Johann J. Claßen

Johann Joseph Claßen

Johann Joseph Claßen or Clahsen , also Hans Claßen , (born April 28, 1953 in Oberschledorn / Sauerland ; † January 28, 2017 in Arnsberg ) was a German poet , literary magazine and anthology editor.

Life

Johann Joseph Claßen was born in the Westphalian Hochsauerland on the border with Hesse. Growing up on a small agricultural business, after attending the village elementary school and the Progymnasium in the neighboring town of Medebach, he attended the Alte Landesschule grammar school in Korbach in northern Hesse, 15 kilometers away . There he passed the Abitur in 1973, after which he began studying German and history at the Lörrach University of Education in South Baden in 1974 and graduated from the University of Paderborn in 1977 .

For 22 years he was principal school principal in Arnsberg , where he, married to Johanna Claßen-Weustenfeld, lived from 1983 until his death. In 2002 he initiated the Möhnesee literary shipping. Claßen thus laid the foundation for the Edelrabe Literature Prize , which Ulrich Wolfkühler and Otmar Alt donated in 2005 for the award on this literary cruise.

Since 2005 he has headed the regional writers' encounters Sauerland-Masuria ( initiated by Herbert Somplatzki and Dieter Wiethoff), the intention of which is to contribute to German-Polish understanding through literature. Under this premise, he also premiered his volume of poetry Die Glocken Vinetas in 2011 in Hirschberg ( Jelenia Góra ) in Poland or gave the lecture in 2013 on the occasion of Eichendorff's 225th birthday at his birthplace in Lubowitz (Lubowice) in the Upper Silesian Eichendorff Culture and Meeting Center ( Gornoslaskie Centrum Kultury i Spotkan im. Eichendorffa) .

Work and valuations

In 1993 and 1994 Claßen had published two volumes of poetry with youth poetry in conventional poetry, before he soon began to devote himself to modern literature. Crucial for this was the encounter and friendship with Wilhelm Gössmann , literary scholar at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf , chairman of the Heinrich Heine Society for ten years and a writer who publishes a lot himself.

The first result of this dialogue was published in 1999 by Claßens poetry book Freilandmuseum - Neue Lyrik vom Lande . In 2001, moonlight fell on pollen - Romantic Traces , and ten years later The Bells of Vinetas - Presence of Romanticism . "Speech rhythm and word sound meet with a precise search for the right term [...], preserving a wealth of images that effortlessly skips epochs," says journalist and literary critic Monika Willer. Wilhelm Gössmann writes in a similar way: “Reduction to the tonally essential remains the supreme law.” Often “a barely noticeable flow of thought occurs, the perspective changes and there is a confrontation with something new in terms of civilization”. One of the remarkable poetic procedures consists in "that typically romantic motifs are confronted with our reality and throw new light on both romanticism and our reality." Numerous poems were recited by the actor Klausjürgen Wussow and the director Hans-Bernhard Theopold, among others for the audio book Finding Traces (Claßen together with Mathias Knoll, 2003). In 2005, Claßen founded the quarterly literary magazine Der Edelrabe and has published several anthologies since 2007, starting with a volume of Eichendorff poems.

In 2016 the Bergstadtverlag Görlitz Classens published a volume of poems Wie Windvisionen the bells of Vinetas - Romantic Reverberation in German and Polish (Jak wietrzne wizje dźwięczą dzwony Winety - Echa romantyzmu), translated by Grzegorz Supady.

In 2017 Claßen died of a serious illness in Arnsberg.

Awards

• Alfred Müller Felsenburg Prize for upright literature 2005
• The Edelrabe Literature Prize 2005

Works

Volumes of poetry

• In the Sauerland landscape . Arnsberg 1992 (poems) ISBN 3-86133-110-1
• I feel so far and yet so close . Arnsberg 1993 (poems)
• Yggdrasil is the name of the ash at the Urdbrunnen . Arnsberg 1994 (ballads and spoken poems)
• I feel so far and yet so close . Klagenfurt 1996 (2nd revised edition)
• Open air museum. New poetry from the country . Arnsberg 1999 (poetry, illustrated by Kiril Malkow) ISBN 3-932088-17-4
• Landscape, poetry, literature . Arnsberg 2000 (poetry, alternating with prose by Mathias Knoll, illustrated by Hartmut Lübbe)
• Moonlight fell on pollen . Frankfurt a. M. 2001 (poetry and essays)
• Finding traces . Audiobook, Arnsberg 2003 (poetry, alternating with prose by Mathias Knoll, recited by Hans-Bernhard Theopold, accompanied by Wolfgang Bargel, guitar)
• The bells of Vinetas , Bergstadtverlag Görlitz, 2011 (poetry) ISBN 978-3-87057-322-5
• The bells of Vineta ring like visions of the wind. Romantic reverberation (Jak wietrzne wizje dźwięczą dzwony Winety - Echa romantyzmu ), Bergstadtverlag Görlitz, 2016 (poetry) ISBN 978-3-87057-341-6

prose

• Like a frozen scream . Hagen 1995 (short story)

literature

• Yvonne Pioch: Hans Claßen: As an author, you can't wait to be discovered . Frankfurter Literaturverlag, Frankfurt a. M. 2006
• Monika Salmen (Hrsg.): Festschrift in the aftermath of the 60th birthday of Johann J. Claßen . Arnsberg 2014

Web links

• Literature by and about Johann J. Claßen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Johann J. Claßen at NRW Literatur im Netz
• Hans Claßen in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann J. Claßen. In: Kürschner's German Literature Calendar 2016/2017. Volume II: PZ. Walter de Gruyter , 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-045397-3 , p. 153.
2. ^ Johannes Rasim: Eichendorff commemoration in Lubowitz and in Tost . In: Schlesien heute, vol. 16, no. 175, Görlitz 2013; Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Monika Willer: Afterword . In: Johann Joseph Claßen: The Glocken Vinetas , Görlitz 2011
4. ^ Wilhelm Gössmann: The stylistic features in the open air museum of Hans Claßen . In: Festschrift in the aftermath of the 60th birthday of Johann J. Claßen , ed. by Monika Salmen, Arnsberg 2014
5. ↑ Romantic border crossing