John's sleep

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Johannes Schlaf (around 1900) Signature of Johannes Schlaf.jpg

Johannes Schlaf (born June 21, 1862 in Querfurt ; † February 2, 1941 ibid) was a German dramatist , narrator and translator and an important representative of German naturalism . As a translator, he made a decisive contribution to the spread of the works of Walt Whitman , Émile Verhaeren and Émile Zola in the German-speaking world. He is considered to be the founder of the Whitman cult in Germany. His literary merits lie primarily in the scenic and dialogical innovations of "consequent naturalism" and in the development of literary impressionism . He also contributed to the creation of the " intimate theater ".

Life

Johannes-Schlaf-Linde in Querfurt

Johannes Schlaf grew up as the son of a commercial clerk in Querfurt. Since the family lived in cramped conditions, he lived temporarily with his grandparents. His grandmother, an educated woman, supported his affinity for art and literature from an early age. In an autobiographical sketch from 1902, he stated that he had already written verses and little puppet shows when he was twelve, and that he had already written poems and novels when he was in high school. He also showed a special talent for drawing. In 1875, Schlaf's father found a job in a construction business in the up-and-coming industrial metropolis of Magdeburg. This put an end to the childhood idyll for sleep, since the father's strict regime prevailed in the parents' house and felt more fear than affection for sleep.

From 1875 to 1884 Schlaf attended the cathedral high school in Magdeburg , where in 1882 he joined the “Bund der Lebendigen” student club. It was at the club that he first studied the latest writings in the fields of philosophy, science, and literature. In 1884 Johannes Schlaf passed his Abitur and began studying in Halle . There he attended lectures in theology, German, ancient philology and philosophy. However, his interest was probably more the student connections than the study itself. In the years 1884 and 1885 his first publications fell. In 1885 he moved to Berlin to study . There he joined the literary association “Durch” in 1886, an association of young naturalistic authors, including Gerhart Hauptmann , Arno Holz and Wilhelm Bölsche .

During his studies, Schlaf always felt himself caught in a conflict between the duties of study and the urge to devote himself entirely to writing. During this time, Schlaf met Arno Holz and a friendship developed between the two. In 1892 they presented the anthology Neue Gleise as their first joint work , which later went down in literary history as “Consistent Naturalism”. Around 1887, Schlaf agreed to an offer from Holz to move into a friend's vacant summer house in Niederschönhausen to work with him there. With that, Schlaf had made the decision not to study.

The year 1892 initially indicated a recognized career as a writer for Schlaf, as indicated by the successful publications of his Dingsda sketches and the drama Meister Oelze . But in January 1893, after a nervous breakdown, Schlaf was admitted to the Charité in Berlin . Richard Dehmel stood up for him and collected funds so that sleep could stay longer in a sanatorium. Until 1897 he stayed in various sanatoriums, only from 1896 an improvement in his condition was foreseeable. Sleep later referred to his illness as a nervous disease and mood depression.

The turning point came with his discovery of the American poet Walt Whitman , who celebrates life in nature, friendship and democracy in his poems. In 1904, Schlaf published a small monograph on the American. He translated his Leaves of Grass and thus became the pioneer of this herald of a simple, natural life. In the traveling poet Gusto Gräser from Transylvania (1879–1958), who visited him in Weimar in 1909, he then found a “German Walt”. In several newspaper articles he campaigned for the poet, who was often harassed by the authorities. He made him appear as the ideal figure in the novel Aufstieg from 1911 and made him the main figure in the story Fruchtmahl from 1922.

In the 1930s, Schlaf turned back to drama production: Around 1930/1931, Das Gottwerk, The Holy Birth, Jacob, Bonifatius, Nero and Orestes were created . Schlaf completed Troy in 1934, and Faust completed it in 1938 . The pieces were shaped by his historical speculations and folkish ideas. Despite the efforts of the author, they were never published or performed. After the seizure of power by the Nazis, he was in May 1933 in the "cleaned" German Academy of Literature , a section of the Prussian Academy of Arts called. In October of the same year he was one of the 88 writers who signed the pledge of loyal allegiance to Adolf Hitler. In 1937, Schlaf returned to Querfurt. He continued to work there on his geocentrics until the end , but most of his books were no longer published. In his later years he received numerous honors, especially for his services as a naturalistic poet. On February 2, 1941, Johannes Schlaf died in his hometown at the age of 78 and was buried in the Querfurt cemetery . High representatives of the National Socialist government attended his funeral .

