Karla King

Karla König , pseudonym: Leo Alexi (born July 3, 1889 in Stettin , † April 24, 1963 in Schwerin ) was a German journalist , writer and cultural functionary.

Life

Karla König comes from a liberal family of journalists from Szczecin. Her father Wilhelm König was editor-in-chief of the Neue Stettiner Zeitung , her maternal grandfather Gustav Wiemann its editor-in-chief and publisher. She attended a secondary school for girls and then a teachers' seminar for two years. But instead of becoming a teacher, she worked as a journalist from 1912, initially for the Stettiner Abendpost , where she looked after the family supplement, and for the Stettiner Neuesten Nachrichten . She was already an advocate of women's suffrage during the German Empire ; In 1919 she published the brochure How do I work politically? A non-partisan word to German women . From 1919 to 1924 she worked as a press officer at the Pomeranian High Presidium . From 1924 to 1927 she was in charge of the features section of the Stettiner General-Anzeiger .

From 1927 she worked as a freelance writer in Szczecin. She published her own poems, but above all books on Pomeranian art, culture and history, including festivities for the German Doctors 'Day in Kolberg (1930) and the German Pharmacists' Day in Swinoujscie (1932).

During the destruction of Szczecin at the end of the Second World War, she lost her archive and her unpublished manuscripts and finally, when Szczecin came to Poland after 1945, also her home. She continued her work in the Soviet Zone and later in the GDR . In 1945 she was involved in setting up the cultural office in Ueckermünde . In 1946 she first went to Stralsund . In 1947 she was brought to Schwerin , the capital of the newly formed state of Mecklenburg , by the writer Ehm Welk . In Schwerin she worked full-time in the Kulturbund for the democratic renewal of Germany . From 1949 she worked again as a freelance writer and published several books, especially collections of anecdotes in the Petermänken-Verlag . She got involved in the German Writers' Association , where she campaigned for the promotion of young authors. She was awarded the GDR Medal of Merit for her work . She died in Schwerin in 1963 after a two-year illness.

Her literary estate is in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Library in Schwerin.

Fonts (selection)

Poetry

• Lonely fire . Mallin, Stargard in Pomerania 1918.
• Before the mountains of life . Franz Schneider, Leipzig 1929.
• Sea under stars . Leon Saunier, Stettin 1939.

politics

• How do I work politically? A non-partisan word to German women . M. Bauchwitz, Stettin 1919.

Pomeranian art, culture and history

• Pomerania . Verkehrsverband für Pommern, Stettin 1930. 2nd edition: Leon Saunier, Stettin 1935. (published on the German Medical Association in Kolberg in 1930, contains chats to 54 pictures)
• The beautiful Pomerania . Bauchwitz, Stettin 1932. 2nd edition 1933. (Ceremony for the German Pharmacists' Day in Swinoujscie, with 53 drawings by various artists)
• Picturesque Pomerania . Leon Saunier, Stettin 1940.

Anecdotes

• The great Goethe in little anecdotes . Petermänken Verlag, Schwerin 1949.
• The game of life. Anecdotes and little stories about Friedrich Schiller . Petermänken Verlag, Schwerin 1955.

literature

• Hans-Günter Cnotka: Stettiner personalities (16): Karla König . In: Stettiner Bürgerbrief. No. 18, 1992, ISSN  1619-6201 , pp. 37-38. Reprinted in: Die Pommersche Zeitung . No. 22/2013, p. 4.
• Otto Kunkel : Karla König. In: Baltic Studies . Volume 50 NF, 1964, ISSN  0067-3099 , pp. 75-78.
• Eckhard Wendt: Stettiner Lebensbilder (= publications of the Historical Commission for Pomerania . Series V, Volume 40). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-412-09404-8 , pp. 284–285.

Web links

• Literature by and about Karla König in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature about Karla König in the state bibliography MV
• Estate in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Library