gustaf nagel

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gustaf nagel , around 1902

gustaf nagel , actually Carl Gustav Adolf Nagel, (born March 28, 1874 in Werben ; † February 15, 1952 in Uchtspringe ) was a well-known German nature lover , traveling preacher , life and writing reformer . The center of his work for many years was the Altmark town of Arendsee and the lake of the same name , on the banks of which he built his temple and spa complex. His memory is cherished there in different ways to this day.

Walks and lecture tours, which Nagel went on barefoot and barefoot, took him to the Holy Land at the beginning of the 20th century . Contemporary media reported extensively on the “Naturmenschen”, who on the one hand had a large following, but on the other hand had to deal with ridicule and hostile actions. The Arendsee District Court incapacitated him, the National Socialist authorities took him into so-called protective custody and initially took him to the Dachau concentration camp and later to the Uchtspringe mental hospital . The GDR authorities also put him there after the Second World War and made sure that he could not leave the facility until the end of his life.

Life

Nagel's birthplace in Werben: the former inn "To the white swan"

Gustav Nagel was born in Werben, the eighth child of a family who owns a restaurant. His father Carl Friedrich Ludwig Nagel was considered a successful businessman. In 1863 he had acquired a plot of land with a dilapidated residential building in the Werben city center. At great financial expense, he had the missing house demolished and a new half-timbered building, the birthplace of Gustav Nagel, built on the same site. This house, which the father ran for many years as an inn for the white swan , has largely been preserved. The initials CN in the west gable are reminiscent of its builder. The house is located near the Werben market square. A plaque attached there today commemorates the traveling preacher. Gustav Nagel's mother Louise was born Hennings. It came from Gestien near Arendsee . She supported her son ideally and materially until her untimely death in 1897.

Nagel attended the Werben city school until Easter 1888. Particular talents were shown in the subjects of drawing and arithmetic. His quick perception was also praised. A short time later he started a commercial apprenticeship in the Arendsee "material goods , manufacture, clothing and grocery store " Albrecht. Due to a chronic catarrh and various allergies , however, he had to drop out of training. Nagel began to deal with naturopathy and, in this context, especially with the teachings of the pastor and hydrotherapist Sebastian Kneipp . Nagel began to harden himself in ice cold water and eat raw vegetables. He refused to wear shoes and began to dress "like Jesus ". He also let his hair grow. Now and then he wore a gown-like cloak; more often, however, he showed himself in a tight loincloth. At the beginning of the 1890s he turned completely to the vegetarian way of life, experienced an externally visible improvement in his ailing state of health and offered his advice and practical support to other sick people. As used by him from 1896 orthography ( "ortografi") he described now as "practical fertreter of naturopathy" and promised help with headache , constipation , alcoholism , epilepsy , chorea , stuttering , bed wetting and onanism . Gustav Nagel's way of life and above all his external appearance led to a conflict with his father Karl. He left his parents' house and built himself a cave in a forest - not far from Werben - and decorated it with flags and flowers. The local press became aware of him, published articles about the "ranger" and showed photographs of his unusual home. Both sympathizers and "jokers" made their way to the cave dwellers. While some were listening to his sermons, others were joking with their not always harmless jokes. The father Carl Nagel disinherited his son and applied for incapacitation proceedings against his son. The application was initially rejected. But they tried to prosecute him officially for gross mischief and finally forbade him to use the cave as an apartment.

Nagel moved to Rathenow , where a short time later he was admitted to the local hospital to watch him for a possible mental illness . His nickname “Schnitzel Saint” came from this time. The Illustrirte Zeitung called him that in a report in 1899 because he had created collages with symbolic content from colored paper and used them to decorate the walls and ceilings of his Rathenow apartment. From Rathenow it went on to the Arendsee , which should become the center of his future work. In the vicinity of the Arendsee rifle house, Nagel built his second cave in the ground, which was soon destroyed by angry citizens. This was followed by charges of causing public nuisance . They were justified, among other things, with reference to his sparse clothing. On August 13, 1900, Gustav Nagel was finally incapacitated by the Arendsee District Court. The reasoning stated: "[...] believes that he is speaking to God and the angels and sees stars that show him the way."

