Harry Reuss-Löwenstein

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harry Reuss-Löwenstein (born January 27, 1880 in Fulda ; † April 15, 1966 in Hamburg ) was a German writer , painter , graphic artist and art critic .

Live and act

Harry Reuss-Löwenstein was a son of the actor Heinrich Reuss, who died in 1884. The unmarried mother and Jewess Franziska Löwenstein died two years after the birth of her son, who moved to live with an uncle in Altona . He took his mother's surname later. He planned to work as a painter, but began training as a businessman, which he did not finish. From 1896 to 1905 he worked as a seaman and then served in the Navy for three years.

In 1906 Reuss-Löwenstein moved to Hamburg and attended the local arts and crafts school . Afterwards he took courses in art history, drawing and literature at the general lecture system . In Finkenwerder he painted maritime and rural objects for a long time, and it was here that he met Eduard Bargheer , with whom he had a lifelong friendship.

During the First World War , Reuss-Löwenstein did military service and received several awards. After that, due to the economic situation, he had problems earning money as a painter. In the early 1920s he had success with humorous stories about fishermen, craftsmen and workers. He provided the books with his own drawings. He also spoke short stories and short stories that could be heard in NORAG . As an art critic he wrote with the signature "HRL" in the twenties for the " Hamburger Anzeiger ".

Reuss-Löwenstein was in contact with artists such as Hans Leip , Carl Albert Lange , Bruno Karberg and Hans Harbeck . As an art critic, he wrote for the Hamburger Anzeiger for several decades and directed the youth supplement. He took part in the literary cabaret "Die Jungfrau", which was performed at Scala bei den Hohen Bleichen in Hamburg. In 1920 he appeared on the side of Conrad Kayser in the sketch "The virgin with the permanent sausage". The piano accompaniment was performed by Peter Kreuder. Reuss-Löwenstein played an important role in the Hamburg artist festivals , especially his role as Tarzan in 1927 made him famous.

In 1932 Max Brauer brokered Harry Reuss-Löwenstein and his wife and painter Else Ritter an apartment in Witts Park in Blankenese , which became his favorite motif. During the time of National Socialism he was considered a “half-Jew”, but continued to write critically. In January 1934 he wrote an obituary for Max Sauerlandt , and in February 1935 a tribute to Max Liebermann , which the regional leadership of the NSDAP disliked. With the formal exclusion from the Reichsschrifttumskammer on April 9, 1936, Reuss-Löwenstein received a de facto professional ban. He himself wrote about this later that he was seen as a "pest of the people". Until the end of the war he was marginalized in his professional and private life. Axel Springer , who donated money to Reuss-Löwenstein every month, nevertheless published the novel Die Maaten von der Pensacola for Hammerich & Lesser , which appeared under the pseudonym "Carl Klick".

After 1945 Reuss-Löwenstein received numerous awards. On the occasion of his 50th birthday, the Hamburg Senate organized a Senate breakfast, which took place in the residential building at Neue Rabenstrasse 2. Many artists, politicians, entrepreneurs and authors met here. These included Axel Springer, Rudolf Augstein , Ludwig Benninghoff and journalists from the NWDR such as Axel Eggebrecht and Peter von Zahn . As chairman of the Association of German Writers for Northern Germany, Reuss-Löwenstein took over a presidential post in the Association of German Writers in 1949. He campaigned for the establishment of the German Academy for Language and Poetry .

In the 1950s, Reuss-Löwenstein and his wife translated detective novels by Eric Ambler and Andrew Garve .

Harry Reuss-Löwenstein died many years before his wife, who later gave numerous paintings by her husband to his friend Alice Berndt. These pictures were shown at exhibitions in Finkenwerder and Blankenese in 2005.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Reuss-Löwenstein, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, painter, graphic artist and art critic
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Fulda
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1966
Place of death Hamburg