Klara May

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Klara May with husband Karl (right) and Friedrich Eduard Bilz with wife (left) at the wedding of Bilz's daughter Gertrud, in the middle the Bilz daughter-in-law Albertine Virginia, 1907

Klara Auguste Wilhelmine May , née Klara Beibler , widowed Klara Plöhn (born July 4, 1864 in Dessau , † December 31, 1944 in Radebeul ) was the second wife of the writer Karl May and after his death his universal heir and executor .

Live and act

The time before the marriage to Karl May

She was the daughter of Johann Ludwig Heinrich Beibler (1789–1880) and Wilhelmine Beibler geb. Scorn. At the time of her birth, Beibler was already 75 years old, and the parents married just a few weeks before the due date on April 19, 1864. The place of birth was the Amalienstift in Dessau, where the father lived and was employed.

Nothing is known about their school days and training. A visit to a higher girls' school in Dessau that she herself mentioned cannot be proven.

The Plöhn couple in 1881

At the age of 16, Klara Beibler married the manufacturer Richard Plöhn in 1881. With him and the widowed mother who was taken into the household, she first moved to Leipzig and later to Radebeul. Around 1890, the Plöhn couple met the May couple, with whom they soon became close friends.

“We two families lived together as if it were just one. We said you and you. We called each other brother and sister. Other people didn't know anything other than that the two women were real sisters. "

Richard Plöhn died on February 14, 1901 after a long illness, and Klara became even closer to the May couple. She did paperwork for the writer and also accompanied the couple on trips. She kept detailed travel diaries and documented the places visited with numerous photographs that she took with her extensive equipment.

Their role in the growing alienation between the married couples who divorced on March 4, 1903 is unclear.

Marriage to Karl May

Married couple May in 1904

On March 30, 1903, Karl May and Klara Plöhn married in a civil ceremony. The church wedding took place the next day in the Luther Church in Radebeul . Klara May took on an (ambivalent) mediator role between Emma and Karl May, as their divorce case had caught the attention of the press and the mentally unstable Emma Pollmer, divorced May, was overwhelmed by the situation.

Klara's mother died in Radebeul on June 27, 1909. Like Richard Plöhn before, she was buried in the family grave in the Radebeul cemetery .

Klara May often accompanied her husband on lecture and reading tours, in 1908 on a trip to North America and on his last trip to Vienna in March 1912. On their ninth wedding anniversary, Karl May died on March 30, 1912 in Radebeul and was buried in the family grave on April 3.

After Karl May's death

Tomb for Karl and Klara May in the Radebeul-Ost cemetery

After Karl May's death on March 30, 1912, Klara May founded the Karl May publishing house on July 1, 1913 together with Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld and Euchar Albrecht Schmid . In addition, she was a partner in the film company Ustad-Film, Dr. Droop & Co. by producer Marie Luise Droop , who produced three May silent films in 1920 ( On the Rubble of Paradise , The Caravan of Death and The Devil Worshipers ). The limited partner of the company was the Oberlößnitz naturopath Friedrich Eduard Bilz , whose family was friends with the May family.

In the mid-1920s, the artist Patty Frank approached Klara May to offer her, in addition to May's collection, his Indian collection in return for lifelong right of residence. In 1926, Klara May had the local architect Max Czopka build the log house called Villa Bärenfett in the garden of her house, Villa Shatterhand , in which Frank lived in the future. In 1928 May, together with Patty Frank, co-founded the Karl May Museum and the Indian Museum, which was also located in the Villa Bärenfett, and was its curator until shortly before his death . For three decades, Patty Frank explained the life and customs of the Indians there, thereby helping to shape the image of Indians in the German-speaking world .