First walks

In the following years he traveled as an itinerant preacher in Thuringia and Franconia and visited Berlin several times. He invited people to religious and life reform gatherings in towns and villages, and sold his own writings and picture cards showing him as a savior at great profit. His lectures were extremely popular, not least thanks to the press reports about him and his eccentric lifestyle. His lectures took place both in public spaces and in ballrooms. In Berlin he spoke in 1902 in Pohles ballroom , in the Tonhalle and in Buggenhagen's ballroom . Over 1000 listeners had gathered. His travels in 1901/1902 provided him with a good financial cushion. The remaining payment receipts in the so-called postal receipt book show a total of 3,777.85 Reichsmarks. He deposited further income with his friends and his father. Nagel intended to use the funds raised to complete his journey to the holy sites of Palestine.

Trip to Palestine

The high point of his wandering years was a visit to Jerusalem in 1903 . The journey, on which he was initially accompanied by a donkey and a dog, led via Genthin , Kassel and Ulm to Monte Verità , a meeting place known at the beginning of the 19th century for representatives of various alternative movements. One of the founders of the settlement project later wrote about this early guest:

«Gustav Nagel appears in front of our astonished group on November 17th. Heavy snow flurries do not prevent him from walking bare-footed and only wearing a short shirt. Bright joy spreads over the features of those present; because the sight of his personality is refreshing; he gives the impression of a convalescent, but not yet healthy. His figure, his curly hair wrapped around his head are beautiful. Expression and demeanor are noble, but his eye is unsteady - he often laughs briefly and for no reason. Nagel shows us certificates from the most famous German doctors and naturopaths, which unanimously confirm his often questioned sanity, so that Nagel can free himself from the board of trustees imposed on him. He sells a lot of postcards with his own portrait to us, sleeps until 11 a.m. in the morning, has his food brought to bed, wraps himself naked in a woolen blanket during the day, freezes miserably and rushes to the ship after a two-day stay to bring him further south. "

- Ida Hofmann

The ship mentioned entered Nagel in the port of Genoa . He had hiked there from Lake Maggiore via Milan . On November 25, 1902, he came over Naples to Capri . His intention was to meet Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach , the “forefather of all alternative movements”, and his closest colleague Hugo Höppener , better known under the name Fidus . The planned encounter failed because the two were absent. Nagel went on the onward journey. In December 1902 he reached the Egyptian city of Alexandria via Port Said , which was still under British control at the time of his visit . From there it went on to Jerusalem . He spent Christmas Eve 1903 in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and took part in the Christmas service there. His intentions were not touristic; “He came as a sinful pilgrim. Again and again he threw himself in the dust on the way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and prayed ”. In a Christmas and New Year's greeting addressed to his father, which he wrote at the foot of the Carmel Mountains , he gave a detailed account of his impressions and experiences in the Promised Land . But in the end it says: "Oh, I was almost looking for the beautiful German winter, the beautiful, beautiful one."

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Nagel's later ideas and projects, including the glorification of nature and a healthy body, as well as the temple building at the Arendsee, probably go back to the influence of Diefenbach and Höppener. The German foolishness observed at Nagel also seems to have its origin on Capri.

In the same year he succeeded in obtaining the judicial repeal of his incapacitation.

Arendsee

In the summer of 1903, Nagel, now fully competent again, leased two acres of land near Arendsee to run a Kneipp bath there. He set up various baths and spa facilities in a wooden barracks on the property and also worked as a healer for a variety of ailments, recommending his patients primarily cold washes and a healthy diet. After repeated vandalism and ongoing difficulties with authorities and residents who reported him because of his suspiciously immoral lifestyle, he moved to Mardorf am Steinhuder Meer in 1907 . In 1910, however, he returned to Arendsee, bought the site of what is now the gustaf-nagel site and began to create a natural garden on the property by the lake, which he called the paradise garden . From 1917 he built a sea temple made of shell limestone as well as numerous other facilities and buildings, including a spa hall. The eccentric became a curiosity in the city, and his “life-reforming adventure park” ( Berliner Morgenpost ) attracted many visitors. In 1928 alone he was able to sell more than 10,500 tickets. Various medical reports about his state of mind, with which his opponents wanted to hinder the activities of gustaf nagels , which in part continued to be perceived as scandalous , did not affect his popularity. Since his park brought guests to Arendsee, he also had numerous supporters in town. In 1929 he was the most important taxpayer in the Arendsee.

