Max Meyerfeld

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Max Meyerfeld (born September 26, 1875 in Gießen , † October 3, 1940 in Berlin-Schöneberg ) was a German journalist and translator. Meyerfeld was the first translator of Oscar Wilde's works into German and the archetype of “Uncle Julius” in Judith Kerr's autobiographical novel When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit .

Life

Max Meyerfeld was a son of the flour and regional products dealer Levi Meyerfeld and Auguste Meyerfeld, born Friedberger. His parents initially lived in Treysa and moved to Giessen in 1874. Before Max Meyerfeld, the connection had already resulted in another child, about whom nothing is known. Two years after Max Meyerfeld's birth, on September 18, 1877, his mother died. In 1887, when he was still a child, he also lost his father. Max Meyerfeld was then raised by his aunt Sarah, a sister of the father, and his uncle Max Friedberger, a brother of the mother, together with his cousins Ernst and Otto. He attended the humanistic high schooland graduated from high school in 1894. Then he enrolled at the University of Giessen for the "Modern Philology" course. In addition, he also took courses in philosophy and art history. In the following winter semester, he moved to the University of Strasbourg , possibly because of the good reputation of the Anglicist Alois Brandl , who taught there. Meyerfeld also studied musicology in Strasbourg and had his first intensive encounter with the theater, especially with Adalbert Matkowsky in the role of Rodja in Raskolnikoff by Leo Birinski . Meyerfeld later wrote an obituary for Matkowsky.

Meyerfeld later apparently followed Brandl to Berlin ; In 1896 he won the philosophy faculty award with a thesis on Robert Burns , on which he also received his doctorate in 1898. In the following years he published regularly in major newspapers and magazines, including the Neue Rundschau and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung . At the beginning of the First World War he worked as an appraiser for a military position and in this capacity proposed the father's letter from HG Wells for the voices from the world war . This was initially accepted, but later rejected. In 1915 Meyerfeld was retired. In 1933, although he converted to Protestantism, he was banned from working.

Max Meyerfeld was friends with Alfred Kerr and a regular guest in his family. He had lived in their neighborhood since 1902, at Lützowufer 29. His nieces Alice and Ellen Mosenthal were Judith Kerr's playmates.

Judith Kerr reported in 1990: “He always came on the first holiday on which my father's birthday was also. He was probably my dearest uncle, but he wasn't a relative [...] most of all [sic!] He went to the zoo with us. Then he knew everything. I had the feeling that he knew each animal personally [...] He stayed behind when we emigrated. I don't know if he didn't want to leave Germany or if he couldn't do it later. But he wrote me postcards for years [...] On the last card that arrived, he wrote: "The more I see of men, the more I love animals". Only after the war did we find out that when he was no longer allowed to go to the zoo as a Jew , he took his own life. ”With minor modifications, this fate has been incorporated into the book When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit . Doris Kunz explains that Meyerfeld died in the Bavaria Clinic in Berlin-Schöneberg. The cause of death is unclear, but rumors circulated in exile that he committed suicide after being denied entry to the Berlin Zoo.

Translations

Max Meyerfeld created and published numerous translations of English-language literature:

  • The Duchess of Padua. A tragedy from the 16th century by Oscar Wilde , Berlin: Egon Fleischel & Co. o. J. [1904]
  • From dead days (Memoirs of my dead life). Novellas by George Moore , Berlin: Egon Fleischel & Co. 1907
  • John Galsworthy : The Cigarette Case. Comedy in three acts , Berlin: Bruno Cassirer 1909
  • John Galsworthy: Justice. Drama in four acts , Berlin: Bruno Cassirer 1913
  • William Shakespeare : Othello, the moor of Venice. Othello, the Moor of Venice . German by Wolf Heinrich Graf von Baudissin . Editor: Dr. Max Meyerfeld. Berlin and Leipzig: Tempel-Verlag [1914]
  • Oscar Wilde: Epistola: In Carcere et Vinculis , Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag 1925
  • George Moore: Love people in Orelay , Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag 1925
  • Paris stories by George Moore , Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag 1926
  • Albert and Hubert. Story by George Moore , Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag 1928

Works

  • Of the language and style of the Germans and English. Critical words and word criticism , Berlin: Mayer & Müller 1903.

literature

  • Meyerfeld, Max , in: Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Munich: Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 267
  • Meyerfeld, Max , in: Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography . Volume 4. Chernivtsi, 1929, p. 375

Web links

Wikisource: Max Meyerfeld  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The spelling “Meierfeld” has also been handed down, Meyerfeld often drew his articles with “MM”.
  2. ↑ a b c Doris Kunz, no footnote on Oscar Wilde. The translator Max Meyerfeld , in: Berliner Facetten , pp. 98-101
  3. ^ Horst Schroeder, MM: Life and Work of Max Meyerfeld (1875-1940). With a bibliography of his publications , as of March 29, 2013
  4. ↑ Judith Kerr, Eine eineweckte Kindheit , Argon 1990, ISBN 3-87024-175-6 , p. 32 f.
personal data
SURNAME Meyerfeld, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meierfeld, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and translator
DATE OF BIRTH September 26, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH to water
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 1940
Place of death Berlin-Schöneberg