Herrmann Mostar

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Gerhart Herrmann Mostar , actually Gerhart Herrmann , often also Gerhart Hermann Mostar or Hermann Mostar (born September 8, 1901 in Gerbitz , † September 8, 1973 in Munich ) was a German writer who worked as a poet and columnist , at times also as a narrator , dramatist and cabaret artist , was known. He became famous as a critical court reporter .

Life

Mostar comes from a family of teachers; his father was also a Protestant church music director. Mostar spent his high school in Bernburg ( High School Carolinum Bernburg ) and Hamburg .

Journalist and novelist

After his training as a primary school teacher in Quedlinburg , he studied philosophy and comparative linguistics in Halle while teaching .

From 1921 Mostar worked as an editor in Bochum , Berlin and Munich .

During a vagabond time in the Balkans in the late 20s / early 30s he adopted the pseudonym Mostar .

Under this he became known for novels such as Der Aufruhr des Schiefen Calm (1929) or Fate in the Sand (1931), in which the author's humanitarian sentiments are already evident.

Book burning and emigration

Mostar left Germany in 1933. Before that, his Karl Marx novel The Black Knight was illegally printed and sent to subscribers by the SPD party newspaper Vorwärts , of which Mostar worked for a time . Until 1945 he lived in Switzerland, Austria, Italy and the countries of the Balkans he already knew. During the time of emigration, he earned his living as a tutor, director, translator and journalist. In Austria, for example, he wrote for Wiener Tag , the Arbeiter-Zeitung and the cabaret Der liebe Augustin before he had to flee to Belgrade in 1938 .

Cabaret artist and time-critical playwright

Immediately after the Second World War , he went to Bavaria and founded the extremely successful cabaret Die Hinterbliebenen (until 1948).

In 1946 his plays Der Zimmerherr , a satire against Adolf Hitler , and the Zeitstück Meier Helmbrecht were premiered. The former portrayed Hitler as a petty-bourgeois despot with a penchant for neighborhood disputes (the landlady's family is synonymous with the German people, the other neighbors for Europe). During his emigration he wrote the piece Putsch in Paris , which was printed the following year . In addition to his satirical pieces that were time-critical in the immediate post-war period, Bis der Schnee Meltzt (1948) can be considered a pure comedy. With The Birth (1947), the playwright Mostar also tried a Christmas mystery play .

Radio author and "inventor" of the singing fable

Before 1933, Mostar developed “singing fables” for radio, such as Der arme Heinrich (1928) and Aucassin and Nicolette (1952) based on material from old France. He also wrote a few radio plays such as Pan Stjepan , The Dance of Cölbigk and the touching John Walker writes to his mother , which Mostar got into Reclam's radio play guide, as well as series of programs (e.g. The court withdraws to deliberate ; see next section).

As early as 1948, Mostar edited his carpenter as a radio play. In the broadcast of the MDR Franz Kutschera spoke the role of Adolf Hitler.

Germany's most famous court reporter

From 1948 on, Mostar lived in Stuttgart , where he began to publish on a larger scale - he, who had been a little forgotten due to the circumstances of the time and his emigration, now became known to an even wider audience through socially critical court reports on the radio. Radio Stuttgart, where he had previously spoken the word for Sunday as a well-known lay preacher , ran regular programs in which he appeared as a court reporter that was also taken over by other broadcasters. Mostar's generally critical stance towards the courts provoked scandals, due to which even the state parliament for Württemberg-Hohenzollern finally dealt with the relationship between the press and the court in July 1949.

Mostar's trial reports, which must be described as popular science, appeared in book form, among others, in In the Name of the Law (1950), Will you accept the judgment? (1957) and Love in Court (1961). His most explosive publication in this regard, however, was convicted of Innocence (1956), in which thirteen judicial murders were ultimately traced back to formal legal case law per se.

Master of the small form

After first writing novels and then for a while plays, Mostar is turning more and more to the smaller form, such as the report, but also the anecdote, e.g. B. in the critical calendars from 1960, which A. Paul Weber illustrated. He also created free translations of the epigrams of Marcus Valerius Martialis .

He now also drew attention to himself as a humorous-satirical essayist: The world history described as "historical chats" - very private (1954) and love gossip and world history (1966) as well as the pet lover satire Die Arche Mostar (1969) had great success.

His poetry production was also closely related to the cheerful essays - the extensive satirical poems In this sense ... (1956 ff.) Show Mostar as a practical lyricist who was able to deal with entire topics, such as good behavior as Knigge II or youth education as Uncle Franz to be dealt with pointedly in verse form.

Mostar's limited number of novels after 1945 also shifted more to a satirical-critical focus: the small town novel And give us all a happy heart (1953) captivated mainly with brilliant humorous passages. This too - because it is episodic - is in principle obliged to the smaller form.

For the Stuttgarter Zeitung , Mostar, who began his writing career as a journalist, also filled half of the important page three once a week for a long time .

Others

In the last years of his life, the writer Mostar had a multimedia presence through radio, press and record .

With the Silesian Swan Mostar operated in 1953 as a publisher by his radio play about Friederike Kempner The genius of unintended humor published the strange poetry of awkward poet in the book. With Der neue Pitaval (1963) he also began, together with Robert A. Stemmle, a “collection of famous and strange criminal cases” in around fifty volumes.

Mostar died in 1973 on his 72nd birthday. His grave is in the Munich North Cemetery .

effect

In the Federal Republic soon only known for his trial reports and cheerful essays and poems, z. Sometimes dismissed as an entertainment writer, after his death hardly appreciated, Mostar was held up in the GDR as the prototype of the system-critical author in capitalism: One saw in his work "Demagogu, Corruption, Opportunism, Armament and Capitalist Exploitation Scourged" ( Lexicon of German-speaking writers ; 1975).

Works

Novels

  • The Riot of Leaning Calm (1929)
  • Fate in the Sand (1931)
  • The black knight (1933)
  • And give us all a happy heart (1953)
  • Until the Gods Pass (1954)

Poetry

  • Poor Heinrich (1928)
  • Easy Songs (1947)
  • In this sense your Uncle Franz (1956)
  • In this sense the grandmother (1958)
  • With this in mind, Your Knigge II (1961)
  • Mass hilarious in this sense (1962)
  • In this sense like Solomon (1966)
  • Naughty and frivolous according to Roman custom (1967)

Drama

play

  • Putsch in Paris (1938/1947)
  • The carpenter (1946)
  • Meier Helmbrecht (1946)
  • The Birth (1947)

radio play

Television game

  • John Walker writes to his mother (1954, NWDR )

Essay, anecdotal

  • World History - Most Private (1954)
  • Until the Gods Pass (1954)
  • Superstition for lovers (1955)
  • Mostar's Ark (with drawings by Karl Staudinger ) (1959)
  • The Wine and Venus Book of the Rhine (1960)
  • Playing with deer (1960)
  • Critical Calendar (1960 ff.)
  • Love, Gossip, and World History (1966)

Reports, reports, etc. Ä.

  • Trials of Today (1950)
  • In the name of the law (1950)
  • The Right to Kindness (1951)
  • Love in Court (1951)
  • Abandoned, Lost, Damned (1952)
  • Judges are people too (1955)
  • Convicted innocently (1956)
  • Do you accept the verdict? (1957)

Editing

  • The Silesian Swan (1953)
  • The new Pitaval (1963 ff.)
  • I am so gallant Madame (1963)
  • Tender Game (1966)
  • Dandy Keith's infernal machines (with RA Stemmle), Justitia series . Sensational criminal cases , Munich 1967

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. grave slab. In: Knerger.de. Retrieved July 1, 2020 .