Harp jule

Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 13.3 "  N , 13 ° 21 ′ 22.1"  E

Luise Nordmann with her harp

Memorial stone of the Harfenjule in the Lutherkirchhof in Berlin-Lankwitz

Harfenjule is the nickname of Luise Nordmann, geb. Schulz (born September 6, 1829 in Potsdam , † January 7, 1911 in Berlin ), but then also became a general term for female street singers.

The Harpjule is considered the Berlin original . In imperial Berlin she became known as a street musician and through newspaper reports beyond the city. Most of the time, the need in which she lived was concealed and more emphasis was placed on popular folklore.

Life

Blind from birth, Luise was able to see something with at least one eye after an eye operation in childhood. She earned her living by singing in the courtyards of Berlin's residential areas, where her talent for voice was discovered and she received singing lessons. In 1865 Luise Schulz married the puppeteer Emil Nordmann and appeared with him as a showman in a traveling theater. After her husband and children died in 1871, she moved to Schöneberg , which at that time was not yet part of Berlin. There she lived with her sister-in-law in a basement apartment until her death. She now earned a living for herself and her family by singing and playing the harp in the backyards of Berlin.

Her appearance with a worn black straw hat and harp has been portrayed several times in sculptures and pictures, including by Heinrich Zille .

Luise Nordmann died on January 7, 1911 and was buried on January 12, 1911 in the Evangelical Luther Cemetery in Berlin-Lankwitz . The grave register of the cemetery states that her last place of residence was Schöneberg, Steinmetzstraße 46. The grave was destroyed in the course of the Second World War. A private initiative placed a memorial stone in the Luther cemetery in 1969, which was cleaned and restored in 2010.

In the vernacular Luise lived on for a long time and it was said of her:

"I am the harp jule with a big pompadur,
in Berlin and Rixdorf I just play the harp!"

Effect in art and literature

Klabund set a literary monument to the historical Harfenjule. In 1927 he published the volume of poetry Die Harfenjule. New poems of time, controversy and suffering from Klabund . His poems, chansons and petty songs touch on the full life of the Berliners of the twenties. In the Weltbühne, Kurt Tucholsky attested that this volume of poetry was of high quality and a freshness that would not have completely passed even after eighty years.

In 1982 Eulenspiegel-Verlag published an anthology, Die Harfenjule, with Klabund poems. In this volume, however, the songs of the original harp jule have been omitted. Poems from other, older publications or from the estate have been added.

Song of the HarpJule

My spool turns busily.
Always ready for the music,
because I've been the harp boy
since I was a child.

Nobody beats the strings like me,
nobody has violence like me.
Even the wild animals walk
gently like lambs through the forest.

And I strike my harp,
Wherever and whatever,
For family
needs , christening or brawling.

Give me a half
or a dime.
As the last swallow of summer
I float through nature.

And so my spool turns,
deeply moved from within ,
Until the old harp jule
once beats the harp in heaven.

(Klabund)

See also

• Harp Agnes

literature

• Gerhard Flügge: Series Berlin Originals (Part 4) in the category “Berliner ABC”, “Berliner Zeitung”, 1971
• Erhard Ingwersen: Berlin originals in the mirror of the times . arani, Berlin-Grunewald 1958, DNB  452220165 .
• Klabund: Collected Works. Phaidon, Vienna 1930.
• Klabund: The Harp Jule. New time, quarrels and sorrow poems by Klabund. Die Schmiede publishing house, Berlin 1927.
• Klabund: The Harp Jule . Poems. Ed .: Joachim Schreck. 3. Edition. Eulenspiegel, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-359-00088-9 (1st edition, 1982).
• Lukas Richter : The Berliner Gassenhauer: Presentation, documents, collection (= folk song studies Volume 4). Waxmann, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8309-1350-8 , pp. 261–263 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
• Messages from the Association for the History of Berlin , Volume 28 (1911), page 50.

Web links

• The "Harfenjule": blind street musician and Berlin original at www.in-berlin-brandenburg.com
• Evangelical Luther Church Congregation - Famous personalities in Dennewitzkiez - Die Harfenjule ( Memento from April 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at www.schoeneberg-evangelisch.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Brigitte Schellmann: Honorary Citizen and Honorary Graves Berlin. (PDF) Nordmann, Luise (née Schulz). In: "Berlin.de - the official internet portal of the State of Berlin". October 11, 2010, archived from the original on January 9, 2005 ; Retrieved on March 11, 2011 (It appears that the day of burial was confused with the day of death on the memorial stone. The correct day of death is therefore January 7, 1911. The source given is the " Arbeitskreis Historisches Lankwitz, Alt-Lankwitz 42, 12247 Berlin " .): " † 7.1.1911 (Berlin) . […] Born: September 6, 1829; born in: Potsdam, capital of the Prussian province of Brandenburg; [...] " 
2. ↑ Elizabeth Lischko, Hildegard Josten: woman tracks. Covert history. (PDF; 1.2 MB) Luise Nordmann b. Schulze "Harfenjule". (No longer available online.) In: "berlin.de, the official website of the State of Berlin". Steglitz-Zehlendorf district office of Berlin, economic development, location marketing Berlin Southwest, January 31, 2008, archived from the original on April 15, 2010 ; retrieved on March 12, 2011 : “Memorial stone since 1969, at the roundabout row point, Dept. F; Sculptor Franz Merk. “ Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ 100 years ago ... (PDF; 3.8 MB) Die Harfenjule. In: “KiezKontakt, newspaper for Steglitz-Zehlendorf and Tempelhof-Schöneberg. 7th volume, issue No. 4, 2010/2011 ". December 8, 2010, accessed on March 12, 2011 (The newspaper article names Heinz Becker from the “ Arbeitskreis Historisches Lankwitz ” as the source .): “The memorial stone for the 'Harfenjule' on the Lutherfriedhof in Lankwitz, Malteserstr. 113, stands near the roundabout with the war memorial, which can be reached via the main path. On the right hand you can find the stone of the 'Harfenjule', which was cleaned and restored in 2010 thanks to a donation from Ulrich Artz. "