Kurt Kersten (Author)

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Kurt Kersten's grave in the Wehlheiden cemetery in Kassel

Kurt Kersten (born April 19, 1891 in Wehlheiden near Kassel , † May 18, 1962 in New York ) was a German historian , writer , publicist and journalist .

Youth and Studies

Kurt Konrad Nikolaus Kersten was the son of Martha Kersten, nee Knaust, and Christoph Kersten, who owned a large farm that had been in the family for over 400 years.

From 1897 Kurt Kersten first attended Carl Henkel's private school in Kassel. In 1910 he passed the Abitur at the Wilhelmsgymnasium. He then studied history and German philology in Munich and Berlin , and graduated magna cum laude in February 1914 with a doctorate on " Voltaire's Henriade in German Criticism before Lessing ".

During his student days, Kurt Kersten published articles in the magazine Pan , which were edited by the theater critic Alfred Kerr . “It became a loyal friendship that both of them kept until they emigrate,” recalled his sister Elisabeth Kersten (1893-1979). It can be assumed that Alfred Kerr, when he had to leave the Berliner Tageblatt in 1933 , would have liked to see Kurt Kersten as his editorial successor.

First World War

During the First World War Kurt Kersten was drafted into the foot artillery. He fought in Russia and France. His sister noted about her brother's participation in the Battle of Cambrai : “Kersten took part in the first tank battle on November 20th, 17. He handed over his diaries to the archive in Potsdam. Reason that they would be of greater interest to war historians ... ”End of 1917 promotion to lieutenant. On August 8, 1918, he was badly wounded in the leg at Amiens and his battery wiped out; he received EK I and II . The experiences of this war reinforced his pacifist attitude.

Berlin

“Der Krieg” is the name of “the first people's book about the great war”, published by Kurt Kläber in the Internationale Arbeiter-Verlag, 1929, in which “Vormarsch im Osten” is printed from Kurt Kersten's war diary. His journalistic account of what his own experiences had taught him to be false heroism of the war is testimony to the consideration “Vom Heldentode” published in Franz Pfemfert's “ Die Aktion ” (1919, no. 14/15).

Kurt Kersten 1927

Kurt Kersten's immense writing and journalistic work developed after the failed November Revolution. “A European Revolutionary: Georg Forster 1754 - 1794” was published by the Association of International Publishing Houses, 1921. In 1919/1920 he worked on the magazine Der Mitmensch , Hefte für Sozialist Literatur, of which a total of 12 issues could appear. It was edited by Arthur Seehof , a journalist from Kassel who had to emigrate in 1933. From 1926 to 1933 Kurt Kersten was head of the feature pages of the world in the evening in Berlin.

He also published works on historical and contemporary subjects, including: “Moscow - Leningrad. A Winter Journey ”,“ The Moscow Trial of the Social Revolutionaries 1922 ”,“ Fridericus and His People. Documents from old Prussia ”,“ Bismarck and his time ”. He published “Today's Russia, 1917 to 1922, a collective work”, 1923, and “The great politics of the European cabinets” (6 volumes), 1930 in the German publishing house for politics and history, partly in collaboration with the Soviet embassy The same publisher published "Michael Bakunin's Beichte" in German in 1926 on the basis of detailed archive studies. " Edmond and Jules de Goncourt : Maid Germinie Lacerteux", a German translation by Kurt Kersten, was published in 1928 by E. Laub in Berlin. In 1932 he began working on “1848. The German Revolution ”. The book was published in March 1933 by Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Berlin.

Kurt Kersten lived with Martha David, née Kristeller, in Berlin-Charlottenburg until they emigrated to Prague on June 27, 1934 .

Prague exile

Kurt Kersten: "I left Germany voluntarily and yet I didn't like to leave Germany because I don't want to live in bondage and have to help in order to be able to return to a free Germany". On April 14, 1937, his German citizenship was revoked. Elisabeth Kersten, who, after working for the German publishing house for politics and history in Berlin, had been the editor of the “Agricultural Weekly Journal for Kurhessen and Waldeck” since 1934, was “under Gestapo supervision for years ”.

