Gustav Grasses

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gustav Arthur Gräser (born February 16, 1879 in Kronstadt , Transylvania , Austria-Hungary , † October 27, 1958 in Munich ), also Gusto Gräser , was a German-Austrian artist and dropout . His brother Karl Gräser (1875–1920) was a co-founder of the reform settlement Monte Verità near Ascona , in which Gusto also initially lived. His brother Ernst H. Graeser (1884–1944) was a painter and graphic artist.

Life

The son of a district judge and senator, born in Kronstadt, came from a pious and learned family in Transylvania. Three bishops of the Protestant regional church are among his ancestors. Gustav Gräser left high school at the age of 15, began an apprenticeship, and in 1896 won a gold medal at the Budapest World Exhibition for his carving. From 1897 he studied art in Vienna . For a short time in 1898 he joined the Humanitas artist group of the life reformer and painter Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach at Himmelhof near Vienna, which had a strong influence on him. However, because he did not want to bow to the authoritarian style of his master, he returned to Transylvania. There he created the programmatic painting of ideas, Der Liebe Macht, in just a few weeks . In reverse of the biblical myth of the fall of man, a naked couple flees from the industrial world that is on fire over to a paradisiacal existence in peace with nature. The painting is now in the Casa Anatta museum on Monte Verità.

In 1899 he broke all family and social bridges behind him and from then on lived on a journey across Europe. He made contact with philosophers, artists and reformers such as Rudolf Steiner , Gustav Landauer , Erich Mühsam , Alois Riehl , Ernst Horneffer , Gustav Naumann , Ferdinand Avenarius , Friedrich Naumann and Georg Kerschensteiner . He became a figure of poetry early on, as Blüthner, the Evangelimann with Gustav Naumann, as the peasant thinker Heinrich Wirth and as the forest man with the third eye with Hermann Hesse , as the fool in Christ with Gerhart Hauptmann . He lived from lectures and the sale of his self-printed poems. Like his brother Karl, he was one of the founders of Monte Verità in Switzerland in 1900, but after a short time fell out with the other founders of the project and went hiking again. However, he kept returning to the mountain until 1909. From 1916 to 1918 he lived with his family on his brother's estate on Monte Verità.

In 1906/07 the brothers made an art exhibition together in Locarno. Ascona's first picture gallery in the house of Karl Gräser was born from it. From 1903 Gusto had a cave and a meadow in the forest that the Losone community had given him as a gift. As a traveling poet, nature saint and hermit, Gräser soon became an attraction for seekers and reformers from all over Europe. In 1907 the young Hermann Hesse lived with him in his rock grotto in the forest of Arcegno. Grasses introduced him to the wisdom teachings of the East. Together they read the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te King of Lao Tzu . Another student of Gräser's was the American Raymond Duncan in Paris as early as 1900 , brother of the dancer Isadora Duncan , who, as a versatile artist, poet and founder of the commune, passed on Gräser's way of life to his friends Gertrude Stein , Henri Matisse and Picasso . With his moonlight dances in the forest of Arcegno, Gräser himself gave the impetus for the modern expressive dance , which began its triumphant advance with Rudolf von Laban and Mary Wigman from Monte Verità. In Ascona the grass friends were known as “balabiott” (naked dancers), but their dance is said to have been religious and reminded of the dervish dances of the Sufis. His compatriot Rudolf von Laban, who wrote a series of expressionistic-ecstatic dance dramas in Ascona and performed them with his group of students, also followed up on this tradition. The highlight of his work was the "Sun Festival" of August 1917, the midnight part of which was celebrated in front of the Gusto Gräsers rock grotto. Contributors or spectators were the Dadaist artists Marcel Janco , Hans Arp , Sophie Taeuber-Arp , Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings .

After dance performances and recitations in Schwabing, Gräser moved in 1911 with his wife and seven children in a self-made caravan with a wooden snake on the roof from Munich to Berlin. "Out! Out! Get out! ”Was written in giant letters on his siskin green car. In the circle of Wandervogel , Gustav Landauer and Gustav Wyneken he became a leading figure for the part of the youth movement that was pressing for political restructuring. In particular, the left-wing pacifist wing of the Free German Youth ( Max Hodann , Jakob Feldner) stood up for him. Grasses was often attacked, arrested and expelled again and again, for example from Saxony in 1912 and from Baden in 1913 . In 1915 he was deported to Austria, where he was sentenced to death as a conscientious objector , but after three days on death row he was sent to an asylum as “confused with confused ideas”. After his release, he returned to his family on Monte Verità. There he became a role model for opponents of the war from all over Europe, who gathered around him in Ascona. Among them the dancers Rudolf von Laban and Mary Wigman , the philosopher Ernst Bloch , the playwright Reinhard Goering and many others. It had its greatest effect on Hermann Hesse , who in the master figures of his poetry spread the image of his friend all over the world.

