Ludwig Finckh

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Ludwig Finckh

Ludwig Finckh (born March 21, 1876 in Reutlingen , † March 8, 1964 in Gaienhofen ) was a German writer and doctor . In addition to his own literary successes, he is known for his friendship with Hermann Hesse , from whom extensive correspondence has been preserved. From 1933 to 1945 he was an active member of the NSDAP .

Life

The pharmacist's son Ludwig Finckh graduated from high school in Reutlingen. He first studied law in Munich and Tübingen , but dropped out shortly before the exam. Instead, he began studying medicine at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg . As a student, he made friends with Hermann Hesse in 1897, who was training as a bookseller in Tübingen at the time. In 1904 Finckh in Freiburg im Breisgau was awarded Dr. med. PhD. After a short time as an assistant doctor in Aachen , he moved to Gaienhofen in 1905, where Hesse had lived since 1904. Finckh settled here as a freelance writer and started a family.

Finckh's literary success began in 1906 through his novel Der Rosendoktor , written in popular language . Max Bucherer designed the Art Nouveau -style book cover as well as the two other books published in 1906 - Rosen (poems) and Biskra (travel story). In 1909 the novel Rapunzel followed, which was sold 100,000 times in a special edition. The trip to Tripstrill in 1911 was also a success. His literary works demonstrate the "development from homeland to folk blood and soil poet."

As a result of his great commitment to the Germans abroad , whom he called to mind their “Germanness” and whom he wanted to inspire for his genealogical research, he was called the “father of Germans abroad”. He dedicated the novel Der Vogel Rock , published in 1924, to them , in which he already formulated “ thoughts on the systematic breeding of people and euthanasia ”: “Rearing in one direction […]. Turn off small things, there would be a bad trunk. And you have to know where you want to go. "

Finckh's former home in Gaienhofen, built in 1907. Architect: Hans Hindermann
Handwritten dedication by Finckh in the book Der Ahnenhorst (1923) to the Nazi racial researcher Achim Gercke , Gaienhofen, July 16, 1933.

During their time together in Gaienhofen - Hesse moved to Bern in 1912 - Hesse and Finckh were initially close friends. However, due to different views, they became more and more estranged. On the one hand, Finckh represented an image of family and motherhood that did not correspond to Hesse's artistic self-image. On the other hand, Hesse criticized Finckh's uncritical, nationalist and anti-Semitic attitude.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , Finckh was one of 88 writers in October 1933 who signed the pledge of loyal allegiance to Adolf Hitler . Finckh was an active party member of the NSDAP from 1933 (head of culture and propaganda in Gaienhofen). As a consultant for the area of ​​“clan studies and inheritance”, he held regular lectures on genealogy and genetic biology, the central theme of several of his books published since 1920, at the Gaienhofen district school of the National Socialist Teachers' Association . Finckh also gave “ideological” lectures to the Hitler Youth and members of the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV) , the latter in the NSV district school, Gauamt Württemberg-Hohenzollern, in Kapfenburg Castle under the direction of NSV district head office Ernst Benno Mutschler . After 1941, Finckh also gave such lectures to graduates of the Waffen-SS-Unterführerschule in Radolfzell on “legal-of-life” and “ancestral” topics.

In addition to his novels, Ludwig Finckh tried to open up his poetic homeland, the Hegau and its volcanic mountains, to his reading community . As advocates of a National Socialist nature conservation ideology , Finckh and the “Stoffler” movement he initiated were considered to be the “saviors of the Hohenstoffeln ”, which - even before 1933 - had long campaigned to stop basalt mining on this Hegauberg before the Hohenstoffeln In 1935 it was initially placed under nature protection and basalt mining was finally banned by a decree by Hermann Göring in 1939. Finckh's “Heimatschutz Movement” for “Rescuing the Hohenstoffeln” received significant support from the Research Association of German Ahnenerbe and SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler , who worked in the background.

Appointed honorary member in 1938, Finckh had been a member of the main committee of the Swabian Alb Association since 1939 , chaired by Georg Fahrbach , who had already joined the "Stofflern" in 1935. A hiking trail in Hegau, which the Black Forest Association had named after its honorary member Finckh, and several memorial stones or plaques on Hohenstoffeln still bear witness to Finckh's commitment to hiking and nature conservation , without providing any critical information about its context and background.

