Konrad Weiß (poet)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Konrad White (born May 1, 1880 in Rauhenbretzingen near Schwäbisch Hall , † January 4, 1940 in Munich ) was a German poet in the field of political Catholicism . Born in Swabia, he stands for “modern” Catholic literature with a claim to art. Weiß, part of the Munich literary scene, cannot be assigned to any trend or group. However, he was occasionally referred to as a representative of post-expressionism. Weiß never had a breakthrough, but he gained a steady reading community, including the Catholic lawyer Carl Schmitt and the Christian philosopher Josef Pieper . He was friends with the writers Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Rudolf Borchardt and Theodor Haecker and maintained relationships with the publishers Peter Suhrkamp and Anton Kippenberg and with the book illustrator Alfred Kubin . Alfred Kubin designed his work Harpyie as a bibliophile edition. As early as 1926, Rudolf Borchardt described Weiss as an “unrecognized poet”. The poet has been forgotten today, but writers are considered to be “great poets and linguistic artists” ( Botho Strauss ). Politically, Weiss belonged to the conservative right, was interested in old German art, he was enthusiastic about the “German worldview” and the “Germanic”. His marriage to Marie Reichl in 1917 remained childless.

Life

Konrad Weiß was born in 1880 in a small town near Schwäbisch Hall, the son of a small farmer, where he grew up in poor conditions with nine siblings. The gifted boy was only able to attend grammar school with the support of a relative, first in Schwäbisch Hall and later in Rottenburg am Neckar and Ehingen an der Donau . After graduating, he first studied Catholic theology , then art history and German in Tübingen , Munich and Freiburg im Breisgau . However, he did not pursue the plan to become a priest. He left university without a degree. In 1905 he became the editorial secretary of the magazine Hochland , the journalistic center of Catholic cultural and literary renewal. He later became the editor in charge of art issues there. In 1919 he published a volume of essays entitled On Contemporary Gethsemane . However, his tense relationship with the Hochland publisher Carl Muth prompted Weiss to switch to the Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten as an art critic in 1920, with whom he remained an employee from then on. White was friends with the artist Eugen Senge-Platten , with whom he also traveled.

plant

White saw himself in the succession of romantic authors such as Novalis and Friedrich Schlegel and turned sharply against the representatives of classical thought. As an art critic, he confessed to Lovis Corinth , Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh . He wrote articles about old German art, about Gothic and about his "art trips".

The lyric poet in Konrad Weiß did not appear until the First World War. His first volume of poetry, Tantum dic verbo , was published in 1918. In the course of the 1920s and 1930s, other collections followed: The Cumean Sibyl (1921), The Heart of the Word (1929) and The Realm of the Earth (1939). The only narrative poem for children entitled The Little Creation (1926) was popular with wider circles . In 1937 the poem was illustrated and slightly shortened by the painter Karl Caspar . It was widely used as an island band.

In the 1920s, besides poetry, there were contemplative narrative poems like Die Löwin , 1928, or Tantalus , 1929. A tragedy from 1938, Konradin von Hohenstaufen , was never performed.

In 1933 he published the treatise The Christian Epimetheus , which was financed by the patron Franz Schranz. Weiss had met Schranz in the Siedlinghauser district . The work, in which Weiss identified himself as a Hindenburg admirer, referred to Carl Schmitt , among others, and included a number of disparaging remarks about parliamentary democracy .

Publications (selection)

With a few exceptions, Konrad Weiß’s work is only available as an antiquarian book. Almost all works by Konrad Weiß that have ever appeared in book form are available as eBooks at MobileRead (see under web links).

  • Tantum dic verbo , Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig 1918
  • To the historical Gethsemane. Collected experiments , Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz 1919
  • The Cumean Sibyl , Georg Müller Verlag, Munich 1921
  • The small creation , Georg Müller Verlag, Munich 1926 (new edition Munich 1990, ISBN 3-920856-01-5 ) (it. La piccola creazione 2014, ISBN 978-88-96986-21-9 )
  • The current problem of Gothic. With reflections on the bourgeois art problem , Benno Filser Verlag, Augsburg 1927
  • The lioness. Four encounters , Benno Filser Verlag, Augsburg 1928
  • The heart of the word , Benno Filser Verlag, Augsburg 1929
  • Tantalus , Benno Filser Verlag, Augsburg 1929
  • The Christian Epimetheus , Edwin Runge, Berlin 1933
  • Konradin von Hohenstaufen. A tragedy , Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1938
  • The realm of the earth , Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1939
  • Germany's morning mirror. A travel book in two parts , Kösel-Verlag, Munich 1950
  • The imperial love talk , Kösel-Verlag, Munich 1953
  • Wanderer in the times. South German travel pictures , ed. v. Friedhelm Kemp, Kösel-Verlag, Munich 1958.
  • Süddeutsche travel pictures , Munich 1989, ISBN 3-920856-02-3
  • The bronze snake and other little prose , Marbach 1990, ISBN 3-933679-00-1
  • One morning snow , Munich 2005, ISBN 3-86520-150-4
  • The insatiable heart (selection of poems) , Hagen-Berchum 2011, ISBN 978-3-942090-12-4

literature

Web links

Wikiquote: Konrad Weiß (poet)  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME White, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Rauenbretzingen near Schwäbisch Hall
DATE OF DEATH 4th January 1940
Place of death Munich