For the most part, the public has a lack of understanding of his cosmogonic late work, which is probably due to its complex, speculative content. Today he is best known for his early works, including the Selicke family, Meister Oelze, In Dingsda and Frühling . Part of the estate of Johannes Schlaf is in the manuscript department of the Dortmund City and State Library .

Act

Novel production and ideological tendencies

Inspired by reading the writings of Walt Whitman and Ernst Haeckel , Schlaf modified his concept of naturalism from an art theoretical to an ideological concept. In 1904, Schlaf moved to tranquil Weimar in order to be able to devote himself entirely to conveying his worldview.

The novel seemed to be the appropriate genre to represent his concept. However, the aesthetic quality of his works fell short of his ideological objectives. The main character of the novels and the plot served basically only as a framework for the exposition of philosophical speculations. A total of ten novels were written between 1900 and 1914. Common to the series of novels are Schlaf’s visions of a new human epoch and the preoccupation with decadence , by which sleep means a refinement of the sensibility. He interprets this as a characteristic of the new human type.

To systematically present his worldview, Schlaf also published theoretical writings, behind which his poetry took a back seat from the 1920s and 1930s. His main philosophical work is "The Absolute Individual and the Perfection of Religion" (1910), in which he relates the monistic - evolutionist , racial biological and cultural philosophical theses developed in previous works .

Development of the dramas and turning away from consequent naturalism

In his essay "The Beginnings of the New German Literature Movement", published in 1902, Schlaf stated that different conceptions of "naturalistic poetry" had become noticeable early on. Whenever Holz aims to “reproduce the milieu and state of affairs as precisely as possible”, he himself placed the greatest value “on the psychological of the people and also on the dialogue” from the start. But it was only after their separation that he was able to fully develop this focus. So he turned against "consequent naturalism" at an early stage.

A first turn to the Impressionist “language of feeling” and nature mysticism was already announced in Schlaf's Dingsda sketches , which appeared in the first anthology In Dingsda in 1892. This "impressionistic naturalism" on a monistic basis reached a climax in Schlafs' poem Spring , published in 1894 , which met with enthusiastic approval. Specific forms of natural experience of the poetic figures of sleep can be named: delimitation of the ego, ecstasies of feeling, experiences of the all-unity in the “fourth dimension”. The specific stylistic elements of his descriptions of nature include nominalizations of language, paratactic sequencing techniques, sumptuous word decorations, avoidance of conceptual designations, abolition of part of speech boundaries, formation of compounds, coupling of opposites, artistic use of punctuation. Schlaf had already tried out a number of these style elements in collaboration with Arno Holz in 1887/88 (development of the theory and poetic practice of the “style of the second”), albeit on subjects of socially critical naturalism. Sleep puts it at the service of its monistic world experience and interpretation of reality. His poetic-naturalistic truthfulness often led in his works to a stylistic-artificial tattering and religious exaggeration of natural phenomena. Although he saw himself as the "perfecter of naturalism", he ultimately proved himself to be an anti-naturalist even in his early creative phase, as a typical representative of the tendency towards criticism of civilization that was clearly emerging in the literature of the turn of the century, whose representatives are beginning to mystify reality (e.g. B. Wilhelm Bösche, Heinrich and Julius Hart, Bruno Wille).

Master Oelze was Schlaf's first independently created drama, which appeared after working with Holz. It was published in 1892 and premiered in Berlin on February 4, 1894. The piece was a great success and was even rated by experts as superior to the Selicke family . Holz himself rated his play in letters to Reinhard Piper as “the best German tragedy”.