In the years after 1945 Finckh presented his friendship with Hesse in various writings such as the essay Schwäbische Vetten (1948), the story Verauberung (1950), the Gaienhofen Idylle and especially in his 1961 autobiography Heaven and Earth . This was under the impression a declining literary importance and described an intimate bond between the two writers. Hesse, whom Finckh had asked for support in his judging chamber proceedings after 1945 , protested against the dedication of the volume of poems Rosengarten , because it gave the reader the impression that he and Finckh were "united and united in their thoughts and innermost consciences". Hesse finally described the autobiography as "the book of an old nailed-up Nazi who screamed 'Heil Hitler' for 12 years and would like to do it again".

Several of Finckh's works were placed on the list of literature to be segregated in the Soviet occupation zone and the German Democratic Republic .

In 1960 the biography Konrad Widerholt appeared in Finckh u. a. describes the time of the Thirty Years War on Lake Constance .

“Life means hiking” - inscription on the tomb at the Achalm

Ludwig Finckh died on March 8, 1964 at the age of 87 and was buried in May 1964 at the Achalm near Reutlingen. The Reutlingen city archive preserves a large part of Finckh's estate. Due to the extensive correspondence with mutual friends and acquaintances, he is an important source of Hesse research.

Memorial plaque on the house where he was born in Reutlingen

Finckh's uncritical appraisals are increasingly criticized in view of his Nazi burden; However, almost all previous initiatives to rename streets and paths named after Finckh have so far been unsuccessful or the decision has been postponed indefinitely, subject to a comprehensive review of the Nazi history of the respective city.

Honors

Works (selection)

  • You women, you sweetheart , songs (poems). Pierson, Dresden 1900.
  • About the palliative operation, especially the trepanation for congestive papilla , dissertation. University printing press U. Hochreuther, Freiburg 1904.
  • The rose doctor . German publishing house, Stuttgart 1906.
  • Rosen (poems), introduction by OJ Bierbaum. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1906, second, increased edition 1906.
  • Biskra . German publishing house, Stuttgart 1906.
  • Rapunzel . German publishing company, Stuttgart 1909.
  • The trip to Tripstrill . Langen, Munich 1911.
  • The soil seer . German publishing company, Stuttgart 1914.
  • Island spring , stories. Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1916.
  • Through with joy! German publishing company, Stuttgart 1919.
  • Reconstruction . Reuss & Itta, Constance 1919.
  • Jacob's ladder . German publishing house, Stuttgart 1920.
  • Sun, moon and stars , stories. Salzer, Heilbronn 1920.
  • Ancestral booklet . Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1921.
  • Sea King and Grass Plover . German publishing company, Stuttgart 1922.
  • The ancestral garden . German publishing company, Stuttgart 1923.
  • The Ahnenhorst . Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1923.
  • The bird rock. Narration . German publishing company, Stuttgart 1923.
  • Sudeten German patrol . Falken-Verlag, Dresden 1924.
  • Brother German. A foreign booklet . German publishing company, Stuttgart 1925
  • Holy ancestry (= Deutsche Anhnenbücherei 1) . Degener, Leipzig 1926.
  • Bricklebritt. Novel . German publishing company, Stuttgart 1926.
  • The bird's nest in the ancestral tree. Stories from the pedigree . Franz, Munich 1928.
  • Sun at Lake Constance. A sketchbook . German publishing house, Stuttgart 1928.
  • Vacation from God . German publishing house, Stuttgart 1930.
  • The trip to Lake Constance . Bonz, Stuttgart 1931.
  • Star and fate. Johann Kepler's novel of life .. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1931.
  • The divine call. Life and work of Robert Mayer. Novel . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1932.
  • Smugglers, rascals, jokes . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1933.
  • The unknown Hegau . Konkordia, Bühl 1935.
  • Drummers around the world. Poems . Heine, Tübingen 1936.
  • A strong life. Fate compels, loyalty decides. Novel . Heine, Tübingen 1936.
  • The empress, the king and their officer. The adventurous life of Johann Jakob Wunsch . Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich 1939.
  • Duke and Vogt. Novel . Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich 1940.
  • The cloud rider . Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich 1940 (= new edition of Die Jakobsleiter (1920)).
  • The small town on Lake Constance . Konkordia, Bühl 1942.
  • The golden legacy. Novel . Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich 1943.
  • Selected works , ed. v. Ludwig Finckh Circle of Friends on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Silberburg-Verlag, Stuttgart 1956.
  • Heaven and Earth. Eight decades of my life and new poems: The golden trace . Silberburg-Verlag, Stuttgart 1961.

