Max Zimmering

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Max Zimmering (center) in 1967 with Alfred Kurella (left)

Max Zimmering (born November 16, 1909 in Pirna , † September 15, 1973 in Dresden ) was a German writer .

Life

Max Zimmering was born as the second of three sons of watchmaker Adolf Zimmering and his wife Cejta. Both parents came from Horodenka ( Galicia ). He was the brother of Fred and Josef Zimmering and the cousin of Hans and Max Dankner , Lea Grundig and Bruno Goldhammer . After his father was called up for military service in the First World War and had to give up his business, his mother and children moved to relatives in Dresden in May 1915 . From 1916 to 1921 he attended elementary school in Dresden, from 1921 to 1924 the Wettiner Gymnasium (up to Quarta) and from 1925 to 1930 the Oberrealschule Dresden-Johannstadt . There he also passed the Abitur. From the age of 10 to 18 he was a member of the Jewish youth movement (Blue-White Hiking Association and Kadimah Boy Scout Association). In 1928 he became a member of the trade union and joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany . Since that time he was also active as a writer. First he wrote for the workers' press (“Arbeiterstimme”, Dresden; “ AIZ ”, Berlin; “ Die Rote Fahne ”, Berlin etc.) poems, short prose works and glosses.

He was an agitprople leader in the KJVD in Dresden-Altstadt and later in Dresden-Johannstadt. In the same year he joined the Jewish Young Workers and Employees (JAAJ), the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) and the International Red Aid .

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Youth International , he became a member of the KPD in November 1929 . In the same year he joined the League of Proletarian Revolutionary Writers , of which he was a member until 1933.

In 1930 Max Zimmering received a poetry prize at the " Linkskurve " competition, the magazine of the Association of Proletarian Revolutionary Writers, for his poem "The Conveyor Belt". Because of this poem and its employees as workers correspondent at left newspapers threatened him as Oberprimaner shortly before the final exams the relegation , the Zimmering, unlike his younger, simultaneously gemaßregelter Jewish youth contemporary and friend Helmut Weiss at King George High School , escaped because there was not enough evidence that he really was the author of some of the revolutionary poems published under "MZ" or "Mix".

After graduating from high school, he began an apprenticeship as a window dresser at the Tietz company (presumably Hermann Tietz = Hertie ). After two years he was fired for union work. In 1932 he found work as a decorator and poster painter in the Wohlwert department store of the Woolworth group in Oschatzer Strasse in Dresden-Pieschen , but was dismissed after just six months because he had mobilized the central association of employees in favor of the shop assistants. Now unemployed, he occupied himself more intensively with writing. After the Nazis came to power, he continued to work illegally for the KPD from 1933. In mid-1933 he had to emigrate to Paris . In 1934 he went on to Palestine . There he worked in the illegal Communist Party of Palestine . In 1935 he went to Prague and worked there for the " Deutsche Volkszeitung ", the " Volksillustrierten ", the " Internationale Literatur / Deutsche Blätter ", Moscow, the "Rote Fahne", Prague and a few other Czech newspapers. After the Munich Agreement was signed , he had to look for a new asylum. So he came to England in March 1939 and lived there in Oxford and later in London .

In 1940 the British government decided to intern all male German emigrants as " enemy aliens ". Max Zimmering went on an “involuntary trip around the world”, which he later described in his book of the same name. It took him from Camp Huyton near Liverpool via New South Wales and Victoria in Australia back to England on the Isle of Man . Thanks to the efforts of the PEN and progressive MPs, he was released from internment in November 1941.

After his return to London he became editor of the " Free German Culture " in London, a monthly of the Free German Cultural Association in Great Britain, of which he was an executive member. He also worked on the anti-fascist emigration magazines " Internationale Literatur " and "Das Wort" (both Moscow), "Deutsche Volkszeitung" and "Rote Fahne" (both Prague), " Free Germany " (Mexico) and " Freie Tribüne " (London) . He also took part in the work of the emigration group of the KPD, belonged to the London Center of the PEN and the German international PEN in London and was a member of the Free German Movement in London.

Max Zimmering's grave in the Dresden Heidefriedhof

In 1946, with the help of Egon Erwin Kisch , he was able to return to Dresden on a Czechoslovak repatriate transport .

Here he became a member of the SED , the FDGB and the Kulturbund in 1946 and worked from 1946 to 1953 as the culture editor of the illustrated magazine Zeit im Bild .

In 1949 he participated in drafting texts for the planned memorial plaques in the synagogue of the Dresden Jewish Community to commemorate the victims of the Nazi era.

Max Zimmering was married to actress Betty Loewen-Zimmering during his exile until after the Second World War , as is shown by her estate in the archive of the Academy of Arts. The exact times of the wedding and the divorce are not apparent from the documents. In 1950 he married his longtime partner Zora Weil. He has a daughter with her, Guliko Zimmering.

From 1949 to 1953 he was state chairman of the VVN Saxony, from 1950 until its dissolution in 1952 a member of the Saxon state parliament , then until 1958 a member of the district assembly of the Dresden district . From 1952 to 1956 Zimmering was 1st Chairman of the German Writers 'Association in the Dresden district, 1956 to 1958 1st Secretary of the German Writers' Association in Berlin. From 1958 to 1964 he worked as director of the Institute for Literature "Johannes R. Becher" in Leipzig.

In 1963 Zimmering became a candidate for the Central Committee of the SED.

From 1964 until his death he lived as a freelance writer in Dresden. In 1968 he received the Art Prize of the GDR and in 1969 the National Prize of the GDR . In 1971 he became an honorary citizen of Pirna .

Max Zimmering died in Dresden in 1973. His grave is in the Heidefriedhof .

He is the grandfather of actor Ron Zimmering , a great-uncle of actress Esther Zimmering and actor David Zimmering .

Works (selection)

  • The hunt for the boot . (1932 first version unpublished, 1936 first published in Czech, 1953 revised German first release, filmed in 1962 by Konrad Petzold )
  • Buttje Pieter and his hero . (1951)
  • Phosphorus and lilac. The fall and rise of the city of Dresden. (1954)
  • Meeting with Mayakovsky . (1955)
  • The involuntary trip around the world . (1956)
  • The crucified Grisha . (1962)
  • Rebellion in the upper class . (1962)
  • Li and the red climbers . (1967)
  • March of the fighting groups of the working class .

posthumously:

  • Paths (poems). (1974)
  • Song of darkness and light. Poems and adaptations 1928–1973 . (1986)

literature

Web links

Commons : Max Zimmering  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ^ Hugo Jensch: Jews in Pirna. (PDF; 0.7 MB) pp. 15–18 , accessed on September 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Manfred Altner: Zimmering, Max . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .
    Every day has color and weight - Max Zimmering (1909–1973). In: Project Shalom. CJD Chemnitz, accessed on September 19, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Betty Loewen's estate in the archive of the Academy of Arts
personal data
SURNAME Zimmering, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Pirna
DATE OF DEATH 15th September 1973
Place of death Dresden