In terms of language and structure, “Meister Oelze” still has similar characteristics to the pieces on the “Neue Gleise”. As far as the material is concerned, the differences to the "New Tracks" are clear. Where in the older pieces there were still social-psychological factors and a determinism caused by the milieu and origin of the people were central aspects, sleep now shifts the focus on inner-soul, subconscious processes and psychological contacts of the characters. Sleep saw himself as the creator of a "psychological naturalism" and in 1898 published his essay On intimate drama . Here he emphasized the importance of the “subterranean dialogue of the souls”, which is made clear through a “parallel language” of gestures, facial expressions, body movements and uncontrolled exclamations. This “ silent game ” was intended to replace monologues and “ talking aside ” in conventional dramas. Such a refinement of the dialogue had never taken place in any drama before. Precisely for this reason, sleep is seen as a pioneer of “intimate drama”, the psychological intimacy of dialogue.

The "intimacy" of the dialogue was expanded in Schlafs further drama production, from Gertrud (1898) to Die Feindlichen (1898), Der Bann (1900) and finally Weigand (1906), his last published drama, to portray parapsychological processes. In place of "normal" social contacts, topics such as suggestion , thought transfer or hypnosis took place . The main topic was the problems between men and women. In addition, the author's monistic speculations about nature were increasingly reflected, which were probably triggered by reading Ernst Haeckel's writings and which Schlaf integrated into his conception of naturalism.

Cooperation with Arno Holz

The anthology Neue Gleise consisted of three parts, each with its own foreword. The first part contains the texts Krumme Windgasse 20, Die Kleine Emmi, Ein Abschied and Die Papierne Passion . The second part is a collection of short stories with the title Papa Hamlet , which, in addition to the cover story, contains the stories The First Day of School and A Death . This collection had already been published as a book in 1889 under the Danish-sounding pseudonym "Bjarne B. Holmsen", but was quickly recognized as the work of the two German authors. The drama The Selicke Family , the third part of the anthology, was also published and performed in 1890. This drama is regarded as the climax and at the same time the end of the “consistent naturalism” of wood and sleep.

Before he started working with Schlaf, Holz had already dealt with questions of art theory and in 1897 set up his much-discussed “Art Law”. It was published in his book Die Kunst. Their essence and their laws . Holz's thoughts from this time were also reflected in the Neue Gleisen .

The Selicke family drama is generally regarded as a prime example of “consequent naturalism” . Holz is pursuing a renewal of the classic form of drama, in which the means of representation should be chosen in such a way that the objective and direct reproduction of a section of reality is possible without any poetic stylization or subjective evaluation. A dramatic plot and the existing aesthetic form should be dispensed with in favor of the representation of the characters in their environment. In his work Das Werk , published in 1925 , Holz stated that what was central to him was “the human being and his rendering as intense as possible,” that is, a reduction of the plot in favor of character representation. It was about the representation of people from the point of view of the predominantly technically and scientifically influenced world view of the second half of the 19th century, as reflected in the environmental theory "naturalism consequents" expressed the, so the idea of determinism of man by conditioning and environment .

In practice, these ideas of wood and sleep were implemented through various innovations that differed greatly from the previous drama tradition and narrative style. The importance of the dialogue to implement their new form became clear to Schlaf und Holz early on. In order to achieve greater immediacy of the events, one resorted to scenic-dialogical narration and experienced speech , while introductory inquit formulas or an intermediary narrator were dispensed with. A status dialogue was also used, which should say more about the character of the person than to be the carrier of the action.

Reality was achieved primarily through the use of language in the figure speech: syntactic abbreviations, grammatical incorrectness and dialectal expressions, pauses and incomplete sentences or an accumulation of questions and exclamations and a written reproduction of the intonation are used . This creates a certain “linguistic milieu” which, not least, is intended to indicate the social milieu of the people portrayed. The spatial surroundings of the figures also gained in importance for the representation of the milieu. This was already clear in the extensive and detailed stage directions and was also expressed in consciously selected milieu props. Maintaining the unity of place and time should also create an oppressive atmosphere.

