Hans Dominik

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hans Joachim Dominik (born November 15, 1872 in Zwickau , † December 9, 1945 in Berlin ) was a German writer, science fiction and non -fiction author, science journalist , engineer ( electrical engineering , mechanical engineering ) and inventor.

Berlin memorial plaque on the house at Bogotástrasse 2a in Berlin-Zehlendorf

Life

Family background and years of study

Hans Dominik was born on November 15, 1872 in Zwickau ( Saxony ) as the son of the journalist and publisher Friedrich Wilhelm Emil Dominik (1844-1896) and his wife Hedwig, née Mügge (1846-1919) . He is the grandson of the writer Theodor Mügge and the regimental horse doctor and, most recently, Berlin veterinarian Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Dominik (1814–1883), born in Dyrotz . His brother, the great uncle Hans Dominiks, was the Berlin military veterinarian Christian Friedrich Dominik .

He spent his youth as well as most of his life in Berlin. He attended various high schools, a. a. the Ernestinum grammar school in Gotha , where Kurd Laßwitz , another pioneer of future literature in Germany, taught mathematics and physics. This encounter was formative for Dominik. Kurd Laßwitz also had some of his literary works published by Dominik's father.

Another teacher Dominik at the Ernestinum grammar school was Adolf Schmidt (1860–1944), later known worldwide as a geophysicist . Dominik described him in his memoirs and selected him as a role model for a character in a novel:

“Another interesting personality on the Gotha teaching staff was Dr. Adolf Schmidt, who many decades later served me as a model for the “long Schmidt” in my books “A star fell from the sky” and “Land of fire and water”. At the Ernestinum he taught modern languages ​​and the natural sciences; But every free minute he devoted to the study of geomagnetism ... None of us Tertians and Seconds would have suspected a future scientific capacity of international renown in the somewhat clumsy looking long Schmidt. "

After graduating from high school in 1893, Hans Dominik studied mechanical engineering with a focus on railway technology at the Technical University of Berlin . In 1894 his father fell seriously ill. Dominik had to interrupt his studies because this illness caused his father's business activities to decline significantly. He had to earn money and worked as an electrician in the Rhineland until he could continue his studies.

In 1895 he made his first trip to America. On another trip to the United States , he stayed there for a full year and earned his living as an electrical engineer. There he gained a lot of technical and economic knowledge as well as insights into a country that is completely different from Germany. These experiences flowed into a youth book series, John Workman, the newspaper boy , the success story of a newspaper boy who makes it to a millionaire in America.

Engineer (and journalistic beginnings)

In 1898 Dominik broke off his studies and worked as an electrical engineer due to attractive offers from the industry. In 1900 he came to Siemens & Halske's department for lighting and power. Here he did a thorough thesis on electrification in mining for the Paris World Exhibition and then took over the literature office of Siemens & Halske for a year. In 1905 he changed his position and became a technical local reporter for the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger .

As an engineer he invented a new type of ball bearing, worked on the development of terrestrial telegraphy and built dictation machines and loudspeakers.

Since 1901 he worked as a technical writer and copywriter. His short treatises in the Berliner Tageblatt were widely read , with headings such as Technical Fairy Tales , What the Overhead Line Told, or Memoirs of a Pocket Watch . His quick comprehension and the ability to present complex technical issues in a generally understandable manner made him a sought-after contributor.

The first utopian stories appeared in the youth book series Das Neue Universum in 1907 .

In 1910 he married Lieselotte Runge. The daughter Lieselotte emerged from the marriage. When the First World War broke out, he was not drafted due to a spinal problem and worked again for the electrical company Siemens & Halske, this time in the field of telegraphy .

From around 1912 to 1919 he wrote a novel almost every year for C. Duncker Verlag in Berlin . However, these works were not a great success. They rarely came out in more than one edition.

Dramaturge and freelance writer

After the war, Dominik worked as a dramaturge for technical short films from 1918 to 1920 .

