Hanns Maria Lux

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Hanns Maria Lux (actually Johannes Maria Lux , born May 17, 1900 in Trier , † September 11, 1967 in Koblenz ) was a German author and reformed educator whose works reached high editions in the middle of the 20th century. He was also known as the author of the Saar song " Deutsch ist die Saar ".

Life

His father was an authorized signatory of the Trier regional newspaper and co-owner of the Trier diocese newspaper Paulinus . Born as the seventh of ten children into a Catholic family interested in literature and poetry, the boy completed school, military service and a teaching degree at the University of Bonn and, while still studying, came to the boys' secondary school in Saarbrücken in 1920 while still studying history and German . This was set up and directed by the school reformer Franz Joseph Niemann , whose close educational reformist was Lux. The main concerns were closeness to life, art education, holistic teaching and a human approach, far removed from the teaching method that was customary up to then based on learning material and student obedience. In 1924, Lux passed his middle school teacher exam. The program also included class discussions, group work, class excursions and theater performances and - a completely new feature in 1924 - a school radio program on the radio that had just been introduced. In the five years of his activity in Saarbrücken, Lux received several hundred class visits from home and abroad, even from South America and Iceland.

In 1926, Lux left Europe when he received an offer from the Chinese government to teach German language and literature at the Sino-German Tongji University in Shanghai for three years . The city of Saarbrücken did not approve Lux's leave of several years, so he accepted the loss of his job. He got to China by land via Russia and Mongolia. From his time in China, which he was able to combine with stays in Japan, Korea, India and Indonesia, he published newspaper articles with travel reports and translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry.

In 1929 he returned to Germany and now worked as a non-fiction author and worked on his first novels. From 1931 he worked as a teacher for German and history at the St. Kastor School in Koblenz, as well as a novelist and youth book author. In 1933 he married Magdalena Schnaas, who was also a teacher and who laid out one of the largest and most educationally thought-out school gardens in Germany. The marriage remained childless. Lux collected East Asian items.

Lux joined the NSDAP in 1937 (membership number 5,943,954). In 1941 he received the Moselland Culture Prize and in the same year was appointed acting head of the Reich Chamber of Literature in the Gau Moselland .

After 1945, he was denazified with the help of twelve witnesses who issued exonerating statements in his favor and (after a transfer of punishment and a reduction in salaries) worked again as a teacher and author of young books. However, like those around him, he managed to disguise his actual role in the Third Reich and to present himself as an opponent of the National Socialists. Among other things, he had given his students precise instructions on how to formulate the most effective discharge letter possible. In fact, in addition to his party membership, Lux had actively sought contact with National Socialist officials. On the other hand, he had also campaigned for persecuted people, so that his role in the Third Reich appears ambivalent.

His writings Das Herz der Saar (Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag, Saarbrücken 1934), Der Schwier Gang ( Eher , Munich 1940), Felix and the Society of Red Lanterns (Enßlin & Laiblin, Reutlingen 1941) and Das große Signal were published in the Soviet occupation zone (Limpert, Berlin 1943) placed on the list of literature to be discarded.

Both during the Nazi era and afterwards, his books for young people enjoyed great popularity and reached a total circulation of around one million copies. Lux received the sponsorship award from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and finally, in 1960, at the suggestion of the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Peter Altmeier, the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class. He played an important role in the literary life of the city of Koblenz; In 1960 he became an honorary citizen of his place of residence in Oberwesel , and after his death a street in Koblenz was named after him. This designation has recently come under criticism because of its proximity to the National Socialists.

Lux had been a member of the Catholic student association KAV Suevia Berlin since 1930 .

"The Saar is German"

His most famous work is the text of the Saar song he to the tune of Saarbruecken for a school trip in 1920 Steiger song composed. The patriotic song with "German is the Saar" begins, spread by word of mouth and from 1921 in print and was especially during the campaign for the referendum on 13 January 1935, the re-entry of the Saar to the Reich , both in Saar area and in the German Empire extremely popular. There are numerous contemporary recordings. The text says:

The Saar is German,
German
forever , And German is our river's beach And forever German is my homeland,
my homeland, my homeland.