The content of the stories, topics such as broken family relationships, alcoholism , financial hardship and illness, were nothing new in German naturalism. This is not surprising, since according to Holz's theory of art, which the Selicke family was still strongly influenced by, the linguistic side of the poetry is decisive for its quality, while the purely content-related subject can be neglected. But where other representatives put the content of the scriptures over their form, for them the linguistic means were in the foreground and were worked out in detail. The "consequent naturalism" achieved its own meaning for the history of literature, primarily through the new linguistic form.

The Selicke family was initially not a great success on stage, most critics rejected the play. A “poor dramatic freak” was the verdict of the Berlin Courier on April 9, 1890. The public and experts were used to classical-romantic poetry, which was based on different aesthetic principles. However, this was a “way away from the routine of the theater, away from convention and the traditional rules of art,” said Otto Brahm , the head of the “ Free Stage ” in Berlin at the time .

Dispute with Arno Holz

In the foreword to the first and second editions of the Selicke family , Holz explicitly denied the critics' assumptions that sleep is more of a student of Holz than a colleague of equal rights when working together . Even if the authors found their working relationship to be balanced at the beginning, their personal problems soon weighed on the collaboration. As Schlaf stated in his pamphlet "Once again Arno Holz and I", these "made working together (...) almost unbearable over time" and increasingly led to the estrangement of the two friends. Different artistic conceptions also seem to have led to tension early on.

In 1898, at a time of poetic failure, Schlaf published the article "Why I Tore My Last Drama Up". Here he claimed to be the sole initiator of the "new dramatic direction" that emerged during the collaboration. He assessed the proportion of wood in the new dramatic style only as “initial preparatory and other suggestions”. This article can be interpreted as the trigger for the public dispute between wood and sleep, which was subsequently fought out by both authors through numerous publications. In essence, it was always about the question of the respective share in the joint works and who had priority. While both writers had previously jokingly described each other as complementary to “woman and man”, Holz tried above all in a mental suggestion to later establish himself as the determining “man” in this artistic marriage of convenience.

A literary quarrel turned into mutual hatred, and the writings became increasingly personal. Wood tried to refute Schlafs claims. To discredit him, Wooden led among other things, an alleged mental illness sleep, which in size and paranoia litte what was refuted by the opinion of an attending physician. The dispute reached its climax in 1905 and 1906. These experiences have left their mark on Schlaf's work, as can be seen in the depiction of schizophrenic and psychotic behavior in the novels published since 1900.

In the discourse, the dispute was dealt with exhaustively by numerous critics, without a clear judgment having been reached to this day. As a rule, the decision was made in favor of wood, a majority considered sleep only to be a student and fellow campaigner, wood, to which he certainly made a significant contribution in his pamphlets. A distinction is usually made in that sleep is largely allowed to have the poetic components, while wood was generally responsible for technical fundamentals. But even Holz stated in letters to Reinhard Piper in his later years : "I value sleep as a 'poet' more than myself. I value him most as a 'poet'!"

Geocentric view of the world

In the course of his studies, Schlaf developed his geocentric view of the world . He based his conception of the earth as the center of the universe on studies of the sunspot phenomenon . As a result, a controversy arose between sleep and specialist scholars, which he met with rejection. They criticized the speculative nature of his assumptions, the "unscientific nature" and inadequate evidence. For them he remained an amateur astronomer.

Nevertheless, Schlaf continued to advocate his worldview and tried to spread it through numerous publications. In addition to essays, books and newspaper articles, he also used correspondence, radio reports and lectures for this purpose.

But success and a breakthrough in geocentric teaching did not materialize. They were too amateur for experts, too complex for laymen. But despite sales difficulties and financial worries, the author refused to adapt to the public's taste for financial reasons. His geocentricity remained his life's work until his death. The unwavering adherence to his convictions earned him, regardless of the specific content of his writings, his reputation as a “wise man” and “seer”.

During the Weimar Republic, Schlaf's geocentrism was not a special case, even if it was subject to a change towards an ethnocentric worldview. Philosophical writings dominated during this time and thus refer to political disinterest and a departure from everyday reality. These developments began already in the Wilhelmine era. The conception of naturalism, which emerged as early as the 1880s, with its form of perception of depth and unity, led to the abandonment of critical-analytical thinking and the fading out of reality. Linked to this was the decline of rational thinking and concrete references to reality, which was reflected in his war writings in particular. So it became more and more difficult to distinguish between one's own expectations of salvation and the totalitarian ideology of the Nazis, and that ultimately led to a misunderstanding of the Third Reich, even with Schlaf. In the 1930s he confessed to Hitler and Nazi politics.

