John Henry Mackay

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John Henry Mackay (around 1900)

John Henry Mackay (born February 6, 1864 in Greenock , Scotland , † May 16, 1933 in Berlin-Charlottenburg ) was a German writer .

life and work

John Henry Mackay was born in Scotland in 1864, but after his father's untimely death in 1865, his German mother moved back to Germany with him. Mackay spent his early childhood in Saarbrücken , attended grammar schools in Burgsteinfurt and Birkenfeld near Trier , began an apprenticeship as a publishing bookseller in Stuttgart and studied philosophy for a few semesters at the Universities of Kiel , Leipzig and Berlin . In 1885 Mackay first appeared public with literary works.

In Berlin he frequented the Friedrichshagener poet circle . With the help of Krafft-Ebings Psychopathia sexualis , he became aware of his homosexual - pederastic tendency. With the novellas Existenzen and Just a Waitress , published in 1888 under the joint title Modern Fabrics , he became one of the pioneers of naturalism . During a year-long stay in London (1887/88) he discovered Max Stirner , whose book The Single and His Property , published in 1844, had been forgotten as a result of the restoration after 1848 . Stirner soon became his life theme. He wrote the first and to this day only biography (1898, ext. 1910, ext. 1914) about him, who was difficult to recover from disappearance, which was occasionally criticized because of the lack of references and its often perceived hagiographic tone. However, the sources are flawless, as confirmed by Stirner researcher Bernd A. Laska , who examined the Mackay estate in Moscow. Furthermore, Mackay Stirner tracked down scattered articles and reissued them as Smaller Writings . Because Mackay was the most famous follower of Stirner, the impression arose that his conception of individualistic anarchism , which he presented in the “Books of Freedom” ( Die Anarchisten , Der Freiheitsucher ), was based on Stirner's ideas. In terms of content, however, it agrees far better with the radical liberalism of his friend Benjamin R. Tucker that emerged in North America - in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson , Ralph Waldo Emerson , Henry David Thoreau and others .

In the early 1890s he met the then unknown writer Gabriele Reuter , whom he put in touch with the publisher Samuel Fischer in 1895 . Reuter's novel Aus gute Familie became an overnight bestseller - not least because of the provocative and socially critical title suggested by Mackay (Reuter herself just wanted to name the novel, as she writes in her memoir, Agathe Heidling ).

In 1898 Mackay became friends with Rudolf Steiner , who at that time was still hostile to anything occult or theosophical and even found Max Stirner's thoughts “in accordance” with his philosophy of freedom (1894). Mackay and Steiner were the only journalistic representatives of individualistic anarchism in Germany at that time; together they published the propaganda pamphlet Are anarchists murderers? out. In addition, from 1907 to 1919, together with Bernhard Zack, he published the series Propaganda of Individualistic Anarchism . When Steiner married his long-time landlady Anna Eunike at the end of 1899, Mackay was best man. His close connection with Steiner broke when he suddenly saw himself "torn into a kind of abyss" with his previous ideas and turned to theosophy.

In 1905 Mackay got in touch with Benedict Friedlaender , whose secession movement he supported from Magnus Hirschfeld's Scientific and Humanitarian Committee . This increased his differences with Hirschfeld, who were based on his fundamental rejection of his theory of homosexuality as the "third gender". He published his writings on “nameless” or “Greek” love, that is, the affection of adult men for male adolescents , under the pseudonym Sagitta ( Latin for arrow ). His work on "individualistic anarchism" found greater dissemination - thanks to the activities of his friends Benjamin Tucker, George Schumm and Clarence Swarts, also in the United States of America.

The inflation of the early 1920s consumed Mackay's inherited financial wealth. New publications in the following years often failed due to the practices of his publishing business partners. Even his old literary works, which - with the exception of the detective novel Public Prosecutor Sierlin - were not written for a “broad audience”, earned him little. By Kurt acce Founded in 1931, Mackay-Gesellschaft was the impoverished writers in the time of the Great Depression support only inadequate.

Mackay died on May 16, 1933, possibly from a morphine overdose , although he had also suffered from various diseases for several years. His urn was buried in the Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Stahnsdorf near Berlin. The rest of his library - most of the items relating to Stirner, he had sold to the Marx-Engels-Institut in Moscow in 1925 - was auctioned in October 1933 by the Rudolph Lepke auction house in Berlin.

The Mackay Society cultivates the memory of person and work . It was re-founded in 1974 in Freiburg im Breisgau by Kurt Zube, who still knew Mackay personally . The first biography about Mackay, by the American Germanist Thomas A. Riley, appeared in 1972. Zube wanted to bring out a German translation by the Mackay Society. But since no agreement was reached with the US publisher, he wrote one himself and published it in 1979 under the author's pseudonym "KHZ Solneman" ( initials of his name and palindrome of "namenlos").

