Hella Wuolijoki

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Hella Wuolijoki (1946)

Hella Wuolijoki (born July 22, 1886 in Helme / Livonia , † February 2, 1954 in Helsinki ) was an Estonian - Finnish writer.

Estonian youth

Hella Wuolijoki was born under her maiden name Ella Murrik in Livonia. Her parents were the lawyer and teacher Ernst Murrik and his wife Kadri Kokamäki. At home were German and Estonian spoken. In 1897 the family moved to Valga . From 1901 Ella attended the prestigious Pushkin girls' high school in Tartu and from 1903 became involved in the movement against Russian tsarism supported by Jaan Tõnisson and the newspaper Postimees .

Finland

From 1904 she studied in Helsinki and was active in the socialist student movement. The revolution of 1905 in particular left a lasting impression on them.

In 1908 Ella married the Finnish MP Sulo Vuolijoki (1881-1957), a friend of Lenin . In the same year, Hella Wuolijoki was the first Estonian to graduate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Helsinki . In 1911 the daughter Vappu Illike was born. In 1923 the couple divorced.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Hella Wuolijoki arranged a literary and political salon in her house in Marlebäck in southern Finland , in which humanist and leftist ideas were discussed. She also worked as a freelance journalist, writer and businesswoman in the woodworking industry.

Left Socialist

In 1943, Hella Wuolijoki was arrested by the Finnish police. Because she had given shelter to a Soviet spy , she was sentenced to death and then to life imprisonment, but was pardoned in 1944 after the end of the Continuation War .

After the Second World War , Hella Wuolijoki belonged to the Finnish Reichstag in 1946/47 and was parliamentary group leader of the left-wing Democratic Union of the Finnish People . From 1945 to 1949 she was director of the Finnish radio YLE .

In 1952 she received the “Pro Finlandia” medal for her literary and journalistic services.

Literary work

Hella Wuolijoki worked as a successful writer under the pseudonym Juhani Tervapää . Her books are characterized by strong female characters. The serial Niskavuori in particular was a great literary success. It tells the story of a Finnish family in the Niskavuori country house from 1880 to 1940.

She had a close friendship with Bertolt Brecht , who lived with her in exile in Finland for 13 months , with whom she - like Margarete Steffin - wrote writings in Marlebäck . With her support, Brecht's theater play Mr. Puntila and his servant Matti , premiered in 1948, leans heavily on the work she wrote " Sahanpuruprinsessa " ("Sawdust Princess "). In 2006 a version of the Brecht fragment Die Judith by Shimoda was published, in which the missing parts were supplemented by scenes by Wuolijoki. Both had worked on the material in parallel. The resulting play version was premiered on September 11, 2008 in Vienna and had its German premiere on September 20, 2008 in Osnabrück.

Most important works

  • Talulapsed (1912, Estonian)
  • Udutagused (1914)
  • Koidula (1932)
  • Ministeri ja communisti (1932)
  • Laki ja järjestys (1933)
  • Kultuurivalssi (1935)
  • Niskavuoren naiset (1936, German: "The women on Niskavuori", 1937)
  • Justiina (1937)
  • Juurakon Hulda (1937)
  • Niskavuoren leipä (1939)
  • Niskavuoren nuori emäntä (1940)
  • Enkä ollut vanki (1944)
  • Koulutyttönä Tartossa (1945)
  • Yliopistovuodet Helsingissä (1945)
  • Kuningas hovanarrina (1945)
  • Kuningas yes hovanarri (1946)
  • Kummitukset ja kajavia (1947)
  • Työmiehen perhe (1949/50)
  • Salaperäinen sulhanen (1950)
  • Niskavuoren Heta (1950)
  • Entäs nyt, Niskavuori? (1953)
  • Minusta tuli liikenainen (1953)

Film adaptations

  • 1947: The farmer's daughter ( The Farmer's Daughter ) - based on the novel "Juurakon Hulda"
  • 1953: Bread from our own land ( Niskavuoren heta )

Private life

Hella Wuolijoki is the grandmother of the Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja .

literature

  • Hella Wuolijoki: And I wasn't a prisoner. Memoirs and Sketches , published by Richard Semrau, Rostock 1987
  • Erkki Tuomioja: But since I am a very indestructible woman ... Hella Wuolijoki - keywords for Brecht , Militzke Verlag, Leipzig 2008
  • Erkki Tuomioja: Häivähdys punaista , Helsinki 2006

Web links

Commons : Hella Wuolijoki  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Wuolijoki, Hella
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Murrik, Ella; Tervapää, Juhani; Tervataa, Juhni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian-Finnish writer and politician, member of the Reichstag
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Helmets (Estonia) , Estonia
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1954
Place of death Helsinki , Finland