Karl zu Eulenburg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl Kuno Eberhard Wend Graf zu Eulenburg (born June 16, 1885 in Starnberg , † December 4, 1975 in Weeze ) was a German philologist and writer.

Karl Graf zu Eulenburg (1885–1975)

Life

origin

Karl zu Eulenburg came from the noble family zu Eulenburg and was the youngest surviving son of the eight children of Philipp zu Eulenburg (born February 12, 1847 in Königsberg ; † September 17, 1921 in Liebenberg ) and his Swedish wife Augusta, née Freiin von Sandels ( * May 12, 1853 in Stockholm ; † December 14, 1941 in Liebenberg), only daughter of Samuel, the last Count of Sandels and Henrietta von Tersmeden.

childhood and education

Eulenburg spent his childhood with his five siblings in Starnberg, Oldenburg , Stuttgart and from 1894 in Vienna , where his father worked as the Prussian ambassador until 1903. At first, like his older brothers Friedrich-Wend and Sigwart, he received private tuition from a private tutor, then switched to the Goslar high school , where he graduated from high school in 1903. At the request of his father, he began to study law, which he began the following year in Munich. In 1905 he and his brother Sigwart inherited a considerable fortune from the childless Baron Nathaniel von Rothschild, who was friends with his father in Vienna . Since his father's estate, Schloss Liebenberg in the province of Brandenburg, was subject to the inheritance regulation of the entails and therefore almost the entire property was inherited to the eldest son, Rothschild had included the two younger sons in his inheritance as a material compensation. Now independent, Karl decided to study Sanskrit in Berlin. Due to the death of his doctoral supervisor, he was no longer able to complete the doctorate that followed his multi-year course .

Further career

In the wake of the scandal processes surrounding his father Philipp zu Eulenburg from 1906 to 1908, the so-called Harden-Eulenburg affair , Karl left his parents' house and married the young Munich writer Sophie "Stry" Moshammer in 1908 on the island of Jersey . In 1909 their daughter Flita Edeltraud Astria was born.

Torre Talao in Scalea, Calabria

The young family lived in France and Italy, where Charles bought the Torre Talao in Scalea ( Calabria ), a coastal fortification tower from the 16th century. The legends clinging to the tower inspired him to write his novel Die Fickalslosen , which was finally published by Grunow in Leipzig in 1928. After Karl was retired from the military due to poor health during the First World War , Coppet on Lake Geneva , in the immediate vicinity of Madame de Staël's castle , became the main residence for many years.

Shortly after the end of the First World War, large parts of Karl's foreign assets were confiscated and finally consumed completely during the inflation . The married couple Karl and Sophie Eulenburg divorced in April 1923 and Karl took up a job as an editor for a Munich publishing house. In November 1923 he married the young Dutch girl Geertruida Verwey, daughter of Dr. med. Titus Verwey and the Baroness Bertha van Dedem van Driesberg. Shortly afterwards, the couple moved to Liebenberg Castle, which Karl's older brother Friedrich-Wend had inherited in the meantime.

Karl took over the responsibility for the comprehensive and important for the history of Brandenburg and Prussia Eulenburg and Hertefeldsche estate and family archive. At the same time, he devoted himself to writing and wrote numerous short stories, novellas and reviews, including for Ullstein Verlag , Westermanns Monatshefte and Mannheimer Morgen . In 1926 he published his second novel, The Wells of the Great Depth , with Fr. Will. Grunow, Leipzig. In 1928 his second daughter Titia was born in Berlin.

Karl zu Eulenburg was a member of the Association of German Writers . The Nazis critical of standing, he resigned from the association, was transferred as of 1933 by the National Socialists in the Reich Association of German writers.

In April 1945 he fled with his brother Friedrich Wend and his wife Marie from the advancing Soviet army to his wife and daughter who had already been evacuated to Schleswig-Holstein. His daughter Flita (* March 2, 1909, † November 20, 1945) from his first marriage died in Berlin under circumstances that have not yet been clarified. All of Karl's original manuscripts, as well as the aforementioned archive, were almost completely lost in April 1945 with the invasion of Soviet troops.

After stops as a refugee in Holstein and Hesse, Karl zu Eulenburg and his family moved in the early 1950s to the rebuilt Lower Rhine family property of his brother Friedrich-Wend, Haus Hertefeld near Weeze, where he died on December 4, 1975. Karl Graf zu Eulenburg was buried in the family cemetery in Hertefeld. The wife of Potiphar , his third and last novel , was published posthumously .

Famous relatives

His great uncle was the leader of the Prussian East Asia expedition and later Interior Minister Friedrich zu Eulenburg , his second uncles the Interior Minister and Prussian Prime Minister (1892-1894) Botho zu Eulenburg and the Royal Prussian High Court Marshal and House Minister August zu Eulenburg . The resistance fighter Libertas Schulze-Boysen , who grew up temporarily at Liebenberg Castle, was his niece.

Publications (previously known selection)

  • Potiphar's wife. Roman from ancient Egypt . Universitas Verlag, Zurich 1978.
  • The fateless . Novel. Publishing house Fr. Wilh. Grunow, Leipzig 1928.
  • The wells of the great deep . Novel. Publishing house Fr. Wilh. Grunow, Leipzig 1926.
  • The experiments of Dr. Heil Novelle in Uhu, Issue 1, Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 1925.
  • Latuk . Grotesque in: Der Orchideengarten , Fantastische Blätter., Issue 23. Ed. KH Strobl, Dreiländerverlag Munich, 1920.

literature

Web links