Hertha Borchert

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Hertha Borchert (born Salchow ; born February 17, 1895 in Altengamme ; † February 26, 1985 in Hamburg ) was a German writer . She wrote short stories and a novel in Low German and managed his estate after the death of her son Wolfgang Borchert .

Life

St. Severini Church in Hamburg-Kirchwerder in 2006

Hertha Salchow was born as the youngest of five children to her parents Carl and Luise Salchow in Altengamme in the Vierlanden . Her father, who was a teacher in the Altengammer school building on the Horst, switched to the village school in Kirchwerder after she was born , where Hertha grew up. The pupil's academic achievements were unsatisfactory for the father, but the rural idyll on the Elbe dike proved to be formative for Hertha's later literature. When she was 16, the 21-year-old teacher Fritz Borchert was hired at the village school. They got engaged as early as 1911 and married on May 29, 1914, and Hertha Borchert followed her husband to Hamburg-Eppendorf , where he found a job at what was then the Erikaschule; today it is called the Wolfgang Borchert School. Fritz Borchert aroused his wife's interest in literature, and in the city of Hamburg she came into contact with artistic circles. Their son Wolfgang was born on May 20, 1921. The only child was in particularly close contact with its mother throughout his life.

In 1927 Hertha Borchert wrote her first story, at the suggestion of her husband and based on a childhood memory that she had recited the previous evening: Ole and neie Tied . In her own words, the first attempts at writing were "completely helpless", she used the language of her childhood: the four-country Low German . On December 4, 1927, the story was published in the Hamburger Nachrichten . As a result, Hertha Borchert wrote numerous other stories: “I wrote and wrote! [...] And with me the fabrics came like a churn ”. Fritz Borchert typed the stories, they were regularly printed in newspapers and Low German publications and read aloud on the radio. Hertha Borchert became known as a Low German writer. For Peter Rühmkorf , her stories were the literary sublimation of her escape from the city and the “sentimental approach to the home world”, whereby Borchert tried in the “undemanding narrative pieces [...] in the hearty, unadulterated Platt” to make the “break between city and country life as easy as it is funny to take". Hans-Gerd Winter also saw in the works a conscious distancing from the avant-garde literature with which Fritz Borchert had introduced his wife. Hertha Borchert referred to the Dadaists she had met in Hamburg: "Reading stories in this language [Low German] was an imposition for the Dadas."

Hertha Borchert was accepted into GEDOK and soon surrounded herself with a circle of friends who shared their interest in Low German literature: the actress Aline Bußmann and the editors of the Hamburg Gazette, Hugo Sieker and Bernhard Meyer-Marwitz . All three would later become groundbreaking for the writing development of their son Wolfgang. Barber Wulfen was founded in 1930 . A story of great and great Veerlanner Lüüd. Due to its novel-like length, the story is considered a special feature in Low German literature after the First World War , but remained unpublished during Borchert's lifetime and was first published in 1996. In 1934, Borchert's first book was published in the Quickborn library, Sünnroos un anner Veerlanner stories .

During the time of National Socialism , Low German literature was co-opted by the National Socialist movement . Hertha Borchert as a member of the Quickborn Association was accepted into the Kampfbund for German Culture and the Reichsbund Volkstum und Heimat . But it soon came into conflict with the new rulers. The Reichssender Hamburg , in which Aline Bußmann and Borchert presented their stories themselves, received letters demanding that the anti-subversive author be removed from the program. The letters remained anonymous at first, but were later signed by a neighbor of the Borchert family named Kramer. In his denunciation he relied on two allegations. On the one hand, Hertha Borchert commented on a march of the SA : “When you see these young [boys] walking along in the brown blouses, you can get angry! - We will pay the Nazis back for everything one day. ”On the other hand, the Borchert family“ occupy a strange position towards the National Socialist movement ”. This is expressed, among other things, in a refusal to hoist the swastika flag and the Hitler salute by the son Wolfgang, as well as in Hertha Borchert's assessment of the SA uniform as "ugly and un-German".

