Heinrich Luhmann

Heinrich Luhmann (born December 22, 1890 in Hultrop , † May 6, 1978 in Hamm ) was a teacher and poet .

Life

Heinrich Luhmann attended primary school from 1897 to 1905. He was then trained as an elementary school teacher until 1908 at the preparatory in Ankum near Osnabrück and then at the teachers' college in Coesfeld (1908–1911).

From 1911 to 1921 Luhmann was a teacher at the Kirchhundem elementary school . In addition, he prepared his doctorate on the poet Wilhelm Raabe at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster (1922).

From 1922 to 1926 he was principal of the Patrokli elementary school in Soest . He then moved to Münster as rector from 1926 to 1930. In 1930 he became a district school councilor in Warendorf , and in 1935 a senior government and school council in Arnsberg .

After his doctorate, in addition to his professional work, he took over the editing of the local calendar De Suerlänner , which in addition to local history articles also worked on political and cultural topics. His writings were "shaped ... by nationalist-conservative ideals, which also included social Darwinist and racist ideas" (Stadthaus).

At the end of the 1920s, like Maria Kahle , Christine Koch and Josefa Berens-Totenohl, he joined the völkisch Sauerland Artists' Circle (SKK) founded by Georg Hermann Nellius . In the following years, the circle was headed by Hans Menne, NSDAP member since 1924. After the transfer of power, the NSDAP regarded the SKK as a representative association of the Sauerland culture bearers. The “National Socialist Revolution” filled its members “with great joy”, as they announced in a joint declaration in the Westphalian Central-Volksblatt of the center . The SKK was a member of the Rosenbergs Kampfbund for German culture . Luhmann also joined the Westphalian writer Ring , which was also a member of the “Kampfbund”, which can be interpreted as an expression of a “radical ethnic-national socialist attitude” (town hall).

In May 1933 and thus before the multi-year membership ban announced against “Konjunkturritter”, Luhmann's application for admission to the NSDAP was accepted. In Warendorf he founds a regional division of the NS teachers' association (NSLB), which he led as district head. In 1934 the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and National Education entrusted him with the management of the so-called Reading Book Commission for Westphalia, which was responsible for checking teaching materials and school libraries for “degenerate” literature. In 1935 Luhmann was promoted to government and school council in Arnsberg. Gauleiter Josef Wagner characterized him in this context as “judged very well by the political leadership and the teachers' association. Works by him that were published before the survey show something related to the National Socialist thought processes about nationality and homeland. Pg. Dr. Luhmann can be described as a loyal and quiet worker for the movement. "

In the early 1940s, Luhmann began a new edition of reading books for German lessons in elementary and secondary schools. In addition, he published various series. It was Nazi ideological text compilations. With a few exceptions, the more recent contributions were texts by “system-conforming hardliners” (town hall) such as Heinrich Anacker , Hans Friedrich Blunck , Josefa Berens-Totenohl, Maria Kahle or Will Vesper, or Führer speeches. The editorship of such writings can be seen as an “award for ideological reliability” (town hall). In addition, in the 1930s and 1940s he published political and cultural texts at regular intervals between National Socialist ideas. In doing so, he occasionally confessed to the book burnings : "Through the act of National Socialism, we not only surrendered the mountains of thin, poor and un-German asphalt literature to the flames on the outside, but also moved away from it on the inside."

In 1941 he and other regional authors such as Josefa Berens-Totenohl , Maria Kahle or Fritz Nölle declared themselves “soldiers of the word” in a war confession by Westphalian poets in the Nazi magazine Heimat und Reich , the central Nazi organ of Westphalian cultural and literary policy .

Luhmann's novels and stories written after 1933 contain pronounced anti-Semitic, anti-Gypsy and other racist tendencies. It cannot be ascertained that the author made use of the creative leeway that existed in the literary scene of the Nazi regime. His writings served the "legitimation of the Nazi state" (town hall).

