Magdalene Stange-Freerks

Magdalene Stange-Freerks around 1935

Magdalene Stange-Freerks (born March 31, 1886 in Hamburg , † April 21, 1982 in Deutsch Evern ) was a German writer .

Life

Magdalene Stange-Freerks was a writer who published historical novels and volumes of poetry. She was born in 1886 as the sixth child and only girl of the Hamburg-based middle-class family Stange. As a writer, she added the suffix “Freerks” to her name . It was the last name of her maternal grandfather. After graduating from school, she became a teacher at the primary school in Hamburg-Veddel. As a young woman, she admired the Hamburg art historian Alfred Lichtwark and regularly attended his lectures. After his death in 1914, she quit her teaching position and traveled to London on his tracks. She earned her living there as a private teacher for German children.

The First World War forced her to return to Germany. She resumed teaching and began developing her literary ambitions on the side. The death of her parents gave her the financial freedom to move from Hamburg to Vastorf near Lüneburg in 1928 and to devote herself entirely to writing. She lived there for 51 years and remained unmarried throughout her life. At the end of the Second World War , she taught again in Lüneburg at the Wilhelm Raabe School . At the age of 93 she moved to Wyk auf Föhr . A year later Magdalene Stange-Freerks returned to spend her retirement years with the family of her last secretary (Mrs. Elisabeth Müller) in Deutsch Evern . There she died on April 21, 1982 and was buried in the local cemetery. The grave was declared an honorary grave in 2013.

Eight novels or short stories and two volumes of poetry that appeared between 1936 and 1981 were published. Her historical novels, in particular Auf der alten Salzstrasse and the youth book Admiral Karpfanger and his son , were widely read at the time and achieved several editions. The volumes of poetry received less attention. Magdalene Stange-Freerks was active as a writer well into old age. Her estate and several unpublished manuscripts were given to the Ostheide Samtgemeinde based in Barendorf. A part of the estate and personal documents are displayed in a showcase in the entrance area of ​​the town hall of Barendorf.

Works

• The dish of the animals. Sensitive stories about a smoke house in 1936.
• The children from Sonnenberg 1948, 2nd edition 1968 under the title: Das Haus am Sonnenberg.
• Admiral Karpfanger and his son 1955.
• Flowers and seagulls. Little poems 1959.
• On the old salt road in 1963.
• Sunte Maria and the Reventlows 1965.
• The rose and her dream 1968.
• Lütt Thies, Schelmengeschichten 1973.
• Four women out and about 1976.
• Vom Heideland and Waterkant 1981.

literature

• Traces, women in Lüneburg - City of Lüneburg, 1995.
• Literary Guide Germany - Oberhauser / Kahrs, Insel Verlag 2008.
• Newspaper article in the Landeszeitung für die Lüneburger Heide on the birthdays (93rd – 96th), on the move to Föhr on November 23, 1979, obituary on April 23, 1982 and report on the survival of the grave, April 2013.

Web links

• Literature by and about Magdalene Stange-Freerks in the catalog of the German National Library