Words from Gusto Gräser on the Brunstal Adventure Trail in the northern Hainich National Park / Thuringia

In 1919 grasses were expelled from Switzerland, then from Bavaria and again from Baden. In Munich he urged non-violence during the revolution and was thrown into prison by the reaction , together with Silvio Gesell . In 1919 he met the revolutionary ex-sailors Karl Raichle, Theodor Plievier and Gregor Gog in the rural commune "Amgrün Weg" near Bad Urach . Under his influence, Plievier transformed himself into a "wandering saint", Gog founded a " vagabond movement " and organized the vagabond congress of 1929 in Stuttgart, where grasses also spoke. In 1920 he went with a “new crowd” of young men and women who had gathered around his friend Friedrich Muck-Lamberty , singing, dancing and playing through Thuringia. “All of Thuringia is dancing!” Wrote Eugen Diederichs .

For the second time expelled from Bavaria, he came to Berlin in 1927, where he in the anti-war museum of Ernst Friedrich worked and held a long series of "public discussions" at Alexanderplatz. Around 1930 he lived in the reform settlement Grünhorst near Berlin, which became a meeting point for the youth movement and the biosophical movement around Ernst Fuhrmann . From there he traveled through Germany in a donkey wagon with his son-in-law Otto Großöhmig (1909 - December 4, 2005), distributing and selling his writings. The journey in the donkey wagon ended for Großöhmig in the concentration camp after the Nazi takeover of power in 1933 . His daughter Gertrud's alternative settlement in Grünhorst was burned down in 1936. After Gräser himself had been arrested several times by the Nazis and banned from writing, the floor in Berlin became too hot for him. In 1940 he sold his houseboat on the Seddinsee near Grünau and fled to Munich, where he survived the years of terror in the attic chambers of professors friend, and in the end half starved. It was during this time that his late major works, the Seven Meal and the little letter Wunderbar addressed to Stuttgart were created . In 1958 he died completely alone and unnoticed in the Freimann district of Munich . His poetic work, which had gone unprinted, was saved from the garbage at the last moment from destruction. It is now in the Munich City Library and in the Monte Verità Freudenstein Archive.

His idiosyncratic adaptation of Tao Te King , which he handed over to Hesse in 1918, is based on translations by Alexander Ular , Richard Wilhelm and Julius Grill . It is a confession of his worldview , which he defended with great consistency.

Works

  • Ivy leaves. Poems. Vienna 1902.
  • A friend is here - open up! Flyer, Berlin 1912.
  • Homeland. Flyer, Berlin / Birkenfeld 1912.
  • Wave to the recovery of our lives. Proverbs and poems. Ascona 1918.
  • Sign of the coming. Seven lithographs with text sheets. Dresden 1925.
  • Necessary work. Drawings and poems. Lithograph folder. Dresden 1926.
  • Beechnuts. A pamphlet. Berlin 1930.
  • Word lighter. Proverbs and poems. Berlin 1930.
  • Tao. The healing secret. Pandora's box, Wetzlar 1979, ISBN 3-88178-032-7 , and Umbruch-Verlag, Recklinghausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-937726-04-5 .
  • AllBeDeut. Our speech sounds - secret keys to unlocking our world. German Monte Verità Archive, Freudenstein 2000.
  • Earth star time. A selection from his late work. Edited by Hermann Müller. Umbruch-Verlag, Recklinghausen 2007 and 2009, ISBN 978-3-937726-02-1 .
  • Poems of the Wanderer. Edited by Frank Milautzcki . Verlag im Proberaum 3, Klingenberg 2006.
  • The power of love. Oil painting in the Casa Anatta museum on Monte Verità, Ascona.

