Heinrich Houben

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Heinrich Houben (born February 19, 1866 in Leutherheide ; † July 20, 1941 there) was a German writer and poet.

Life

Heinrich Houben was the son of the elementary school teacher Johann Wilhelm Houben (1832–1899) and his wife Helene Simon (1836–1923). After attending the elementary school run by his father, he attended the Dominican College in Venlo , the Netherlands , and later the Thomaeum grammar school in Kempen at the time of the Kulturkampf . In 1882 he was the victim of an attack on the road between Breyell and Lobberich , in which he was so badly injured that he had to leave high school and could not pursue the desired teacher training. Self-taught , he continued his education in literature, art, theology, history and foreign languages, so that he was able to translate many of his plays into Dutch, English and French.

The end of his school career marked the beginning of his writing with poems and local history essays. In 1888 he presented a thesis on Henese Fleck , a local secret language of traveling traders. In 1893, his first play The Drama Candidate was staged in his birthplace . His most successful piece is If you still have a mother from 1911, his most important work is the Passion Play Jerusalem from 1926, the "only Passion play in theater literature that is played without the role of Christ".

Over 40 years he published an average of three plays per year, which he spread over several theater publishers and with which he achieved a large stage presence. Performances of his pieces in Germany are known from Aachen, Bamberg, Bingen, Essen, Fulda, Königsberg, Koblenz, Krefeld, Münster and Stettin, in other European countries from Amsterdam, Basel, Brussels, London, Luxembourg, Milan, Paris and Rome, from the Austrian Empire , as well as from Chicago, St. Louis and Dar es Salaam. The circulation of his pieces in 1928 was over half a million.

Heinrich Houben died in 1941 unmarried and without descendants.

Today Heinrich Houben is only known to experts outside of his home country, which is due to the strong connection of his pieces to the times and the taste of the times. The texts of his plays can almost only be found in university libraries, e.g. B. in Bonn, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Münster, as well as in the archive of the district Viersen in the castle Kempen .

Works (selection)

  • Guide to the grocer's Latin called Henese Fleck. Breyell 1888, facsimile 2018, 39 pages
  • The Acting Candidate, 1893
  • The Robber's Repentance, 1895
  • The Occasional Poet, 1896
  • The tower ghost of Grauenburg, 1896, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen 1920
  • The Indestructible, 1898
  • Jakob Kümmelhofer, 1898
  • The privateers, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen 1901
  • Der Freischütz, Klöckner & Mausberg Kempen 1902 (theater adaptation of the opera of the same name )
  • Traveling people, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen 1908
  • Uncle Oelmann's heirs, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen 1908
  • Daughters of Puszta, 1909
  • The children's crusade, Vollmer Münster publishing house in 1912
  • The lighthouse keeper of Helgoland, Val. Höfling Munich 1913
  • The Knight of the Holy Land, Vollmer Münster publishing house, 1914
  • The organ turner from Hunsrück, Franz Wulf Verlag Warendorf 1916
  • The broom guard from Kloppendorf, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen 1918
  • The smugglers from Riedsee, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen 1918
  • Das Wirtshaus im Spessart, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen 1920 (theater adaptation of the fairy tale of the same name )
  • If you still have a mother, 1922, Verlag Val. Höfling Munich 1925
  • The Marienampel, Franz Wulf Verlag Warendorf, 1922
  • Het spook in de canapé: Klucht in één bedrijf, Mosmans 1923
  • Limpi and Lampi, or The Indestructible, Alsatia-Verlag Colmar 1925
  • Jerusalem, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen 1926
  • The hut on the lake, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen 1932
  • Bethlehem, Thomas-Druckerei Kempen o. J.

swell

  • Friedrich Wienstein, Lexicon of Catholic Poets, 1899, p. 165
  • Hans K. Matussek, Heinrich Houben (1866–1941), a poet from Leutherheide, in: Heimatbuch des Kreis Viersen 2005, pp. 32–39
  • Jutta Nunes Matias, The theater play of the Kolping Families in the Diocese of Münster, Diss. 2002
  • Leo Peters , the writer from Leutherheide, Rheinische Post , July 20, 2016

Remarks

  1. ↑ Leutherheide belonged until 1944 to what is now the Nettetal district of Leuth , and since then to Breyell
  2. ↑ The elementary school in Leutherheide was founded in 1701 and saw only four teachers in the first 198 years of its existence: This Lenßen (1701–1747), his son Jan Lenßen (1747–1794), Theodor Tüffers (1794–1854) and Johann Wilhelm Houben (1854-1899)
  3. ↑ So wrong in the marriage certificate; her real family name was Seven, Simons was her grandmother's maiden name
  4. ↑ Matussek, p. 36, there also Houben's explanation of the genesis and conception of the piece
  5. ↑ In the former colony of German East Africa


personal data
SURNAME Houben, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Leuth
DATE OF DEATH July 20, 1941
Place of death Leuth