Ludwig Kunz

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Ludwig Kunz (born February 15, 1900 in Görlitz , † 1976 in Amsterdam ) was a German-Dutch author, editor, writer, critic, translator and versatile "cultural mediator". He was born into a Jewish family.

Kunz was the son of a textile manufacturer. He wrote for the Berliner Tageblatt and the Vossische Zeitung . In his publications, especially young poets had their say, who conducted the first rehearsals or whose works had no chance of publication. From 1923 to 1931 he self-published the magazine Die Lebenden . In addition to the issues of the magazine called “ leaflets ” due to the irregularity and numerous essays, his works included a book on “Gerhart Hauptmann and young Germany”. There were also publications in Dutch. As a Jew, he fled the Nazis to the Netherlands in 1938 and lived underground until the end of the war. His estate is in the Upper Lusatian Library of Sciences .

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First half of life: Görlitz

The Kunz family owned a textile factory in the center of Görlitz. Ludwig was destined to take over the business. But his interests were in art and literature. From a young age he was committed to the cultural life of the city of Görlitz. He founded the culture group “Free Group Die Lebenden” and published the “Flyer” Die Lebenden from 1923–1931 . The title emphasizes the contrast to the conservative spirits who invoked canonical, deceased artists. The models were well-known Expressionist magazines such as Die Aktion and Der Sturm , but above all new territory was heralded: artists and poets with a post-expressionist, avant-garde character wrote and drew articles. The illustrations - graphics by artist friends - were overseen by the art critic Willi Wolfradt. Woodcuts and linocuts by Felixmüller, Johannes Wüsten, Max Thalmann, Otto Kratzer and others were published. Poets like Max Herrmann-Neiße, Else Lasker-Schüler, Wilhelm Lehmann and Oskar Loerke contributed. Many came from the Silesian area, but also prominent writers from other areas such as Thomas Mann, Alfred Döblin and Robert Musil wrote articles. After Hitler came to power, the Kunz family's life became increasingly difficult. As early as 1934, Ludwig Kunz was no longer allowed to take part in cultural life. He stayed in Görlitz for a few more years and tried to run the family business. When the company was “Aryanized”, he fled across the border in the company car at the last minute. Initially he wanted to travel on - two of his brothers were able to flee to South America, the third was later murdered in Auschwitz - but he did not get a visa and so he stayed in the Netherlands. He could only take a little with him, but he was able to take his most expensive gem, his “Panoptikum” with dedications from many famous poets and artists, which he had led since the 1920s. This valuable contemporary document is in Kunz's estate.

Escape and underground

In the first few years Ludwig Kunz lived in the small industrial town of Zaandam, not far from Amsterdam. He had reported and did not live there illegally, but the war overtook him in 1940 when the Germans invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. The security service of the German occupiers had wanted lists compiled and instructed the police to arrest Jews from the Netherlands and refugees from Germany. Kunz was warned in good time and went into hiding in Amsterdam. The first address was probably the house of the Swiss consul. The contact probably came about through Ruth Lilienstein (later Ruth Liepman), with whom Kunz was in contact after the war when she ran her literary agency in Zurich. However, he often had to change addresses and after a while ended up in the south of the Netherlands. He described his afflictions as a refugee and in hiding in the autobiographical novel Weg door de nacht (Walk through the night), which was published in Dutch immediately after the war. The German manuscript is lost. Some excerpts in German back-translation appeared in Andringa (ed.) 2017. In the Amsterdam Underground, Luku, as his friends called him, met Dutch artists and poets who were active in the resistance. These artists, u. a. Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Lucebert would later become famous as the international “Cobra” group, the poets (Gerrit Kouwenaar, Jan Elburg, Bert Schierbeek and others) as the “Fifty Movement” in Dutch poetry.

Second half of life: Amsterdam

After the war, Kunz settled in Amsterdam. He received Dutch nationality. How he envisaged a return to Germany can be seen in his stories, which were published in 1949, again in Dutch translation, under the title Sprong in het leven (Jump into Life). An insight into how he experienced the time after the war can be obtained from the novel Negentien-NU (Nineteen-Now) (1950) by his friend Gerrit Kouwenaar - who later became one of the most respected poets in the Netherlands. In one of the protagonists it is easy to see Kunz's features. He suffers from insomnia and depression and is close to suicide.

