Konrad Merz

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Konrad Merz during the Frankfurt Book Fair on September 30, 1992

Konrad Merz (born April 2, 1908 in Berlin as Kurt Lehmann; † December 3, 1999 in Purmerend , Netherlands ) was a German-Dutch writer and Jewish emigrant .

life and work

Growing up in a poor Jewish tailor's family, Kurt Lehmann worked in a textile business from the age of 15 after the early death of his father. At the evening high school he made up his Abitur and began studying law in 1932. After Jews were also excluded from the universities, he emigrated to the Netherlands in 1934 . Among other things, he earned his living as a gardener, but also wrote small newspaper articles on the side. In Holland he took the name Konrad Merz. His diary novel, a man falls from Germany , was written at the same time and was published in 1936 by the important exile publisher Querido in Amsterdam . Menno ter Braak made him known in the Netherlands. With the help of Dutch friends, Merz was able to stay in hiding until the end of the war.

After the war, Merz trained as a masseur and physiotherapist , married and settled in Purmerend. In addition to his successful practice, he began to publish autobiographical and satire again in the 1970s. His novel Generation Without Fathers , believed to have been lost on the run from Germany, reappeared shortly before his death and was published in 1999.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung paid tribute to his first novel: "It is one of the most significant, touching literary testimonies that address the suffering and existential threats of exile: the shabby little everyday life of a nameless person without a passport or money."

In 2007 the German Literature Archive in Marbach acquired Konrad Merz's estate. It contains a very small part of Merz's library, as well as the manuscripts and diaries as well as numerous correspondence and the like. a. with Fritz Helmut Landshoff , Horst Bienek , Walter Höllerer , Albert Vigoleis Thelen . Merz's diary can be seen in the permanent exhibition of the Modern Literature Museum in Marbach.

Publications in German

  • A person falls from Germany (1936)
  • Butcher, wife and majesty. Tales of a Masseur (1972)
  • The man who didn't shoot Hitler. Tales of a masseur (1976)
  • Human happiness machine. Chatting of a Masseur (1982)
  • Art of love for old people. Memoirs of Our Century (1992)
  • Berliners, Amsterdamers and oh - Jews too. Memoirs from Ninety Years (1998)
  • Generation without fathers , novel (1999; written 1937/1938)
  • The fluctuating time , novella (2011; written 1945/1946)

literature

  • Klaus Schöffling (Ed.): Konrad Merz on his seventy-fifth birthday on April 2, 1983 . Ammann Verlag, Zurich 1983.
  • Klaus Mann : A person falls from Germany . In: Prager Tagblatt of March 22, 1936; reprinted in: Klaus Mann: Dentists and Artists. Articles, speeches, reviews 1933–1936. Reinbek 1993 (pp. 395-398).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. On the correspondence Menno ter Braak - Konrad Merz, and on the letters from and to Ant ter Braak-Faber , at mennoterbraak.nl
  2. Konrad Merz (Kurt Lehmann) Arts in Exile , accessed on June 2, 2020.
  3. ^ Letter from Herta Müller to Dr. Angela Merkel, Chancellor, including this quote. ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. Merz inventory, Konrad German Literature Archive Marbach, accessed on June 2, 2020.
  5. Merz, Konrad (author's library) German Literature Archive Marbach, accessed on June 2, 2020.