Fritz Oswald Bilse

Fritz Oswald Bilse, around 1905

Fritz Oswald Bilse (born March 31, 1878 in Kirn , Rhine Province , † 1951 in Eberswalde , Brandenburg ) was a German writer and lieutenant in the Prussian army . He also wrote under the pseudonyms Fritz von der Kyrburg and Fritz Wernthal . He became famous in 1903 with the military critical novel From a small garrison .

Life

Early years

Karl August Bilse, Fritz Oswald Bilse's father, was a teacher at the Kirner Piaristenkolleg, the forerunner of today's grammar school. Kapellmeister Benjamin Bilse is one of his ancestors . At the age of twelve, Bilse moved to Eisenach . After graduation he joined in 1896 in the service of Kurhessische Train - Battalion 11 in Kassel , where he became 1898 officer. In 1901 he left the army for unknown reasons, but the following year his name can be found in the officer corps of Train Battalion 16 in Forbach (Lorraine). Bilse became well known when he wrote the novel From a small garrison , initially under the pseudonym "Fritz von der Kyrburg " (after the symbol of his hometown) . A military time picture (1903) published.

From a small garrison

Cover of From a Small Garrison in the 1904 edition

The novel, in which Lieutenant Bilse targets the customs of the garrison and the Prussian-German military, became a scandalous success. Bilse's military background is of direct importance to the genesis of the book. Bilse usually did not develop a good relationship with his superiors or his comrades: “The thoughtful young man becomes a critic of the army. Instead of becoming a member of the officers' corps, he takes on the role of a distant observer. In his company commander he finds a fatherly friend with whom he can discuss ideas about reforming the army. But he openly denies his commander the respect and incurs a number of disciplinary punishments. ”During a temporary dismissal in 1902, the novel From a Small Garrison was also written .

Bilses criticism of an "in intrigues and immorality depraved officers", however, was so sharp and place and figures as little scrambled that more of in their honor sentient officers violated a process against him before the military court strained that from 9 to 13 November 1903 took place in Metz . Bilse was found guilty of insulting his superiors and other senior officers, dishonorable discharge from the army and sentenced to six months in prison. His novel should be "withdrawn from circulation, the printing blocks destroyed". The ban does not seem to have lasted, however, as the 150th thousand of the book appeared in Braunschweig as early as 1904.

The disclosure of appalling grievances in the army was discussed in the Reichstag , and even the emperor reacted with a secret decree “to all commanding generals with the instruction to pay attention to conditions like Bilse described them in their associations and to deal with them with even greater zeal To guard morale and discipline in their troops ”.

Bilse had suddenly become famous: from then on he was considered the enfant terrible of the German army; The novel was highly traded abroad, initially in France in particular - marked “interdit en Allemagne”; a French translation soon appeared. As early as 1904, an English translation appeared with a protocol of the trial in the appendix as well as an introduction and a foreword in which the German-American writer Theodore Dreiser praised Bilse as a great realist . Even earlier than this translation authorized by Bilse, an English-language version, obtained by Wolf von Schierbrand , appeared in New York , in which some of the most scandalous passages were deleted. In a foreword to the fourth edition of the authorized English edition (published in 1909, dated July 1904), Bilse criticized these distortions and at the same time called for a military alliance between Germany and England; He admired this country not least because of its tradition of freedom of expression. The novel has also been translated. a. into Russian .

From a small garrison found numerous imitators, but also called a few literary defenders of the military in addition to the satirical free riders. The response from the press was great both at home and abroad; The German press took Bilse's criticism of the officer corps' culture seriously, while in Great Britain the novel was understood not least as a warning of a supposedly growing German militarism. Meanwhile, the literary quality of the novel is rated low today, especially because Bilses has not always been successful satire at the expense of the structure as well as the character drawing.

Thomas Mann referred to Bilse and his novel when he was exposed to a "press trial" in his hometown of Lübeck , the subject of which was the novel Buddenbrooks. A family was in decline . In his essay “Bilse and I” (1906) Mann defended the right of the writer to give artistic expression to living people, which some citizens of Lübeck had resented. In doing so, however, Mann attached importance to the distinction between "cheek and freedom". Mann also reported that one of his prosecutors referred to the Buddenbrooks as a "Bilse novel," a term that then became common for roman clefs.

