Karl Bleibtreu

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Bleibtreu
Ismael Gentz : Karl Bleibtreu

Karl August Bleibtreu (born January 13, 1859 in Berlin ; † January 30, 1928 in Locarno ) was a German writer and son of the battle painter Georg Bleibtreu .

Life

After dropping out of his studies at the Philosophical Faculty in Berlin in 1884, Karl Bleibtreu traveled all over Europe. Its destinations were Belgium , Hungary , Italy and Great Britain . In the same year he took over the management of the “Kleiner Tagblatt” in Berlin. From 1885 he lived as a freelance writer in Berlin-Charlottenburg and got to know Michael Georg Conrad , with whom he published the magazine Die Gesellschaft from 1888 to 1890 : realistic weekly for literature, art and life .

In 1886 his programmatic writing, based on Émile Zola, was published , Revolution der Literatur , with which he became famous. Together with Konrad Alberti , Karl Bleibtreu founded the Deutsche Bühne in Berlin in 1890 , which was considered to compete with the then important free stage of modern theater. The project was not a great success and failed a short time later. Since 1908 he lived, who had lived with the Swiss Julia born in 1894. Gambon was married in Zurich .

Attitude towards literary criticism

Karl Bleibtreu was considered an important representative of the naturalism of German literature. He represented this as an editor, producer, program critic and critic. Characterized by the intolerance of his literary and literary critical work, Bleibtreu saw himself as an educator and leader of German literature, often even as its savior.

With his excessive self-centeredness and obsession with recognition, he made numerous enemies in addition to friends. He used every opportunity to advertise himself and to justify himself to his competitors by self-praise. He described himself as a poetic genius and faced the great statesman or general.

Like his friend Michael Georg Conrad , he led a lifelong battle against literary criticism. In his eyes, literary criticism was of great importance for the success of an author, as positive or negative criticism could bring untalented authors to fame or destroy their existence. He accused the literary critic of the time of abusing their power. He described himself as an anti-Semite and suspected a conspiracy in the Jewish press. This is why Bleibtreu demanded that critics only judge the real quality of the literary work and not - as was so often the case at this time - on the basis of aversion to the author or his morals and all political intentions. In “Revolution of Literature” Bleibtreu described this demand with his typical powerful expression: “If Shakespeare had been the greatest villain […] - would we be less obliged to admire him? By heaven! If Jesus Christ submitted bad poems to me, I would beat him mercilessly, without prejudice to all my awe and moral adoration. ” (Revolution of Literature, 3rd Edition) He was not interested in whether an author was poor or rich, but his talent.

But although he saw himself as a talented critic, he, too, made wrong judgments in his publications, such as calling Theodor Storm and Gottfried Keller overrated or even rejecting Henrik Ibsen . In his literary critical style, which was haughty and hurtful, he used degrading and despicable expressions for his opponents.

"Revolution of Literature" (1886)

Karl Bleibtreu became famous with this work, known as the program font. In it he stated that a new German literature is emerging that is closely related to the Sturm und Drang movement. He called this new era the realism he advocated. He saw the main task of realism in showing the ground of reality by reflecting life. According to him, only those who are qualified to be realists are those who have the gift of technical vision and the power to model mechanical things plastically.

Bleibtreu's worldview was shaped by heroism, nationalism, the cult of masculinity and pessimistic Weltschmerz. As historical material, he saw the numerous battles of nations as well as the great historical personalities such as Napoleon or Lord Byron . Bleibtreu admired Émile Zola as the most important world poet. In his three-volume work “The Representatives of the Century” he described Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891, see Vol. I), the founder of modern theosophy , as the “greatest spirit” of the 19th century.

effect

Karl Bleibtreu himself never doubted his literary and literary critical work. At the height of his career, he even claimed that his work could also be considered the nucleus of future literature. In reality, his influence was limited to the brief period from 1885 to around 1890. During this period he became the leader of the naturalistic movement and made many enemies because of his self-centered style.

After the publication of Gerhart Hauptmann's “ Before Sunrise ”, the so-called “Revolution of Literature” stopped for him. From that point on he wanted nothing more to do with “consistent naturalism”. He even referred to it as the "so-called realism of the Jewish school of imitation". He envied the writers who were now successful because their success should have been his. After 1890 he dealt mainly with the writing of historical novels and specialist books on military issues.

