Hjalmar Söderberg

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Hjalmar Söderberg

Hjalmar Söderberg ( pronunciation : [ ˌ ʝalːmaɹ søːdəɹbæɹʝ ] * 2. July 1869 in Stockholm ; † 14. October 1941 in Copenhagen ) was a Swedish writer of the fin-de-siècle . He is now one of the most widely read and popular writers in Sweden at the turn of the century .

Life

Hjalmar Söderberg was born in Stockholm to a family of civil servants and grew up in Stockholm. After a short study attempt at the University of Uppsala , he began to work as a journalist first in Kristianstad and then in Stockholm, where he got a permanent job in 1897 for the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet .

His first novel Förvillelser (Ger. Irrungen , 1914, or Verirrungen , 2006) 1895 belongs to the flaneur literature of the fin-de-siècle. Söderberg describes disaffected day thieves and their decadent goings-on. The novel contains - like the following novels - a number of vivid descriptions of Stockholm at the turn of the century. In the novella collection Historietter (dt. History tablets of 1898) Soderberg has found his own style: clear, concise, short and slightly ironic. In the partially autobiographical educational and development novel Martin Bircks ungdom (Martin Bircks Jugend) from 1901, childhood, academic years and the life of a young civil servant in Stockholm before the turn of the century are described. Doktor Glas (Eng. Doctor Glas ), which appeared in 1905, is Söderberg's masterpiece. The novel, in which the author justifies a murder under certain circumstances, sparked a scandal among the conservatives. Even after his first novel, Söderberg had been accused of spoiling morality and good taste, and now he became the focus of moral revulsion in conservative circles.

Söderberg married Märta Abenius in 1899, with whom he had three children: Dora, geb. 1899, Tom, b. 1900 and Mikael, b. 1903. Since his income as a journalist and writer was insufficient for a middle-class household, he soon ran into financial difficulties that worsened when his marriage fell apart a few years later. The long affair that had led to the breakdown of the marriage ended shortly afterwards, and Söderberg moved to Copenhagen in 1906 , initially temporarily, and finally from 1907 after he had met the Danish Emilie Voss. Financially, he was dependent on advances from his publisher Bonnier and, above all, generous loans from his friend and patron Ernest Thiel . His considerable alcohol consumption now also turned into alcoholism.

Söderberg dealt with the events of this phase of his life in the drama Gertrud (1906) and the novel Den allvarsamma leken ( Eng . The serious game ) 1912, which is one of the most important novels in Swedish literature of the turn of the century.

The following decades Söderberg lived in Copenhagen, where he mainly devoted himself to the history of religion and political issues. His critical preoccupation with religious questions resulted in the novels Jahves eld 1918 and Jesus Barabbas 1928. His political engagement was directed against the emerging fascism, which he fought against in articles especially in Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning .

Works

  • 1895 Förvillelser , Roman
    • German title: Irrungen. Morawe & Scheffelt, Berlin 1914 (Nordland books)
    • German title: Vererrungen. Translated from the Swedish by Verena Reichel. With an afterword by Joachim Schiedermair. Piper, Munich 2006 (Piper Nordiska)
  • 1898 Historietter
    • German title: Historietten [23 stories]. Authorized transfer from Francis Maro , Insel, Leipzig 1905; Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1973 (universal library, vol. 552)
  • 1901 Martin Birck's ungdom
    • German title: Martin Birck's Jugend. Authorized translation from Swedish by Francis Maro. Title drawing by Heinrich Vogeler . Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1904
    • German title: Martin Bircks Jugend. Translated from the Swedish by Francis Maro. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1986
  • 1905 Doctor Glas , novel
  • 1906 Gertrud
  • 1912 Den allvarsamma leken , novel
    • German title: The serious game. Translated from the Swedish by Verena Reichel. Piper, Munich / Berlin 2007 ( preview of the eBook on Google Books)
  • 1918 Jahves eld
  • 1928 Jesus Barabbas

Edited volumes in German translation:

  • Stories. Translated from Swedish [and afterword] by Helen Oplatka . Manesse, Zurich 1976 (Manesse Library of World Literature)
  • The players. Twelve stories and one novel. Translated from the Swedish by Günter Dallmann and Helen Oplatka. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2000 ( Die Other Bibliothek series , Vol. 184), ISBN 978-3-8218-4184-7

Film adaptations

Web links

Commons : Hjalmar Söderberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Söderberg, Hjalmar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1941
Place of death Copenhagen