Works (selection)

  • Children of the Highlands (1885). On-line
  • Anna Hermsdorf (1885)
  • Sturm , collection of poems (1888).
  • Sturm , second edition, increased by 12 pieces (1890)
  • Sturm fourth, increased edition. On-line
  • Die Anarchisten (1891, various reprints. Last 2006 at lulu.com , also as pdf)
  • Albert Schnell's downfall. End of story with no plot: The Last Duty (1895)
  • Max Stirner - his life and his work. Berlin 1898 digitized , ext. 1910, exp. 1914 digitized
  • The swimmer (1900). On-line
  • The sybarite (1903). On-line
  • Hans, my friend and the water rat (1910)
  • The freedom seeker. Psychology of a Development (ca.1920). On-line
  • The Doll Boy (1926)
  • Nameless Love - seven volumes (1906–1926)
  • John Henry Mackay's Works in One Volume. Edited by Leo Kasarnowski in association with John Henry Mackay. Berlin 1928
  • The Innocent (1936; 2nd A. Amsterdam 1978; 3rd A. with an afterword by Hubert Kennedy 2006 also as a pdf at lulu.com)

Works set to music (selection)

Richard Strauss catalog of works

  • 1894 Four songs for high voice and piano op. 27, 3, 4
III. Secret invitation / up, lift the sparkling bowl
IV. Tomorrow / And tomorrow the sun will shine again
  • 1899 Five songs for high voice and piano op.41, 2
II. In the Campagna / I greet the sun
  • 1896 Four chants for one voice with accompaniment of the orchestra, op.33 no.1

Max Reger's list of works

  • Twelve songs for medium voice and piano op.66, 10
no.10. morning

literature

  • Hermann Bahr : Anti-Semitism. An international interview . 14. John Henry Mackay. Deutsche Zeitung, Vienna, 23 (1893) # 7678, Sunday edition, 1–2. (May 14, 1893); S. Fischer Verlag , Berlin 1894, 92–99.
  • Hermann Bahr: The noble anarchist. Neue Freie Presse, (1929) # 23405, Morgenblatt, 34. (10 November 1929)
  • J. Edgar Bauer: John Henry Mackay. The love poet as an anarchist rebel . In: Capri, No. December 31, 2001, pp. 34-47.
  • Friedrich Dobe: John Henry Mackay as a person. Ed. Plato, Koblenz 1987, ISBN 3-922405-06-1 .
  • Walter Fähnders : Anarchism and Literature. A forgotten chapter of German literary history between 1890 and 1910 . Stuttgart 1987.
  • Walter Fähnders: Anarchism and Homosexuality in Wilhelmine Germany: Senna Hoy, Erich Mühsam, John Henry Mackay . In: Journal of Homosexuality 29, 1995, No. 2/3, pp. 117-153.
  • Walter Fähnders:  Mackay, John Henry. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 616 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hubert Kennedy : John Henry Mackay (Sagitta). Anarchist of love . Männerschwarm Verlag , Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-939542-45-2 ( partial online version, 56 pages ; PDF; 251 kB)
  • Edward Mornin: Art and Anarchism. “Inner Correlations” in the writings of John Henry Mackay. Mackay Society, Freiburg im Breisgau 1983. ISBN 3-921388-61-9 .
  • Thomas A. Riley: Germany's poet-anarchist John Henry Mackay. A contribution to the history of German literature at the turn of the century, 1880-1920. New York: Revisionist Pr. 1972.
  • Hanns Schaub: John Henry Mackay. The poet of the nameless. Self-published, Basel 1970.
  • Karl Schwedhelm : John Henry Mackay. Wiesbaden 1980.
  • KHZ Solneman (= Kurt Zube ): The pioneer John Henry Mackay. His life and his work. Mackay Society, Freiburg im Breisgau 1979, ISBN 3-921388-32-5 .
  • Uwe Timm : John Henry Mackay . In: Lexicon of Anarchy . Black nightshade, Bösdorf 1993 ff ( online )
  • Uwe Timm: Essays on John H. Mackay and Benjamin R. Tucker . In: Hubert Kennedy (Ed.): Dear Tucker. Letters from JH Mackay to BR Tucker . Karin Kramer Verlag , Berlin 2001.

Web links

Commons : John Henry Mackay  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
Wikisource: John Henry Mackay  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "I was born in Greenock on February 6, 1864". In: John Henry Mackay: Settlement. Side notes on life and work . Mackay Society, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1932, p. 28.
  2. ^ Bernd A. Laska: John Henry Mackays Stirner Archive in Moscow . In: The only one. Journal of the Max Stirner Archive, No. 7, August 1999, pp. 3–9
  3. ↑ Art. Anarchism, more individualistic. In: Lexicon of Anarchy . Published by Hans Jürgen Degen. Verlag Schwarzer Nachtschatten, Bösdorf 1993 ff. (Loose-leaf collection), 2nd delivery Nov. 1994 (online)
  4. ^ Letter from Steiner to Mackay dated December 5, 1893
  5. ↑ Mackay, Zack (ed.): Propaganda of Individualistic Anarchism  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DadA@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / projekte.free.de  
  6. ↑ s. Steiner's autobiography Mein Lebensgang (1925), quoted in Complete edition, Volume 28, p. 372.
  7. ↑ Correspondence between Mackay and Tucker. PDF, 1.49 MB (English)
  8. ^ Auction catalog of the auction of his library at Rudolph Lepke Berlin: Catalog No. 2068: Antiques: Furniture and wooden sculptures from the XVth – XVIIIth centuries. Century, paintings by old masters, bronzes, ceramics etc., old oriental carpets; John Henry Mackay Library , October 25 and 26, 1933, (digitized from Wikisource)
  9. ^ Richard Strauss (1864-1949) . Classics. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  10. ↑ Solo chants with piano . Petrucci library. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Mackay, John Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sagitta (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenock , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1933
Place of death Berlin-Charlottenburg