The first utopian novel The Power of Three was published as a serial in the week in 1922 and was published in book form that same year. The great success that followed afterwards made Dominik known to wide circles of the German reading public. However, the inflation of 1923 initially forced him to accept a permanent position again. It was not until 1924 that he was able to work as a freelance writer again. More science fiction was published in quick succession, many of them by Scherl-Verlag .

The grave of Hans Dominik in the Zehlendorf cemetery in Berlin

Dominik remained a successful author even during the Nazi era . Four of his books achieved print runs of over 100,000 copies, Land of Fire and Water even more than 250,000 copies. On his 70th birthday he received a congratulatory telegram from Propaganda Minister Goebbels .

Hans Dominik died just a few weeks after his 73rd birthday on December 9, 1945 in Berlin. He was buried in the Zehlendorf cemetery (field 9-83). The final resting place of Hans Dominik was dedicated as a Berlin honor grave between 1978 and 2001 .

The literary work

Literary meaning

Dominik is one of the most important pioneers of future literature in Germany. He was referred to as the “prophet of technology” and “German Jules Verne”. His science fiction stories have enjoyed great popularity from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. They were printed in large numbers and are still being reissued to this day. In addition to science fiction, Dominik has also written non-fiction books and articles with technical-scientific content.

Content and style

Hans Dominik's novels from the 1920s were shaped by the zeitgeist in Germany at the time . The focus of his actions are mostly German engineers or scientists who have to defend their inventions and discoveries against opaque corporations and hostile nations. After the lost World War I, Dominik's novels served the German national dreams of many readers, although Germany as a nation played practically no role in the novels - on the contrary: a leitmotif in almost all novels is multinational cooperation (mostly in research), in some novels a united, democratic Europe was suggested. The primary goal of the inventions and discoveries is the peaceful use and, in some cases , a very clear rejection of war (in Das Erbe des Uraniden , for example, it is about the misuse of atomic energy for warlike purposes and the bitterness of the discoverer). In Atlantis , despite warnings, the Panama Canal is drastically widened with the help of huge amounts of a highly explosive material, so that the Gulf Stream can escape into the Pacific, which triggers an ice age in the northern hemisphere. In the post-war editions, the chemical becomes an atomic explosive.

A recurring motif is also a certain, specifically Indian mysticism , which today seems to stand in stark contrast to the often sober, technical-utopian representations: The topics “mind reading”, “fortune telling” and “influencing thoughts” are also treated. When Dominik wrote his novels, however, this mixture of technology and telepathy was due to Fritz Lang's successful two-part drama Dr. Mabuse who introduced the player from 1921 and 1922. The hypnosis scene in the first part of Dr. Mabuse (1921) is found in very similar forms in Dominik's The Power of Three (1922) in the wedding scene in Linnais in which an Indian protagonist the wedding party with an illusion to the German protagonist and his newlywed hypnotized the start of their honeymoon to enable .

In later editions, drastic changes were made to modernize the novels. In the competition of the nations , Dominik only described propeller planes including the associated speeds and technical problems. In the new editions, it became jet aircraft with doubled speed, which was only moderately in line with the context.

Dominik often used Anglicisms and English idioms in his novels .

Co-authors

Frank O. Hrachowy identifies Hermann Hitzeroth as co-author for all of Dominik's novels from 1922 to 1933 , who is said to have been largely responsible for the change in style and subject matter in Dominik's novels. With a royalty share of 25%, Hitzeroth participated in the author's proceeds from the novels. Friedrich Meister ("Klar zum Gefecht", 1915), as well as the author's pseudonym Kurt Matull ("John Workmann, the newspaper boy", vol. 1, 1909), behind whom Hrachowy is also suspected to be Hitzeroth, are identified as co-authors of individual works before 1922 .