First world war and effects

The numerous war writings of Schlafs show that he dealt with the subject in the pre-war period. For him, war was a race war in which the stronger race prevailed and thus displaced the weaker race. For sleep, war was a pure selection measure by evolution. Correspondingly, according to Schlaf, a stage would at some point be reached in which war is no longer necessary, since humanity has reached its highest stage of development in evolutionary history. Then a state of peace is achieved.

Based on this thought, in the pre-war period, Schlaf did not think war likely, because he believed that humanity was striving towards its perfect stage. As a sign of this he interpreted an apparently widespread war fatigue. However, this contradicted reality, as hegemonic politics continued. Arthur Moeller van den Bruck already had a clearly positive review of the author's publications at that time in the pre-war years.

Even the outbreak of war did not change any of Schlaf's unrealistic ideas; on the contrary, it strengthened them. In an ontological fantasy, Schlaf viewed war as a sacred evil. He took the position customary among conservatives that the war had been challenged by Germany's enemies. Since the opponents belonged to a “lower race”, the current war is only an evolutionary step with which Germany will assert itself as the “highest race”. From this he derives Germany's claim to leadership and a German cultural hegemony .

Dieter Kafitz attested the novels of sleep as a phenomenon typical of the late Wilhelmine mentality of the time: a “reduction in the ability to recognize social and political contexts” and a “suppression of reality through ideological thinking” combined with an inability to adequately grasp the meaning of the First World War.

Such anti-rationalist and anti- liberalist ideas of the superiority of a race are not an invention of Schlaf, but were widespread among philosophers, writers and historians during this time. They were encouraged in their emergence by the " Ideas of 1914 " and largely correspond to the ideas of the patriotic to right-wing extremist forces in the Weimar Republic . The payments from the Schiller Foundation , which Schlaf had rejected in 1893/94, increased in regularity after 1915.

Weimar Republic

The defeat of Germany in World War I found it difficult to process sleep - gripped by general national pride. But it changed nothing in the developed ideas. The time for a German revolution in the cultural and intellectual field had now come all the more. Last but not least, he made the fact of defeat more bearable for himself.

In order to avoid dealing with the events, he threw himself into writing, like other authors of the time. The crisis in society and politics was reinterpreted as general human needs and religious disorientation, the solution of which believed to be found in philosophy. Encouraged by this religious-philosophical missionary thought, he then devoted himself only to his philosophical studies. His turn to ideological speculations can be interpreted as a fading out of social and political reality. By resorting to cosmogonic studies, it was probably possible for sleep to compensate for the oppressive experiences of the post-war period.

Measured against the success of his writings at that time, it remains a contradiction that despite the lack of success as an author, his public recognition as a person increased. Especially on birthdays, there was always an accumulation of public honors, from commemorative publications and birthday celebrations to monuments and street names to the establishment of a museum and the foundation of the “Society of Friends of Johannes Schlaf”.

"Third Reich" and National Socialism

As early as the 1890s, Schlaf hinted at ideas of the Third Reich in the course of overcoming naturalism . He speaks of the “third testament” that the reconciling Savior of the future is supposed to open, analogous to the “ Third Reich ” in his essay Prudery (1890).

Schlaf had expanded his ideological concept of naturalism to include aspects of race theory, as in Christ and Sophie , which were ultimately expressed in the idea of ​​the superiority of the " Germanic race". Before the First World War, these racial biological ideas still had an international character and at that time still related to the entire European culture. The indefinite term “Germanic race” could basically still apply to every European people. After the war at the latest, things were very different. Concepts of a further development in racial biology related only to the German people.

Sleep finally approached National Socialism . He saw the National Socialist ideology and Hitler as fulfilling his ideological ideas.