Kunz himself has hardly commented on his personal life. At first he got by as a haberdashery salesman, but soon resumed writing. During the war he had already got to know a network of writers and journalists who invited him to contribute articles on German literature for left-wing newspapers. From 1950 he wrote regularly for the prominent daily Algemeen Handelsblad. By 1970 around sixty articles on German literature had appeared: reviews, collective reviews and interviews with writers and other people who were active in the field of literature and theater. Kunz also looked for old acquaintances who were scattered all over the world. This is sometimes borne out by his articles, but also by correspondence and entries in his panopticon . We find the names of Thomas and Heinrich Mann, the widow of the poet Max Herrmann-Neisse, Max Brod, Kurt Pinthus, Wilhelm Lehmann and many others. He was particularly interested in his old friends Max Herrmann-Neisse and Ludwig Meidner. As the administrator of the written work of Ludwig Meidner, he published the book Dichter, Maler und Cafés (Zurich 1973). He introduced the works of German-speaking authors such as Hermann Hesse, Robert Musil, Heinrich Mann, Ernst Toller and Heinrich Böll to the Netherlands at an early age. In 1950–1955, Kunz issued another “pamphlet” that was strongly reminiscent of his earlier Die Lebenden . It was entitled De Kim , "The Horizon". Again literary was combined with graphics, again it comprised avant-garde, but this time a connection to the ideas of the Cobra movement can be seen. In the connection between poetry and graphic art, but also in social engagement, a parallel could be drawn between the avant-garde of the Weimar Republic and the developments in art and literature of the late 1940s and 1950s. Kunz has certainly recognized this. His new paper was more international than the earlier "living" ones. Number 5 of the total of 6/7 numbers is dedicated to Dutch poetry. Here Kunz appears as a translator for the first time. He learned the Dutch language and in the following years campaigned for the spread of Dutch poetry in Germany. He worked for years especially with the poet-painter Lucebert; He also took care of the poems of the Flemish Hugo Claus until the end of his life. In 1957 he edited the anthology Young Dutch Lyrik in the hermit press of VO Stomps. In 1965 a second volume followed under the same title.

In the sixties Kunz wrote newspaper articles on literature and cultural events in the Netherlands in German-language newspapers (including Deutsche Woche, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung ). He also contributed to German radio broadcasts.

For his transmissions and his efforts to spread Dutch culture in the German-speaking area, Kunz received the most important Dutch award for translators, the Martinus Nijhoff Prize, in 1965.

Bibliography by Ludwig Kunz

Literary writings

  • 1946 - Weg door de Nacht . Author. Translated from the German by Jan W. Rens. With an introduction by Theun de Vries. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij De Uil.
  • 1949 - Sprong in het Leven . Translated from German by Gerrit Kouwenaar. With an introduction by Nico Rost. Amsterdam: C. Hafkamp.