Klara May's efforts to protect her husband's legacy were problematic: she was more interested in hagiography than objective information. She tried to get rid of as many materials as possible that cast a bad light on the deceased. In 1922 she managed to destroy the Mittweidaer criminal files and thus angered Euchar A. Schmid, who was in favor of an open exposition of May's entanglements. In numerous publications she disseminated contestable information, the tendency of which was reminiscent of the Old Shatterhand legend believed to have been overcome. In a review of her trips to America, she reported that May was demonstrably well versed in a large number of Indian dialects, "never needed an interpreter" during her trip to the Orient in 1899/1900 and showed that she was so able to cope with the stresses of this and the later American trip that younger people only amazed and could still recognize in him the accomplished globetrotter of yore. The photographs from these trips gave completely different impressions.

Klara May reported on her big trip to the USA in 1934 in around two dozen travel letters. They were published in a Dresden daily newspaper with the headline under the swastika around the world . Klara May had joined the NSDAP ; she was friends with Angela Hammitzsch , geb. Hitler, used Raubal, Adolf Hitler's half-sister , and on July 29, 1933, she was personally introduced to Hitler at a reception by Winifred Wagner in Bayreuth. In an essay that has remained unpublished, she then spoke of “the greatest of the greats now living in us (...). It was holy minutes. A messenger from God touched my circle of life (...). My thoughts went back to Karl May, who had been a pioneer for this Hitler era all his life. "

In order to outline the deceased more clearly in this role, Klara May developed some concrete plans. In 1938 she proposed to Euchar A. Schmid, the novel Und Friede auf Erden ! to be worked on in the National Socialist spirit: One could “touch the Führer as the ideal person of peace” and “transform the cross that lights up at the end of the novel into a sun that is formed by the battlements into the sun wheel in which the cross shimmers and forms the swastika ” . Schmid rejected this request.

1942 marked the 100th anniversary of Karl May's birthday, and the possibility of a memorial service at his grave was becoming apparent. The fact that in addition to May, Klara's mother, Wilhelmine Beibler, and her first husband, Richard Plöhn, were buried there proved to be a hindrance, because Plöhn was “ half-Jewish ”. After a few conversations, Klara requested "to be allowed to take my first husband Richard Alexander Plöhn, whose mother was Jewish, out of the crypt occupied by my second husband Karl May, since otherwise the 100th anniversary that the party is supposed to organize could not take place," what I should regret ”. In this case she was granted partial success: Although there was no celebration at the grave, a few weeks after the day of remembrance, on April 28, 1942, the coffins of Plöhn and Beibler were removed from the grave and transferred to Dresden- Tolkewitz for cremation .

After Klara May's death on December 31, 1944, she was buried on January 6, 1945. She was buried next to her husband Karl May at the Radebeul-Ost cemetery.

Work (excerpt)

  • Colorful pictures from Karl May's life . In: Rudolf Beissel, Fritz Barthel (Eds.): Karl May Year Book 1918 . Schlesische Buchdruckerei, Kunst und Verlaganstalt von S. Schottländer , Breslau 1918.
  • Old Shatterhand and Buffalo Bill . In: Rudolf Beissel, Fritz Barthel (Eds.): Karl May Year Book 1918 . Schlesische Buchdruckerei, Kunst und Verlaganstalt von S. Schottländer, Breslau 1918.
  • Omar Hassan . In: Rudolf Beissel, Fritz Barthel (Eds.): Karl May Year Book 1919 . Schlesische Buchdruckerei, Kunst und Verlaganstalt von S. Schottländer, Breslau 1918.
  • My husband's birthplace . In: Rudolf Beissel, Fritz Barthel (Eds.): Karl May Year Book 1919 . Schlesische Buchdruckerei, Kunst und Verlaganstalt von S. Schottländer, Breslau 1918.
  • Winnetou's will . In: Rudolf Beissel, Fritz Barthel (Ed.): Karl May Year Book 1920 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1919.
  • Marah Durimeh. How would Karl May have designed the sequel to 'Jenseits' and 'Ardistan und Dschinnistan'? In: Max Finke, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1921 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1920.
  • In the ruins of Baalbek and Palmyra . In: Max Finke, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1922 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1921.
  • In Constantinople . In: Max Finke, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1923 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1922.
  • At the Beecher-Stowes grave . In: Max Finke, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1924 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1924.
  • The Niagara Falls . In: Ludwig Gurlitt, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1925 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1924.
  • Roses from the south . In: Ludwig Gurlitt, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1926 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1926.
  • Slavery in the Orient . In: Ludwig Gurlitt, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1927 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1927.
  • A visit to the harem . In: Ludwig Gurlitt, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1928 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1928.
  • El Kahira . In: Ludwig Gurlitt, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1929 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1929.
  • The white bread Arab . In: Ludwig Gurlitt, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1930 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1930.
  • Egypt's royal tombs . In: Ludwig Gurlitt, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1931 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul.
  • Karl May's dog Cherry . In: Konrad Günther, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1932 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1932.
  • Karl May between morning and evening . In: Konrad Günther, Euchar Albrecht Schmid (Ed.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1933 . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul 1933.
  • The Grünthal sulfur bath . In: Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz (Eds.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1934 . Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg 2008.

