Leon Hirsch

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Leon Hirsch (born October 2, 1886 in Berlin ; died July 27, 1954 in Bern ) was a German bookseller , printer, publisher , organizer and cabaret director of Jewish descent.

life and work

After attending school and an apprenticeship in 1904, Hirsch opened a small publishing bookstore in Berlin, which he defined as a “one-man company with a political left-wing program”. From 1921 he organized author evenings at which artists present their works, including Walter Mehring and Erich Weinert .

In March 1926 he founded the flying political-satirical cabaret “ Die Wespen ” in Berlin , after having had works by the authors Karl Schnog and Erich Weinert printed. Weinert, who had a sonorous, pleasant stage voice, was then also engaged for the "Wasps" ensemble. Besides him, they included: the actresses Annemarie Hase and Resi Langer, Karl Schnog as the master of the ceremony and the composer and pianist Claus Clauberg , who also accompanied the performances on the grand piano. Ernst Busch , too , accompanied on the piano by Hanns Eisler , performed now and then with Hirsch's “Wespen”.

The ensemble has performed at the following venues:

Hirsch cultivated a lasting friendship with the writer Erich Mühsam since 1906 . He was on stage when, in October 1932, ten authors read from their works for the "Wasps" in the Schubert Hall on Nollendorffplatz. In addition to Erich Weinert and Karl Schnog, Else Lasker-Schüler , Erich Kästner , Paul Nikolaus and Roda-Roda participated in the evening of the lecture.

Even before the National Socialists came to power , the cabaret "Die Wespen" was closed in July 1932 on the basis of a Prussian emergency ordinance . After the fire in the Reichstag on the night of February 27-28, 1933, Leon Hirsch had to go into hiding. His last apartment in Berlin was at Bozener Str. 10 in Schöneberg .

The political and racial persecution by the new rulers forced Hirsch to emigrate to Switzerland . He fled first to Zurich in April 1933, then on to Brissago in May ; Since he was not given a work permit there (his application for a residence permit and work permit was rejected "for reasons of foreign infiltration," as it was officially called), he had to keep his head above water by selling paintings and drawings from his personal possessions, ultimately penniless support the Jewish refugee welfare and social democratic refugee aid before the Conti Rossini family helped him.

Suffering from leukemia, Leon Hirsch was hospitalized on September 15, 1952. He died on July 27, 1954 in the Lory Hospital in Bern.

He is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Bern .

In the early 1980s, the GDR literary scholar Wolfgang U. Schütte managed to track down Hirsch's estate in Brissago . Angelo Conti Rossini, anarchist and owner of a restaurant, supported Hirsch until his death and finally inherited him. Schütte found letters from Zenzl Mühsam , Else Lasker-Schüler, Sylvia von Harden , Albert Ehrenstein , etc. and a number of unprinted manuscripts in the estate .

Works from Leon Hirsch-Verlag (selection)

  • Erich Mühsam: In memory of Gustav Landauer . Leon Hirsch Verlag, Berlin 1919.
  • From the songs of bilitis . After Pierre Louÿs and the original edited by Bronis Puget (Leon Hirsch?). 4 original woodcuts by Willy Zierath . Leon Hirsch, Berlin 1922, 200 copies.
  • Karl Schnog : Purr. Lyrical portraits. With three drawings by Herbert Döblin , 1925 (Schnog's first book).
  • Erich Weinert: Monkey Theater. Leon Hirsch, Berlin-Schöneberg 1925.
  • Max Dungert : Heads . Foreword by Otto Brattskoven . Leon Hirsch Verlag, Berlin 1925.
  • Leon Hirsch (Ed.) Erich Mühsam - hand drawings and poems. Verbano-Verlag, 1936. (Reprint: Verlag Edition Leipzig, Leipzig 1984).

literature

  • Helga Bemman: Berlin Musenkinder memoirs. A cheerful chronicle from 1900–1930. VEB 'Lied der Zeit' Musik-Verlag Berlin-O. 1981, pp. 119-130.
  • Georg Guntermann: Classic, modern: for Norbert Oellers on his 60th birthday. Erich Schmidt Verlag GmbH & Co KG, 1996.
  • Museum Neukölln: Selected portraits. Leon Hirsch (1886-1954). ( online )
  • Wolfgang U. Schütte: From Berlin to Brissago. On the trail of Leon Hirsch in Switzerland. Berlin (GDR), book publisher Der Morgen , 1987.
  • Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists 1933 to 1945. With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 393.

Web links

Illustrations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Guntermann: Classic, modern: For Norbert Oellers on his 60th birthday. P. 140.
  2. ↑ a b c d Leon Hirsch (1886–1954) ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on berlin.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.berlin.de
  3. ↑ What was meant by this, Karl Schnog explains in his manifesto What do the Wasps want : “Sedentariness seems to us to be the enemy of all Brettl effects. That's why we want to change the place every couple of weeks ... “, Helga Bemman: Berliner Musenkinder-Memoiren. P. 130.
  4. ↑ Helga Bemman: Berlin Leisure Children's memoirs. P. 124.
  5. ↑ 1886–1971: cabaret artist, lecturer and film actress, cf. Langer, Resi.
  6. ↑ Helga Bemman: Berlin Leisure Children's memoirs. P. 121.
  7. ↑ The German jazz pioneer Eric Borchard and his band were also involved here in the mid-1920s . See record labels : “Eric Borchard's Atlantic Jazz Band from Mercedes-Palast Berlin” from Grammophon AG.
  8. ↑ Helga Bemman: Berlin Leisure Children's memoirs. P. 130; the event poster is reproduced on p. 129.
personal data
SURNAME Hirsch, Leon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bookseller, printer, publisher, organizer and cabaret director
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1954
Place of death Bern