Cockchafer Association

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The Maikäferbund was a literary group and existed from summer 1840 to March 1847. It was founded in Bonn on June 29, 1840 by Sebastian Longard, Andreas Simons and the later married couple Johanna Kinkel (then Johanna Mockel) and Gottfried Kinkel .

history

The purpose of the literary circle was to offer the members a forum for their own publications and also to create a sociable literary framework. On the public holiday of Peter and Paul , an annual foundation festival was celebrated with a meeting of all members. In 1848 the cockchafer association was banned in the run-up to the revolution .

The weekly club magazine Der Maikäfer: a magazine for non- Philistines existed in a single copy. This publication changed from a collection of joking articles such as satires on Bonn's philistine bourgeoisie to an important literary organ of the time. In 1847 Gottfried Kinkel also published a yearbook under the title Vom Rhein . On a recommendation of the later Zurich literature professor Hermann Behn-Eschenburg , who had moved into a student room above the dining room of the Plittersdorf Lindengasthof , the meetings took place in this historic restaurant from 1842.

Members of the cockchafer association had 24 hours to write their contribution. A popular exercise among the cockchafer was the so-called rat king , in which each member had to write a poem according to given final rhymes.

Berlin branch

In the winter of 1842/43 Willibald Beyschlag , Albrecht Wolters and Jacob Burckhardt founded a branch Mau (Mau = cockchafer) together in Berlin .

Club anthem

In 1841 Alexander Kaufmann wrote his poem Maikäfers Freierei , which only a short time later became the club anthem of the Maikäferbund under the title Little song for the cockchafer :

Cockchafer wants to go free,
cockchafer, fly!
Gold beetle said: "
Well , be smart, you are still far from being pretty enough."
Cockchafer fly!
“How should I still be cute?”
“Oh, how can you ask that?
Get yourself golden wings first. "
Cockchafer wanted to go free,
stag beetle said: "
Well , be smart, you are far from being pretty enough."
"How should I still be pretty?"
"So get yourself some splendid antlers,
As if your father were king!"
Cockchafer wants to go free,
dung beetle said: "Oh, be smart,
create a good smell first!"
Cockchafer flew far and wide:
"Where do you buy golden wings,
where deer antlers, where fine scents?"
Little cockchafer flew around for a long time,
And flew in vain many a year
and was not more beautiful than it was.
Then finally it hung my head
and said: "I poor cockchafer,
now I'm old and can't get any". - "
The moral:
And what do you learn from this song?
Fly maybeetle!
Those who are old can no longer get women,
cockchafer fly!

Members

(the cockchafer names behind it)

Honorary members

literature

  • Max Pahncke: From the "Maikäfer". In: Euphorion 19 (1912), pp. 662-672.
  • Oskar Schultheiß: Gottfried Kinkel's youth development and the cockchafer association. In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine (especially the old Archdiocese of Cologne) 113 (1928), pp. 97–128.
  • Heinrich Schneider: The Lübeck Ackermann - A forgotten poet's fate. In: Der Wagen 1932, pp. 31–42.
  • Ulrike Brandt: Karl Simrock's “Bonner Idioticon and the Cockchafer Association”. In: Rheinische Viertelsjahrsblätter 47 (1983), pp. 343–346.
  • Ulrike Brandt-Schwarze (Hrsg.): The cockchafer: magazine for non-philists. Röhrscheid, Bonn 1982ff. (Reprint from the Bonn City Archives).
  • Wolfgang Beyrodt: Freedom is a lie. In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter 37 (1988), pp. 129-138.
  • Ulrike Brandt-Schwarze: Cockchafer Association [Bonn]. In: Wulf Wülfing, Karin Bruns, Rolf Parr (eds.): Handbook of literary-cultural associations, groups and unions 1825–1933. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1998 ( Repertories for the History of German Literature. Ed. By Paul Raabe , Vol. 18), pp. 320–324.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl A. Kellermann: Das Gretchen von Plittersdorf. The linden landlady's little daughter. Karl Rohm Verlag, Lorch 1934, pp. 46–51.