Hermann Sudermann

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Hermann Sudermann shortly before his death; Photography by Nicola Perscheid

Hermann Sudermann (born September 30, 1857 in Matzicken (Macikai) , Heydekrug district , East Prussia ; † November 21, 1928 in Berlin ) was a German writer and playwright .

Life

Hermann Sudermann, approx. 1896

Hermann Sudermann was born as the son of the farmer and beer brewer Johann Sudermann and his wife Dorothea. Raabe born. The father's family came from Dutch Mennonites who immigrated to the Vistula Delta. Hermann attended elementary school in Heydekrug and secondary school in Elbing , which he dropped out in Obersekunda. Then he began an apprenticeship as a pharmacist , which he had to give up due to health problems. In 1872 he entered the Tilsiter Realgymnasium , where he passed the final exam in 1875 . He then studied history and philosophy at the Albertus University in Königsberg . He became a member of the free country team Littuania . In 1877 he moved to Berlin's Friedrich Wilhelms University . Admittedly, he had financial problems and became tutor to the sons of the writer Hans Hopfen and a banker. He broke off his studies and switched to journalism as his attempts at prose and drama met with little response.

Journalist and writer

In 1881 he was initially a journalist for Liberal Correspondence , then editor-in-chief of the liberal newspaper Das deutsche Reichsblatt in Berlin and in 1882 editor-in-chief of the Reichsfreund , where his first stories were published. In 1891 he married the widowed writer Clara Lauckner , who had three children, lived in Königsberg, then in Dresden , only to settle in Berlin in 1895. His only biological child, his daughter Hede, later also married a writer, the poet and publicist Hans Frentz .

Hermann Sudermann. Detail from a portrait by Max Slevogt , 1927

In 1900 he became chairman of the Goethe Association , which protested against the adoption of the Lex Heinze by the German Reichstag . Among the writers who were friends with him were Paul Heyse , Friedrich Spielhagen and Ludwig Fulda . Sudermann collected paintings and sculptures, made trips to Riva del Garda to the sanatorium of Christoph Hartung von Hartungen , Ulten , Greece , Egypt , the Middle East and India . Since 1902, the successful Sudermann “resided” in the castle with a large park of the Blankensee estate near Trebbin that he had acquired . He furnished the palace and the park with the art objects from his collection, including pieces that he had brought back from his travels. In 1909 he bought a representative villa at Bettinastraße 3 in Berlin-Grunewald , which, according to the plaque attached there, he used as a city apartment from 1916 until his death. His preferred residence, however, remained the Blankensee estate. After Sudermann's death, the Sudermann Foundation took over the Grunewald Villa and maintained a memorial for Sudermann here. In 2005 the foundation sold the house due to lack of money; Sudermann's possessions were auctioned in the same year.

First world war and last phase of life

Sudermann's grave of honor in the Grunewald cemetery

Sudermann was also gripped by the wave of national enthusiasm at the beginning of the First World War . He wrote patriotic poetry and collected donations for people in distress due to war. Together with Ludwig Fulda and Georg Reicke , he was one of the authors of the appeal by 93 scholars and artists in autumn 1914 “ To the world of culture! ". After 1918 he was one of the founders of the “Bund Schaffender Künstler”, but was vilified as a political opportunist. In 1924 his wife died, with whom he had lived for a long time despite all the tensions.

Hermann Sudermann died at the age of 71 of pneumonia followed by a stroke . According to his will, his stepson Rolf Lauckner and others founded the Hermann Sudermann Foundation , which supported authors in need.