Awards

There has been a Klara-May-Weg in Radebeul since 2000.

literature

  • Frank Andert (Red.): Radebeul City Lexicon . Historical manual for the Loessnitz . Published by the Radebeul City Archives. 2nd, slightly changed edition. City archive, Radebeul 2006, ISBN 3-938460-05-9 .
  • Christian Heermann: Karl May, the old Dessauer and an "old Dessauer" . 1st edition. Anhaltische Verlag-Ges., Dessau 1990, ISBN 3-910192-02-5 .
  • Volker Helas (arrangement): City of Radebeul . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Saxony, Large District Town Radebeul (=  Monument Topography Federal Republic of Germany . Monuments in Saxony ). SAX-Verlag, Beucha 2007, ISBN 978-3-86729-004-3 .
  • Gerhard Klußmeier , Hainer Plaul: Karl May. Biography in documents and pictures . 2nd Edition. Olms, Hildesheim 1992, ISBN 3-487-08169-5 .
  • Rudolf Lebius, Jürgen Wehnert (Einf.): The witnesses Karl May and Klara May: a contribution to the criminal history of our time . Reprint of the Berlin-Charlottenburg edition, 1910. In: Karl-May-Archiv (ed.): Publications from the Karl-May-Archiv . tape 1 . Gauke, Lütjenburg 1991, ISBN 3-87998-630-4 .
  • Karl May: Mrs. Pollmer - a psychological study. Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg 1982, ISBN 3-7802-3081-X ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl May: Mrs. Pollmer - A psychological study. P. 880 f.
  2. ↑ Maren Gündel: With Klara May to the Egyptian pyramids. A reminder on the occasion of their anniversary year. In: Radebeuler Official Journal. 07/2014, p. 1.
  3. ↑ http://www.karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Old-Shatterhand-Legende
  4. ↑ Klara May: With Karl May through America , Radebeul b. Dresden 1931, p. 108.
  5. ^ Schmiedt: Karl May ... , 2017, p. 289.
  6. ↑ Quoted from Hans Wollschläger : Das Zwanzigste Jahrbuch , in: Jb-KMG 1995, p. 9.
  7. ↑ Quoted from Ekkehard Bartsch. 'And peace on earth!' Origin and history , in: Jb-KMG 1972/73, p. 115.
  8. ↑ Klara May to the Dresden District Church Office, February 16, 1942. In: Hans-Dieter Steinmetz : Karl Mays Grabmal in Radebeul , in: Jb-KMG 1995, p. 47.
  9. ↑ Helmut Schmiedt : Karl May or The Power of Fantasy. A biography , Munich: CH Beck 2017, p. 290.
personal data
SURNAME May, Klara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES May, Klara Auguste Wilhelmine (full name); Beibler, Klara (maiden name); Plöhn, Klara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German universal heir, executor, widow Karl Mays
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Dessau
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1944
Place of death Radebeul