Maria from Weerth

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Johanna Bertha Hubertina Maria aus'm Weerth , from 1869 Maria Ewers , also Marie Ewers-aus'm Weerth (born May 16, 1839 in Bonn ; † July 18, 1926 in Düsseldorf ), was a German storyteller , writer , translator and painter . She was the wife of the Düsseldorf painter Heinrich Ewers and the mother of the writer Hanns Heinz Ewers and Rear Admiral Ernst Ewers .

Life

Maria aus'm Weerth was a daughter of the Bonn factory owner Jakob Friedrich aus'm Weerth (1811–1897) and his wife Maria, née Feldmann-Simons (1812–1890), a daughter of the wealthy Elberfeld factory owner Heinrich Feldmann and his wife Friederica, born Simons (1797–1873). Her uncle was the Bonn historian and archaeologist Ernst from Weerth .

After her father, the first representative of Bonn's cotton spinning and weaving mill Weerth & Peill , had failed in his business and had made his fortune through a lavish lifestyle in the 1840s, he left his family. In 1856 he emigrated forever to the United States, where he fought as a lieutenant in the Civil War for the Union against the southern states. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Her parents' marriage never ended in divorce, and the mother corresponded with the father until her death.

The Elberfeld grandfather took his single daughter and her three daughters into the house and later rented them an apartment. Daily visits to grandmother Friederica were compulsory. In Elberfeld, Maria and her sisters, who had previously received private tuition, went to school. In 1848 Maria from Weerth came to Düsseldorf with her family, whose domestic area was very much dominated by women. There they lived first on Steinweg , later on Königsallee . As a girl, she wrote verses and little fairy tales. Between 1861 and 1868 she got to know personalities of political and cultural life, such as the politician Ferdinand Lassalle and the poets Berthold Auerbach and Gottfried, during numerous visits to relatives - especially in the house of the newspaper publisher Franz Duncker , husband of her friend Lina Tendering (1825–1885) Basement .

She met the genre painter Heinrich Ewers around 1864 , whom she married on November 6, 1869. The couple lived at Immermannstrasse 22 in Düsseldorf. In 1871 the son Hanns Heinz was born there, who would later become a well-known author of Fantastik . In 1873 the son Ernst saw the light of day, later a rear admiral in the Imperial Navy.

She painted and drew privately and as an amateur. She told her children art fairy tales with subtle fantasy. Soon it also appeared in the private sector. In 1902, some of her texts appeared in the collection of fairy tales and fables for children of all ages, and other stories and fairy tales were published in newspapers and magazines. In 1908 they were summarized in Maria Ewers' individual publication Aus Großmutters Stübchen . Together with her son Hanns Heinz, she translated works by French authors from 1911, including Opium and The Little Allies by Claude Farrère , Arthur de Gobineau's The Renaissance and Pierre Milles The Dead Ship . She translated Bouck White's The Book of Daniel Drew from English . Life and opinions of an American stockbroker as well as works by Edgar Allan Poe in the complete edition by Theodor Etzel . Her work as a translator enabled her to make contact with many authors and artists. In 1925, her Düsseldorf memoirs appeared in the Düsseldorfer Nachrichten . She died in 1926 at the age of 87 after having been seriously ill since January 1924.

Her son Hanns Heinz Ewers wrote about her in 1923 under the title Meine Mutter, die Hex :

“Of course you know as well as I do about the amazing magic that our mother exudes and that cannot be easily evaded by anyone. Every child in town knows them, as well as every adult. When she goes out with her stick in the morning, there is certainly some female or male being on every street corner, who leads her over the road and makes sure that a car, a bicycle, or a tram doesn't get too close to her. […] I tell you, dear brother, that our mother, with all the wild offspring of Gothic fantasy, is into you and you. She has a great fondness for mythical creatures of all kinds, strange mixtures of humans and animals, whether they are of Egyptian or Assyrian, Chinese or Indian origin. But everything that is Gothic seems to appeal to her the most. She has entire portfolios with illustrations, engravings, prints and photos, whatever it is that she occasionally looks at and is quite happy to show; she is very happy when someone brings her a new sheet. "

literature

  • Weerth, Maria aus'm. In: Jochen Schmidt-Liebich: Lexicon of women artists 1700–1900. KG Saur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-11694-2 , p. 497.
  • Ewers, Maria (born from Weerth). In: Wilhelm Kosch , Konrad Feilchenfeldt (Hrsg.): German Literature Lexicon. The 20th century. Biographical-bibliographical manual. Volume 8: Erni - Fischer . KG Saur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-908255-08-2 , column 165 f. ( Google Books ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wilfried Kugel : The irresponsible one. The life of Hanns Heinz Ewers . Grupello Verlag, Düsseldorf 1992, ISBN 3-928234-04-8 , p. 386.
  2. ↑ Hanns Heinz Ewers: Meine Mutter, die Hex.Quote in the portal phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de , accessed on November 3, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME From the Weerth, Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aus'm Weerth, Johanna Bertha Hubertina Maria (full name); Ewers, Maria (married name); Ewers-aus'm Weerth, Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German storyteller, writer, translator and painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 1926
Place of death Dusseldorf