Karl Benno von Mechow

Karl Benno von Mechow (born July 24, 1897 in Bonn , † September 11, 1960 in Emmendingen ) was a German writer .

life and work

Mechow, who came from an old officer family, took part in the First World War as a volunteer . Afterwards, as a nationally minded author, he published some works in which he tended towards Landser romanticism and, above all, described the war as an adventure. He studied agriculture and lived as a farmer in Brannenburg in Bavaria . Later he also wrote novels about man's bond with nature, such as “The rural year” (1929) or “Vorsommer” (1933) and was highly valued as an author by the Scholl siblings . During the Third Reich , Mechow and Paul Alverdes published the national-conservative literary magazine Das Innere Reich from 1934 onwards , but ended the collaboration in 1938.

Karl Benno von Mechow was particularly closely connected with Ernst Wiechert , whose shepherd novella contains a dedication to Mechow. As Georg Britting reported, Mechow suffered from symptoms of a manic-depressive illness from the mid-1930s and was treated several times in psychiatric clinics.

From 1945 he lived as a freelance writer in Freiburg im Breisgau . As his mental illness worsened, Mechow hardly published any new works in the post-war period. He died in Emmendingen in 1960, but is buried in Freiburg. Among other things, he was a member of the Innviertel artists' guild .

reception

In the lexicon of world literature , Mechow is characterized as a sensitive, perfectly formed narrator of male behavior in the portrayal of internal or interpersonal conflicts , in whose work echoes of Fontane and especially Stifter can be found.

Web links

Literature by and about Karl Benno von Mechow in the catalog of the German National Library
Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library
Obituary in SPIEGEL

Individual evidence

↑ Thomas F. Schneider, Hans Wagener (ed.): From Richthofen to Remarque: German-language prose for World War I. 1st edition. Editions Rodopi, 2003, ISBN 90-420-0955-1 , p. 346.
^ Leonore Krenzlin, Klaus Weigelt (ed.): Ernst Wiechert in conversation. Encounters and insights into his work . De Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-020062-1 , p. 41.
↑ Ingeborg Schuldt-Britting (Ed.): Letters from Georg Britting to Georg Jung 1943 to 1963 . Höhenmoos 2005, ISBN 3-8335-9001-7 , p. 61.
^ Gero von Wilpert (Ed.): Lexicon of world literature. Volume 2: Authors LZ. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-59050-5 , p. 1001.

personal data
SURNAME	Mechow, Karl Benno from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German author
DATE OF BIRTH	July 24, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bonn , North Rhine-Westphalia
DATE OF DEATH	September 11, 1960
Place of death	Emmendingen , Baden-Wuerttemberg

[1] Thomas F. Schneider, Hans Wagener (ed.): From Richthofen to Remarque: German-language prose for World War I. 1st edition. Editions Rodopi, 2003, ISBN 90-420-0955-1 , p. 346.

[2] Leonore Krenzlin, Klaus Weigelt (ed.): Ernst Wiechert in conversation. Encounters and insights into his work . De Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-020062-1 , p. 41.

[3] Ingeborg Schuldt-Britting (Ed.): Letters from Georg Britting to Georg Jung 1943 to 1963 . Höhenmoos 2005, ISBN 3-8335-9001-7 , p. 61.

[4] Gero von Wilpert (Ed.): Lexicon of world literature. Volume 2: Authors LZ. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-59050-5 , p. 1001.