After the trial

Bilse had to give up his military career. He studied agriculture and eventually called himself “an academic farmer and writer [...]. Painting and music are named as his hobbies, his specialty is foreign politics. ”In 1907 he married.

Bilse also initially continued his new career as a writer. a. also as a playwright in the style of naturalism , but his later writings did not reach the success of his first work. What is remarkable, however, is the temporary resumption of his writing activity after a fifteen-year break in the 1920s, which again had a political background. Thus, within two years, God's mills appeared. Novel from a great nation (1924) and the alleged "Negro novel" The Black Wave (1925). In the former, Bilse paints the picture of a corrupt and depraved France; this testifies to resentment against the peace treaty of Versailles , especially against one of its consequences, the stationing of black African occupation troops in French uniforms in Germany. In addition, Bilse was temporarily the editor of the journal Deutsche Heimat, which is part of the Bündische Jugend . At that time, Bilse was a member of the German National People's Party .

After his release from prison, Bilse lived u over the years. a. in Paris and London , then managed the Frabertsham estate in Upper Bavaria , later lived in Munich and finally in Ziethendorf near Groß-Ziethen . In 1946 he was elected to the Brandenburg state parliament for the CDU and also sat in the district council of the Angermünde district . No further details are known about its final years.

Bilse is remembered as the subject of Mann's essay and generally as a prime example of the question of how writers are allowed to represent living people in literary terms. When it comes to the allegation of a violation of personal rights in literary works, the Bilse case is still considered exemplary today. For example, in the long-standing dispute over the court-banned novel Esra by Maxim Biller (2003), comparisons were made with the Bilse trial.

Works

• Two military humoresques. The alarm. A Lucky Failure (1903)
• From a small garrison. A military image of the times (Roman, 1903)
• From a small garrison. A military image of the time . American edition, Schmidt, New York, Brooklyn and Chicago 1904 ( digitized version )
• The blue castle. A novel in a preliminary chapter and two books (1904)
• Truth (play, 1904)
• Windfall (play, 1905)
• Dear fatherland. Novel from the life of a soldier (1905)
• The great battle (play, 1906)
• Silent Paths (Roman, 1907)
• Transfiguration (novel, 1909)
• The technique of the novel (1909)
• God's mills. Novel from a Great Nation (1924)
• The black wave. A Negro novel by Afim Assanga, edited and edited by Fritz Oswald Bilse (1925)
• How can the farmer survive the difficult times now and in the future and double his income without additional costs? : Practical Advice for the Peasant Class (1928)

Translations

• with Wolf von Schierbrand : A Little Garrison. A realistic novel of German Army life of to-day . FA Stokes, New York 1904 ( digitized version )
• Petite Garrison: Lieutenant [Fritz] O [swald] Bilse; Roman de moeurs militaires, Paris: Libr.populaire universelle, 1904

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Oswald Bilse in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by Fritz Oswald Bilse in the catalog of the Berlin State Library
• Page about Bilse and Forbach (French)
• Page about the Train Battalion 16 in Forbach (French)
• From a small garrison: A military image of the time - full text at Project Gutenberg