literature

  • Manfred Bosch : Bohème on Lake Constance. Literary life on the lake from 1900 to 1950. Libelle Verlag, Lengwil 1997, here: “I was made of different cloth”. Ludwig Finckh in Gaienhofen , pp. 45–51.
  • Manfred Bosch: Finckh, Ludwig Eduard. Poet, doctor, conservationist. In: Bernd Ottnad (Hrsg.): Baden-Württembergische Biographien. Volume II. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1999, pp. 132-136.
  • Gertrud Fink: Ludwig Finckh, life and work. Heine, Tübingen 1936.
  • Friedrich Hofmann: My sick see me as a private pastor. In: Doctors newspaper . March 21, 2001.
  • Julia Jäger: Ludwig Finckh. A life as a doctor and poet (1876–1964) (= studies on the history of medicine, art and literature. Vol. 56). Murken-Altrogge, Herzogenrath 2006, ISBN 978-3-935791-22-9 .
  • Gerald Kronberger: Hesse and Ludwig Finckh. The strange "friend" from Gaienhofen. In: Reutlinger General-Anzeiger . July 2, 2002 ( PDF ).
  • Michael Limberg: "It's cold in the world when you don't have a fatherland." Hermann Hesse and Ludwig Finckh - the outsiders and followers. Published on HHP, 2016. PDF
  • Michael Limberg: Hermann Hesse and Ludwig Finckh. In: Friedrich Bran and Martin Pfeifer (eds.): Hermann Hesse and his literary contemporaries. Gengenbach, Bad Liebenzell 1982, ISBN 3-921841-09-7 , pp. 39-57.
  • Volker Ludwig: The creation of the "Hohenstoffeln" nature reserve . In: Hegau - magazine for history, folklore and natural history of the area between the Rhine, Danube and Lake Constance . tape 54/55 (1997/98) . Self-published by the Hegau history association Singen e. V., Singen (Hohentwiel) January 1999.
  • Kurt Oesterle : Doctor Faust defeats Shylock. How Ludwig Finckh saved the Hohenstoffeln and how the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler helped him as his Mephisto. In: Hegau. Vol. 54/55 (1997/98), pp. 191-208.
  • Martin Pfeifer: Julie Hellmann, Hermann Hesses Lulu. Enchanted - for a lifetime. Schöllkopf, Kirchheim 1991. ISBN 3-927189-03-0 .
  • Jana Rogge: Ludwig Finckh - the racist genealogist. In: Rolf Düsterberg (Ed.): Poets and the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Volume 3: 9 author portraits and a sketch about the German Cultural Work of European Spirit. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2015, pp. 79–103.
  • Eugen Wendler: Ludwig Finckh. A life as a homeland poet and nature lover (= Reutlinger Lebensbilder. Vol. 2). Knödler, Reutlingen 1985, ISBN 3-87421-989-5 .
  • Markus Wolter: Dr. Ludwig Finckh: "Blood Consciousness". The Höri writer and the SS. In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Volume 5: People exposed to the Nazis from the Lake Constance area. Kugelberg, Gerstetten 2016, ISBN 978-3-945893-04-3 , pp. 78-102.
  • Gotthold Wurster: The German Finckh. Life and work. Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich 1941; 2nd edition 1943.
  • Deutscher Volksverlag Munich (Ed.): Complete directory Ludwig Finckh. Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich 1935.
  • Ludwig Finckh , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 23/1964 of May 25, 1964, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Commons : Ludwig Finckh  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gotthold Wurster: The German Finckh. Life and work. 2nd Edition. Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich 1943.
  2. ↑ Catalog card of the dissertation , dissertation catalog of the University Library of Basel , accessed on October 15, 2016.
  3. ↑ Jana Rogge: Ludwig Finckh - the racist genealogist. In: Rolf Düsterberg (Ed.): Poets and the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Volume 3: 9 author portraits and a sketch about the German Cultural Work of European Spirit. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2015, p. 84.
  4. ↑ Jana Rogge: Ludwig Finckh - the racist genealogist. In: Rolf Düsterberg (Ed.): Poets and the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Volume 3: 9 author portraits and a sketch about the German Cultural Work of European Spirit. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2015, p. 86; Deutscher Volksverlag Munich (Ed.): Complete directory Ludwig Finckh. Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich 1935, p. 1; Ernst Loewy : Literature under the swastika. The Third Reich and its poetry. A documentation. Hain, Frankfurt am Main 1990, p. 312.
