Hermann Lenz

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Hermann Karl Lenz (born February 26, 1913 in Stuttgart ; † May 12, 1998 in Munich ) was a German writer .

Life

The front door of Lenz's parents' house in Künzelsau

Hermann Lenz, son of the drawing teacher Hermann Friedrich Lenz and his wife Elise, grew up in Künzelsau until he was eleven and then in Stuttgart. After graduating from the Reformrealgymnasium for boys on Stöckach and breaking off theology studies in Tübingen , he began to study art history , philosophy , archeology and German in Heidelberg in 1933 and in Munich from 1937 . After early reading impressions ( Eduard Mörike , Adalbert Stifter , Arthur Schnitzler , Hugo von Hofmannsthal and others) Lenz wrote his first poems and prose pieces. In 1936, Georg von der Vring brokered his first publication, the Gedichte collection , which was followed before the war by the repeatedly revised story Dasstille Haus .

Lenz was a soldier from 1940. He took part in the campaign in the west and in the war against the Soviet Union and was a prisoner of war in the USA until 1946 . His experiences as a student and a soldier shaped his entire literary work. Understanding himself as an opponent of National Socialism from the start , Lenz withdrew to inner worlds - the Biedermeier or the Viennese fin de siècle  - which became the scene of many narrative texts and the object of reflection for countless figure monologues. After his return from captivity, Lenz devoted himself entirely to writing, apart from secretary work in cultural institutions. In 1946 he married the art historian Johanna Trautwein , the daughter of the microbiologist Kurt Trautwein , whom he had already met in 1937. Until 1975 both lived in Lenz's parents' house in Stuttgart; only inheritance disputes forced him to move to his wife's house in Munich.

Lenz received little attention for many years, until recognition and fame finally set in. Peter Handke gave him his breakthrough in 1973. One of his fantastic stories was applauded by Thomas Mann : "In them the narrative time dissolves, the past appears as the present."

Lenz published more than 30 books between 1936 and 1997. “I'm just a Swabian thick-headed man”, said Hermann Lenz on his 85th birthday on February 26, 1998 - shortly before his death in May of the same year.

In October 1951 Hermann Lenz read in front of Group 47 in Laufenmühle in the Welzheimer Wald from an earlier version of the novel Afternoon of a Lady , the first part of The Inner District . His distanced attitude towards the group coincides with that of Paul Celans , who read to Gruppe 47 a year later. The experiences went into the novel A Stranger .

Hermann Lenz's house in Stuttgart

plant

Facsimile of a manuscript by Hermann Lenz

The focus of the work is a nine-volume autobiographical novel cycle about the alter-ego figure Eugen Rapp, which began with Abandoned Rooms (1966) and ended with Friends (1997). It is also called the Swabian Chronicle . Almost without parallel in German-language literature after 1945, this series of novels explores essential autobiographical cuts and at the same time captures the political history of Germany in the 20th century. The novels Andere Tage (1968) and Neue Zeit (1975), which depict the everyday confrontation with the Third Reich , are considered to be outstanding . Lenz himself described the main character Eugen Rapp as the “popular edition of the writer Hermann Lenz”. Like Eugen Rapp, the other characters in his novels are not “heroes”, but rather everyday people who are characterized by their special humanity. His books fascinate less through dramatic actions than through the content and effect of the pictorial language. Lenz starts from an autobiographical concept: "Write as you are" is one of his central maxims. It strives to indicate a metaphysical background in the precisely depicted life details, in which “the past and the present flow into one another”.

In books such as Dame und Scharfrichter (1973) or Der Wanderer (1986), Lenz repeatedly succeeded in bringing together the autobiographical and the transcendent components of his writing. As the most striking stylistic device, he uses the form of “ inner dialogue ”, which makes the figure perspective transparent and directly converts the reflections of the outside world into sensations. In addition to his rap novels and the occasionally published poetry , Lenz presented a large number of novels and stories. Like The Encounter (1979) and Memory of Eduard (1981), these immerse themselves in the world of the 19th century, or, like the trilogy The Inner District , which was completed in 1980, they design conscious alternative designs to their own biography . Occasionally, especially with Das doppelte Face (1949) or Spiegelhütte (1962), Lenz followed narrative traditions that tie in with forms of magical realism . Hermann Lenz worked "all his life in the surreal subject , in a realm of imagination that belonged only to him."

