Ernst Herhaus

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Ernst Herhaus (born February 6, 1932 in Ründeroth / Bergisches Land ; † March 12, 2010 in Kreuzlingen , Switzerland), also known by his pseudonyms Eugenio Benedetti and Clemens Fettmilch, was a German writer .

Life

Ernst Herhaus grew up in the Bergisches Land . After secondary school he completed an administration apprenticeship and worked as an administrative clerk in a hospital. In 1954 he ended his bourgeois existence - meanwhile an alcoholic - and began a restless life that led him to Munich , Paris , Frankfurt am Main , Vienna and Zurich . He did odd jobs and was a guest auditor at academic lectures , including those of Adorno and Horkheimer . In addition, Herhaus, as far as his alcohol addiction permitted, pursued the goal of becoming a writer. In 1965 he settled in Frankfurt , where he worked as an employee in a publishing house.

Herhaus' debut novel Die Homburgische Hochzeit (The Homburg Wedding) received mostly positive reviews because of its style and the author's love of tales. This climax followed, due to constant relapses into alcoholism , in the next works a steep artistic decline. In 1972 Herhaus published - together with the publisher Jörg Schröder - an unveiling book about the German literary scene from Schröder's point of view. Both authors received a number of injunctions. Herhaus' alcohol addiction had now taken on life-threatening forms. With the help of the Alcoholics Anonymous self-help group, Herhaus was able to get rid of his addiction in the long term in 1973.

Herhaus dealt with the liberation from alcohol in the following years in a literary trilogy in which he named Ernst Jünger and the medieval English nun Juliana von Norwich as spiritual helpers in overcoming his dependence. After a trip to America in 1979, Herhaus' last novel "Wolfsmantel" was written, which was viewed by the critics as a failed attempt at a historical novel. Herhaus, who later lived in Freiburg im Breisgau and Switzerland, has only published sporadically since then.

Ernst Herhaus had been a member of the PEN Center of the Federal Republic of Germany since 1970 . In 1980 he was visiting professor at the University of Florida at Gainesville . In 1985 he received a grant from the German Literature Fund .

Ernst Herhaus acquired Swiss citizenship . He found his final resting place in the central cemetery of Kreuzlingen.

Works

  • The Homburg wedding . Piper, Munich 1967
  • Novel by a citizen of Munich 1968
  • The Dummkopf Frankfurt 1970 (under the name Clemens Fettmilch)
  • The Ice Age Munich 1970
  • The Holy Family Frankfurt 1970 (under the name Eugenio Benedetti)
  • Children's book for future revolutionaries Munich 1970
  • Notes during the Abolition of Thinking Frankfurt 1970
  • Siegfried. Jörg Schröder tells EH March, Frankfurt 1972. Numerous new editions, most recently: by Verlag Schöffling & Co., Frankfurt 2018 with an appendix with numerous illustrations. Total circulation 105,000 from 1975 onwards censored by the court
    • Review: Dieter E. Zimmer: A unique book of disclosure. Bomb in a yellow envelope. Jörg Schröder, head of the March publishing house, reckons with his past in: DIE ZEIT No. 41, October 13, 1972, p. 31
  • Surrender. Munich 1977
  • The broken sleep. Munich 1978
  • Prayers far from God. Munich 1979
  • The wolf coat. Zurich 1983
  • Bruckner phenomenon , Pandora's box, Wetzlar 1995 ISBN 3-88178-110-2 .
  • The interior of the night. Kreuzlingen 2002
  • My masks. For the 70th birthday of the poet on February 6, 2002. Signathur, Dozwil 2002 (German & English) ISBN 3908141184 .

As editor

literature

  • Wolfgang Nitz: The power on the edge. About the relationships between the life and the work of the writer EH Darmstadt 1987. At the same time Diss. Phil. Frankfurt am Main.
  • Horst Zocker on Ernst Herhaus: Surrender. Inside the walls of drunkenness. In: Der Spiegel from September 26, 1977.

Web links

notes

  1. ↑ Zimmer: ... what a publishing house is like, "which arises out of nowhere, finds its line on the spot, publishes a whole bunch of interesting books that often couldn't be accommodated anywhere else, their unmistakable book layouts - the bright yellow covers too the red and black letters - immediately and shamelessly copied by all sorts of other publishers, which must have struck a nerve with the times somewhere. ” Online
personal data
SURNAME Herhaus, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Benedetti, Eugenio (pseudonym); Fettmilch, Clemens (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Ründeroth , Bergisches Land
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 2010
Place of death Kreuzlingen