  5. ↑ Jana Rogge: Ludwig Finckh - the racist genealogist. In: Rolf Düsterberg (Ed.): Poets and the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Volume 3: 9 author portraits and a sketch about the German Cultural Work of European Spirit. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2015, p. 88; see. Manfred Bosch: Ludwig Finckh - poet, doctor, conservationist. 1876-1964. In: Bernd Ottnad (Ed.): Baden-Württemberg biographies. Volume II. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1999, p. 134.
  6. ↑ Ludwig Finckh: The bird rock. DVA, Stuttgart 1924, p. 44, quoted from Rogge (2015), p. 88.
  7. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 153.
  8. ↑ On Ludwig Finckh's lectures at the NSLB-Gauschule Gaienhofen and at the Waffen-SS Unterführerschule Radolfzell: Markus Wolter: Dr. Ludwig Finckh - "blood consciousness". The Höri writer and the SS. In: Wolfgang Proske (Hrsg.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders, volume 5. People exposed to the Nazi regime from the Lake Constance area. Gerstetten 2016; ders .: Radolfzell under National Socialism. The Heinrich Koeppen barracks as the location of the Waffen SS. In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings. 129th volume (2011), p. 247 ff.
  9. ^ Ludwig Finckh: The Unknown Hegau , Konkordia, Bühl 1935.
  10. ↑ See Kurt Oesterle: Doctor Faust defeats Shylock. How Ludwig Finckh saved the Hohenstoffeln and how the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler helped him as his Mephisto , in: Hegau . Vol. 54/55 (1997/98), pp. 191-208.
  11. ↑ Ludwig Finckh: Heaven and Earth. Eight decades of my life , Silberburg-Verlag, Stuttgart 1961, p. 143.
  12. ↑ Quoted from: Hermann Hesse: Gesammelte Briefe. Volume 3. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1982, p. 509.
  13. ↑ Quoted from: Gerald Kronberger: Hesse and Ludwig Finckh. The strange "friend" from Gaienhofen. In: Reutlinger General-Anzeiger . July 2, 2002 ( PDF ).
  14. ^ German administration for popular education in the Soviet zone of occupation: List of the literature to be sorted out . Zentralverlag, Berlin 1946, p. 105-127 ( transcript letter F ).
  15. ^ German Administration for Popular Education in the Soviet Zone of Occupation: List of Literature to be Separated, Second Addendum . Zentralverlag, Berlin 1948, p. 70-86 ( transcript letter F ).
  16. ↑ German Administration for Popular Education in the Soviet Occupation Zone: List of the literature to be sorted out, Third Supplement . VEB Deutscher Zentralverlag, Berlin 1948, p. 47-58 ( transcript letter F ).
  17. ^ For example in Villingen-Schwenningen 2014; see. Madlen Falke: Ludwig Finckh is staying for the time being . In: Schwarzwälder Bote, February 20, 2014 , accessed on August 8, 2019.
  18. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 153.
  19. ↑ Cf. Georg Fahrbach : A tribute to our committee member Dr. Finckh. A "Ludwig Finckh Tower" , in: Blätter des Schwäbischen Albverein , 52nd Jg., 5 (1940), pp. 49–51.
  20. ^ The name was changed to Hermann-Hesse-Straße as early as 1947; see. Heilbronn street names that have been canceled  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.heilbronn.de  
  21. ↑ The rejection of a renaming initiative took place in 2005; see. Resolution proposal, municipal council meeting, Reutlingen, from April 28, 2005; Ratsinformationssystem Reutlingen, online , accessed on August 8, 2019.
  22. ↑ The application to rename Ludwig-Finckh-Straße was rejected by a majority by the Rielasingen-Worblingen municipal council on September 27, 2017, as was the proposal to attach additional information to the street sign, as had previously happened in Radolfzell and Konstanz (written down on the public Meeting of the municipal council on September 27 , 2017 , accessed on July 14, 2018).
  23. ↑ Quotation from issue 46th Thousand 1940: Finckh once registered the hostility of the Jews in this book , because in 1920 he had extolled the swastika , the great symbol of good luck. (Publisher's laundry slip). The sentence refers to the 1st version in 1920
personal data
SURNAME Finckh, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Reutlingen
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1964
Place of death Gaienhofen