Kurt Kersten contributed to almost all German exile newspapers and magazines. Kersten listed the publications in which his “essential works” appeared from 1933 to 1940 in a questionnaire from the German Academy for Language and Poetry : “'Prager Tagblatt', 'Bohemia', 'Der Sozialdemokrat', 'Arbeiter-Illustrierte' ',' Das Wort ',' International Literature ',' People's Newspaper ',' Basler Nationalzeitung ',' Pariser Tageblatt ',' New Diary ',' The Future ',' New German Papers' ". His book “Peter the Great. On the essence and causes of historical greatness ”was published in 1935 by Querido Verlag NV Amsterdam. How much it was important to him to be able to continue his literary work despite the constant precarious economic conditions, becomes clear in an assessment to the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom - an organization to support exiled authors - which he received on December 31. July 1937 wrote: “Possibly. Aid would allow me to write a new historical book in peace, that is, to do the source research, which takes a lot of time, to get material from other countries, to work undisturbed without having to constantly interrupt my work because otherwise I am forced to do journalistic work ”.

Paris time

In the first half of 1937, Kersten's letters show that he was in Paris. In the spring of the same year, the famous essay by Kurt Kersten on the National Socialist influence on the masses "Propaganda as a weapon", Editions du Carrefour, Paris 1937 , appeared with the responsibility of Willi Munzenberg. Kersten later wrote a letter to Manfred George to write in his obituary “That Willi Munzenberg was the man who was most important to me and that I remained loyal to him. You should also say that I wrote 'Propaganda as a weapon' ”. And he further emphasized: "I have never forgotten my Russian friends who were murdered by Stalin." He was unable to return to Prague from another stay in France due to the German annexation of Austria in March 1938. He stayed in Paris. Kurt Kersten published “Unter Freiheitsfahnen. German Volunteers in History ”. After Willi Munzenberg's break with Stalinism, Sebastian Brant Verlag and the magazine Die Zukunft (1938-1940) were responsible for “the friends of socialist unity”. a. Leopold Schwarzschild belonged to the last journalistic forum. Kurt Kersten published the "German Freedom Calendar 1939" in the Sebastian Brant edition. It contains contributions by Thomas Mann (“From the future victories of democracy”), Jacob Grimm (“About my discharge”, 1837, excerpt), Alfred Döblin (“November 10, 1918”), Lion Feuchtwanger (preprint from the novel “ Exile ”), Kurt Kersten (“ Ways of the liberal German bourgeoisie ”) and preprints by Emil Julius Gumbel , Fritz Lieb , Julius Lips , Emil Ludwig , Ludwig Marcuse , René Schickele , Hans Siemsen and Max Werner .

With the German occupation of France in the spring of 1940, her journalistic commitment to “German freedom in the fight against Hitler and Stalin” was increasingly restricted.

Martinique

After internment as an “enemy foreigner” in various camps, Kurt Kersten - separated from his wife - managed to get on a cargo ship “that supposedly went to America. However, it was brought up by a French ship and they had to go to Martinique ”(Elisabeth Kersten). In the second half of 1940 he reached Martinique . The Antilles island with its capital Fort-de-France belonged to the sphere of influence of Vichy- France, so that he was seen there as an undesirable foreigner. Despite all the efforts of his friends in the USA, it was not possible to get him an entry permit because of American immigration regulations and because he no longer had any papers. He had to endure in Martinique under difficult living conditions, in constant danger of being sent back to France and handed over to the Gestapo. In 1943 his friend Robert Breuer died there undernourished and due to a lack of medication .

new York

Kurt Kersten 1946

It was not until 1946 that Kurt Kersten arrived in the United States of America undernourished and was able to see his wife again. In the same year Martha David and Kurt Kersten married. In New York he became editor of the weekly newspaper Aufbau , founded by German-Jewish immigrants , for which he worked until his death. Kurt Kersten published many newspaper articles: “The end of Willi Münzenberg. A victim of Stalin and Ulbricht ”( Deutsche Rundschau , 1957, issue 5), the biography“ Der Weltumsegler. Johann Georg Adam Forster , 1754 - 1794 ”. In addition, von Kersten appeared in new, partly revised editions: “Peter the Great. On the questionable nature of historical greatness ”,“ The German Revolution 1848 - 1849 ”, and, edited and introduced by Kurt Kersten,“ Arthur Rosenberg: Origin and History of the Weimar Republic ”. Kurt Kersten died on May 18, 1962 in New York City. Following his wish, the ashes of the "enemy of German militarism" were buried in Kassel-Wehlheiden. In 2009 the grave of Kurt Kersten was recognized as an honorary grave of the city of Kassel by resolution of the city council.