Chauvinism of the time in the novels

Nationalism and Racism in the Novels

The early novels dealt with a " clash of civilizations " in which the Europeans fight against other nations - namely a Bolshevik Soviet Russia , "the yellow danger " China , the Arabs and the black Africans - for the dominant position in the world. In his novel The Trace of Genghis Khan from 1922/23, the main character pleads for a “return” of black citizens of the USA to the African continent. Characters in Dominik's novels, however, do not postulate the immutability of a “superiority” of the “white race”, but rather a kind of responsibility “to rule the world and that another race (black, yellow) would come in the future, bearing the burden of responsibility take your shoulders ”. Rudyard Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden (published 1899) expresses a similar idea.

In the “Third Reich” there were problems with a novel. In 1941 The Steel Secret could no longer be sold. In a letter from 1941, Dominik suggested that the occasion was to portray the relationship between Japan and the USA, which the Nazis did not consider politically opportune at the time. However, this book was advertised again by the publisher in 1943 at the latest.

After the Second World War , his novels were shortened in the Federal Republic of parts that were perceived as problematic. As a result of these sometimes drastic revisions, some works were reduced to up to one sixth of the original size. Unabridged editions came later - e.g. B. with the anniversary edition by Heyne Verlag - out again, with some passages removed from these editions. In The Race of Nations, for example, the establishment of an airfield in the Brazilian jungle is described, which is protected from Indians by a deadly electric fence and automatic cannons. Through this "protection" various Indians die (which is consciously accepted) until they finally leave the area. This passage is missing in some editions.

In the Soviet occupation zone , his book Das Erbe der Uraniden (Berlin: Scherl 1943) was included in the list of literature to be sorted out in 1948 , and in the GDR in 1952, The Race of Nations (by Hase & Koehler, Leipzig 1940), command from the dark (Scherl-Verlag, Berlin 1942), King Laurin's coat (Scherl-Verlag, Berlin 1943) and The Trace of Dschingis Khan (Selierl, Berlin 1943). Even later there were no new editions of Hans Dominik's books, while existing holdings were still accessible in libraries.

Image of women in novels

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

When Dominik drew female figures, they are usually weak and in need of protection; strong women, on the other hand, appear calculating and manipulative. He shares this image of women with many contemporary authors of the genre.

Honors

A memorial plaque was unveiled on July 2, 1999 in Bogotástrasse 2a (formerly Herderstrasse); Dominik lived here from 1908 until his death.

Works

The works listed here are the current status of Hans Dominik research. Only the great and well-known novels and stories were taken into account. The complete works are estimated at several thousand articles, stories and non-fiction books.

Science fiction novels

  • The power of three . Scherl-Verlag, 1921
  • The trail of Genghis Khan. Ernst Keil's successor (August Scherl), 1923
  • Atlantis . (Title after the Second World War: Minute X ) Scherl-Verlag 1924/25
  • The fire of the Great Pyramid. Scherl-Verlag, 1925/26
  • The legacy of the Uranids. Scherl-Verlag, 1926/27
  • King Laurin's mantle. (Post World War II title: Invisible Forces ). Ernst Kreis Nachf. (August Scherl), 1928
  • Rubber. Scherl-Verlag, 1929/30
  • Order from the dark. Scherl-Verlag, 1932/33
  • The race of nations. Prof. Eggerth series. Part 1. Verlag Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1932/33
  • A star fell from the sky. Prof. Eggerth series. Part 2. Verlag Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1933
  • The steel secret. August-Scherl, Berlin 1934
  • Atomic weight 500th August Scherl, Berlin 1934/35
  • Celestial power. Scherl-Verlag 1937
  • Life rays. Scherl-Verlag 1938
  • Land of fire and water. (= Prof. Eggerth series. Part 3). Verlag v. Hase & Koehler, Leipzig 1939
  • Fuel SR . August Scherl successor, Berlin 1939/40 (title after the Second World War: flight into space or travel into space .); also published as a licensed edition by the publishing house "Der Roman" (Rudolf Lubowski & Co, Altenstein / Ufr., under the title Flight in the Space (Fuel SR). A novel of the future. )