Registration card of Gustav Nagel as a prisoner in the National Socialist concentration camp Dachau

In his temple garden should phallic pillars , which he to his appearances black-white-red flagged, and lotus flowers to the free love remember. In 1924, Nagel founded the German-Christian Folk Party , one of whose goals was the abolition of large cities . In the Reichstag election in December 1924 , he received 4,322 votes (0.01%, no mandate). In 1928 he ran again for the Reichstag election with his party, which was programmatically aimed at the middle class , but was only able to win 901 votes (rounded: 0.00%). In the time of National Socialism from 1933 onwards, he continued to be talked about, but was not taken seriously. So in March 1934 he applied to the city administration in Arendsee to provide him with a seat on the local council. In 1935 his garden was closed by the authorities, he was temporarily no longer allowed to receive paying visitors and was banned from speaking. He submitted a turnerlid for the 1936 Olympic Games and wanted to use it to encourage an Olympic poetry competition. Shortly before his last wedding in 1937, he appeared as a long-distance runner in Winsen an der Luhe . In August 1937 he received approval to serve self-made alcoholic fruit juices in his “Kurhalle”. He is also said to have preached against the persecution of the Jews and later against the war. Because of denunciations, partly from his immediate environment, he was repeatedly investigated for "subversive activities". In 1942 his youngest son Ernst Adolf died as a soldier in Russia. In the summer of 1943, Nagel was taken to the Dachau concentration camp as a “ protective prisoner ” after he had written a letter to Joseph Goebbels the previous year and described the talk of “ entsig ” as a lie. The now 70-year-old Nagel spent 1944 in the Uchtspringe mental hospital near Stendal, which he left in 1945 to return to Arendsee. He began to rebuild his temple complex, which had already been largely destroyed by the Hitler Youth before his imprisonment , and began to become politically active again. In 1948 he sent a “message of peace” to the four city commanders of Berlin . After critical remarks about the Soviet occupation forces and the repeated announcement that he wanted to crown the future Duke of Cumberland as "King of Germany", he was again taken to the Uchtspringe mental hospital in 1950, which he was not allowed to leave despite his best efforts. There he died of heart failure in 1952.

family

Nagel himself had numerous affairs throughout his life. He married three times. All three marriages were divorced. The first marriage had two children and the second three children. The third marriage was childless.

First marriage: Maria Anna Konhäuser

Nagel's first marriage to Maria Anna Konhäuser

His first marriage to Maria Anna Konhäuser, who was born in Vienna, took place on January 16, 1904. The two had met on Nagel's return trip from Jerusalem to Capri and had arrived in Arendsee together in May 1903. The connection with Maria (also called "Meta" and "Laetitia") had two children. On November 28, 1903 (before the marriage), the daughter Klara was born as a "seven-month child". She died on December 6th of the same year. There have been numerous speculations about the causes of the early death, including the claim that the child caught a severe cold during a full-body baptism carried out by Gustaf Nagel in the freezing Arendsee. The son Friedrich was born on April 21, 1905, but he did not recognize Nagel as his child and therefore refused to support him. Numerous clashes followed, in which the police often had to intervene. Maria moved to her sister in Vienna in 1906 and was divorced from her husband on July 22, 1907 by the Stendal District Court “because of adulterous intercourse” .

Second marriage: Johanna Maria Raith

gustaf nagel as a happy husband. gustav nagel and Johanna Raith on their wedding day in front of the Chemnitz Luther Church (1912)
Married couple Gustaf and Johanna Nagel with their children