Luhmann's "system-compliant literature production" was popular, but still without reach beyond the region, which is explained by "the poor quality even for Nazi conditions". Within Westphalia, however, he rose to "one of the leading authors" under National Socialism.

post war period

In the first phase of denazification regulated by the British military government, Luhmann, who had been retired at his own request in September 1945, was dismissed from the public service because of Nazi exposure (December 1945). The pension payment was to be "stopped immediately".

After the execution of denazification had passed to German authorities, Luhmann filed an objection against these decisions in 1946 and was now considered by the local denazification committee in Hamm to be "politically acceptable for reinstatement in his previous office as senior government and school council". In the subsequent denazification phase, in which the previous German appraisals were revised, he, like Agnes Miegel , Friedrich Castelle and Josefa Berens-Totenohl , got into “Category IV (without restrictions)”, the mildest possible categorization before complete discharge .

After his pension entitlements were recognized again, he began again as a writer and editor in the late 1940s. He could see himself as part of an "intact network" of friends from home and Westphalian writers. As early as the 1950s, he was again publishing school books, various literary anthologies and his own short prose. “He was still operating with the vocabulary of folk ideology”, which he now accentuated more Christian. He refrained from making political statements. A “critical self-examination” of his ethnic attitudes and his positioning in National Socialism failed to materialize.

Honor, criticism, withdrawal

• 1941: fourth recipient of the Westphalian Literature Prize , which was awarded every two years from 1935 to 1943 and endowed with 10,000 Reichsmarks, after Maria Kahle , Josefa Berens-Totenohl and Karl Wagenfeld and before Christine Koch
• 1955: Honorary citizenship of the place of birth Hultrop
• 1964: First prize in the narrative competition of the Westphalian savings and loan funds
• 1965: Honorary citizenship of the adopted home of Hamm
• 1966: Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class (June 3, 1966)
• 1989: Memorial plaque for the community of Hultrop on Luhmann's parents' house

Furthermore, a street in Hamm was named after him. On November 27, 2012, the Westfälische Anzeiger reported that the council of elders of the city of Hamm had decided to recommend that the street be renamed due to Luhmann's National Socialist past. On January 7, 2013, the Uentrop district council decided to rename it “Bernhard-Ketzlick-Straße”. The reason for this was an expert opinion according to which Luhmann can be clearly assessed as a “willing Nazi sympathizer”. The new namesake Bernhard Ketzlick der Straße was a Catholic priest from Hiltrup who died as a result of his imprisonment in a concentration camp.

In 2010 the Soester Anzeiger and the Heimatverein Brücke eV - Association for History and Home Lippetal honored the "well-known poet" on his 120th birthday. He found "forms of expression" "which soon included him in the ranks of writers and poets in his Westphalian homeland." The Heimatverein dedicated the first issue of a new series to him.

Fonts

• A Pentecost trip. Atmospheric pictures from the Josefs-Krüppelheim Bigge , Bigge 1918
• Walddoktor Willibald , Hanover 1921
• Where the woods keep watch , Hanover 1920 (?)
• The problem of education in the novels and stories of Wilhelm Raabe , Bigge-Ruhr 1922
• The saints in wooden shoes , Munich 1923
• Home watch. Stories from the Westphalian mountains , Warendorf 1924
• Green world. Stories from the mountains , Hilchenbach 1925
• Vogel Wunderlich , Munich 1926
• Child and Sun , Bigge-Ruhr 1926
• The evening parlor , Munich 1927
• Mother Marie , Berlin, Vienna, Leipzig 1927
• The water of sin , Munich 1928
• Plow in the field , Leipzig 1933
• The hungry life , Leipzig 1933
• Homecoming , Freiburg 1935
• The peasant rider , Bielefeld 1936
• The farmer's year , Münster 1937
• Westphalia , Bielefeld 1937
• King Vogler , Bielefeld 1938
• Escape through Prussia , Bielefeld 1939
• Praise of the country , Bielefeld 1940
• Old German Schwänke , Bielefeld 1941
• Grain and bread , Iserlohn 1941
• The Jungfernbaum , Gütersloh 1943
• Westphalian legends , Dortmund 1953
• Transformed world. Stories between Advent and Epiphany , Münster 1953
• Look into the world. A childhood novel , Heidelberg 1954
• Fink im Baum , Münster 1955
• The Soest district: Werden und Wesen , Essen 1955
• The water of sin , Essen 1955
• The miller Mundt. A serious laughing story , Emsdetten 1956
• Westphalian nativity play , Münster 1956
• Käuze, children, kings , Iserlohn 1956
• Golden legend of the saints of God , Münster 1958
• The Sauerland , Essen 1960
• Afterglow of the stars , Münster 1960
• Artist novels , Berlin 1961
• Soest district , Soest 1963