Works (selection)

  • A European revolutionary. Georg Forster. Berlin 1921
  • The Moscow Trial of the Social Revolutionaries in 1922. Berlin 1925
  • Fridericus Rex and the crisis of absolutism. Berlin 1922
  • Moscow - Leningrad. A winter drive. Frankfurt a. M. 1924
  • Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826-1900). Orator of the Revolution, Vol. 5. Berlin 1925
  • Bismarck and his time. Berlin 1930
  • God's scourge. The Chancellor of the 2nd Reich. Geneva 1934
  • 1848. The German Revolution. Berlin 1933 (Frankfurt / Main 1955)
  • Peter the Great. On the nature and causes of historical greatness. Amsterdam 1935 (Nuremberg 1951, Frankfurt / Main 1954)
  • Under flags of freedom. German Volunteers in History. Paris 1938
  • The circumnavigator. Johann Georg Adam Forster 1754 - 1794. Bern 1957
  • The girl from Curacao. Viernheim 1956

As editor:

  • Today's Russia 1917 - 1922. 2 volumes. Berlin 1923
  • Georg Forster: Revolutionary Letters. Berlin 1925
  • Fridericus and his people. Documents from old Prussia. Berlin 1925
  • Michael Bakunin's confession from the Peter-Pauls fortress to Tsar Nikolaus I. Berlin 1926 (Frankfurt a. M. 1973)
  • German freedom calendar 1939/1940. Paris 1938/1939
  • Arthur Rosenberg : Origin and history of the Weimar Republic. Frankfurt. a. M. 1955

As co-editor:

  • The great politics of the powers in the world war. 3 parts in 6 volumes. Berlin 1930
  • Rétif de la Bretonne. Revolutionary Nights (Les Nuits de Paris) - Afterword by Kurt Kersten. Munich 1920

As translator:

  • Edmond and Jules de Goncourt: Germinie Lacerteux. Berlin 1928

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peer Schröder : Kurt Kersten - historian and writer. In: Gideon Schüler (Ed.): Between unrest and order. A German reading book for the period from 1925 to 1960 using the example of a region: Central Hesse. Giessen 1989, pp. 10-19; therein quotes from Elisabeth Kersten.
  2. ↑ The Word. Literary monthly, editor Bertolt Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger, Willi Bredel, April - May 1937, issue 4 - 5, p. 175.
  3. ^ Deutscher Reichsanzeiger and Prussian State Gazette, No. 84 of April 14, 1937 - List 11.
  4. ↑ Original in: Deutsche Bibliothek, Frankfurt a. M., German Exile Archive 1933–1945, bequest: American Guild - EB 70/117, quoted from: Peer Schröder: Kurt Kersten - historian and writer. In: Gideon Schüler (Ed.): Between unrest and order. A German reading book for the period from 1925 to 1960 using the example of a region: Central Hesse. Giessen 1989, p. 10-19. P. 16.
  5. ↑ ibid.
  6. ↑ Peer Schröder: Home - Identity - Foreignness. Cultural forms of processing exile experience using the example of Kurt Kersten's letters. Goettingen 1990.
  7. ^ Peer Schröder: Kurt Kersten - historian and writer. In: Gideon Schüler (Ed.): Between unrest and order. A German reading book for the period from 1925 to 1960 using the example of a region: Central Hesse. Giessen 1989, p. 10-19. P. 15.
  8. ↑ Manfred George: “In memoriam Kurt Kersten. A brave life ”, in: Aufbau / Reconstruction, Vol. 28 - No. 21 (May 25, 1962) p. 2.
  9. ^ The future (September 29, 1939), in: The future. A new Germany: a new Europe! Organ of the Franco-German Union. Journal Anti-Hitlerien. Willi Munzenberg (Ed.). Everything that appeared. Paris October 1938 - May 1940. Reprint Vaduz 1978.
  10. ↑ Kurt Kersten: "Robert Breuer's Death and Burial", in: Frankfurter Hefte , 8th Jhg. (March 1953) issue 3, p. 226 ff.
  11. ↑ Peer Schröder: “The enemy of German militarism. A memory of the historian and writer Kurt Kersten, who was born in Wehlheiden 125 years ago ”, in: (K) KulturMagazin (2016), no. 220, p. 27.
  12. ↑ “He loved freedom. The author Kurt Kersten from Wehlheiden would have turned 120 today ”, in: Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine Zeitung, April 19, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Kersten, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian, writer, publicist and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Wehlheiden near Kassel
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1962
Place of death New York City