Works (in selection)

Spring , title by Emil Rudolf Weiß
  • Detlev von Liliencron
  • Papa Hamlet , with Arno Holz, 1889
  • The Selicke family , drama, with Arno Holz, 1890
  • Young people , novel, 1890. Again Berlin 1997.
  • In Dingsda , Prosaverse, 1892
  • Master Oelze , Drama, 1892
  • Gertrud , drama, 1898
  • The Enemy , Drama, 1898
  • Silent worlds. New moods from Dingsda , 1899
  • The spell , drama, 1900
  • The Third Reich , Roman, 1900
  • The Seekers , novel, 1902
  • Peter Boites Freite , novel, 1903
  • The little one , novel, 1904
  • The nun. Novellas, 1905
  • Christ and Sophie . Vienna / Leipzig 1906.
  • Novalis and Sophie von Kühn. A psychophysiological study . Munich, Bonsels, 1906.
  • Weigand , Drama, 1906
  • Critique of the Taine Art Theory , 1906
  • The Prince , novel, 1908
  • At the dead point , novel, 1909
  • Rise , novel, 1911
  • Religion and Cosmos , 1911
  • Puss. The novel of a free woman , novel, 1912
  • The Right of Youth , narrative, 1913
  • Auntie Mohnhaupt and other things. Thingda Stories , 1913
  • Professor Plassmann and the sunspot phenomenon. More on the geocentric determination , 1914
  • Conspicuous lack of validity of the professional objection. Geocentric determination , 1914
  • Mother Lise , Roman, 1917
  • Two stories , 1918
  • The earth - not the sun. The geocentric view of the world , 1919
  • Poems in prose , 1920
  • Miele. A character picture , 1920
  • The old woman. Early spring , short stories, 1921
  • The Change , novel, 1922
  • The god song , 1922
  • Soul , 1922
  • I close a game gate behind me ... Patriotic from Dingsda , 1922
  • Radium , short stories, 1922
  • The Change , novel, 1922
  • The Christmas wish and other things. New stories from Dingsda , 1924
  • Germany , 1925
  • The night of the planets , 1925
  • The other dimension , short stories, 1926
  • The mother , seal, 1927
  • The Game of High Lines , Seals, 1927
  • Cosmos and cosmic circulation. The geocentric solution to the cosmic problem , 1927
  • The Sun Processes , 1930
  • News from Dingsda , 1933
  • On Kant's doctrine of apriorities , 1934
  • From the Supreme Being , 1935
  • A major astronomical problem and its solution , 1937
  • Out of my life. Memories , 1941

Translations

Film adaptations

literature

swell

  • Lothar Jegensdorf: The speculative interpretation and poetic representation of nature in the work of Johannes Schlaf. Diss. University of Bochum 1969.
  • Dieter Kafitz: Johannes Schlaf - ideological totality and reality blindness. A contribution to the redefinition of the concept of naturalism and to the derivation of totalitarian forms of thought. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992.
  • Siegwart Berthold: The so-called “consistent naturalism” by Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf . Diss. Bonn 1967, pp. 21, 51-52, 135-136.
  • Helmut Praschek: On the disintegration of the naturalistic style. A comparison of two versions of "Meister Oelze" by Johannes Schlaf. In: words and values. Festschrift for Bruno Markwardt. de Gruyter, Berlin 1961, p. 315.
  • Ernst Sander: Johannes Schlaf and the naturalistic drama. Leipzig 1922. [At the same time: Diss. Rostock 1922] pp. 7, 34, 52, 58-59, 84.
  • Dieter Kafitz: “The Selicke Family” by Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf as the ideal type of naturalistic drama. In: Ders .: Basics of a history of German drama from Lessing to Naturalism (=  Athenaeum-Tb. 2176 ). Volume 2. Königstein / Ts. 1982, pp. 288-299.
  • Otto Brahm: Representatives of German Naturalism. Wood and Sleep: Papa Hamlet. In: Ders .: Reviews and essays (=  classics of criticism ). Selected, initiated and explained by Fritz Martini. Zurich 1964, pp. 302-305, 332-337.
  • Heinz-Georg Brands: Theory and style of the so-called “Consistent Naturalism” by Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf (=  treatises on art, music and literary studies. 277). Bonn 1978, pp. 232, 233.
  • Ulrich Erdmann: From Naturalism to National Socialism? Contemporary-biographical studies on Max Halbe, Gerhart Hauptmann, Johannes Schlaf and Hermann Stehr . Lang, Frankfurt 1997, pp. 240-274. [Also: Diss. Stuttgart 1996]