Transfers

  • 1951 - Ludwig Kunz, Meta 6, young painters and poets. July 1951. Frankfurt am Main: Meta-Verlag, KO Götz. [Translation of fragments of texts by Lucebert, Elburg, Schierbeek].
  • 1955 - Hans Lodeizen. Poems. Translated from Dutch into German by Ludwig Kunz and Karl Schwedhelm [unpublished. Typescript in the Ludwig Kunz archive].
  • 1957 - Young Dutch poetry. Edited and introduced by Ludwig Kunz. Stierstadt im Taunus: Hermit Press. [Translation of poems by Hans Andreus, Remco Campert, Jan G. Elburg, Gerrit Kouwenaar, Hans Lodeizen and Lucebert and prose by Bert Schierbeek]
  • 1960 - Go through the mirror. Episode 21/1960: Lucebert. Catalog for the exhibitions of the Der Spiegel gallery, Cologne. Preface and translation of ten poems by Lucebert. Cologne: Gallery Der Spiegel.
  • 1960 - Lucebert. Beelden in het heden: Dutch sculpture of the present. Catalog. Translation Ludwig Kunz. Basel: Kunsthalle Basel.
  • 1960 - Lucebert. Lithology: ten poems, ten lithos . With three transcriptions of poems by Ludwig Kunz. Hilversum Holland: Steendrukkerij De Jong & Co.
  • 1962 - Go through the mirror, episode 29/1962: Karel Appel. Catalogs for the exhibitions of the Der Spiegel gallery, Cologne. With texts by Lucebert, Schierbeek and Oxenaar. Translation of Lucebert [Prose 'appel's verflichaam leeft' (1961)] and Schierbeek [fragment Het dier heeft een mens getekend (1960)] by Ludwig Kunz. Cologne: Gallery Der Spiegel.
  • 1962 - Lucebert. Poems and drawings. Translated into German and with an afterword by Ludwig Kunz. Munich and Hamburg: Verlag Heinrich Ellermann.
  • 1963 - Lucebert, 'wat het oog schildert' / 'What the eye paints'. In: Lucebert. Municipal Art Gallery Bochum May 25th - July 21st 1963. Catalog. With a foreword by Dr. Peter Leo.
  • 1963 - Lucebert, 'If children hear something difficult comes up here' [translation of prose 'Kalm aan kinderen, er valt iets zwaars' (1961)]. In: Lucebert. Municipal Art Gallery Bochum May 25th - July 21st 1963. Catalog. With a foreword by Dr. Peter Leo.
  • 1963 - Constant, New Babylon. With Simon Vinkenoog: “Preamble to a New World” and ten graphics. Translated by Ludwig Kunz. Amsterdam: Galerie D'Eendt.
  • 1965 - Young Dutch Poetry. Published by Ludwig Kunz. Hugo Claus, Jan G. Elburg, Gust Gils, Gerrit Kouwenaar, Lucebert, Sybren Polet, Bert Schierbeek, Hans Sleutelaar, Hans Verhagen, Simon Vinkenoog. With four drawings by Lucebert. Stierstadt im Taunus: Hermit Press. Numbered edition (passages. Literary-graphic series. Vol. XI).
  • 1968 - Willem Sandberg, nu. maintenant. now. now 2 . Kwadraat-Bladen number 21. Hilversum: Steendrukkerij De Jong & Co. [Text in four languages] German translation by Ludwig Kunz, Amsterdam.
  • 196 * - Corneille. Abyssinian trip. A painter's diary notes. Translated and introduced by Ludwig Kunz. Stierstadt im Taunus: Hermit Press. [* Year of publication cannot be determined exactly]
  • 1970 - Gerrit Achterberg. Five poems . Authorized translation from Dutch by Ludwig Kunz and Karl Schwedhelm. In: Akzente 1970, 2, pp. 152–154.
  • 1970 - Hugo Claus. Five poems. Authorized translation from Flemish by Ludwig Kunz. In: Akzente 1970, 2, pp. 155–157.
  • 1972 - Lucebert. We are faces. Poems and drawings. Authorized translation from Dutch, selection and afterword by Ludwig Kunz. With an introduction by Helmut Heißenbüttel. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1972, 96 p. [Vol. 259 of the Suhrkamp library]
  • 1977 - Poems from Belgium and the Netherlands. Paul van Ostaijen, Gerrit Achterberg, Lucebert, Hugo Claus. Edited and with an afterword by Hans Joachim Schädlich. Berlin: People and World [translations by Lucebert and Hugo Claus]

Editorships

  • 1923 - 1931 The living. Pamphlets. Edited by Ludwig Kunz. Photomech. Reprint 1966, Hilversum: De Boekenvriend u. Zurich: Limmat Verlag. (Introduction: Paul Raabe, Nachw. / Register: Ludwig Kunz.)
  • 1932 - Gerhart Hauptmann and young Germany . Edited by Ludwig Kunz. Wroclaw: Priebatsch's bookstore. With contributions by Max Herrmann-Neiße, Edwin Erich Dwinger, Gerhard Menzel, Johannes R. Becher, Gerhart Pohl, Erik Reger, Werner Milch, Lutz Weltmann, Fred von Zollikofer, Hans Fallada.
  • 1932 - Wilhelm Lehmann. The unknown voice . Edited by Ludwig Kunz. Berlin: The Raven Press. With contributions by Moritz Heimann, Emanuel bin Gorion, Hermann Kasack, Oskar Loerke, Werner Milch, Kurt Pinthus, Alfred Wolfenstein, Wilhelm Conrad Gomoll and others. a.
  • 1950 - 1955 De Kim . Nos. 1-6 / 7. Amsterdam. Photomech. Reprint 1974, Nendeln / Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint u. Hilversum: c / o International Literature Bureau, Heinz Kohn
  • 1973 - Ludwig Meidner, poet, painter and café . Edited by Ludwig Kunz. Zurich: Publishing house Die Arche.

Mixed fonts

  • 1928 - chaos. Berlin: Verlag Der Aufbruch (Aufbruch Bücherei 1).
  • 1962 - untitled. Contribution to: good morning vauo - a book for the white raven vo stomps . Edited by Günter Bruno Fuchs and Harry Pross. Frankfurt / Main: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, pp. 97/98
  • 1965 - Lecture for the Association of German Writers' Associations in Berlin on May 11th [unpublished. Manuscript in the LKA]
  • 1965 - Philipp Bauknecht 1884–1933. In the catalog for the exhibition from November 6th to December 31st, 1965 in the art show Böttcherstrasse Paula Becker-Modersohn - Haus Bremen. Bremen
  • 1965 - Dankwoord. In: Sem Dresden a. a., Mededelingen van het Prins Bernhard Fund . Series B No 25. Uitreiking van de Martinus Nijhoff-prijs voor Vertalingen 1965. Amsterdam: Prins Bernhard Fonds, pp. 11-14
  • 1966 - In the rear of Expressionism. In: Reprint Die Lebenden , pp. 85–87

For the newspaper articles in German and Dutch newspapers see the bibliography in Andringa 2017.