literature

  • Adolf Grohmann: The vegetarian settlement in Ascona and the so-called natural people in Ticino. Papers and sketches. Hall 1904; Edizioni della Rondine, Ascona 1997.
  • Harald Szeemann (Ed.): Monte Verità - Mountain of Truth. Local anthropology as a contribution to the rediscovery of a modern sacred topography. Electa, Milan 1978.
  • Ulrich Linse : Barefoot prophets. Savior of the twenties. Siedler, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-88680-088-1 .
  • Ulrich Linse: Ökopax and anarchy. A history of ecological movements in Germany. DTV, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-423-10550-X .
  • Martin Green: Mountain of Truth. The Counterculture begins, Ascona, 1900-1920. University Press of New England, Hanover, N. H./London 1986, ISBN 0-87451-365-0 .
  • Hermann Müller: Gusto grasses. From life and work. Fragments of a biography. Grass archive Freudenstein, Knittlingen 1987, ISBN 3-924275-16-5 .
  • Elisabetta Barone (Ed.): Pioneers, Poets, Professors. Eranos and Monte Verità in the history of civilization in the 20th century. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-8260-2252-1 .
  • Ulrich Holbein : Drum TAO wind into winter land! Three radical nature prophets: Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, Gustaf Nagel, Arthur Gustav Gräser. Der Grüne Zweig 260. Löhrbach undated ISBN 9783922708056 .
  • Hans Bergel : Gustav Arthur Grasses. The laughing apostle. In: Crossroads. Thirteen images of life. Reeg, Bamberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-937320-38-0 , pp. 9-25.
  • Christian Blankenstein: Gusto Gräser - the European Gandhi. In: The oddities of yesterday and their traces in today. 15 portraits from Austria. Bautz, Nordhausen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88309-103-7 , pp. 146-160.
  • Hermann Müller (ed.): "Now Erdsternmai is approaching!" Gusto grasses. Green prophet from Transylvania. Recklinghausen 2012. ISBN 978-3-937726-07-6 .
  • Stefan Bollmann : Monte Verità 1900. The dream of an alternative life begins. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-421-04685-7 .
  • Volker Weidermann : dreamers. When the poets took power Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3-462-04714-1 .
  • Pamela Kort / Max Hollein (ed.): Artists and prophets. A Secret History of Modernity, 1872–1972. Cologne 2015. ISBN 978-3-86442-116-7 .
  • Udo Bermbach: Richard Wagner's way to life reform. Würzburg 2018. ISBN 978-3-8260-6470-8 .

Novels, short stories and graphic novels since 2000

  • Jan Bachmann: The mountain of naked truths. Verlag Edition Moderne, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-03731-194-3 .
  • Samir Girgis: Jacob and the mountain of wisdom. Historical novel about the history of Ascona and Monte Verità. Oldenburg 2005.
  • Robert Hältner: Inspector Kajetan and the fraudsters. Novel. Munich 2006.
  • Oliver Prange: The Sun Festival. Novel. Zurich 2016.
  • Patrick Spät, / Bea Davies: The King of Vagabonds. Gregor Gog and his brotherhood. Graphic novel. Berlin 2019

theatre

Movie

  • “The biggest bird cannot fly”. Ascona. The utopia of the other life. Film by Wilfried F. Schoeller. Hessischer Rundfunk, 1978.
  • The Hermit from Monte Verità. Gusto grasses - nature lover and philosopher. Documentation, Switzerland 2006, 50 min., Script and direction: Christoph Kühn , production: Schweizer Fernsehen , first broadcast on July 31, 2006.
  • Henry Colomer: Monte Verità. Documentary broadcast in Arte on December 10, 1997 at 8.45pm and more often.
  • Alfio di Paoli, Teo Buvoli: Il monte di Hetty. Documentary about Monte Verità and Gusto Gräser, broadcast on RSI la due on November 2nd, 2009, 9:00 p.m.
  • Carl Javér: Freak Out - The Mountain of Truth. Documentary, Germany / Sweden / Denmark / Norway 2013, 90 (also 60) minutes. Directed by Carl Javér. Shown at more than 20 film festivals, 10 festival prizes, e.g. B. Grand Award, WorldMediaFestival 2014.
  • Andrea Biasca-Caroni, Julian Martin: La Caverna della Libertà. Studio sull'incontro tra l'eremita Gusto Gräser e lo scrittore Hermann Hesse sul Monte Verità ad Ascona on YouTube , March 6, 2012, accessed on October 20, 2019 (5:12 min.).
  • Julia Benkert: Sanatorium Europa - le refuge des écrivains. Documentary about Riva and Monte Verità, 60 min. in Arte, June 28, 2017; on Hessischer Rundfunk, October 25, 2017, 00:23 min.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Gusto grasses. In: gusto-graeser.info. Monte Verità Archive Freudenstein, accessed on November 17, 2017 .
  2. a b Gusto grasses, poet and nature prophet. In: ticinARTE. Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
  3. Rolf Engert : With Silvio Gesell in one cell. Grasses in the Munich revolution of 1919 ; accessed on December 31, 2019
  4. (la): A staunch pacifist and green. In: rundschau-online.de, December 7, 2005, accessed on October 20, 2019.
  5. Gustav Gräser: Das Brieflein Wunderbar. (Selection). In: gusto-graeser.info, accessed on October 20, 2019.
  6. ^ Frank Milautzcki: Film Review. From the survival of humility to the film “The Hermit from Monte Verità”. In: gusto-graeser.info, accessed on October 20, 2019.