German beats the heart always towards the sun
German beats when happiness laughed
German it beats in sorrow and night
in sorrow and night

German to the grave, maid and boy '
German is the song and German the word
German is the black hoard of the mountains
black Hort

Shake hands, tie a ribbon
around young people who call themselves German,
in whom the German longing burns
Mother, for you

Heaven hears! Jung Saarvolk swears it
Let 's shout it to the sky
We never want to be servants,
never be servants!

Works

Poems
  • Wanderlieder , Saarbrücken 1920.
  • Das Saarlied , first printed in Saarbrücken in 1921, anonymously, from 1925 on with attribution.
  • That is the day of the Lord , Saarbrücken 1924.
  • Saar Singers' National Say , Saarbrücken 1925.
  • Oath of the people , Heidelberg 1933.
  • At the first morning light , Reutlingen 1949.
  • Consolation and Shock , Reutlingen 1974, posthumously.
Stage plays
  • The heart of the Saar , Saarbrücken 1934.
Novels, non-fiction and young people's books, biographical stories
  • The sea - in words and pictures , non-fiction book, Reutlingen 1929.
  • The big signal , youth novel, Berlin 1937.
  • The difficult course , Roman, Munich: More like 1938.
  • Dance girl Tanja , Roman, Leipzig 1938.
  • Captain Ankersen and the Haifische , youth book, Reutlingen 1940.
  • Felix and the Society of Red Lanterns , youth novel, Reutlingen 1941.
  • The conspiracy of the 47 samurai , retelling, Leipzig: Reclam 1942.
  • The beautiful Fräulein O. , stories, Leipzig 1943.
  • The secret council and the children , youth book, Reutlingen 1949.
  • With the privy councilor - a day in the life of Goethe , biographical story, Murnau 1950.
  • Japan , non-fiction book, Murnau 1950.
  • Eduard Mörike , Biographical Story, Munich 1951.
  • Josef von Eichendorff - the last romantic poet , biographical story, Munich 1952.
  • Matthias Claudius , biographical story, Munich 1953.
  • The girl from the bamboo forest. A strange story from ancient Japan , retelling, Reutlingen 1954.
  • The young Schiller - fighter for freedom and human dignity , biographical story, Munich 1954.
  • The rebel and the duke , youth book, Reutlingen 1955.
  • Wolfgang and the Empress , youth book, Reutlingen 1956.
  • To you and you with Bad Neuenahr , Neuwied [1958].
  • The gate: a look into the life of a school , Koblenz 1959.
  • Inventor, researcher, world traveler , Murnau 1959.
  • The virgin of the supple bamboo , Stuttgart: Reclam 1963.
  • The night of Kaub , Boppard 1964.
  • The young Beethoven , youth book, Reutlingen 1965.
  • Oberwesel, the city of towers and wine , Oberwesel [1969], posthumously.

literature

  • Walter Karbach: Hanns Maria Lux and the Nazis. An exploration. Josef Karbach Oberwesel Nachf., Trier 2017, ISBN 978-3-00-056972-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Karbach: Hanns Maria Lux and the Nazis. An exploration. Josef Karbach Oberwesel Nachf., Trier 2017, ISBN 978-3-00-056972-2 . Karbach uses written sources to emphasize the connection between Lux and the National Socialists; Contemporary witnesses, mostly former students, on the other hand, portrayed Lux ​​as an opponent of the National Socialists: Arndt Schwab: Hanns Maria Lux, "two-eyed heart, the youth and the book turned to" (PDF on saarlied.de)
  2. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1946-nslit-l.html
  3. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1948-nslit-l.html
  4. ↑ http://www.rhein-zeitung.de/blaetterkatalog/2017/05/18/131923.PDF
personal data
SURNAME Lux, Hanns Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lux, Johannes Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH 17th May 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH trier
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1967
Place of death Koblenz