Remarks

1. ↑ This date of death is based on research by the Kirner historian Dr. Ulrich Hauth, which he gave a lecture in Kirn in November 2007. See also: A roman clef becomes a scandal - How Fritz Oswald Bilse came to fame , Allgemeine Zeitung , Kirn edition, 23 November 2007.
2. ↑ Herrmann AL Degener : Who is it? IX. Edition, Verlag Hermann Degener, Berlin 1928, p. 126.
3. ↑ Reinhard Reissmüller: "From a small garrison". The novel by Lieutenant Bilse from 1903. Current impact and late consequences of an early criticism of Wilhelminism. In: Imprimatur. A yearbook for book lovers. New series Volume X, 1982, pp. 272-294, pp. 273 f. There you will also find detailed information on the history of the book's publication and reception. See also: Hartwig Stein: The Bilse scandal of 1903. On the image and caricature of the Prussian lieutenant in the late German Empire. In: Karl Christian Führer, Karen Hagemann and Birthe Kundrus (eds.): Elites in change. Social leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries. For Klaus Saul on his 65th birthday. Westfälisches Dampfboot Verlag, Münster 2004, pp. 259–278.
4. ↑ Reissmüller, p. 279.
5. ^ In Christian Gottlob Kayser's complete literary lexicon , edit. v. Heinrich Conrad, 33rd volume, Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1907, p. 1236, from a small garrison is still listed as "banned in Germany".
6. ↑ Reissmüller, p. 280 f.
7. ↑ See the notes in Fritz Oswald Bilse: Life In A Garrison Town. The military novel suppressed by the German Government, by Lieutenant Bilse. The authorized translation of “From a small garrison.” With a foreword by Theodore Dreiser, an introduction by Arnold White, and a summary of the court-martial. John Lane & Co., The Bodley Head, London 1904.
8. ↑ Reissmüller, p. 289 ff.
9. ↑ Reissmüller, p. 281 ff.
10. ↑ Reissmüller, p. 287 f.
11. ↑ Thomas Mann: Bilse and me. In: Thomas Mann: Collected works in ten volumes. S. Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 1925, Vol. 9, pp. 3-17. For the Bilse complex cf. Heinrich Detering: Thomas Mann or Lübeck and the last things. Buddenbrooks, Stadtklatsch, Bilse and me. In: Heinrich Detering: Places of origin. Literary transformations in the work of Storm, Hebbel, Groth, Thomas and Heinrich Mann. Boysens, Heide 2001, pp. 166–193.
12. ↑ Reissmüller, p. 292.
13. ↑ Article Bilse, Fritz Oswald. In: Wilhelm Kosch : German Theater Lexicon. Verlag Ferd. Kleinmayr, Klagenfurt and Vienna 1953, Volume 1, p. 146 f.
14. ↑ See Franz Rottensteiner, Article Gottes Mühlen. In: Franz Rottensteiner and Michael Koseler (Hrsg.): Werkführer durch die Utopisch-Fantastische Literatur. Corian Verlag, Meitingen 1989 ff .; 3rd supplementary delivery, November 1989.
15. ↑ See Véronique Porra: Autour du Batouala de René Maran en Allemagne: intégration idéologique de discours littéraires et politiques dans le roman d'Afim Assanga / Fritz Oswald Bilse Die Schwarze Welle (La vague noire), 1925. In: Anne-Rachel Hermetet ( Ed.): La réception du roman français contemporain dans l'Europe de l'entre-deux-guerres. Editions du Conseil Scientifique de l'Université Charles-de-Gaulle-Lille 3, Lille 2002, pp. 145–161.
16. ↑ For the German homeland see Armin Mohler : The Conservative Revolution in Germany 1918–1932. A manual. 5th edition, Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz 1999, p. 299. Bilse's editorship is mentioned in the Berger / Rupp lexicon below.
17. ↑ Degener, p. 126.
18. ↑ Konrad Feilchenfeldt (Ed.): German Literature Lexicon : The 20th Century. KG Saur, Bern and Munich 2001, Volume 2, Col. 633 f. There is also the most detailed catalog of works. Biographical information can also be found in B. Berger, H. Rupp (Hrsg.): Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon. Francke, Bern and Munich 1968, Volume 1, Sp. 508; Reinhard Tenberg, article Bilse, Fritz Oswald. In: Walther Killy et al. (Ed.): Literature Lexicon. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh and Munich 1988, p. 510 f.
19. ↑ Walter Habel: Who is who? The German Who's Who, XI. Edition of Degener's Who is it. arani-Verlags-GmbH, Berlin 1951, only runs Bilse as “MdL, MdK, Farmer” without any reference to past literary work. The entry also mentions a second marriage and two children.
20. ↑ See z. B. Dieter Borchmeyer: Literature in front of the court: The booty, the personality right, and the freedom of art. In: Frankfurter Rundschau of October 14, 2003; Joachim Feldmann: Bilse and Biller: Courts should stay out of art issues. In: Friday of October 24, 2003; Michael Ansel: Buddenbrooks, Bilse and Biller. ( Memento from October 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Lecture, Evangelical Academy Tutzing , February 2007.