Short stories

Short stories by Hans Dominik appeared in the annual periodical Das Neue Universum

Other works of fiction

  • 1903: Technical fairy tales
  • 1903: Scientific chats
  • 1909: John Workmann, the newspaper boy . Volume 1: In the realm of the newspaper giant
  • 1910: buried underground
  • 1911: high currents
  • 1912: good luck!
  • 1912: The Madonna with the Pearls
  • 1912: Holy Waters
  • 1913: The iron way
  • 1913: the winner
  • 1913 The gyro compass
  • 1913/14: Magic of the South (also published under the title Alpenglow )
  • 1914: Sunken Land
  • 1915: Ready for action
  • 1916: The Iron Cross
  • 1916: The iron crescent
  • 1921: John Workmann, the newspaper boy. Volume 2: Years of Wandering in the West
  • 1921: John Workmann, the newspaper boy. Volume 3: New Wonders of Big Industry
  • 1925: John Workmann, the newspaper boy. Volume 4: Apprenticeship and master craftsman years in the south (and complete edition with all 4 parts published)
  • 1928: Klaus in luck
  • 1929/30: Modern pirates
  • 1941: concentrated power
  • 1942: From vice to desk (autobiography). Digitized by the German National Library, 2012. URN urn: nbn: de: 101: 1-201203307800
  • 1942: The Eternal Heart
  • 1943/44: Miracle of the melting pot

Non-fiction

A new rapid transit system (full text)
  • 1902: What do you need to know about the steam engine?
  • 1902/05: Scientific chats
  • 1903: What do you need to know about the dynamo machine?
  • 1903: What do you have to know about the theory of nature?
  • 1904: What do you need to know about organic chemistry?
  • 1905: Calendar for mechanical engineers
  • 1905: Calendar for mechanical engineers
  • 1905/06: The Wernerwerk from Siemens & Halske A.-G., Berlin-Nonnendamm
  • 1908: Amusing Science
  • 1908/09: A new rapid transit system
  • 1914: The age of electricity . Volume 1: The forces of nature, their uplift and utilization
  • 1915: Our air fleet and aviators
  • 1921/22: In the wonderland of technology: masterpieces and new achievements that our youth should know
  • 1925: The book of chemistry: Achievements of the knowledge of nature
  • 1925: The book of physics: Achievements of the knowledge of nature
  • 1925: worlds, works, wonders
  • 1927/28: triumphs of technology
  • 1928/29: The switchgear of Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG, Berlin-Siemensstadt
  • 1929: Above and below the ground
  • 1929: The machine tool manufacturer Fritz Werner, Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin
  • 1931: A visit to the cable factory
  • 1935/36: Vistra, Germany's white gold
  • 1938: Machine tool and tool construction, Fritz Werner, Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin , Volume 17, second, expanded edition

