Konstantine Gamsachurdia
Konstantine Gamsachurdia ( Georgian კონსტანტინე გამსახურდია ; born May 3, 1893 in Abascha , Mingrelia ; † July 17, 1975 ) was a Georgian writer . It is considered a classic of Georgian literature of the 20th century.
Life
He was born the son of the noble landowner Simon Gamsachurdia and had two older brothers, Viktor and Alexander. In 1911 he passed the Abitur at the Georgian High School in Kutaisi . From 1912 to 1918 he studied in Germany . First at the Königsberg Albertina , then at the University of Leipzig and finally at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin , where he also received his doctorate. He lived temporarily in Munich as a translator and was in contact with Thomas Mann's circle .
In 1918 he moved up to the board of directors of the founding company of Tbilisi State University . From 1920 to 1924 Gamsachurdia was an associate professor for German literature there and founded the magazine Prometheus .
In 1918 and 1919 he was first secretary at the embassy of the Democratic Republic of Georgia in Berlin , and in 1920 Georgian envoy to Italy . After the occupation of Georgia by Soviet Russia in 1921, Gamsakhurdia joined the Georgian liberation movement and was one of its spokesmen until 1930. In 1923 he lived in Paris for a year . In 1924 and 1925 and from 1926 to 1928 he was imprisoned by the Soviet secret police GPU .
He was married, had a son Swiad (1939-1993) and a daughter (Tamara). From May 1991 to January 1992, the son was the first President of Georgia.
Services
Gamsachurdia wrote novels and narratives that repeatedly tell of conflicts between political power, the individual and Georgian virtues ( Kartweloba ). Among the best known are the novel The Right Hand of the Great Master (1939), which describes the conflict between a king and his cathedral builder in the 11th century, and the tetralogy David the Builder (1942–1961), which deals with the reform achievements of the king of the same name in the 12th century. The author worked in these works as a historian (since no research literature was available) and a novelist.
The contemporary novels The Smile of Dionysus (1924), Abduction of the Moon (1935) and Rebenblüte (1953) deal with the fate of Georgians who moved to Western Europe and then returned to their homeland. They are a stand-alone novel and are mistakenly called a trilogy. The smile of Dionysus acts in parts in Germany and is strongly imbued with German ideas.
Gamsachurdia was the founder of a Georgian school of Goethe research, translated Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther into Georgian in 1928 , and wrote a Goethe novel. In Germany, Gamsachurdia published 30 articles and individual poems before the First World War.
He was appointed a member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences . In 1965 he received the Georgian Schota Rustaveli State Prize for Literature.
Works
Novels:
- Dionisus gimili. Romani . Gamomcemloba Sakartvelo-3, Tbilisi 2003, ISBN 99928-952-3-3
- Rceuli txzulebani rvatomeuli . Sabcota Sakartvelo, Tbilisi 1958
- Goetes cxovrebis romani . Nakaduli, Tbilisi 1969
- Didostatis marjvena. rainduli romani . Ganatleba, Tbilisi 1972 (On Russian Desnica velikogo mastera. Roman; novelly . Merani, Tbilisi 1972, in German: The right hand of the great master. Historical novel . Culture and progress, Berlin 1969, Nora-Verlag, Berlin 2018, translation by Gertrud Pätsch )
- Mtvaris motaceba . Merani, Tbilisi 1990 (in French: ** L'enlèvement de la Lune . Les Editeurs Français réunies, 1957)
- Adrekristianuli kartlis kulturulu mozaika , Pitagora, Tbilisi 1995
The following stories and poems have been translated into German: To Friedrich Nietzsche, Das Riedgrashaus / The meeting with the dead / De Profundis / The poet and his shadow / Klara / Navy blue are your eyes / Mindia, the son of Chogai / Novemberwind / Zeppelin / Porcelain / Butterfly under the linden trees / clocks. They are contained in various anthologies, short stories and magazines.
literature
- Gertrud Pätsch : Konstantine Gamssachurdia 1893-1975 . Scientific journal of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, social and linguistic series, 26, 1, 1977, pp. 117–126
- Steffi Jünger-Awakow: Konstantine Gamsachurdia and the novels of his first creative period 1912 - 1935 . Diss. Phil. Humboldt University , Social Sciences. Fac., 1979,
- Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger : Konstantine Gamsachurdia. A well-known Georgian writer - once a student at Berlin University . in: Contributions to the history of the Humboldt University in Berlin , No. 6, Berlin 1982, pp. 39 - 52, 58 - 88.
- Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger: The way Konstantine Gamsachurdias to the artistic "chronicler of the united Kingdom of Georgia" . In Georgica magazine . Vol. 11, 1988, pp. 45-49
- Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger: The development of the Georgian historical novel. Micheil Jawachishvili, Konstantine Gamsachurdia, Grigol Abashidze, Tschabua Amiredshibi and Otar Tschiladze . Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1993, ISBN 3-631-45691-3
- this .: Students from Georgia at the Berlin University until 1945, in foreign experiences. Asians and Africans in Germany, Austria and Switzerland until 1945. Ed. Gerhard Höpp . Series studies of the Center for Modern Orient, ZMO, 4. Das Arabische Buch, Berlin 1996 ISBN 3-86093-111-3 pp. 401–418; to KGS 407ff.
- this .: Konstantine Gamsachurdia and the beginnings of Soviet prose / The novel "The smile of Dionysus" 1925. In: Zeitschrift für Slawistik, Vol. 25, H. 5/1980, pp. 675–701.
- this: man and nature in the novel The Abduction of the Moon by Konstantine Gamsachurdia. In: Georgica. Jena, 3 (1980), pp. 80-86.
- this: the Georgian writers Konstantine Gamsachurdia and Friedrich Nietzsche. In: Georgica, 22 (1999), pp. 121-132.
- This: Farewell to the Holy Land - A Georgian writer as a prisoner of war and prison guard in German camps during the First World War. In: Höpp, G .; Reinwald, B. External assignments. Africans and Asians in European Wars 1914-1945. Berlin 2000. pp. 119–128.
- Soso Sigua: Mif i logika: Struktura prozy Konstantine Gamsakhurdia . Merani, Tbilisi 1984
- Mirian Abuladze: Konstantine Gamsaxurdia . Mecniereba, Tbilisi 1976
- Lado Čania: Konstantine Gamsaxurdias erovnul-politikuri mrcamsi . Bedia, Tbilisi 1997
Web links
- Literature by and about Konstantine Gamsachurdia in the catalog of the German National Library
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Gamsachurdia, Constantine |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | კონსტანტინე გამსახურდია (Georgian) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Georgian writer |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 3, 1893 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Abasha, Western Georgia |
DATE OF DEATH | 17th July 1975 |