Hermann Pongs

Hermann Pongs (pseudonym Hans Luft ; born March 23, 1889 in Odenkirchen ; † March 3, 1979 in Gerlingen ) was a German professor , author and literary scholar .

Life

After graduating from high school, Pongs studied history, German and philosophy in Heidelberg , Berlin , Marburg and Munich . He received his doctorate in 1912, completed his habilitation in Marburg in 1922 and became a professor there in 1927. From 1927 to 1929 he was a full professor at the University of Groningen for literary studies. He was in correspondence with the poet Rainer Maria Rilke . From 1 October 1929 to 1939 he worked as a full professor of German literature at the Technical University in Stuttgart and from 1 November 1942 to 1945 he was professor at the University of Gottingen . In 1943 he became the successor of the late Rudolf Unger .

From 1933 Pongs committed himself to National Socialism out of conviction and became a member of the NSDAP in 1940 . Between 1928 and 1938 he edited the magazine Euphorion together with Julius Petersen (from 1934 to 1944 under the title: Dichtung und Volkstum ). After the Second World War , Pongs was against a critical appraisal of National Socialist literature and German studies and also wrote works on comparative literary history and symbol research. Because of his attitude, he was denied access to universities. In the Soviet occupation zone , his writings, The General Education at the Technical University (Elweri, Marburg 1933), War as the Fate of the People in German Literature (Metzler, Stuttgart 1934), The Poet in the Reich (Stuttgart, Bonz 1935) and Soldier Honor - Women's Honor (Limpert, Berlin 1943) placed on the list of literature to be discarded. In 1954 his main work in three volumes appeared, Das kleine Lexikon der Weltliteratur . Pongs was dismissed from office in 1949 at the instigation of the British military government , denazified and in 1954 retired from Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen , although he was classified as exonerated and himself emphasized his right to be reinstated as a university professor. In 1969, Pongs was awarded the Humboldt Plaque as an honorary gift by the Humboldt Society for his outstanding life's work . His estate is kept in the state library “Dr. Friedrich Teßmann ” in Bolzano and in the Marbach literature archive. Since 1944 he was a corresponding member of the Braunschweig Scientific Society .

literature

• Rolf Düsterberg (Ed.): Poet for the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology . Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-89528-719-0 .
• Hartmut Ferenschild:  Pongs, Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 614 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Pongs in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual references and references

1. ^ Letter to Hermann Pongs. Thilo von Pape, accessed on January 16, 2011 (full text, online, free of charge, HTML format).  
2. ↑ Gerhard Kaiser: Border confusions. Literary Studies in National Socialism . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-05-004411-8 , pp. 101 (Habilitation thesis University of Siegen 2006, 774 pages).
3. ↑ Ernst Klee: The personal dictionary on the Third Reich, who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , pp. 468 f .
4. ↑ German administration for popular education in the Soviet occupation zone, list of the literature to be separated, Berlin: Zentralverlag, 1946. Sabine Biebl, Matthias Böhne, Thomas Braun, Hans-Eugen Bühler, Gerhard Friedrich Dose, Rolf Düsterberg, Daniela Hertel, Andreas Lampert, Susanne Lang , Jana Nagel, Barbara Niemeyer, Ina Schmidt, Olaf Simons, Katharina Unger, Martin Wellmann, accessed on January 17, 2011 (list online, free of charge: transcript: letter P, pages 306-321 , HTML pages, see also: List of Literature ).  
5. ^ German administration for popular education in the Soviet occupation zone, list of the literature to be separated, first supplement, Berlin: Zentralverlag, 1947. Sabine Biebl, Matthias Böhne, Thomas Braun, Hans-Eugen Bühler, Gerhard Friedrich Dose, Rolf Düsterberg, Daniela Hertel, Andreas Lampert , Susanne Lang, Jana Nagel, Barbara Niemeyer, Ina Schmidt, Olaf Simons, Katharina Unger, Martin Wellmann, accessed on January 17, 2011 .  
6. ^ German administration for popular education in the Soviet occupation zone, list of the literature to be separated, second supplement, Berlin: Deutscher Zentralverlag, 1948. Sabine Biebl, Matthias Böhne, Thomas Braun, Hans-Eugen Bühler, Gerhard Friedrich Dose, Rolf Düsterberg, Daniela Hertel, Andreas Lampert, Susanne Lang, Jana Nagel, Barbara Niemeyer, Ina Schmidt, Olaf Simons, Katharina Unger, Martin Wellmann, accessed on January 17, 2011 .  
7. ↑ Christa Hempel-Küter: German Studies between 1925 and 1955 . Studies on the world of science using the example of Hans Pyritz . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-05-003472-6 , pp. 301 (Habilitation thesis Universität Hamburg 1997, 350 pages).
8. ^ Rüdiger vom Bruch (ed.): The Berlin University in the Nazi era . tape 2 : Departments and faculties . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-515-08658-7 , Wolfgang Höppner, p. 270 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
9. ^ Karl Stackmann, Ulrich Hunger, Eva Willms: Three chapters from the history of Göttingen German studies . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991, ISBN 3-525-82642-7 , pp. 66 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
10. ^ Deceased members of the BWG. Humanities class: Corresponding members. Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, accessed on September 22, 2016 .