In 1991 he received the Bavarian Literature Prize ( Jean-Paul Prize ) in recognition of the entire literary work.

Afterlife

  • In 1993 Hermann Lenz established a foundation to promote young authors and literary scholars.
  • After his death in 1999, the traditional Petrarca Prize became the Hermann Lenz Prize , an annual meeting of friends of literature and poetry, donated by Hubert Burda . It was awarded for the last time in 2009 and will operate under the old name again from 2010 after the death of the widow Johanna Lenz.
  • Between Künzelsau and Langenburg there has been the Hohenloher Hermann-Lenz-Weg since 2014, a 17-kilometer hiking trail that leads past places that are mentioned in various of his works.

Works

stories

  • The silent house - story. Stuttgart: Dt. Publisher 1947. (Tomorrow's narrator; Vol. 1)
  • The double face - three stories. Stuttgart: Dt. Verl.-Anst., 1949.
  • The adventurer - narrative. Stuttgart: Dt. Verl.-Anst., 1952. (The Stern editions)
  • A lady's afternoon . Neuwied [u. a.]: Luchterhand, 1961.
  • Lady and Executioner - Narrative. Cologne: Hegner, 1973.
  • The octopus in the garage - narration. Frankfurt am Main: Insel 1977.
  • Memory of Eduard - story. Frankfurt / M .: Insel-Verl., 1981.
  • The last - narration. Frankfurt a. M., Suhrkamp, ​​1984. (Library Suhrkamp; 851)
  • The beetle and other stories . Passau: Refugium Verlag 1989 (Refugium series; 3)
  • Young and old - narrative. Frankfurt am Main: Insel 1989.
  • Hotel Memoria - stories. Frankfurt am Main, Insel 1990. ( Insel-Bücherei 1115)
  • Black Carriages - Tale. Frankfurt am Main: Insel 1990.
  • Youth days - narration. Passau, Reche, 1993. (Refugium series; 14)
  • Two women - story. Frankfurt am Main: Insel 1994.
  • Holiday guests - stories. With an afterthought by Peter Hamm. Regensburg - Mittelbayerische Dr.- & Verl.-Ges., 1997.
  • The queues have Saturdays free - narratives. Edited and with an afterword by Rainer Moritz. Frankfurt am Main: Insel 2002.

Novels

  • The Russian Rainbow Novel. Luchterhand, Darmstadt [a. a.] 1959.
  • Spiegelhütte . Hegner, Cologne [a. a.] 1962.
  • A Servant's Eyes - Roman. Hegner, Cologne / Olten 1964.
  • In the inner district - Roman. Hegner, Cologne [a. a.] 1970.
  • The coachman and the coat of arms painter - novel. Hegner, Cologne 1972.
    • First version: The story of the coachman Kandl. With an afterword by Norbert Hummelt. Nimbus, Wädenswil 2019 (posthumous publication)
  • The encounter - novel. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1979.
  • The Inner Ward - Novel in Three Books [ A Lady's Afternoon - In the Inner Ward - Constantinsallee ]. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1980

The Eugen Rapp novels

The autobiographical series of novels summarized under the collective title Past Present :

  1. Abandoned Room - Roman. Hegner, Cologne / Olten 1966.
  2. Other days - novel. Hegner, Cologne / Olten 1968.
  3. New time - novel. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1975.
  4. Diary of survival and life - novel. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1978.
  5. A stranger - novel. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1983.
  6. The Wanderer - novel. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1986.
  7. Strange farewell - novel. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1988.
  8. Autumn light - novel. Insel, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1992.
  9. Friends - Roman. Insel, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1997.