plant

Monument to the writer in Šilutė , Lithuania

Even before his breakthrough as a dramatist, Sudermann had made a name for himself as a narrator. With his collected stories Im Zwielicht (1886) he was based on Guy de Maupassant . With his first novel Frau Sorge (1887), an educational novel with elements of a social novel , named after a motif from Faust II , he apparently joined the Friedrich Spielhagen school . In his novel Der Katzensteg (1890), staged poses and mythical exaggeration were noted, as well as relationships with paintings such as Triton and Nereid by Arnold Böcklin . But there is more to this than stylistic convention, according to literary scholar Peter Sprengel , but rather a protest against clerically narrowed Christianity. The narrator Sudermann had an ambivalent effect well into the 20th century. On the one hand, he was suspected of triviality; on the other hand, he told the story with a lot of tension and with a sure sense of effects. The current references and his liberal commitment put Sudermann close to literary modernism. His thoroughly reflective but unbroken handling of traditional literary models, clichés and artefacts increase the pathos of the sensation that is supposed to be conveyed to the readers.

Gustav Brandt : Caricature about the end of Sodom in Kladderadatsch (1890)

Sudermann's drama Die Ehre became a sensational success at the Berlin Lessing Theater in 1889 . In it, Sudermann contrasted the concept of honor of the rich with that of the poor and depicted the different living conditions of the Berlin bourgeoisie and proletariat by contrasting the front building and the back building . The play, which is also regularly performed by the newly founded Freie Volksbühne , established Sudermann's reputation for being the most important naturalist playwright alongside Gerhart Hauptmann .

The premiere of his artist drama Sodom Ende (1891) was prohibited by the Berlin police chief Bernhard von Richthofen . Only through the intervention of the theater director Oscar Blumenthal with the Prussian Interior Minister Ernst Ludwig Herrfurth and after minor cuts was the performance allowed. However, Kaiser Wilhelm II took offense at the drama, put Herrfurth under pressure and, in protest, resigned his box in the Wallner Theater in 1892 when the play was supposed to be performed there. In Kassel and Munich , the play was banned in Bielefeld and Halle there were public protests Christian-conservative.

Sudermann's most successful piece, however, was Heimat (1893), the story of a young woman who opposes her father's plans to marry and returns to her homeland as a famous opera singer. The play was popular not least in England and the USA, where Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse became known for the lead role. Contemporary critics such as Maximilian Harden , Franz Mehring and Alfred Kerr accused Sudermann, however, of preferring conventional solutions in favor of stage effectiveness. Sudermann dealt with his critics in 1902 ( The brutalization of theater criticism ) and in his dramas adhered to the moral ideals that had determined naturalism around 1890. In his home country he had resounding success, especially at the Elbing City Theater with his drama Das Glück im Winkel , probably not least against the backdrop of the performance there directed by Paul Albert Glaeser-Wilken in October 1910, which was based on the naturalism of the Wroclaw performance practice oriented.

With the waning success of his drama, Sudermann increasingly devoted himself to prose works that were linked to the traditions of poetic realism and had a stronger homeland ( Lithuanian stories , 1917).

Awards / honors / recognitions

Memorial plaque for Hermann Sudermann and Rolf Lauckner on Bettinastraße 3

During his lifetime, Sudermann received several honors / awards or similar:

  • 1873 Award of the "Schiller Premium" (a copy of the entire works of the poet) by the "Schiller Committee Tilsit" for outstanding school performance at the "Tilsit Municipal Secondary School"
  • 1912 Awarded the " Prussian Crown Order , 3rd Class" - personally presented by Kaiser Wilhelm II (to recognize Sudermann's position and activities in public)
  • 1918 Iron Cross 2nd class for the revival of the League of Goethers he founded
  • 1921 Honoring Sudermann by issuing emergency money from the town of Heydekrug / Memelland with a portrait, illustration v. Birthplace and poem text by H. Sudermann.

After his death, cities and municipalities honored him with streets, monuments and buildings or cultural institutions or similar with his name. These include:

Works (selection)

Plays

The beggar of Syracuse 1911

P = premieres during lifetime, V = subsequent performances, B = year of book publication, A = circulation in thousands during lifetime.