literature

  • Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn : Reclam's science fiction guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-010312-6 , p. 133 f.
  • William B. Fischer: The Empire strikes out. Kurd Lasswitz , Hans Dominik, and the development of German science fiction. Bowling Green State University Popular Press, Bowling Green OH 1984, ISBN 0-87972-257-6 .
  • Christian Härtel : "From vice to desk". Popular literature for the national community using the example of Hans Dominik. In: Carsten Würmann, Ansgar Warner (ed.): In the break room of the “Third Reich”. On popular culture in National Socialist Germany . Lang, Bern et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-03911-443-6 , pp. 183-197.
  • Christian Heermann: Ice bomber from Bitterfeld. Hans Dominik and Hugo Junkers . Anhalt Edition, Dessau 2014, ISBN 978-3-936383-23-2 .
  • Jost Hermand : White Race - Yellow Danger. Hans Dominik's ideological followers . In: Hans Esselborn (Ed.): Utopia, Anti-Utopia and Science Fiction in the German-language novel of the 20th century . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2003, pp. 48–58. limited preview in Google Book search
  • Frank O. Hrachowy: The author as an agency of modernity. Hans Dominik and the Transformation of Popular Literature . Dissertation. AVM, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-89975-438-4 .
  • Carl Graf von Klinckowstroem:  Dominik, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 67 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Detlef Münch: Hans Dominik Bibliography. 1894-1948. Synergen Verlag, Dortmund 2008, ISBN 978-3-935634-81-6 .
  • Detlef Münch: Hans Dominik & his early contemporary technical novels from 1909–1916. Synergen Verlag, Dortmund 2008, ISBN 978-3-935634-83-0 . Revised new edition: 2010, ISBN 978-3-935634-83-0 .
  • Detlef Münch: Future wars, miracle weapons, future empires in the utopian work of Hans Dominik 1921–1934 with a consideration of the Nazi censorship of his novels . Synergen Verlag, Dortmund 2017. ISBN 978-3-946366-16-4 . ISBN 3-946366-16-3
  • Meike Pfeiffer: Dominik, Hans Joachim. In: Christoph F. Lorenz (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German-language science fiction literature since 1900: with a look at Eastern Europe. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 1017, ISBN 978-3-631-67236-5 , pp. 253-257.
  • Klaus W. Pietrek: The birth of tragedy from the spirit of the nation. Some thoughts on Hans Dominik and the trend literature in the 19th and 20th centuries . In: The Science Fiction Year 1990 (Vol. 5), edited by Wolfgang Jeschke , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-453-03905-X , pp. 83-99.

Web links

Commons : Hans Dominik  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Wollenberg: Adolf Schmidt - a pioneer of geophysics and Esperanto as a literary figure. In: The role of personalities in the history of planned languages ​​- contributions to the 19th annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Interlinguistik e. V. , 27.-29. November 2009 in Berlin. Interlinguistic Information, Supplement 17. Sabine Fiedler (Ed.), Berlin 2010, pp. 157–159.
  2. ↑ Hans Dominik: From the vice to the desk - memoirs . Verlag Scherl , Berlin 1943, pp. 26-27.
  3. ^ Foreword in: Hans Dominik: Flight in the space (propellant SR). A science fiction. License issue. Publishing house "Der Roman" (Rudolf Lubowski & Co, Altenstein / Ufr. Without year, p. 5.)
  4. ↑ Christian Adam: Reading under Hitler. Authors, bestsellers, readers in the Third Reich. Galiani, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86971-027-3 , p. 193.
  5. ↑ Christian Adam: Reading under Hitler. Authors, bestsellers, readers in the Third Reich . Berlin 2010, p. 195
  6. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 672.
  7. ↑ Submission - for information - about the recognition and further preservation of graves of well-known and deserving personalities as honorary graves of Berlin . Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 14/1607 of November 1, 2001, p. 6.
  8. ↑ Dust jacket text and foreword in: Hans Dominik: Flug in den Weltraum (propellant SR). A science fiction. License issue. Publishing house "Der Roman" (Rudolf Lubowski & Co, Altenstein / Ufr. Without year.)
  9. ↑ Frank O. Hrachowy: The author as an agency of modernity: Hans Dominik and the transformation of popular literature . AVMpress, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86924-710-6 , pp. 120 ff .
  10. ↑ Dina Brandt: The German future novel 1918–1945 . Niemeyer, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-484-35113-4 ( google.de - page 300, footnote 66).
  11. ^ Letter D, list of literature to be discarded. Published by the German Administration for Public Education in the Soviet Occupation Zone. Second N. In: polunbi.de. September 1, 1948, accessed January 4, 2015 .
  12. ^ Letter D, list of literature to be discarded. Published by the Ministry for National Education of the German Democratic Republic. Third addendum. In: polunbi.de. April 1, 1952, accessed March 16, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Dominik, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dominik, Hans Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author, journalist, engineer
DATE OF BIRTH November 15, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Zwickau
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1945
Place of death Berlin