Heinrich Kämchen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commemorative plaque for Kämpchen at his house in Linden
Heinrich Kämchen's grave of honor which is covered with a memorial plaque designed by Tisa von der Schulenburg .

Heinrich Wilhelm Kämchen (born May 23, 1847 in Altendorf an der Ruhr , † March 6, 1912 in Linden , today in Bochum ) was a German miner and worker poet.

Life

Heinrich Kämchen was the son of a miner and also became a miner. Little is known about his life. We don't know how long he lived in Altendorf with his parents and siblings, a brother and two sisters. The frequent claim that he drove to the Hasenwinkel colliery in Linden at the age of 13 cannot be substantiated. Logical considerations, on the other hand, indicate that after completing primary school he received two years of private tuition, at least probably. He could hardly have received the foundations of his very good general education, his knowledge of literary history, metrics and literary form theory at home or in elementary school. However, a two-year private lesson could well have laid the foundations with which he later self-taught his extensive knowledge.

It is undisputed that he worked for a long time at the Hasenwinkel colliery. He was dismissed in late 1889 or early 1890, ostensibly because of the consequences of an accident at work that he probably suffered two years earlier. The real cause of his dismissal, however, is likely to have been his participation in the strike of the Ruhr miners in 1889, where he appeared as spokesman for the workforce in his colliery, as well as the publication of the poem Lumpenparade and similar works. In his discharge papers, he is certified that he has been with the company for 24 years. It follows that he first entered Hasenwinkel in 1865/1866. This leaves about three years between the end of the alleged private lesson and his first visit to Hasenwinkel, which he must have spent in another mine. Because of his accident at work, he received an early disability pension after his discharge, which, as was customary at the time, was so low that it was just enough to survive. From now on he lives in great poverty. The modest fees he received for publishing his poems in the Bergarbeiter Zeitung and occasionally in the “ Wahren Jakob ” did nothing to change this .

Between 1872 and 1874 he attended the mountain pre-school in Dahlhausen . Although he successfully completed this, he refrained from further training to become a steiger .

The worsening of working conditions in the mining industry caused by the reform of the Miners' Association in 1854 was experienced by H. Kämpchen on his father and later on first hand. Early on he was committed to the rights of miners. Politically, he was close to the Social Democrats. When the Socialist Laws came into force in 1878, it was put on the black list , police watch lists that were created as part of the persecution of social democrats. Although the socialist law lost its validity in 1890, it remained under the supervision of the authorities.

H. Kämchen had a friendly relationship with Georg Breuker , also a miner and socially critical poet. From about 1877 until his death, H. Kämpchen lived as a boarder with a family in Linden. He was never married.

Literary work

H. Kämchen was one of the most talented socialist poets of his time, who, against the background of the austere beauty of his beloved Ruhr area, addressed the worries and needs of the miners with great emotionality. He was modeled on the committed pre-March poetry, while he was politically influenced by Ferdinand von Lassalle's writings. His work is characterized by his preference for political poetry with clear references to current political events. First publications appear in 1889. With the "Deutsche Bergarbeiter Zeitung", which appears weekly in the same year, he receives a forum that regularly publishes his works. He also wrote the text for the “International Knappenlied”, which was widely used in socialist circles.

There was socially critical literature even before H. Kämpchen's publications, but he is one of the first socially critical poets who himself came from the working class. Many of his poems reflect the miner's working conditions as vividly and concretely as only an author who has worked underground himself can describe.

Since March 2014, his grave has been listed in several themed routes in the Linden Catholic Cemetery on the Route of Industrial Culture.

Honors

Works

  • From the shaft and the hut. Poems . Möller, Bochum 1899.
  • New songs. Poems . Hannsmann, Bochum 1904.
  • What the Ruhr sang to me. Hannsmann, Bochum 1909.
  • From the depths . Edited and introduced by Wilhelm Helf . Hansmann, Bochum 1931.
  • The song of the Ruhr buddy . Edited and introduced by Waltraut Seifert and Erhard Scherner. Publishing house of the Ministry for National Defense, Berlin 1960.
  • Through night to the light. Poems and songs from the life of a miner 1889–1912. Selected and introduced by Wilhelm Helf. Edited by the Mining and Energy Industrial Union . Mining and Energy Industry Union, Bochum 1962.
  • Be united, be united - then we are also free . Edited by Rolf-Peter Carl. Asso-Verlag, Oberhausen 1984, ISBN 3-921541-54-9
  • Reading book Heinrich Kämchen. , Compiled and with an afterword by Joachim Wittkowski, Verlag Aisthesis, 2013, ISBN 978-3-89528-911-8

literature

  • Heinrich Kämchen . In: Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Deceased personalities . Vol. 1. JHW Dietz Nachf., Hannover 1960, pp. 152–153.
  • Kämchen, Heinrich . In: Lexicon of socialist German literature. From the beginnings to 1945. Monographic-biographical representations Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1964, pp. 272–274 (Bibliography p. 274).
  • Fritz Hüser:  Kämchen, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 727 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Rolf-Peter Carl et al. (Ed.): Be in agreement, be in agreement - then we are also free: poems by Heinrich Kämpchen. Asso-Verlag, Oberhausen 1984, ISBN 3-921541-54-9 .
  • Essen heads - who was what? Richard Bracht Verlag, Essen 1985, ISBN 3-87034-037-1 .
  • Chronicle of the Ruhr area. Chronik-Verlag, Dortmund 1987, ISBN 3-88379-089-3 .
  • Margrid F. Gantenberg: memorial plaque for Heinrich Kämpchen, the chronicler of the work. In: Forum for the preservation of industrial monuments and culture of history. 2000, 1, pp. 105-106.
  • Hugo Ernst buyer: Kortum & Kämpchen. Two poets from Bochum. In: same: bookmarks. Selected essays, speeches and reviews from fifty years. Grupello, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-933749-70-0 .
  • Artist duo Sago: Das ist Bergmannsleben: an audio book with poems by the worker poet Heinrich Kämpchen , Aisthesis-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8498-1037-5

Web links

Wikisource: Heinrich Kämpchen  - Sources and full texts
Wikiquote: Heinrich Kämchen  - Quotes
Commons : Heinrich Kämchen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kämchen, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kämchen, Heinrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German miner and working-class poet
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Altendorf
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1912
Place of death Bochum