  • Die Ehre (Drama), P 27 November 1889 Lessingtheater Berlin , V 98, B 1890, A 65 ( edition anno 1894 online  - Internet Archive ).
  • Sodom's End (artist drama ), P November 5, 1890 Lessingtheater Berlin, V 43, B 1891, A 31.
  • Heimat (drama), P January 7, 1893 Lessingtheater Berlin, V 78, B 1893, A 59.
  • Der Katzensteg [novel of the same title dramatized by Sudermann himself]
  • The butterfly battle (comedy), P October 6, 1894 Lessingtheater Berlin, V 21, u. Burgtheater Vienna, V 21, B 1895, A 15.
  • Das Glück im Winkel (play), P 11 November 1895 Burgtheater Vienna, V 22, B 1896, A 28.
  • Morituri (three one-act plays: Teja , Fritzchen , The Eternal Male ), P October 3, 1896 Burgtheater Vienna, V 30, a. Deutsches Theater Berlin , V 57, B 1896, A 24.
  • Johannes (tragedy), P January 15, 1898 Deutsches Theater Berlin, V 79, u. Royal Theater Dresden, V 22, B 1897, A 33.
  • The three heron feathers (dramatic poem), P January 21, 1899 Königliches Schauspielhaus Dresden, V 5, u. Deutsches Theater Berlin, V 13, u. Royal Court Theater Stuttgart, V 3, B 1898, A 16.
  • Johannisfeuer (drama), P October 5, 1900 Lessingtheater Berlin, V 77, B 1900, A 43 ( edition from 1903 online  - Internet Archive ).
  • Long live life (drama), P February 1, 1902 Deutsches Theater Berlin, V 83, B 1902, A 29.
  • The storm journeyman Sokrates (comedy), P October 3, 1903 Lessingtheater Berlin, V 28, B 1903, A 15.
  • Stein unter Steinen (play), P 7 October 1905 Lessingtheater Berlin, V 48, B 1905, A 19.
  • The flower boat (play), P October 6, 1906 Lessingtheater Berlin, V 49, u. Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, V 20, B 1905, A 12.
  • Rosen (four one-act plays: Die Lichtband , Margot , The Last Visit and Faraway Princess ), P October 3, 1907 Burgtheater Vienna, V 11, a. P October 26, 1907 Royal Court Theater Stuttgart, V 2, B 1907, A 10.
  • Strandkinder (play), P December 21, 1909 Königliches Schauspielhaus Berlin, V 45, B 1909, A 10.
  • The beggar of Syracuse (tragedy), P October 19, 1911 Königliches Schauspielhaus Berlin, V 35, B 1911, A 10.
  • The good reputation (drama), P January 7, 1913 Deutsches Schauspielhaus Berlin, V 53, u. Schauspielhaus Munich, V 12, B 1913.
  • The praises of Claudian (drama), P January 20, 1914 Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, V 3.
  • The de-goded world (drama series: The Girlfriend , The Well-Cut Corner and The Higher Life ), 1915.
  • The Raschhoffs (Drama), P October 18, 1919 Neues Schauspielhaus Königsberg , V 34, B 1920, A 8.
  • Das deutsche Schicksal (Patriotic Drama Series: Holy Time , Sacrifice and Emergency Call ), 1920.
  • Like the dreaming (drama). 1922. U: November 7, 1922 New theater in Königsberg.
  • The Hare Skin Dealer (play), 1927.

Stories, short stories, novels

  • The President's favorite [series in Schroer's family sheet ], before 1887
  • In the twilight. Twelve informal stories , 1887 ( ed. 1896 online  - Internet Archive ) [Neudr. 1972 udT The Roman Bad Langen-Müller]
  • Frau Sorge (novel), 1887
  • Katzensteg (novel), 1890
  • Jolanthe's wedding (narrative), 1892
  • It was (novel), 1894
  • Das Hohe Lied (novel), 1908
  • The Indian Lily (Seven Tales), 1911
  • Lithuanian stories (four stories: The Journey to Tilsit , Miks Bumbullis , Jons and Erdme , The Maid ), 1917
  • Where the stream becomes quieter [interrupted after the first chapter - follow-up volume of The Picture Book of My Youth ], 1922
  • The great professor (novel), 1926
  • The wife of Steffen Tromholt (novel), 1927
  • Purzelchen (novel), 1928

Other publications

  • Brutality in theater criticism. Contemporary considerations. 1902
  • Picture book of my youth. 1922
  • as ed. In the paradise of home. Stories from the Ostmark . Paul Franke, Berlin 1928 a. ö.