Poems

  • Poems . Ellermann, Hamburg 1936 (Sheets for Poetry. The Boys, Volume 9)
  • As time goes by . Colloquium poeticum Volume 6. Edited by Levke Sörensen. Corvus Verlag, Frankfurt 1977.
  • Lifetime . Poems 1934–1980. Schneekluth, Munich 1981 (Munich edition. Edited by Heinz Piontek ), ISBN 3-7951-0708-3 .
  • On foot . Poems. Keicher, Warmbronn 1987. (Roter Faden series, Volume 9), ISBN 3-924316-17-1 .
  • Roses and sparrows . With a laudation to Hermann Lenz by Peter Hamm. Verlag Klaus G. Renner, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-927480-12-6 .
  • Maybe you live on in the stone . Poems. Selected and with an afterword by Michael Krüger . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2003, (Suhrkamp library, number 1371), ISBN 978-3-518-22371-0 .

Correspondence

  • Paul Celan , Hanne and Hermann Lenz: Correspondence . With three letters from Gisèle Celan-Lestrange. Edited by Barbara Wiedemann (among others). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2001.
  • Peter Handke , Hermann Lenz: Rapporteur of the day . Correspondence. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006.
  • Hermann Lenz - Rainer Malkowski : As if we were walking together for a while . Correspondence 1991–1998. Edited by Renate von Doemming. Ulrich Keicher Publishing House, Warmbronn 2007.
  • Hermann Lenz, Hanne Trautwein: "The inside is not affected by the external circumstances." The correspondence 1937–1946. Edited by Michael Schwidtal. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-458-17772-2 .

Others

  • Life and writing . Frankfurt lectures. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1986.
  • Hermann Lenz. Pictures from my album . Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1987.
  • In the Hohenloher Land . With 38 photos by Karlheinz Jardner. In cooperation with the ZDF. Owl publishing house, Freiburg i. Brsg. 1989. ("Very personal" series).
  • Stuttgart. Portrait of a city . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2003 (first Belser Verlag, Stuttgart / Zurich 1983).
  • Hermann Lenz on his 80th birthday . Festschrift, published by Thomas Reche and Hans Dieter Schäfer . Publishing house Thomas Reche, Passau 1993.
  • Hermann Lenz: Swabian curriculum vitae . Edited and with an afterword by Hans Dieter Schäfer. Ulrich Keicher Publishing House, Warmbronn 2013. (Preliminary study for the novel Verlassene Zimmer (1966). Hans Dieter Schäfer adds readings from Hermann Lenz's notebook from 1942.)
  • Hermann Lenz: Age notes 1997–1998 . Selected and edited by Hans Dieter Schäfer. Verlag Ulrich Keicher, Warmbronn 2014. In the reversible book together with: Hans Dieter Schäfer: Das unfreiwillige Gedächtnis .

Awards, honors, prizes (selection)

Settings

  • Rudi Spring : Evening of Childhood (op.20a, for the author's 70th birthday in 1983) for soprano and quintet (clarinet, horn, harp, violin and violoncello). Premiere 1983 Munich ( University of Music )
  • Wolfgang Rihm : Nebendraußen (1998) for voice and piano. Premiere 1998 Cologne (Philharmonic)
1.  The hand movement - 2.  Late year - November 3  - 4.  Outside - 5.  Your craft I - 6.  Note - 7.  Your craft II - 8.  Petrification - 9.  Compassion - 10.  Love time