His second wife Johanna Maria Raith (* 1888 in Chemnitz ), a businessman's daughter and trained piano teacher, met Nagel for the first time on one of his hikes through Saxony . The engagement took place on March 26, 1912 and was officially announced in the Flöhaer Tageblatt . Investigations into the past life of the itinerant preacher that followed could not prevent the bride and groom from being married on June 4, 1912 in Chemnitz's Luther Church under the curious gaze of numerous people. Gustaf and Johanna Nagel initially moved into an apartment at Chemnitz Reichenhainer Strasse 17; however, the husband returned to Arendsee two weeks after the wedding, where his pregnant wife followed him a few weeks later. Three sons, all of whom saw the light of day in Arendsee, came from this marriage. Gottfried Fürchtegott Gerhard was born on February 26, 1913. Gustav Johannes was born three years later, on July 20, 1916, and Ernst Adolf five years later, on August 2, 1918. Love - according to Gustaf Nagel - was soon extinguished. In 1920 the wife, who suffered more and more melancholy , tried to drown herself and her youngest son in the Arendsee . She was then admitted to the Uchtspringe mental hospital and later to a similar institution in Jerichow . She died there in 1935. She was buried in the city cemetery there. At his request, his marriage to Gustaf Nagel had already been divorced in 1926 "because he refused to sleep together". The children from this marriage were placed under official guardianship in 1928.

Nagel's son Gustav Johannes reported in 2001 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his marriage about his childhood at the Arendsee. As a twelve-year-old he accompanied his father's lectures on the harmonium . He also collected the entrance fees that visitors to the temple and spa complex had to pay. As a teenager, Gustav Johannes found his spiritual home in the Free Church of the Seventh-day Adventists and worked for them as a full-time book evangelist from the 1950s until they retired . Three of his sons received theological training at the Adventist seminary. Gustav Johannes, who had taken over the vegetarian way of life from his father, died at an old age in early January 2013.

Third marriage: Eleonore Dadeck

After the divorce from his second wife, Nagel tried different ways to get to know a new life partner. Among other things, he posted marriage advertisements and sent so-called "rose letters" to women who had found his liking. After some short, often exclusively sexual relationships, a new, binding partnership was only initiated in 1937. On February 23 of this year, the Arendsee weekly newspaper published an advertisement with the following text: “Greetings from ferlobte with got in jesu kristi name: eleonore teichmann, nurse, gustaf nagel, temple guardian, poet and composer of the grace of god.” Nagel had met Eleonore Dadeck (born February 13, 1913) in Berlin-Charlottenburg . On May 3, 1938, the church wedding took place in Arendsee with great public participation. To the annoyance of the National Socialist authorities, almost all German newspapers reported on this event. This marriage, which remained childless, also developed problematically. There were violent disputes in which the wife knew how to defend herself successfully because of her physical superiority. She refused the vegetarian way of life and in 1940 even reported her husband to the Magdeburg Gestapo for his anti-subversive speeches. Gustaf Nagel responded with a report to the local police; Eleonore tried to poison him. The marriage was divorced on July 10, 1941.

Commemoration

In 1996 the “Gustav Nagel working group” was founded in Arendsee with the aim of preserving the thoughts, poems and messages of gustaf nagel for posterity. Since then, a “gustaf-nagel-day” has taken place in Arendsee every year. In 1999 a “gustaf nagel förderferein e. f. ”was founded. Today his temple ruins, his spa hall on the grounds of the restaurant "birlokal zum alten gustaf" and display boards on the beach promenade remind of the remarkable eccentric.

literature

  • Ulrich Holbein: Five pretty radical nature prophets . Synergia: Basel, Zurich, Roßdorf 2015. ISBN 978-3-944615-43-1 . P. 51–74 (Chapter: The trumpeting prophet from the Arendsee )
  • Reno Metz, Eckehard Schwarz: Arendsee - Pictures from a bygone era: Historical photographs - Gustaf Nagel and Arendsee . Wartberg-Verlag 2001, ISBN 3-86134-662-1 .
  • Reno Metz, Eckehard Schwarz: gustaf nagel - the barefoot prophet from the Arendsee - a life and impact story . Volume 6 in the series Contributions to the cultural history of the Altmark and its peripheral areas . dr. ziethen Verlag: Oschersleben 2001. ISBN 3-935358-16-4 .
  • Christine Meyer: gustaf nagel. The provocateur from the Arendsee. A documentation . Märkischer Kunst- und Heimatverlag: Poritz 2001. ISBN 3-929743-11-6 .
  • Eckehard Schwarz: From the life of a traveling preacher and temple guardian (published by the Tourist Association and Surroundings eV ). Arendsee 1997
  • Claudia Becker: A nature lover by profession . In: weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT . Issue 19/1996 (May 3, 1996). P. 59