Film adaptations

literature

  • Leopold Jessner , Victor Barnowsky et al. a .: Sudermann as a roll writer . In: Berliner Börsen-Courier , edition of September 30, 1927. First supplement, pp. 5–6.
  • Gerhard Bock: Sudermann's epic work in the mirror of criticism. Noske, Borna-Leipzig 1935.
  • Kurt Busse: Hermann Sudermann. His work and his being. Cotta, Stuttgart a. a. 1927.
  • Bernd Erhard Fischer, Angelika Fischer: Hermann Sudermann in Blankensee. Ed. Fischer, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-00-010432-1 .
  • Theodor Kappstein: Hermann Sudermann and his best stage works. An introduction . F. Schneider, Berlin & Leipzig 1922.
  • Karl Leydecker: Marriage and Divorce in the Plays of Hermann Sudermann . Peter Lang, Frankfurt / Main 1996, ISBN 3-631-50019-X .
  • Günter Helmes : Hermann Sudermann: "Frau Sorge" . In Reclam's Roman Lexicon. Volume 2. Stuttgart 1999, pp. 529-531. ISBN 978-3-15-018002-0 .
  • Günter Helmes: Hermann Sudermann: "The Katzensteg" . In Reclam's Roman Lexicon. Volume 2. Stuttgart 1999, pp. 531-533. ISBN 978-3-15-018002-0 .
  • Walter T. Rix (Ed.): Hermann Sudermann. Work and effect . Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 1980, ISBN 3-88479-024-2 .
  • Christiane Schiller: Bilingualism. To illustrate a sociolinguistic phenomenon in literature. Shown using examples from the regional literature of Prussian Lithuania: Hermann Sudermann “Lithuanian Stories”, Ieva Simonaitytė “Vilius Karalius”. Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-631-35376-6 . (= Halle language and text research; 7)
  • Thorsten Stegemann: literature on the sidelines. Studies on selected works by Rainer Maria Rilke, Hermann Sudermann, Max Halbe, Gottfried Benn and Erich Kästner. Ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-89821-040-5 .
  • Werner Sulzgruber: Hermann Sudermann "Heimat". Reflections and analyzes on a forgotten play . Edition Praesens , Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-901126-83-X .
  • Hubert Walter: Sudermann and the French. A contribution to the understanding of his kind and art . Lechte, Emsdetten i. Westf. 1930.
  • Peter Noss:  Sudermann, Hermann. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 11, Bautz, Herzberg 1996, ISBN 3-88309-064-6 , Sp. 169-183.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

