Max Barthel

Max Barthel , also known under the pseudonyms Konrad Uhle and Otto Laurin , (born November 17, 1893 in Loschwitz , † June 17, 1975 in Waldbröl ) was a German writer . Together with Heinrich Lersch and Karl Bröger, in the first third of the 20th century, with a communist and later social democratic orientation, he was one of the best-known workers' poets . From 1933 he initially openly confessed to National Socialism and was involved in National Socialist cultural policy in the following years. After 1945 he wrote - apart from an autobiography - non-political choral texts and children's verses.

Life

Max Barthel was the son of a bricklayer and had six siblings. He went to the factory at the age of 14 and worked as an unskilled worker in various professions. He was a member of the socialist youth movement , went on a journey through Western and Southern Europe . From 1910 he was active in literature. He became a soldier in the First World War . His traumatic war experiences on the Western Front were included in the volume of poetry Verse aus den Argonnen (1916).

Communist and Social Democrat

Politically, Max Barthel was initially close to communism , was a member of the Spartakusbund , took part in the Spartakus uprising in Stuttgart and was imprisoned as a Spartacist for six months. In 1919 he joined the KPD . He then lived as a poet in Berlin .

During this time he published flaming revolutionary poems. The poems in the book Arbeiterseele (1920) thematized with a social-revolutionary emphasis factory, country road, wandering, war and revolution . Soon he also published the illustrated sickle and hammer of the international workers' aid. This was followed by two longer stays in the Soviet Union , first in July 1920 and later in 1923 (together with Willi Münzenberg ) as a delegate to communist congresses. There he met Gorky , Lenin and Karl Radek .

The impressions and experiences he gathered there, however, led him to break away from communism and leave the KPD in 1923. In the same year Max Barthel joined the SPD . He has since been ostracized and discredited as a traitor by his former communist companions.

Private life

In his first marriage, Max Barthel was married to the communist Luise Kaetzler. From this marriage comes his son Thomas Barthel (born January 4, 1923 in Berlin; † April 3, 1997 in Tübingen), who later laid the foundation stone for deciphering the script ( Rongorongo ) of Easter Island as an ethnologist . His wife left him in 1923 and entered into a relationship with the communist publicist Alexander Abusch , who later became the East German minister of culture .

With his second wife Louise geb. Möbius (1898–1998) Barthel had another son, Karl Wolfgang Barthel (born May 9, 1929 in Berlin; † December 20, 2018), who also became a writer and journalist, and their daughter Helga.

Relationship to National Socialism

According to Yves Clairmont, Barthel radicalized himself to the right from around 1930 in the context of the global economic crisis , but initially continued to advocate the republic and social democracy in his work. In 1931 he became chairman of the Berlin-Brandenburg branch of the Association of German Writers (SDS). In November 1932 he founded the Sozialistische Dichterhilfe with Bruno Schönlank .

From 1933, after the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he openly confessed to the new rulers. This was done, among other things, by a high-profile appeal to his fellow writers in the Gauzeitung der Berliner NSDAP attack (published on June 9, 1933), published by Joseph Goebbels , to recognize the new political order as an opportunity for Germany and to "classify" it instead of going into exile . On the other hand, his story Die Mühle zum Toten Mann is included in the list of burned books in 1933 .

Barthel contributed to the synchronization of the SDS and wrote a. a. also for the national observer . He also became a lecturer / editor in the Gutenberg Book Guild, which was brought into line by the National Socialists . In his novel Das immortliche Volk (1933), Barthel traced the path of a worker from communism to national socialism.

Max Barthel undoubtedly welcomed the seizure of power by the National Socialists, at least initially, and was entangled in National Socialist cultural policy in the years that followed. Contrary to allegations made occasionally, however, he did not join the NSDAP and did not adopt the National Socialist racial ideas as his own: In 1963-64, Barthel defended himself in a trial before the Munich Higher Regional Court against the claim in Gero von Wilpert's German poet dictionary that he had " affiliated to National Socialism ”. The reasons for the decision of July 24, 1964 (AZ 2 U 559/1964) contain the statement that it was undisputed between the parties to the proceedings that Barthel was not a member of the NSDAP and its organization, and that in the novel “Das immortal people ”(to which reference is still occasionally made today in view of the possible adoption of National Socialist racial ideology) no National Socialist racial ideologies can be found. The fact that the court found that Wilpert's assertion was inaccurate met with outrage and alienation among the German public.

However, Barthel was z. B. up to the 1940s on the environment of the National Socialist " Bamberg Poets Circle ", which was initiated for the purpose of implementing Nazi cultural policy ; for example, he took part in his “poets' caravan”.

As early as 1934, Max Barthel was dismissed without notice from the new management of the book guild after he was accused of his communist past in the press. In addition, he published works by Jack London, John Knittel, Stefan Andres, Alfons Paquet, Willi Sachse and Theodor Bohner during his time as a lecturer at the Book Guild and thus, as stated in the above-mentioned court ruling by the OLG, “to the limit that which was just tolerated by the National Socialists has left ”.

