Albrecht Schaeffer

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Albrecht Schaeffer on a painting by Herbert Reyl Signature Albrecht Schaeffer.JPG

Albrecht Schaeffer (born December 6, 1885 in Elbing , † December 5, 1950 in Munich ) was a German writer . Sigmund Freud's last letter was addressed to Schaeffer, in which Freud addressed him as “my poet”.

Life

Albrecht Schaeffer grew up as the son of the architect Paul Schäffer in Hanover , where he graduated from Lyceum II . He studied in Munich , Marburg and Berlin . From 1911 Schaeffer lived as a freelance writer in Hanover. From 1915 he lived with his wife Irma geb. Bekk and his son in Berlin , from 1919 to 1931 near Rosenheim ( Bavaria ) and since 1931 in Rimsting am Chiemsee . He was one of Regina Ullmann's friends .

Repelled by National Socialism , but above all because of the "half-Jewish" children from the first marriage of his second wife Olga, geb. Heymann and also because of his own children from his second marriage, he emigrated to the USA via Cuba in March 1939 . There he and his wife founded a home for children of emigrants in Croton on Hudson ( New York ). Other German writers supported him materially in exile, including Thomas Mann , who enclosed his letters to Schaeffer with cash checks.

After the death of his wife, he returned to Germany in 1950, but died in the same year of a heart attack in a Munich tram . His grave is in the Engesohde city cemetery in Hanover (Department 9 H, grave number 500–501). The grave of honor is therefore very close to Güntherstrasse in Hanover-Waldhausen, which plays an important role in the Helianth . Schaeffer's estate is in the German Literature Archive in Marbach .

Artistic creation

“Schaeffer's extensive, largely forgotten work encompasses all literary genres, preferably takes up ancient, mythological and mythical-medieval themes”, but also contemporary ones. He also translated works by Oscar Wilde , Robert Louis Stevenson , Paul Verlaine , Apuleius and Homer .

Schaeffer's main work, the artistically composed novel Helianth , was first published in 1920 by Insel-Verlag, at that time with the subtitle Pictures from the Lives of Two People Today and from the North German Plain in nine books . The almost 2000-page work is set mainly in the Oldenburger Land and in Hanover (the city is called "Altenrepen" in the novel, derived from Honovere "Hohes Ufer", which corresponds to Alta ripa in Latin ). The prose forms are varied chapter by chapter; Telephone dialogues appear for the first time in this work . In 1948, while in exile in America, a new version was created, which was published in 1995 by Weidle-Verlag in Bonn. The novel is still an insider tip for literature lovers.

Works (selection)

Numerous novels (such as Der Rosskamm von Lemgo , Gudula , Elli or the seven stairs , Josef Montfort ), short stories (such as Enak ), also a verse epic ( Parsival ) and others are distributed among numerous publishers.

Chronologically - after naming the first editions at OpenLibrary :

  • The legend of Odysseus . 1900
  • Michael’s swordless fatherland poems . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1915 online  - Internet Archive
  • Josef Montfort . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1918
  • Gudula or The Duration of Life - Narrative . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1918
  • Elli or seven flights of stairs . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1919
  • Helianth . There are three versions of this novel:
    • First version 1920, actually published in March 1921. Subtitle: Pictures from the lives of two people today and from the north German lowlands presented in nine books . 3 volumes. Insel-Verlag.
    • Second version 1928, created through cuts made by the author himself. 2 volumes. (In the case of an antiquarian search, the three-volume first edition is clearly preferable!)
    • Third version 1948, made in exile. Subtitle: Pictures from the life of two people after the turn of the century . First published in 1995: Ed. Rolf Bulang, with an afterword by Adolf Muschg. 3 volumes. Bonn: Weidle 1995. ISBN 978-3-931135-14-0 .
  • The divine sufferer . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1920 online  - Internet Archive
  • The robbery of persephones . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1920 ( Insel-Bücherei 331/1)
  • The rider with the almond tree . Society of Book Friends, Chemnitz 1922 (annual edition)
  • The Saalborner Stanzen . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1922
  • Poet and poetry . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1923 online  - Internet Archive
  • Elli or seven flights of stairs - description of a female life . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1923
  • The gem in the lotus . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1923
  • The driven hunt and two legends . Schaffstein, Cologne 1924
  • The prism. Stories and short stories . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1925
  • The prodigal son . Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1925
  • The Guilty Brothers (The Chamisso Brothers) . German Book Community, Berlin 1926
  • Midnight . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1928
  • The heart never moved . German Book Community, Berlin 1931
  • Nightshade . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1932 (Insel-Bücherei 179/2)
  • The horse ridge of Lemgo . German Book Community, Berlin 1933
  • The general . Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt a. M. 1934
  • Cara . Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt a. M. 1936
  • Heal, heal blessings . Rütten & Loening, Potsdam 1937
  • Aphaia . Rütten & Loening, Potsdam 1937
  • Ruhland, life picture of a man . Rütten & Loening, Potsdam 1937
  • Rudolf Erzerum . New publisher, Stockholm 1945
  • Enak or the eye of God . Publishing house Maria Honeit, Hamburg 1948
  • The golden handle . 1950
  • The emigrant . Werner Wulff Verlag, Überlingen 1950
  • Janna duCoeur . 1953
  • The green coat . Reclam, Stuttgart 1955
  • Myth. Treatises on the cultural foundations of humanity . Ed. And with an afterword by Walter Ehlers. Heidelberg: Schneider 1958. (Publications of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, Darmstadt. 15) - His highly speculative late work, 1958
  • Dream interpretation . Haffmans, Zurich 1985

literature

  • Rolf Bulang: Albrecht Schaeffer's "Helianth". To the edition of the exile version . In: the hear. Vol. 41 (1996) issue 183, pp. 165-172. ISSN  0018-4942
  • Walter Ehlers: Albrecht Schaeffer. The work. A bibliography . With two biographical essays by the poet and critical glosses from him in the text. Hamburg: Publishing house of the sheets for the seal 1935.
  • Heidi E. Faletti (among others): Dossier: Albrecht Schaeffer (1885–1950). In: June. No. 22 (1995), pp. 8-61. ISSN  0931-2854
  • Ingrid Hausmann: The narrative in Albrecht Schaeffer's “Helianth”. Design, language form, symbol form. Dissertation Cologne 1961
  • Christina E. Russu: On the fantastic in the works of Albrecht Schaeffer. Iowa (USA), 1992, Life and Work , pp. 53–73
  • Hugo Thielen in: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 309.
  • Rolf Vollmann: The wonderful counterfeiters. A seducer of novels 1800–1930 . Single-volume and unabridged success edition. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn 1997. ISBN 3-8218-4462-0 (in it under the years 1918–1920 about three novels by Schaeffer)
  • Volker Weidermann : The book of burned books . Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-462-03962-7 . (For Schaeffer, pages 95/96)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Invented twice: Sigmund Freud and Albrecht Schaeffer on fire myths FAZ, June 9, 1993.
  2. ^ State capital Hanover (ed.): Graves of honor in the cemeteries of the state capital Hanover . Leaflet (PDF), as of 2010.
  3. ^ Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches biographisches Lexikon 2002, p. 309.
  4. ↑ Information on the edition of the new version of the novel Helianth weidleverlag.de, with excerpt.
personal data
SURNAME Schaeffer, Albrecht
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Elblag
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1950
Place of death Munich