College work

  • Hans Jörgensen : Henrik Ibsen's influence on Hermann Sudermann . Dissertation University of Lausanne 1904, OCLC 24534629 .
  • Elis Herdin: Studies on Report and Indirect Speech in Modern German; Evaluation of contemporary works v. Hauptmann, Holz, Schnitzler, Sudermann, Ebers, Fontane, Ganghofer, Keller . Diss. Uppsala 1905.
  • Harry Sharp Cannon: Sudermann's Treatment of Verse . Diss. Baltimore 1922.
  • Gora Iwanowa: Novel and novel technique at Sudermann . Diss. Munich 1925.
  • Hubert Walter: Sudermann and the French. A contribution to the understanding of his kind and art . Dissertation Münster 1930.
  • Otto Martinetz: Hermann Sudermann as the narrator . Diss. Vienna 1935.
  • Gerhard Bock: Sudermann's epic work in the mirror of criticism . Diss. Jena 1935.
  • Elisabeth Wellner: Gerhart Hauptmann and Hermann Sudermann in competition . Diss. Vienna 1949.
  • RH Mathers: Sudermann and the Critics . Diss. Southern California 1951.
  • ML Correns: Stage work and audience - 4 successful dramas at the turn of the last century . (inter alia "Heimat" V: Hermann Sudermann); Diss. Jena 1956.
  • Edith Lind: H. Sudermann's comment on the scene . Dissertation Vienna 1961.
  • Anatole Matulis: Lithuanian culture in the prose works of H. Sudermann, Ernst Wichert and Agnes Miegel . Diss. Michigan 1963.
  • JT Grain: Sudermann in English . Diss. Assen 1963.
  • Ingrid Nohl: The dramatic work of Hermann Sudermann. Attempt to present his social criticism in the theater in the 19th and 20th centuries and in film . Diss. Cologne 1973.
  • Günter Walter Richter: The social criticism in the prose work v. Hermann Sudermann . Diss. Illinois 1975.
  • Jean Paul Mathieu Nannes: Hermann Sudermann, an investigation of his theatrical success . Diss. Utrecht 1976.
  • Jean Paul Mathieu Nannes: The recording of the dramatic works of Hermann Sudermann . Habil. Utrecht 1979.
  • CE Stroinigg: A reinterpretation of Sudermann's "Frau Sorge" . Diss. Cincinnati 1984.
  • BJ Wrasidlo: The Politics of German Naturalism: Holz, Sudermann, Hauptmann . Diss. San Diego 1986.
  • Brigitte Stuhlmacher: Studies and Interpretation of Dramas by Wood and Sleep, Halbe, Sudermann, Hauptmann and Brecht . Diss. Berlin 1987.
  • Caren Kollek: Literary self-discovery processes around 1900: Person, erotic and moral conception in narrative texts by Arthur Schnitzler , Eduard von Keyserling and Hermann Sudermann Ludwig, Kiel 2011, ISBN 978-3-86935-137-7 (Dissertation University of Kiel 2008, 526 pages , under the title: What do we know what is in our souls ).
  • Jason Doerre: Pessimism in Progress: Hermann Sudermann and the Liberal German Bourgeoisie . Univ., Diss. Massachusetts 2016.

Web links

Commons : Hermann Sudermann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Hermann Sudermann  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elizabeth Horsch Bender: Hermann Sudermann . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
  2. ^ Hermann Sudermann. Lindenbaum Verlag, accessed February 7, 2011 .
  3. ↑ Hermann Sudermann: I was passionate about the scale length . In: Kurt U. Bertrams: As a student in Königsberg. Memories of known corporates . Hilden 2006, pp. 78-99
  4. ↑ Sudermann at Littuania (zeno.org)
  5. ↑ Answer of the district office to the written question No. 817/2 Hermann Sudermann - is a memorial site disappearing? of the district councilor Andreas Koska, parliamentary group B'90 / Die Grünen from January 17th, 2006 district councilors assembly Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
  6. ↑ Cf. Jürgen and Wolfgang von Ungern-Sternberg: The appeal “An die Kulturwelt!” The Manifesto of 93 and the beginnings of war propaganda in the First World War . Second, expanded edition, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2013, ISBN 978-3-631-64167-5 .
  7. ^ Hermann Sudermann Foundation
  8. ↑ Peter Sprengel: History of German-Language Literature 1870-1900. From the founding of the empire to the turn of the century. CH Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44104-1 , pp. 372-375.
  9. ^ Gary D. Stark: Banned in Berlin. Literary Censorship in Imperial Germany, 1871-1918. Berghahn Books, NY 2009, pp. 210-213.
  10. ^ Peter Sprengel: History of German-Language Literature 1900–1918. From the turn of the century to the end of the First World War . CH Beck, Munich 2004, p. 526f.
  11. ^ Streets with S in Kamp-Lintfort | Street directory for street names. Retrieved March 4, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Autobiography
  13. ↑ With 165 rotogravure prints. 362 pages
personal data
SURNAME Sudermann, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Matzicken , Heydekrug district , East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1928
Place of death Berlin