Felix Hollaender

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Felix Dutchman
Felix Hollaender
(around 1920 by Emil Orlik )

Felix Hollaender (born November 1, 1867 in Leobschütz / Silesia , † May 29, 1931 in Berlin ) was a German writer, critic, dramaturge and director.

Life

Hollaender was a son of the physician Siegmund Hollaender and his wife Renette Danziger. The conductor Gustav Hollaender and the composer Victor Hollaender were his brothers; the composer Friedrich Hollaender was his nephew.

He spent his youth in Berlin, where he also completed his school days and graduated from high school in 1886 . Through his parents' house he made the acquaintance of Otto Brahm at an early age , who, according to his own admission, influenced him very much. Since his school days he was friends with Max Dessoir , Max Osborn and Theodor Wolff .

Hollaender studied at the University of Berlin a . a. with Wilhelm Dilthey , Friedrich Paulsen , Erich Schmidt and Georg Simmel . He was able to publish his first novel during his first semester. Since his other publications were also very successful, Hollaender broke off his studies and went on trips. However, his financial situation brought him back to Berlin just two years later.

Together with Adolf Damaschke and Alfred Ploetz , Hollaender acted from 1896 to 1898 as co-editor and theater critic of the Berlin weekly newspaper Die Welt am Montag . Other employees were Georg Bernhard , Kurt Eisner , Heinrich and Julius Hart , Alfred Kerr , Gustav Landauer , Samuel Lublinski and Franz Oppenheimer .

From 1902 onwards Hollaender worked as a dramaturge and from 1904 onwards also as a director for Max Reinhardt . From 1920 to 1923 he directed the Deutsches Theater Berlin . Subsequently he was u. a. Theater critic of the 8 o'clock evening paper . He is assigned to the Friedrichshagener poet circle .

Felix Hollaender was married twice. His first marriage was in 1894 and divorced again in 1913. In 1914 he married the actress Gina Meyer. The first marriage had three sons and a daughter, and the second marriage had a son.

Grave of Felix Hollaender in the Heerstrasse cemetery in Berlin-Westend

Felix Hollaender died on May 29, 1931 at the age of 63 in Berlin of pneumonia . His grave is in the state-owned cemetery Heerstraße in Berlin-Westend (grave location: 3-B-29/30).

Quotes

Leo Berg sharply criticized Hollaender's second novel Frau Ellin Röte in his monthly Der Viewer 1893:

" All in all, Jesus and Judas was a bad, immature job of a talented beginner who, despite the intricacies, technical deficiencies and wasted execution, knew how to captivate, and who, through a certain aspect of the great and through agility and liveliness, probably justified hope could. […] [W] ohl seldom has a young poet appeared with such self-confidence and arrogance […]. The poetic and artistic in the novel is almost nil. The characters are never quite vivid, the author is unable to give a psychology, the content is poor, the flow of the narrative is dull, and the whole thing is pretty boring [...]. I expect something more efficient from this Felix Hollaender [...] because he is not lacking in talent, just unfortunately too much in self-criticism. "

The literary critic Arthur Eloesser wrote of Hollaender's novel The Last Luck :

“This book is no ordinary lamentation, not the usual description of the artist's misery that is often served up, it is a hard, fair, true book that can be compared to Strindberg's confessions through its ruthless urge to confess. [...] A piercing cry of distress from the depths and yet at the same time a firmly established work of art, a work of character, indisputably the best Dutch novel and one of the strongest literary phenomena in recent years. A carefully cultivated, calmly progressing, tart masculine style allows his literary personality to appear fully mature for the first time. "

Richard Schaukal wrote about the same work in the Wiener Rundschau :

“A talented author like Holländer, who has nothing else to do, writes novels of this kind with great ease. It's just as easy to put the tape down and forget about it. "

The actress Tilla Durieux reports on Hollaender's collaboration with Max Reinhardt in her memoir A Door Is Open :

“Among the dramaturges who advised Reinhardt in the first few years [...], Felix Holländer, the type of the talented fanatical Jew, stood out. It was he who supported Reinhardt's great allure, and it was he who wanted to put him on a throne as prince. [...] Felix Holländer wrote novels in his youth that had great and justified success. Outwardly he was small and ugly. He looked like a stunted Mephisto. But his intelligence was great. [...] Reinhardt himself came from a poor family, his manners were not always the best until Holländer was able to mitigate some things here too. "

Regarding Hollaender's directorial work Major Barbara ( George Bernard Shaw ), the theater critic of the Berliner Börsen-Courier remarked in 1909:

"Felix Hollaender [...] proved himself to be a real Shaw director with the skillful way in which he does justice to every mood and makes every punchline effective."