Web links

Commons : Gustav Nagel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Radio feature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werben-Elbe.de: city ​​tour ; viewed on June 5, 2020
  2. ↑ Eckehard Schwarz: From the life of a traveling preacher and temple guardian (published by the tourist association and surroundings eV ). Arendsee 1997. p. 5f; 8th
  3. ↑ Eckehard Schwarz: From the life of a traveling preacher and temple guardian (published by the tourist association and surroundings eV ). Arendsee 1997. p. 6
  4. ↑ Ulrich Holbein: Five quite radical nature prophets . Synergia: Basel, Zurich, Roßdorf 2015. p. 51
  5. ↑ Ulrich Holbein: Five quite radical nature prophets . Synergia: Basel, Zurich, Roßdorf 2015. p. 52
  6. ↑ Illustrirte Zeitung No. 2933 / September 14, 1899, p. 354.
  7. ↑ Quoted from Claudia Becker: Naturmensch by profession . In: weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT . Issue 19/1996 (May 3, 1996). P. 59
  8. ↑ Reno Metz, Eckehard Schwarz: gustaf nagel - the barefoot prophet from the Arendsee - a life and impact story . Volume 6 in the series Contributions to the cultural history of the Altmark and its peripheral areas . dr. ziethen verlag: Oschersleben 2001. p. 15; 17th
  9. ↑ Ulrich Holbein: Five quite radical nature prophets . Synergia: Basel, Zurich, Roßdorf 2015. P. 52f
  10. ↑ Eckehard Schwarz: From the life of a traveling preacher and temple guardian (edited by the tourist association Arendsee and surroundings eV). Arendsee 1997. p. 17
  11. ↑ Quoted from nagel, gustaf . In: TicinArte.ch .
  12. ↑ Quoted from Reno Metz, Eckehard Schwarz: gustaf nagel - the barefoot prophet from the Arendsee - a life and impact story . Volume 6 in the series Contributions to the cultural history of the Altmark and its peripheral areas . dr. ziethen verlag: Oschersleben 2001. p. 19f
  13. ↑ Reno Metz, Eckehard Schwarz: gustaf nagel - the barefoot prophet from the Arendsee - a life and impact story . Volume 6 in the series Contributions to the cultural history of the Altmark and its peripheral areas . dr. ziethen verlag: Oschersleben 2001. p. 20
  14. ↑ Eckehard Schwarz: From the life of a traveling preacher and temple guardian (edited by the tourist association Arendsee and surroundings eV). Arendsee 1997. p. 19
  15. ↑ a b c Gustav Günther: Not a food lover. Arendsee commemorates the 60th year of Gustav Nagel's death on Sunday. In: Altmark Zeitung , March 28, 2012, accessed May 2017.
  16. ↑ Eckehard Schwarz: From the life of a traveling preacher and temple guardian (edited by the tourist association Arendsee and surroundings eV). Arendsee 1997. pp. 25-27
  17. ↑ Eckehard Schwarz: From the life of a traveling preacher and temple guardian (edited by the tourist association Arendsee and surroundings eV). Arendsee 1997. p. 32f
  18. ↑ Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung: seen again at harvest (August 4, 2001) ; viewed on June 1, 2020
  19. ↑ az-online.de / Harry Güssefeld: John Nagel died (10 January 2013) ; accessed on May 31, 2020
  20. ↑ Eckehard Schwarz: From the life of a traveling preacher and temple guardian (edited by the tourist association Arendsee and surroundings eV). Arendsee 1997. pp. 70-73
  21. ↑ As a healing preacher pulled through the country. In: Schaumburger Zeitung , January 28, 2011, accessed on May 25, 2017.
  22. ↑ spelling loud statement the run by the local workgroup gustaf Brand-area , photographically documented here .
personal data
SURNAME nail, gustaf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nagel, Gustav; Nagel, Carl Gustav Adolf (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German nature man, life reformer, traveling preacher and writing reformer
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Advertise
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1952
Place of death Uchtspringe