Works

  • Bad society. Story, 1885.
  • Lyric diary. heterogeneous poetry, 1885.
  • Different times, different songs. 1885.
  • Revolution of literature. 1886, reprint 1973, Verlag Max Niemeyer, ISBN 978-3-484-19022-1 .
  • Lord Byron. 1886.
  • The demon. High-style drama, 1887.
  • Society . Realistic weekly for literature, art and life. Ed. 1888–1890, together with MG Conrad (changing subtitles).
  • Megalomania. Novel, 3 volumes, 1888, reprint 2008, Directmedia Publishing, ISBN 978-3-86640-314-7 .
  • The decisive battles of the European war. Future war novel. 3 volumes (The Battle of Bochnia, The Battle of Belfort, The Battle of Chalons). 1888.
  • The struggle for the existence of literature. 1888.
  • Fate. High-style drama, 1888.
  • History of English Literature. 2 volumes, 1888.
  • Frederick the Great at Collin. (June 18, 1757). A study. [1888].
  • Fate. Drama, 1888.
  • Napoleon I 1889.
  • On the psychology of the future. 1890.
  • Byron the superman. His life and his poetry. 1890.
  • Mass murder. A future battle. 1893.
  • The fight at Mars la Tour. 1897.
  • Battle of Wörth on August 6, 1870. 1898, reprint 2009 Rockstuhl Verlag, Bad Langensalza, ISBN 978-3-86777-072-9 .
  • Marshals, generals, soldiers of Napoleon the First. 1899.
  • Waterloo. Battle seal, 1902.
  • The brutalization of literature. A contribution to main and Sudermännerei. 1903.
  • Battle of Königgrätz on July 3, 1866. 1903, reprint 2006, Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza, ISBN 978-3-938997-65-9 .
  • Battle of Spichern on August 6, 1870. 1903, reprinted in 2009 by Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza, ISBN 978-3-86777-071-2 .
  • Battle of Weissenburg on August 4, 1870. 1903, reprinted in 2009 by Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza, ISBN 978-3-86777-070-5 .
  • HP Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine. 1904.
  • The representatives of the century. 3 volumes, 1904 (Volume III: “Theosophy”).
  • Düppel-Alsen - [the German-Danish War 1864, January 16 - October 30]. 1906, reprinted in 2009 by Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza, ISBN 978-3-86777-013-2 .
  • Langensalza and The Main Campaign 1866. 1906, reprint 2007 Rockstuhl Verlag, Bad Langensalza, ISBN 978-3-934748-73-6 .
  • Battle of Colombey on August 14, 1870. 1906, reprinted in 2009 by Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza, ISBN 978-3-86777-073-6 .
  • Peoples of Europe ...! Future war novel. 1906.
  • The "offensive invasion" against England. Future war novel. 1907.
  • The Marquis de Sade. In: The present. Magazine for literature, business and art. Vlg. Der Gegenwart, Berlin 1907, booklets 72 f., Pp. 134-136 & 151-154. Again in: Hans-Ulrich Seifert, Michael Farin (eds.): “Man is evil.” An erotic-philosophical reading book: Marquis de Sade Heyne, Munich 1990 ISBN 3-453-04354-5 , pp. 7-27. Microfiche output der Zs: Vlg. Harald Fischer, Erlangen 2003, ISBN 3-89131-444-2 .
  • Siege of Strasbourg August 15 to September 28, 1870. 1910, reprinted in 2009 by Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza, ISBN 978-3-86777-074-3 .
  • History of German national literature from Goethe's death to the present. 2 parts in one volume, 1912.
  • World fire. Future war novel. 1912.
  • The decisive battle and other novellas of the war. 1915.
  • Bismarck. A world novel in 4 volumes, 1915.
  • England's great Waterloo lie. On the centenary days of 1815. Berlin, Leipzig 1915
  • Stegemann's World War and the Marne Battle . Reprint from: Das Neue Europa. Monthly. Ed. Paul Cohn. Swiss printing and publishing house Jean Frey , Zurich 1917
  • The rise of the west. 1925. (under the pseudonym John Macready)

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Karl Bleibtreu  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1885 Karl Bleibtreu: Other times, other songs. In: uni-duisburg-essen.de. Retrieved January 16, 2015 .
  2. ^ 1886 Karl Bleibtreu: Revolution of the literature. In: uni-duisburg-essen.de. Retrieved January 16, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Stay true, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Macready, John (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1928
Place of death Locarno