Kurt Pinthus found Hollander's production of the August Strindberg comedy Der Vater in September 1922 to be inadequate:

“The performance of the Deutsches Theater apparently had too few rehearsals. Or Felix Holländer hadn't directed it energetically enough. Almost everyone played well in their own way ... but the performance as a whole was not good. It disintegrated into episodes; This most uniform piece of Strindberg's did not fit together to form uniformity - let alone to the symbolism that was just demanded. "

Works (selection)

Novels

  • Our house. Novel. 1911 (autobiographical)
  • Jesus and Judas. Novel. 1891
  • Magdalene Dornis. Novel. 1892
  • The last luck. Novel. 1900
  • The way of the Thomas Truck. Novel . 1902
  • Stephan Huller's oath. 1912
  • Storm wind in the west (S. Fischer Verlag Berlin)
  • Redemption (S. Fischer Verlag Berlin)
  • Dream and Day (S. Fischer Verlag Berlin)
  • Mrs. Ellin Blush. A marriage novel (S. Fischer Verlag Berlin)
  • Charlotte Adutti. A book of love (Ullstein & Co. Berlin / Vienna)
  • Pension Fratelli (Ullstein & Co. Berlin / Vienna)
  • Agnes Feustel's son (Ullstein & Co. Berlin / Vienna)
  • The widow (Ullstein & Co. Berlin / Vienna)

Dramas

  • The holy marriage. 1892 (together with Hugo Landsberger )
  • Fool's gold. Play. 1890
  • Ackermann. Tragicomedy. 1903 (together with Lothar Schmidt).

libretto

Film adaptations

The novel The Oath of Stephan Huller has been filmed several times. The film became world famous from 1925.

Theater (direction)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the death of Felix Holländer . In: Vossische Zeitung . Sunday May 31, 1931, morning edition. P. 24.
  2. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 . P. 488.
  3. ↑ Leo Berg: Mrs. Ellin Röte by Felix Holländer. From the life of a young woman. Berlin, S. Fischer, 1893. In: Constantin Brunner , Leo Berg (ed.): The audience . Monthly for art, literature and criticism. 1. Jg., Issue 5. Verlag Der Klassen, Hamburg June 15, 1893, Kritische Rundschau, p. 149 f .
  4. ↑ Arthur Eloesser: New Books . In: New German Rundschau . (Free stage). Volume X, Issue 5. S. Fischer Verlag, May 1899, p. 485–497 , here p. 493 (is also quoted on the Internet, but with the wrong year).
  5. ↑ R [ichard] Sch [aukal]: Felix Dutch: The last lucky. Novel. Berlin. S. Fischer, 1899 . In: Constantin Christomanos, Felix Rappaport (ed.): Wiener Rundschau . Magazine for culture and art. No. 12 . Verlag der Wiener Rundschau, Vienna May 1, 1899, Rundschau. Books, p. 295 .
  6. ↑ Tilla Durieux: A door is open . Memories. FA Herbig Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin-Grunewald 1954, 1903. Berlin, p. 50 f .
  7. ↑ Tilla Durieux: A door is open . Memories. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1971, 1903. Berlin, p. 43 f .
  8. ↑ JL: In front of the scenes. In the chamber plays . In: Berliner Börsen-Courier . Berlin November 6, 1909.
  9. ^ Kurt Pinthus: German Theater. August Strindberg: "The Father" . In: Eight o'clock evening paper (?) . Berlin September 1922 (day not specified).
personal data
SURNAME Hollaender, Felix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and director
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Leobschütz , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1931
Place of death Berlin