Radio plays

• 1950: De Hilligen in Holsken - adaptation and direction: Wilhelm Wahl
• 1953: The Stolen Pastor - Director: Wilhelm Wahl
• 1958: De stole pastor. Low German radio play - Director: Walter Bäumer
• 1959: Dat Sündenwater - Director: Wolfram Rosemann

literature

• Heinrich Thomas : Solid and honest - just no bragging . In: Westfälischer Anzeiger. Homeland papers. History, culture and customs in Hamm and Westphalia. Episode 10 May 2003.

Web links

• Literature by and about Heinrich Luhmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Heinrich Luhmann in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors
• Heinrich Luhmann's estate in the University and State Library of Münster

Individual evidence

1. ^ This and the following information according to Heinrich Luhmann in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors ; Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), see: [1] .
2. ^ Peter Bürger, The völkisch wing of the Sauerland homeland movement. About Josefa Berens-Totenohl, Georg Nellius, Lorenz Pieper and Maria Kahle - at the same time a contribution to the street name debate, in: daunlots. Internet contributions from the Christine Koch dialect archive at Museum Eslohe, No. 60, Eslohe 2013, see: [2] .
3. ↑ Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), p. 5, see: [3] .
4. ↑ All information in this section based on: Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), see: [4] .
5. ^ Letter from Gauleiter Westfalen Süd to State Secretary of the Reich Ministry for Science, Education and National Education, March 5, 1935, in: Landesarchiv, Westfalen department, Heinrich Luhmann personal file, No. 725, quoted in after: Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), Stadthaus, p. 14, see: [5] .
6. ↑ Heinrich Luhmann, Sagen des Sauerlandes. Vol. 1, home publisher Dr. Wagner, o. O. 1938, quoted in after: Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), Stadthaus, p. 19, see: [6] .
7. ^ According to: Heinrich Luhmann in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors ; Wilhelm Vernekohl, war confession of Westphalian poets, in: Heimat und Reich, born in 1941, p. 124 f.
8. ↑ Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), p. 19, see: [7] .
9. ↑ Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), p. 33f., See: [8] .
10. ^ Previous information and citations: Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), p. 35, see: [9] .
11. ↑ Karl Ditt , Space and Folklore. The cultural policy of the Provincial Association of Westphalia 1923 - 1945 (publications of the Provincial Institute for Westphalian State and Folk Research of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe; Vol. 26), Münster 1990, p. 392f .; Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), p. 35, see: [10] .
12. ↑ Office of the Federal President
13. ^ Council of Elders: Heinrich-Luhmann-Straße is to be renamed . Website of the Westphalian Gazette. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
14. ↑ Steffen Stadthaus, Heinrich Luhmann. Homeland poet and National Socialist ?! Expert opinion on behalf of the city of Hamm, o. O. (Hamm) o. J. (2012), Stadthaus, p. 14, see: [11] .
15. ↑ Heinrich Luhmann: 120th birthday, Soester Anzeiger, December 15, 2010, see: [12] .