Julius Maria Becker

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Julius Maria Becker (1887–1949)

Julius Maria Becker (born March 29, 1887 in Aschaffenburg ; † July 26, 1949 there ) was a German author, playwright and poet .

Life

After attending the apprenticeships in Lohr am Main and Würzburg , where he also visited Max Dauthendey in the spring of 1909 , Julius Maria Becker worked as a teacher in his hometown before he left school in 1931. In 1913 his time-critical play, influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche and August Strindberg , was performed on New Year's Eve . Promoted by Richard Dehmel and Carl Hauptmann , he achieved his literary breakthrough with the drama The Last Court , which was published by S. Fischer Verlag in 1919 and premiered in Darmstadt the following year . In 1919 he received an Honorable Mention when he was awarded the Kleist Prize . In the 1920s, Becker was one of the most famous German playwrights. As a representative of Expressionism , his early symbolic dramas reflect the worlds of world war and revolution. Der Freier , which was first performed in Düsseldorf in 1922, and Der Schächer zur Linken , which premiered in Frankfurt in 1923 , also met with a positive response . He celebrated his greatest success in 1931 with the play Der Brückengeist , which was played on over fifty stages across Germany. Becker was awarded the Bühnenvolksbund Prize for this. His later works, which reveal a turn towards Christianity, no longer met with the same response as the dramas of the first post-war period.

Grave site in the Aschaffenburg forest cemetery

By 1933, twenty plays by Julius Maria Becker had been performed. During the time of National Socialism , the "missionary pacifist " was banned from German theaters and forced into a Catholic inner emigration . In 1940 he was editor of the 1935 Main Franken renamed, conformist magazine Spessart , whose last edition was published in April 1942nd In 1948, in a production by Gustav Lindemann, the world premiere of The Lord's Meal took place at the Düsseldorf Municipal Theaters . After 1945, however, Julius Maria Becker was unable to build on earlier successes and has largely been forgotten today. He found his final resting place in a grave of honor in the Aschaffenburg forest cemetery. In Aschaffenburg, a memorial stone on Kapuzinerplatz commemorates the son of the city.

In 1950 a volume of poems was published posthumously . Some of Becker's works were reissued in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including titles, such as the volume of short stories Romeo et Juliette (new edition of Gestürzte Cherubim ) and the novel Der Liebeskuss im Pavillon (new edition by Syrinx ). The Rapture of Oedipus - On Tragedy and Overcoming it was first published in 1985, as was the 1987 play The Brothers - Rest for Allah's Heart . In 1989 Gerrit Walther published the biography Julius Maria Becker 1887–1949. A poet between the world wars . The estate Beckers is located in the city and Stiftsarchiv Aschaffenburg ; it was completely recorded in 2018/2019 and made accessible for archiving. Together with Becker's private library , which is also located in the city and monastery archives, the estate has been researched since March 2019.

On October 21, 1919 he married Luise Becker, born twelve years his junior. Burner. The marriage remained childless.

Works (selection)

  • 1910: In the ring of the year
  • 1913: The glare
  • 1913: A New Year's Eve (reissued as the end of a New Year's Eve , 1989)
  • 1913: From you to me - poems
  • 1914: Syrinx - Roman (new edition as The Kiss of Love in the Pavilion , 1982)
  • 1919: The last judgment
  • 1922: The suitor
  • 1923: Eternal Time
  • 1923: Night watchman Kronos
  • 1923: The Wonder Man - Comedy
  • 1923: The thief on the left - play
  • 1925: Overturned Cherubim - Tales (reissued as Romeo et Juliette , 1978)
  • 1926: The Peace Ship - play
  • 1928: This law is not from God
  • 1928: Gilgamesh - Comedy
  • 1931: The Bridge Spirit - A Game of Death (new edition 1981)
  • 1931: The Night of the Kings - drama
  • 1931: Asylum - Dramatic scene
  • 1932: Man Number Soundsoviel - Acting
  • 1934: Night without morning - drama
  • 1935: Ludwig II - drama (new edition 1982)
  • 1935: An eye for an eye - tragedy
  • 1936: Bastions on Malta - drama
  • 1941: On the Bojana River - drama
  • 1944: The Cathedral of Bayeux - Drama (reissued as master builder Dumesnil - The Cathedral of Bayeux , 1984)
  • 1947: The Lord's Supper - drama
  • 1947: The world without Christ?

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralph Bauer: New World and Java. Max Dauthendey. In: Kurt Illing (Ed.): In the footsteps of the poets in Würzburg. Self-published (print: Max Schimmel Verlag), Würzburg 1992, pp. 65–80; here: p. 69 f.
  2. ^ The entry on Julius Maria Becker in Neue Deutsche Biographie names Karl Hauptmann here, cf. the painter Karl Hauptmann
  3. ^ The Kleist Prize Winners 1912-1932 at http://www.kleist.org ; accessed on March 14, 2019
  4. ^ Jörg Mager:  Becker, Julius Maria. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 718 ( digitized version ).
  5. ↑ cf. Gerrit Walther: Julius Maria Becker 1887–1949. A poet between the world wars. Battert, Baden-Baden 1989
  6. ↑ Leonardo and the atomic bomb , Der Spiegel No. 47/1948, November 20, 1948
  7. ↑ The Lord's Supper , Die Zeit No. 48/1948, November 25, 1948
  8. ↑ Information from the birth, marriage and death registers of the city of Aschaffenburg in the city and monastery archive of Aschaffenburg

Web links

Commons : Julius Maria Becker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Becker, Julius Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German playwright and poet
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Aschaffenburg
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1949
Place of death Aschaffenburg