Literature about Ludwig Kunz

  • Jesserun d'Oliveira, Hans Ulrich: Origineel en vertaling. Merlyn , 2, 1963, 1, pp. 3-21
  • Raabe, Paul: The living. Review and preview. in: The living , reprint. Hilversum / Zurich 1966, pp. 90–92
  • Zuiderent, Ad .: Lucebert in het Duits. In: Spektator , 5, 1975, 2, pp. 81-98
  • Wessig, Wolfgang: A Ludwig Meidner bundle in the Ludwig Kunz archive of the Görlitz municipal art collections. in: quarterly. Silesia. Art, Science, Folklore 4, 1993, p. 242-250
  • van der Grijn Santen, WB: Ludwig Kunz, leap into life. in: ders., Makum Aleph. Amsterdam as a Jewish refuge in German and Dutch literature . Würzburg 2008, pp. 339–343
  • Feijter, Anja de: Een tweesnijdend mes: Lucebert in het Duits en in het Engels. in: Dick van Halsema, Johan Koppenol, and Ben Peperkamp (eds.), Uitgaan op niveau. Vriendenboek voor Ad Zuiderent. Amsterdam 2009, pp. 45-50
  • Andringa, Els. “Fate has now brought me to Holland in the fateful years. Ludwig Kunz 'contact with Wilhelm Lehmann ”, in: Heinz Kucher, Johannes F. Evelein and Helga Schreckenberger (eds.), First Letters from Exile 1945–1950. (In) possible conversations. Case studies of literary and artistic exile. Munich 2011, pp. 227-238
  • Wessig, Wolfgang: Fruitful encounters. Two portraits. in: Markus Bauer and Siegfried Hoche (eds.), The Jews of Görlitz: Contributions to the Jewish history of the city of Görlitz . Görlitz 2013.
  • Dick, Antonín: Two halves of a life - Ludwig Kunz. in: Poetenladen from January 13, 2013
  • Andringa, Els: Fate has now led me to Holland in the fateful years. Ludwig Kunz. in: dies., German exile literature in the Dutch-German network of relationships. A history of communication and reception 1933–2013. Berlin / Boston 2014, pp. 269–281
  • Andringa, Els: Vertaler in exile: Ludwig Kunz. In: filter. Tijdschrift over vertalen 23, 2016, 3, pp. 22–30
  • Andringa, Els (ed.): Avantgarde & Exile - Ludwig Kunz as a cultural mediator. Vienna, Zurich, Münster 2017. With contributions by Els Andringa, Anja de Feijter, Tim van der Grijn Santen, Micha Labbé, Dorle Meyer, Wolfgang Wessig and Katja Zaich. With texts by Ludwig Kunz.
  • Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): Biographisches Handbuch der Deutschensprachigen Emigration nach 1933 / International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 , Vol II, 1 Munich: Saur 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 674

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Antonín Dick:. Retrieved April 23, 2016; the contributions by Els Andringa, Micha Labbé and Wolfgang Wessig in: Andringa (ed.): Avantgarde & Exil - Ludwig Kunz als Kulturvermittler , pp. 5–48
  2. ↑ Ludwig Kunz . In: DNB, catalog of the German National Library . Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  3. ^ Antonín Dick: Two halves of a life - poet shop . Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Wessig: Decisive starting point for my efforts ... '. Görlitz 1900-1938 . In: Andringa 2017 . S. 25-48 .
  5. ^ A b Antonín Dick: Two halves of a life - Ludwig Kunz . In: Poet Shop . January 13, 2013.
  6. ^ Ludwig Kunz: Way door de night. 1946.
  7. ^ Andringa: A life between literature and art . In: Andringa 2017 . S. 5-11 .
  8. ^ Labbé: Memories of Ludwig Kunz . In: Andringa 2017 . S. 13-23 .
  9. ^ Andringa: Avantgarde & Exile - Ludwig Kunz as a cultural mediator. 2017, p. 289-301 .
personal data
SURNAME Kunz, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Dutch author and editor
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Goerlitz
DATE OF DEATH 1976
Place of death Amsterdam