Until 1945 Barthel u. a. as a journalist and published several colportage novels and choral poems by 1943. After his release from the book guild, he traveled to Romania, Norway and Madeira as a journalist for the Berliner Börsenblatt with the work front organization Kraft durch Freude (KdF). In 1938 Max Barthel returned to Dresden from Berlin and worked for a publisher specializing in entertainment novels.

Barthel initially belonged to an air intelligence regiment and in 1942 became a sergeant in the security police . In 1942 he was on reading tours in France, Finland and Norway to look after the troops. He wrote war poems that glorified violence, which appeared in 1943 in his volume of poetry Ins Field Draw the Soldiers . From 1944 he worked as a war correspondent for the SS in Romania and Poland, where he was also wounded.

post war period

After the end of the war, Max Barthel was a persona non grata in the Soviet occupation zone and the later GDR both because of his earlier departure from communism and especially because of his active role in National Socialism .

In 1948 he only narrowly escaped the threat of arrest by the Soviet occupying power and the looming obligation to work in uranium mining by fleeing to the French occupation zone at the time . Several of his books were banned in the Soviet occupation zone or later GDR: 9 of his publications were included in the list of literature to be sorted out there. However, in 1955 the children's book The Hammer and His Siblings with verse by Max Barthel - under the pseudonym Konrad Uhle  - was published by the youth book publishing house in Dresden-Laubegast .

Apart from an autobiography, Barthel's other literary work was apolitical in the post-war years with the writing of choral texts and children's verses.

After his escape he lived in Bad Breisig in the Rhineland from 1948 to 1969 . He spent the last years of his life in his daughter's house in Litterscheid, a small village in the Bergisches Land .

Artistic creation

The war experiences were the trigger for his lyrical work. In 1916 his first volume of poetry Verse aus den Argonnen was published . At the time, these poems hit the nerve of a whole generation and made him famous. The later Federal President Theodor Heuss praised Barthels at that time "independent and bitter language power, so far from the well-worn vocabulary of the mass lyricists". Barthel was one of the poets who “got their school-leaving certificate on the country roads and whose universities were the workshops”, as his friend Heinrich Lersch once put it.

Much of his prose publication has a strong autobiographical context - in terms of his political engagement in Germany and Russia, as well as his childhood, youth and war experience. From 1934, his prose was limited to entertainment literature for adults and children. His lyrical work between 1933 and 1945 also included poems with a direct reference to time and thus z. B. and especially about World War II.

Apart from an autobiography, Max Barthel's literary work after 1945 was apolitical. In particular, he made a name for himself as the author of choral texts and children's poetry. In 1950 he published the autobiographical novel No need for world history, a justification in which he addressed his own seducibility by left and right ideologies with a totalitarian claim to omnipotence and the ensuing existential disappointment and disunity. It met with little interest.

Works

Poetry

• Verses from the Argonne , 1916
• Freedom! . New poems from the war, 1917
• Revolutionary poems , 1919
• Utopia . Poems, 1920
• The fist . Seal, 1920
• Let's win the world , 1920
• Working soul . Verses from Factory, Highway, Wandering, War and Revolution, 1920
• The Heart in Raised Fist , Ballads from Prison, 1920
• Abundance of heart . Poems, 1924
• Message and command . Poems, 1926
• Rise of the Gifted . Novel. Berlin: The Book Circle, 1929
• Sun, moon and stars . Twelve texts for new children's songs, 1933
• Argonne Forest . Ballads and poems. Limpert, Berlin 1938.
• Thanks . Poems, 1938
• Hutzlibum . Childish verses. With pictures by Gisela Voh. Verlag Scholz, Mainz 1943, 10 sheets
• The laughter parade . Sense and nonsense poems, 1943
• The soldiers go into the field . New soldier songs and poems. 1st - 20th Tsd., Gauverlag, Bayreuth 1943, 85 pp.
• The hammer and his siblings , 1955 (under the pseudonym "Konrad Uhle")
• Red Poppy , 1964
• The star comes every year , 1970