Further literature

  • Rüdiger Bernhardt: Johannes sleep - the poet from Dingsda. Dingsda-Verlag, Querfurt 2002, ISBN 3-928498-13-4 .
  • Heinz-Georg Brands: Theory and style of the so-called “consistent naturalism” by Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf. Critical analysis of the research results and attempt to redefine it (=  treatises on art, music and literary studies. 277). Bouvier, Bonn 1978, ISBN 3-416-01443-X .
  • Thomas Diecks:  Sleep, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 21 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ulrich Erdmann: From Naturalism to National Socialism? Contemporary-biographical studies on Max Halbe, Gerhart Hauptmann, Johannes Schlaf and Hermann Stehr. With unknown personal testimonials. Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-631-30907-4 .
  • Guido Heinrich: Sleep, Johannes. In: Guido Heinrich, Gunter Schandera (ed.): Magdeburg Biographical Lexicon 19th and 20th centuries. Biographical lexicon for the state capital Magdeburg and the districts of Bördekreis, Jerichower Land, Ohrekreis and Schönebeck. Scriptum, Magdeburg 2002, ISBN 3-933046-49-1 .
  • Günter Helmes : Johannes sleep: life and work. In: Johannes Schlaf: Young people . Ullstein, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-548-24202-2 , pp. 207-223.
  • Lothar Hempe : Johannes sleep bibliography. List of the first prints published independently from 1889 to 1937 in chronological order. Privatdr., Stuttgart 1938.
  • Joachim Jahns: Large Querfurter… Dingsda-Verlag, Querfurt 1990, ISBN 3-928498-00-2 .
* Dieter Kafitz: Johannes Schlaf – weltanschauliche Totalität und Wirklichkeitsblindheit. Ein Beitrag zur Neubestimmung des Naturalismus-Begriffs und zur Herleitung totalitärer Denkformen. (= Studien zur deutschen Literatur. 120). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-484-18120-6.
  • Hanno Möbius: Positivism in the literature of naturalism. Science, art and social issues with Arno Holz. Fink, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7705-1790-3 .
  • Gaston Scheidweiler: Shaping and overcoming decadence with Johannes Schlaf. An interpretation of his novels (=  Europäische Hochschulschriften, Series 1, German Language and Literature. 1158). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1990, ISBN 3-631-42226-1 .
  • Raleigh Whitinger: Johannes Schlaf and German naturalist drama (=  Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture ). Camden House, Columbia 1997, ISBN 1-57113-107-8 .

