Margarete Steffin

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Memorial plaque on the birthplace of Margarete Steffin

Margarete Steffin (born March 21, 1908 in Rummelsburg , today Berlin, † June 4, 1941 in Moscow ) was a German actress and writer .

Life

Grete Steffin grew up in a working class environment in Berlin and developed from a running girl to an accountant. She was actively involved in the communist youth movement . For the agitprop work she wrote her first texts, she appeared in workers' theaters.

At the beginning of the 1930s, a close working and love relationship developed with Bertolt Brecht . Brecht valued her proletarian experiences and included them in his work, for example on the " mother " after Gorky. He also named her as co-author in other works by Brecht.

In 1933 Steffin went into exile in Denmark with Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel . In 1936 she married the journalist Svend Jensen Juul in a marriage of convenience in order to obtain citizenship. In 1939/1940 the “Brechtsche extended family”, to which in the meantime also Brecht's new favorite Ruth Berlau belonged, fled via Sweden and Finland to the Soviet Union in order to emigrate from there to the USA . Shortly before the group left, Steffin fell seriously ill - had suffered from tuberculosis for several years - and died in Moscow despite the self-sacrificing care by Maria Osten .

When Brecht applied for a USA visa for her in 1940, he described her as his closest colleague: "In fact, only she overlooks my thousands of manuscript pages." That was certainly not an exaggeration, Steffin conducted almost all of the correspondence with publishers and friends, wrote Brecht's texts properly, was also a critical reviewer here, learned languages ​​where necessary, and arranged Brecht's poems. When Steffin died, Brecht was unable to work for over a year. Brecht's poem "After the death of my colleague MS" refers to Margarete Steffin and emphasizes her importance for Brecht's work.

In the ninth year of his escape from Hitler
Exhausted from traveling
The cold and hunger of wintry Finland
And waiting for the pass to another continent
Our comrade Steffin died
In the red city of Moscow.
My general fell
My soldier fell
My student left
My teacher is gone
My foster child is gone ...
Since you died, little teacher
I walk around sightless, restless
Astonished in a gray world
Without employment like a laid-off man.

Margarete Steffin's literary work and her influence on the work of the “Brecht workshop” was not known and appreciated until the 1960s.

Works

  • Twins , 1932
  • Today I dream that I am lying with you , 1933
  • From love and war , 1933, European publishing company, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-434-50461-3
  • That's how I became a runner in 1933
  • The big deal , 1933
  • Letters to famous men , Europäische Verlags-Anstalt, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-434-50437-0
  • Konfutse doesn't understand anything about women , Rowohlt, Berlin 1991 ISBN 3-87134-032-4

As a co-author

Miscellaneous

A street in Berlin-Mitte is named after Margarete Steffin.

literature

  • Hartmut Reiber: "Greet Brecht". The life of Margarete Steffin. Eulenspiegel, Berlin 2008, 384 pp., Numerous. Photos, ISBN 978-3-359-02202-2
  • Astrid Fernengel: Children's literature in exile , Tectum, Marburg, 2008, Diss.TU Berlin 2006
  • Sabine Kebir (ed.): I live almost as high as he does: Margarete Steffin and Bertolt Brecht. Theater der Zeit, Berlin, December 15, 2008, 200 pages ISBN 3-940737-29-1
  • Ursula El-Akramy: Transit Moscow - Margarete Steffin and Maria Osten , European Publishing House , Hamburg 1998, ISBN 978-3434504467 .

Web links

Commons : Margarete Steffin  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Köhler-Lutterbeck; Monika Siedentopf: Lexicon of 1000 women , Bonn 2000, p. 350 f. ISBN 3-8012-0276-3
  2. ↑ Jan Knopf (Ed.): Brecht Handbook . JB Metzler Stuttgart 2001, vol. 2, p. 342 ff
personal data
SURNAME Steffin, Margarete
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actress and writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Rummelsburg
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 1941
Place of death Moscow