Novels, stories, travelogues

• The trip to Russia , 1921
• From red Moscow to the Black Sea , 1921
• The red Urals , 1921
• The barred land . Novellas. 1922
• The iron man . Tragic comedy, 1924
• The bone mill . Story, 1924
• The place of popular vengeance . Stories, 1924
• The way out . Story, 1924
• Playing with the doll . Roman, 1925
• Germany - photographs and silhouettes of a journey . Gutenberg Book Guild, Berlin 1926
• The mill for the dead man . Story, 1927
• The man on the cross . Novel. According to the diary of a Catholic pastor. The book circle, Berlin 1927
• The coup . Novel. The book circle, Berlin 1927
• Earth beneath your feet . A new trip to Germany, Gutenberg Book Guild, 1929
• Rise of the Gifted . Novel. The book circle, Berlin 1929
• The log house on the Volga . Novel. Der Freidenker, Berlin, 1930, 247 pp.
• The conspiracy in the heath . With colored pictures and drawings by Karl Storch. Universitas Verlag, Berlin 1930, 206 pp.
• The big haul . An adventure novel from Soviet Russia. Strecker and Schröder, Stuttgart 1931, 229 pp.
• Race for happiness . Stories. Book guild Gutenberg 1931, 197 pp.
• Medusa's face . A country novel. Hesse & Becker, Leipzig 1931, 247 pp.
• The immortal people . Novel. Book guild Gutenberg, Berlin 1933. 254 pp.
  • The immortal people . Novel. Buchmeister-Verlag, Berlin 1934.
• The gold mail shirt . Narrative. Young generation, Berlin 1934.
• Jack London, a son of the people . Gutenberg Book Guild, Berlin 1934.
• Life is calling . Stories. 1st - 3rd Thousand Diederichs, Jena 1935.
• Storm in the Argonne Forest . Story from the world war. Philipp Reclam, Leipzig, 1936. (2nd edition 1937)
• In the land of the seven craters . Roman, 1937
• Uprising in the Caucasus . Story, 1938
• The Bund der Drei - a dog is also included . A funny adventure story, 1938
• The black sahib . Adventure novel from India, 1938
• German men in the red Urals . Roman, 1938
• The plane of death , 1938 (under the pseudonym Otto Laurin)
• The sun of India , 1938
• Wedding in Peshawar , 1938
• Grain seeker and skull knife , 1938
• Assault on the Khyber Pass , 1938
• Race for the crumbling temple , 1938
• The land on the mountains . Novel. O. Janke, Leipzig 1939
• The refugee from Turkestan , 1940
• CAUCASIAN ADVENTURE . German farmers in Russia. With an afterword by Hans Felix Zeck. Volker-Verlag, Cologne 1941, 158 pp.
• The road of eternal longing . Novel. Vieweg Verlag, Braunschweig 1941, 335 pp.
• The house on the highway . Novel. Heimbücherei, Berlin 1942, 271 pp.
• Thirteen Indians . Narrative. Cover and pen drawing by Johanna Rank. Melchert, Dresden 1943, 111 pp.

Stage plays

• Into life . Speaking choir for a youth consecration. With Weiherede by Max Westphal. Arbeiterjugend-Verlag, Berlin 1929, 27 pp.
• Das Revolverblatt , newspaper comedy, 1929
• The game of the German worker , 1934
• Hans im Glück , 1963 children's opera by Peter Seegers, text by Max Barthel

Autobiography

• No need for world history. Story of a Life , 1950

Revisions

• Jack London
  • Under the sun tent , 1938
  • Railroad adventurer . German Book Community, Berlin 1939.
  • The sea wolf , 1939
  • The fame of the fighter. Of boxers, bullfighters and upright men , 1940
  • Call of gold , 1940
  • Jerry of the Islands , 1940
  • South Seas Tales , 1940
  • People on the Abyss , 1941
  • In the slums , 1942
  • The island of Berande . German Book Community, Berlin 1940. (1950)
  • Collected Works . New edition. Universitas, Berlin 1940.

Others

Barthel also wrote contributions for the Ahrweiler district's homeland yearbook. His estate is located in the Fritz Hüser Institute for Literature and Culture in the Working World in Dortmund .

Honors

• Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon

literature

• Karl Wolfgang Barthel, Helga Kirschbaum: Catalog raisonné Max Barthel. Barthel, Berlin 2000.
• Karl Wolfgang Barthel: The poet and the dictators: a biography . Kramer, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-87956-356-2
• Fritz Hüser (Ed.): Max Barthel . Municipal public library, Dortmund 1959 (= "Poets and thinkers of our time" 26).
• Michael Hugh Fritton: Literature and Politics in the November Revolution 1918/1919. Theory and practice of revolutionary writers in Stuttgart and Munich (Edwin Hörnle, Fritz Rück, Max Barthel, Ernst Toller, Erich Mühsam). Publishing house Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1986, ISBN 3-8204-8999-1 (= "Europäische Hochschulschriften"; 01; 926).

• Volker Weidermann : The book of burned books . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2008; ISBN 978-3-462-03962-7 , pp. 217-219.
• Directory of the archive holdings on the worker poets Paul Zech (1881–1946), Gerrit Engelke (1890–1918) and Max Barthel (1893–1975) as well as an overview of the estate of Heinrich Lersch and catalog for the exhibition “Worker poets on war and the world of work” , ed . from the "Fritz Hüser Institute for German and Foreign Workers' Literature". The Institute, Dortmund 1984.
• German Literature Lexicon . Founded by Wilhelm Kosch. KG Saur Verlag, Bern / Munich 2000, Volume 1, p. 646.

Web links

• Literature by and about Max Barthel in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Max Barthel  in the German Digital Library
• Works by Max Barthel in the Gutenberg-DE project
• Max Barthel in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors
• 75 Years of the Book Guild ( Memento from November 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.86 MB)
• Homepage of the Fritz Hüser Institute

Individual evidence

1. ^ Yves Clairmont: Max Barthel. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
2. ↑ Burned. To forget?  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) (PDF) ver.di brochure on the project.
3. ↑ 5 works by Max Barthel on the list of Nazi literature to be sorted out (1946), 1 further work in the first addendum (1947), 3 further works in the third addendum (1953)
4. ↑ List of contributions by Max Barthel ( Memento from April 30, 2005 in the Internet Archive )