The urn grave of Hertha, Fritz and Wolfgang Borchert in the Ohlsdorf cemetery

The accusations were forwarded to the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda . In 1935 the station switched on the Reich Association of German Writers . Hertha Borchert was exonerated by its association management team and judged that her work was "popular and authentic before and after the changeover". Borchert's writings were allowed to continue to appear, and three of her stories were broadcast on the radio at Christmas time. In retrospect, Hertha Borchert commented on the process with an allusion to the Nazis' blood and soil ideology : "Blood and soil saved my life." Her son Wolfgang immortalized the informer's name in a character in his drama Outside the Door : " Frau Kramer , who is nothing more than Frau Kramer, and that is just so terrible". Hertha Borchert was suggested to become more politically active as a result of the accusations. She joined the National Socialist women's group , was initially obliged to work as a packer in a nearby biscuit factory, and later engaged as a reciter of her own work in the troop support of the Wehrmacht .

After her son Wolfgang returned from the Second World War , Hertha Borchert ended her writing. She cared for the seriously ill son until his death on November 20, 1947. Her husband Fritz died in 1959. Hertha Borchert, who had since moved to Hamburg-Altona , looked after the work her son left behind. She founded the Wolfgang Borchert Archive and handed it over to the Hamburg State and University Library in 1976 . Your own written estate is also kept there. At the urging of the editors of the magazine Plattdütsch Land un Waterkant , Borchert only became active as a writer once more and wrote the autobiographical story Noch ins weller Platt, published in 1969 . Hertha Borchert died on February 26, 1985. She was buried next to her husband Fritz and her son Wolfgang in the Ohlsdorf cemetery .

Works

  • Sünnroos un anner Veerlanner stories . Quickborn Verlag, Hamburg 1934.
  • Barber Wulfen. A story of great and great Veerlanner Lüüd. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1996, ISBN 3-529-04700-7 .
  • Wullhandkrabben and other stories. From the estate, ed. by Irmgard Schindler and Dirk Römmer. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1998, ISBN 3-529-04710-4 .

literature

in biographies about their son
  • Gordon Burgess: Wolfgang Borchert . I believe in my luck. Structure, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-7466-2385-6 .
  • Helmut Gumtau: Wolfgang Borchert . In: Heads of the XX. Century . tape 58 . Colloquium, Berlin 1969.
  • Peter Rühmkorf : Wolfgang Borchert . With testimonials and photo documents. In: Kurt Kusenberg (ed.): Rowohlt's monographs . 8th, revised edition. tape 58 . rororo Taschenbuch 50058, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-499-50058-2 (first edition: 1961, revised by Wolfgang Beck).
  • Claus B. Schröder: Wolfgang Borchert . The most important voice in post-war German literature. In: Heyne biographies . Heyne-Bücher 179/12, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-453-02849-X (license from Kabel-Verlag, Hamburg).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Burgess: Wolfgang Borchert. I Believe in My Luck , pp. 16-17, 21-22.
  2. ^ Rühmkorf: Wolfgang Borchert , pp. 15-18.
  3. ↑ a b Burgess: Wolfgang Borchert. I believe in my luck , p. 28.
  4. ^ Rühmkorf: Wolfgang Borchert , p. 7.
  5. ↑ Hans-Gerd Winter: "I hardly care ... to be printed - I feel that my day is coming." Wolfgang Borchert's entry into the literary field 1940–1946. In: Gordon Burgess, Hans-Gerd Winter (ed.): "Pack life by the hair". Wolfgang Borchert in a new perspective . Dölling and Gallitz, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-930802-33-3 , p. 86.
  6. ↑ a b Kopitzsch, Brietzke: Hamburgische Biographie. Lexicon of Persons Volume 2 , p. 60.
  7. ^ Burgess: Wolfgang Borchert. I believe in my luck , p. 37.
  8. ^ Burgess: Wolfgang Borchert. I believe in my luck , p. 36.
  9. ↑ a b c Burgess: Wolfgang Borchert. I believe in my luck , p. 38.
  10. ^ Burgess: Wolfgang Borchert. I believe in my luck , p. 39.
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Borchert: Outside the door . In: Wolfgang Borchert: The Complete Works . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2007, ISBN 978-3-498-00652-5 , p. 117.
  12. ^ Burgess: Wolfgang Borchert. I believe in my luck , p. 40.
  13. ^ Gumtau: Wolfgang Borchert , p. 13.
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Borchert Archive at the Hamburg State and University Library .
personal data
SURNAME Borchert, Hertha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Salchow, Hertha (maiden name); Borchert, Herta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Altengamme
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1985
Place of death Hamburg