literature

  • Peter Handke : Days like blown eggs. Invitation to read Hermann Lenz . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , 22./23. December 1973
  • Helmut Kreuzer , Ingrid Kreuzer (ed.): About Hermann Lenz. Documents on his reception (1947–1979) and autobiographical texts. Fink, Munich 1981 ISBN 978-3-7705-198-42
  • Rainer Moritz : "Write the way you are". Hermann Lenz: Basic lines of his work. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1989
  • Werner Jung : Being, being, being different. The work of Hermann Lenz . In: June. Magazine for Culture and Politics, 1, 1992. Juni-Verlag, Mönchengladbach ISSN  0931-2854
  • Helmut Hornbogen: Remembering the beginning. Tübingen. Remembrance: Conversations with Albrecht Goes and Hermann Lenz . Narr, Francke, Attempto, Tübingen 1996 ISBN 978-3-8233-5174-0
  • Herlinde Koelbl : Hermann Lenz . In: Im writing at home. How writers go about their work - photographs and conversations . Knesebeck, Munich 1998 ISBN 3-89660-041-9 pp. 48–53 (photo documentation Lenz ', which portrays the author at his workplace and in his personal environment and in an interview both the basis of his vocation and the framework and individual approach in the creation of his Represents works.)
  • Daniel Hoffmann: Quiet life masters. Serving people at Hermann Lenz . Series: Colloquium 46, Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 1998 ISBN 3-86057-146-X
  • Special issue Hermann Lenz . Text and criticism , 141, January 1999 ISBN 3-88377-602-5 (also: Bibliography of primary and secondary literature)
  • Rainer Moritz: "Nice first sentences". Hermann Lenz and the art of the beginning. Ulrich Keicher, Warmbronn 2003
  • Rainer Moritz: "Better to think of Cleversulzbach". Hermann Lenz and Eduard Mörike . Ulrich Keicher, Warmbronn 2004
  • Helmut Böttiger . In the owl herb. Hermann Lenz and Hohenlohe . Ulrich Keicher, Warmbronn 2006
  • Hans Dieter Haller: Hermann Lenz (1913 to 1998) . In: Pegasus in the country - writers in Hohenlohe . Baier-Verlag, Crailsheim 2006 ISBN 978-3-929233-62-9 pp. 172-179
  • Peter Hamm : "I would have liked to have stayed there." Hermann Lenz and his Stuttgart. Ulrich Keicher, Warmbronn 2007
  • Lothar Quinkenstein : Holocaust in the evening light. On the problem of memory and repression in Hermann Lenz 'narrative triptych' The double face ' . In: Convivium . Germanistic Yearbook Poland 2008, Ed. DAAD . Pp. 221–239 full text
  • Norbert Hummelt : In the quiet house. Where Hermann Lenz wrote in Munich. Photographs Isolde Ohlbaum . Bibliography created by Rainer Moritz. Allitera Verlag, edition monacensia, Munich 2009 ISBN 978-3-86906-024-8
  • Daniel Hoffmann: Invisible umbilical cords. Jewish worlds in Hermann Lenz's narrative . In: Mark H. Gelber, Jakob Hessing , Robert Jütte : Integration and Exclusion. Studies on German-Jewish literary and cultural history from the early modern period to the present. Festschrift for Hans Otto Horch on his 65th birthday. Max Niemeyer, Tübingen 2009 ISBN 978-3-484-62006-3 pp. 367-378
  • Rainer Moritz: Hermann Lenz and Künzelsau . Traces 87th German Schiller Society , Marbach 2011 ISBN 978-3-937384-51-1
  • Wolfgang Kunzfeld, C. Sylvia Weber (ed.): "Au net bad". Hermann Lenz 100 years . Exhibition of the Friends of the Summer Artists Family V. on the 100th birthday of Hermann Lenz. Swiridoff, Künzelsau 2013 ISBN 978-3-89929-267-1

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Hans Maier (born 1931): The magic continues to work today , in NZZ, September 1, 2018, p. 45, https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/hermann-lenz-ld.1411956
  2. ↑ References in: Paul Celan, Hanne and Hermann Lenz: Correspondence . With three letters from Gisèle Celan-Lestrange. Edited by Barbara Wiedemann (among others). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2001, p. 8, p. 169 (note 10); A Stranger , pp. 77-85.
  3. ↑ Hans Maier (born 1931): The magic continues to work today , in NZZ, September 1, 2018, p. 45, https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/hermann-lenz-ld.1411956
  4. ↑ Winner of the Jean Paul Prize ( Memento of the original from June 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture, Science and Art @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.km.bayern.de
  5. ^ New edition with unknown documents from the estate for the poet's hundredth birthday, selected by Peter Hamm, under the title: Neue Zeit - With an appendix: Letters from Hermann Lenz . Insel, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-458-17567-4 .
personal data
SURNAME Lenz, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lenz, Hermann Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1998
Place of death Munich