Since 1996 estonia has been funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture and later by the Estonian Cultural Capital .

After dipa-Verlag went bankrupt , the number 2/2000 was self-published. After that, seven more issues (1/2001–2004) were published by Hempen-Verlag in Bremen . The 2004 number was the graduation number.

Composition of the editorial team

The editorial team from 1988 in a recording from 2013. V. l. No. Tapio Mäkeläinen, Hannu Oittinen, Cornelius Hasselblatt, Riho Grünthal, Jack Rueter, Iris Réthy; Photo by Harri Sundell.

• 1985: Cornelius Hasselblatt, Tapio Mäkeläinen
• 1986: Cornelius Hasselblatt, Tapio Mäkeläinen, Iris Réthy , Jack Rueter , Hannu Oittinen
• 1987–1988: Cornelius Hasselblatt, Tapio Mäkeläinen, Iris Réthy, Jack Rueter, Hannu Oittinen, Riho Grünthal
• 1989: Cornelius Hasselblatt, Tapio Mäkeläinen, Iris Réthy, Jack Rueter, Hannu Oittinen, Riho Grünthal, Aet Bergmann
• 1990: Cornelius Hasselblatt, Tapio Mäkeläinen, Iris Réthy, Jack Rueter, Riho Grünthal, Aet Bergmann
• 1992: Irja Grönholm , Cornelius Hasselblatt
• 1993–2004 Irja Grönholm, Cornelius Hasselblatt, Marianne Vogel

In addition, Gisbert Jänicke was a regular employee from 1992 to 2004, without being an official member of the editorial team.

Content statistics

• In the first six years, articles were printed in a total of 15 languages: German, Estonian, Finnish, English, Esperanto, French, (New) Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Dutch, Russian, Swedish and Hungarian.

• The total volume of all 47 issues is over 2,600 pages.

• Almost 200 books were reviewed (the majority of the reviews, almost three quarters, are German).

• In the German-language editions (1992-2004) alone, 22 poets were presented with a selection of translated poems: Artur Alliksaar (1/1994), Betti Alver (1/1992), Contra (2/2002), Andres Ehin (2/1996), Kristiina Ehin (2004), Jaan Kaplinski (1/1999), Doris Kareva (1/1998), Jaan Kross (1/1995), Hasso Krull (2/2001), Ilmar Laaban (2/2000), Leonhard Lapin (1 / 2003), Viivi Luik (2/1999), Ene Mihkelson (2/1995), Ellen Niit (2/1998), Tõnu Õnnepalu (1/1996), Kristian Jaak Peterson (1/2001), Paul-Eerik Rummo ( 2/1997), Mats Traat (2/1994), Debora Vaarandi (1/1993), Mari Vallisoo (2/2003), Elo Viiding (1/2002), Juhan Viiding (1/1997).

• Likewise, 22 authors with prose were presented in the German-language editions (1992–2004) alone: Maimu Berg (1/1995, 2/1996 and 1/2001), Jüri Ehlvest (1/1999), Mehis Heinsaar (2004), Jaan Kaplinski (2/2002), Merle Karusoo (2/1999 and 2/2002), Andrus Kivirähk (2/1997, 2/2000, 2/2001 and 2/2003), Jaan Kross (1/1998), Jaan Kruusvall (1 / 2002), Viivi Luik (1/2003), Ülo Mattheus (1/1994 and 1/2003), Mihkel Mutt (2/1998 and 1/2003), Dagmar Normet (2/2003), Eeva Park (2/1996 ), Asta Põldmäe (1/1997 and 1/2000), Peeter Puide (2/2003), Helju Rebane (1/1996), Karl Ristikivi (2/1995), Mari Saat (2/1994), Jaanätte (1 / 2001), Mati Unt (1/1992), Enn Vetemaa (2/2001) Toomas Vint (2/1998).

• A complete register of the contributions has been published twice:
  • In issue 2/2000 (pp. 65–87) for the years 1985 to 2000 with a total of 550 entries.
  • In issue 2004 (pp. 72–76) for the years 2001 to 2004 with a total of 68 entries.

effect

Two letters by the Estonian national poet Lydia Koidula (2/1985), which were discovered in Budapest, were published for the first time in Estonia . Only then were they published in Estonia. A previously unknown letter from Gustav Suits , which was discovered in an antiquarian book, was also published in issue 1/1997 . Furthermore, many young writers from Estonia in estonia published poems. For many translators, the magazine offered an initial publication opportunity.

In the Soviet Union , people were initially skeptical because they did not know exactly how to deal with a magazine that came from the West, but clearly not from exile circles. At first someone from Soviet Estonia who published in Estonia could get into trouble. In number 3/1985, for example, Sirje Kiin published a treatise on Uku Masing , who had died shortly before in Tartu. However, since Masing was persona non grata in Soviet Estonia, nothing about him was allowed to appear. As a result, Kiin was banned from publishing for a while, that is, she wrote under the pseudonym Jüri Kiis for about a year .

In Western Europe, the magazine gave a small group of Estonian fans (the number of subscriptions never exceeded 200) the opportunity to get information on Estonian literature and culture in their mother tongue. It is available in around a dozen academic libraries.

In retrospect, particular importance was attached to estonia in connection with the Estonian magazine Vikerkaar (“rainbow”). Rein Ruutsoo claims in his memoirs: "The Estonia case (ie the creation of the magazine |) had a positive effect on us - Veidemann [the first editor-in-chief of Vikerkaar ] said that this accelerated the birth of Vikerkaar.

Trivia

When dipa-Verlag was already facing bankruptcy in 2000, the entire print run of around 200 copies was inadvertently sent to the editorial office and not to the publisher. The editors took out their specimen copies and sent the rest to the publisher, who was responsible for distribution to the subscribers. However, that no longer worked, and so number 1/2000 has largely been lost.

literature

• Roman Bucheli: “Explorations in Estonia: The reception of a forgotten literature gets going.” In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung No. 44, February 22, 1995.
• “» Estonia «- new at Dipa.” In: Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel 89, November 6, 1992, p. 15.
• Cornelius Hasselblatt: "Ajakirja sünd." In: Kirjanduse jaosmaa '85. Tallinn 1987, pp. 217-220.
• Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011, pp. 294–303.
• Andres Heinapuu: “Kõvas valuutas. "Estonia" kolm ja pool aastat. "In: Looming 11/1988, pp. 1576–1577.
• "Kes te olete," Estonia "toimetajad?" In: Vikerkaar 10/1988, pp. 79–87.
• Mati Sirkel : “Ajakiri Estonia.” In: Keel ja Kirjandus 11/1996, pp. 790–791.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ estonia 1/1985, p. 31.
2. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011. pp. 297, 303.
3. ↑ Rein Ruutsoo: "Lehekülgi päevaraamatust 1986". In: Vikerkaar 7–8 / 2006, pp. 151–170, here p. 154.