Web links

Commons : Johannes Schlaf  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Johannes Schlaf  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dieter Kafitz: The intimate theater at the end of the 19th century. In: Günter Holtus (Ed.): Theaterwese and dramatic literature. Contributions to the history of the theater. Tübingen 1987, pp. 309-329, 316f.
  2. ↑ On the course of the collaboration: Peter Sprengel: History of German-language literature 1870–1900. From the founding of the empire to the turn of the century. (=  Volume IX.1 of the history of German literature from the beginnings to the present ). CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 389ff.
  3. ↑ Overall on the literary co-production: Holz & Co. The collaboration between Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf and Oskar Jerschke, or: The Limits of Freedom. In: Peter Sprengel: Literature in the Empire. Studies on modernity. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1993, p. 91ff.
  4. ^ Stanisław Przybyszewski : I come from afar: memories of Berlin and Krakow. Volume 7, ed. by Oliver Stürmann. Igel-Verlag Literatur, Berlin 1994, p. 117.
  5. ↑ Dieter Kafitz: Johannes sleep - worldview totality and reality blindness. A contribution to the redefinition of the concept of naturalism and to the derivation of totalitarian forms of thought . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992, pp. 86, 108f.
  6. ↑ Cf. Stefan Pegatzky: The porous I: body and aesthetics from Arthur Schopenhauer to Thomas Mann . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2002, p. 342.
  7. ↑ See Siegwart Berthold: The so-called “consistent naturalism” by Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf. Diss. Bonn 1967, pp. 21, 51-52, 135-136.
  8. ↑ Cf. the detailed language analyzes of Schlaf's descriptions of nature by Lothar Jegensdorf: The speculative interpretation and poetic representation of nature in the work of Johannes Schlaf. Diss. University of Bochum 1969 , pp. 107-148, 168-307.
  9. ↑ There, cf. P. 308ff.
  10. ↑ Cf.:. Urte Heldhuser: Gender Programs . Concepts of literary modernity around 1900 . Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2005, p. 238.
  11. ↑ See the other escapes from reality by other writers and the position of Johannes Schlaf; Gerhard Peter Knapp: Authors then and now: literary-historical examples of changed horizons . Rodopi, Amsterdam / New York 1991, p. 394.
  12. ↑ Dieter Kafitz: Johannes Schlaf - ideological totality and reality blindness. A contribution to the redefinition of the concept of naturalism and to the derivation of totalitarian forms of thought. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992, p. 24.
  13. ↑ Guntram H. Herb: From the border revision to expansion. Territorial Concepts in the Weimar Republic. In: Sabine Höhler, Iris Schröder (ed.): World spaces. History, geography and globalization since 1900 . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / a. M. 2005, p. 180ff.
  14. ↑ Dieter Kafitz: Johannes Schlaf - ideological totality and reality blindness. A contribution to the redefinition of the concept of naturalism and to the derivation of totalitarian forms of thought . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992, pp. 259, 163.
  15. ↑ Dieter Kafitz: Johannes Schlaf - ideological totality and reality blindness. A contribution to the redefinition of the concept of naturalism and to the derivation of totalitarian forms of thought . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992, p. 29.
  16. ↑ Arthur Moeller van den Bruck: Johannes Schlaf in three essays : In: Magazin für Litteratur, 67th vol., No. 27, May 7, 1898, pp. 416-420; Ders .: Johannes sleep. In: Society. 13th year, Leipzig, November 1897, pp. 154-165.
  17. ↑ Johannes Schlaf: About war, peace and the error of pacifism . Berlin 1918.
  18. ↑ Dieter Kafitz: Johannes Schlaf - ideological totality and reality blindness. A contribution to the redefinition of the concept of naturalism and to the derivation of totalitarian forms of thought . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992, p. 163.
  19. ↑ On the term and use by Johann Plenge : Steffen Bruendel: Volksgemeinschaft or Volksstaat. The "Ideas of 1914" and the reorganization of Germany in the First World War . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2003, p. 113ff.
  20. ↑ Birgit Kuhbandner: Entrepreneur between the market and the modern. Publishers and contemporary German-language literature on the threshold of the 20th century . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, p. 49.
  21. ↑ Johannes sleep, Ludwig Bäte , Kurt Meyer-Rotermund , Rudolf Borch : The Johannes sleep book: for his sixtieth birthday . Greifenverlag, 1922.
  22. ↑ Dieter Kafitz: Johannes Schlaf - ideological totality and reality blindness. A contribution to the redefinition of the concept of naturalism and to the derivation of totalitarian forms of thought . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992, p. 26.
  23. ↑ Johannes Schlaf: Prudery. In: Free stage for modern life. 1st year, volume 6 (March 12, 1890)
  24. ↑ Stefan Pegatzky: The porous I: body and aesthetics from Arthur Schopenhauer to Thomas Mann . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg, p. 489.
  25. ↑ Dieter Kafitz: Johannes Schlaf - ideological totality and reality blindness. A contribution to the redefinition of the concept of naturalism and to the derivation of totalitarian forms of thought . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992, p. 138ff.
  26. ↑ Cornelia Schmitz-Berning: Vocabulary of National Socialism. de Gruyter, 2000, p. 156.
personal data
SURNAME Sleep, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holmsen, Bjarne P.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German playwright, narrator and translator
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Querfurt
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1941
Place of death Querfurt