Max Kommerell

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Max Kommerell (born February 25, 1902 in Münsingen (Württemberg) , † July 25, 1944 in Marburg ) was a German literary historian, writer and translator.

Life

Max Kommerell - born as the seventh child of the senior medical officer Eugen Kommerell and his wife Julie, b. Kleinmann - studied after the First World War, the subject German Studies at Friedrich Gundolf at the University of Heidelberg and Friedrich Wolters at the University of Marburg . During his studies he joined the George Circle ; from 1924 to 1928 he was Secretary to Stefan Georges . Caused by Wolters' hagiography of the circle, Kommerell left the George circle in 1930, which nevertheless influenced his literary work. After his habilitationKommerell became a private lecturer at the University of Frankfurt in 1930 . Kommerell gave his inaugural public lecture on November 1, 1930 about Hugo von Hofmannsthal , who had also turned away from Stefan George. Kommerell also taught at the universities in Bonn and Cologne .

Kommerell was initially reluctant to face National Socialism and in 1930, in a letter to Hitler's sister, described Mein Kampf as "narrow-minded, peasant hulking, but often healthy and correct in instincts". After taking power , Kommerell was given the post of lecturer leader in 1933, but lost it again in the same year when he stood up for his colleague Kurt Riezler .

In 1938 Kommerell became an associate professor for German philology in Frankfurt. In 1939 he joined the NSDAP . From 1941 until his death in 1944, Kommerell was full professor of German philology at the Philipps University of Marburg .

Kommerell's first marriage was from 1931 to 1936 with Eva Otto, the daughter of the classical philologist Walter F. Otto ; married to his longtime girlfriend Erika Franck in his second marriage. He died of a hepatitis infection after two years of illness.

The play Die Gefangen , which Kommerell had written in 1942, was rejected and forbidden by the Reich Chamber of Culture in 1943 on the grounds that it was not an “accusation against Bolshevism” but “against any kind of power”. This assessment was absolutely correct: Kommerell let the prisoners in the border situation of the death row speak the following words: "Yes, I feel we are free, / and all the others outside are trapped." His volume of poetry With a Chinese brush was printed out in 1944, the entire one Edition destroyed by a bomb hit. The volume was finally published in 1946 by V. Klostermann.

Kommerell was in closer scientific contact with the theologian Rudolf Bultmann , the philosophers Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer and the Indologist Heinrich Zimmer . Kommerell had met his publisher Vittorio J. Klostermann in 1930, and in the same year the inaugural lecture on Hofmannsthal was published by his publisher.

Kommerell is considered to be the founder of comparative literature . His teaching and research focus lay in the baroque , classical and romantic periods . His publications related to Calderon , Hölderlin , Jean Paul , Goethe , Schiller and Hofmannsthal .

Kommerell's work library (1400 titles) has been in the Marburg University Library since 2006 and can be viewed there.

reception

Kommerell's study Lessing and Aristoteles (Frankfurt am Main 1940), with which he gave various impulses to research into the relation to antiquity of modern intellectuals, was of particular significance in terms of the history of the impact.

Hans Egon Holthusen and Arthur Henkel made a particular contribution to Kommerell's reception . In 2001 the literary scholar Gerhart Pickerodt organized a congress on the life, work and topicality of Max Kommerell together with specialist colleagues in Marburg. The first Kommerell biography was published in 2011.

Works

  • Jean Paul's relationship with Rousseau. Depicted after the main novels. Elwertsche Braun, Marburg 1924.
  • The poet as a leader in German classical music. Klopstock - Herder - Goethe - Schiller - Jean Paul - Hölderlin . Bondi, Berlin 1928 a. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1982/3. Edition
  • Conversations from the time of the German rebirth . Holten, Berlin 1929.
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal . A speech. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1930.
  • Youth without Goethe . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1931.
  • Easy songs . Poems. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1931.
  • Jean Paul. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1933 a. 1977.
  • The last song . Poems. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1933.
  • Schiller as a designer of the acting person . Frankfurt am Main 1934.
  • Schiller as a psychologist. In: Jb. D. Free German Hochstifts. 1934/35. Pp. 177-219.
  • Poetic diary. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1935.
  • The folk song and the German song . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1936.
  • My share . Poems. Fischer, Berlin 1938.
  • The lampshade from the three handkerchiefs. A story from yesterday. Fischer, Berlin 1940.
  • Lessing and Aristotle . Inquiry into the theory of tragedy. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1940/1984.
  • Spirit and letter of poetry . Goethe - Schiller - Kleist - Hölderlin. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1940 a. 2009.
  • The lifetimes. Poems. Fischer, Berlin 1941.
  • Thoughts on poetry. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1943 a. 1985.
  • With a Chinese brush, as it were . Poems. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1946.
  • The prisoners . Tragedy in five acts. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1948.
  • Punch and Judy games for tall people . Afterword Arthur Henkel. Scherpe, Krefeld 1948 (new edition: Wallstein, Göttingen 2002).
  • Letters and notes 1919–1944 . Published by Inge Jens , Freiburg i.Br .: Walter-Verlag, 1967.
  • Essays, notes, poetic fragments . Edited from the estate by Inge Jens. Walter, Olten / Freiburg i. Br. 1969.
  • The magic of the tent . In: Castrum Peregrini issue 134-135, Amsterdam 1978.

Translations

  • Michelangelo . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1931.
  • Contributions to a German calderon . 2 volumes. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1946.
    • 1. Volume: Something about the art of Calderon .
    • Volume 2: Life is a dream. - The daughter of the air .

Remarks

  1. ↑ see Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg (HStAMR), Best. 915 No. 5767, p. 195 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Theater program: The prisoners , Würzburg 1967.
  3. ↑ a b Complete quotation from Ernst Klee : Das Kulturlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 328.
  4. ↑ a b Publishing history Klostermann
  5. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 328.
  6. ↑ Dr. B. in: Theater program: The prisoners , Stadttheater Würzburg, Studio Forum der Zeit, 1967.

literature

  • Martin Glaubrecht:  Kommerell, Max. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , pp. 481-483 ( digitized version ).
  • Bernhard Zeller (Ed.): Max Kommerell 1902–1944 . Edited by Joachim W. Storck. Marbacher Magazin 34/1985. German Schiller Society, Marbach 1985.
  • Joachim W. Storck, Gert Mattenklott : About Max Kommerell. Two lectures . Marburg 1986.
  • Max Kommerell. Search for clues . Edited by Blanche Kommerell. With a contribution by Gert Mattenklott, Gießen: Ed. Literary Salon 1993.
  • Walter Busch, Gerhart Pickerodt (ed.): Max Kommerell. Life - work - actuality . Wallstein, Göttingen 2003.
  • Christian Weber: Max Kommerell. An intellectual biography , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-023752-8 .
  • Christoph König, Isolde Schiffermüller, Christian Benne and Gabriella Peloni (eds.): Reading practice and theory building, on the topicality of Max Kommerell . Wallstein, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3187-7 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kommerell, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German literary historian, writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Münsingen (Württemberg)
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1944
Place of death Marburg