Numbers Numbers

Numme Numsen , born Nikolaus Christian Willi , former pseudonym: Num Numsen , (born March 3, 1906 in Erfde ; missing since April 1945 in Berlin ), was a German teacher and writer.

Live and act

Numme Numsen was the son of master blacksmith and agricultural machinery dealer Richard Numsen (* March 18, 1878 in Wallen ; † September 14, 1923 in Erfde) and his wife Catharina Margarethe, née Sorth (* April 3, 1883 in Erfde; † May 27, 1909 in Kiel ). The mother was a daughter of Hinrich Sorth (1858-1917).

After attending elementary school in Erfde, Numsen studied from 1917 until he graduated from the secondary school in Rendsburg in 1927 . His written work consisted of a more extensive term paper on Gustav Frenssen . In the summer semester of 1927 he began studying German, history, philosophy and physical exercise in Munich. He spent the winter semesters 1927/28 and 1928/29 and the time up to the winter semester 1931/32 in Kiel. In the summer semester of 1928 he studied in Freiburg im Breisgau. During his studies he was mainly interested in German studies.

Numsen heard particularly from Fritz Strich in Munich, Philipp Witkop in Freiburg and Wolfgang Liepe , Fritz Brüggemann , Eugen Wolff , Carl Wesle and Otto Mensing in Kiel. In July 1932 he passed the academic examination for teaching at secondary schools with the main subjects German and history. From autumn 1932 to Easter 1933 he spent his legal traineeship at the Oberlyzeum in Wandsbek , then until Easter 1933 at the National Political Education Institute in Plön , then until autumn 1934 at the Reform Realgymnasium in Altona . In September 1934 he passed the assessor exam in Altona. Then he received secondary positions at the grammar school of Wandsbek and a secondary school in Rahlstedt .

Numsen visited Scandinavia, Western, Southern and Southeastern Europe during his studies and early years as a teacher. He contacted writers including Felix Timmermans , Selma Lagerlöf and Trygve Gulbranssen . He published reports on the first two meetings. While teaching, he wrote articles for the Reichssender Hamburg as well as for newspapers and magazines. In 1933 his first book about Gustav Frenssen was published .

Numsen stopped teaching at Easter 1938 in order to be able to work entirely as a writer and to deal with publishing. In the same year he published another book on Frenssen and one on Hermann Claudius . In September 1939 he passed the exam as a publisher and bookseller. He then completed an internship at the Nazi courier in Stuttgart, which lasted a few months . In November 1939, the Reich Association of the German Press declared him editor, but where he was unable to carry out his plans. From March 1940 he worked again as a teacher at the high school for boys in Harburg . In September 1940 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht.

In the last weeks of the Second World War Numsen served as a lieutenant in an anti-aircraft unit in Berlin. He was last seen there on April 23, 1945.

Works

Numsen devoted himself to contemporary literature, especially in the Low German language area. He was primarily interested in writers. He maintained a relationship of trust with Frenssen, felt like him and felt inwardly inclined to him. From November 1932 to the day Frenssen died on April 11, 1945, the two corresponded extensively. Even if Numsen admired Frenssen, he criticized him several times and suggested that aspects be reinterpreted, clarified or corrected.

Numsen wrote an interpretation of Frenssen's life and work, to which Frenssen agreed. Hence, Numsen's writing can be considered authentic. In 1938 he was allowed to formulate the preface for Frenssen's 100,000th copy of the book “Glaube der Nordmark”. On the occasion of Frenssen's 70th birthday Numsen published his first book about the writer. In it he described how his basic attitude is related to nature, God, folklore and the like. Frenssen is a "folk poet in the best sense of the word", according to Numsen. In his second book from 1938 he worked more biographically. In it he pointed to Frenssen's roots in Dithmarschen , his birthplace, and its rejection of Christian doctrine, and gave greater room to racist elements in Frenssen's works, which he agreed to.

Numsen developed into the person who had the best access to Frenssen and put him at the center of his work. This was also shown in numerous essays, the content of which he designed like Frenssen. In an essay from 1940 he presented Frenssen as a person who fought early for biologism and vitalism in the sense of the racial ideology of the National Socialists and who advocated their practical implementation in the form of selection and forced sterilization of biologically inferior people.

Similar to the works on Frenssen, Numsen assumed that the biography of Hermann Claudius also assumed that the artist's work and life were identical. In his writings, almost without exception, he dealt with contemporary writers from the Low German Heimatkunst movement , who could sometimes be related to the blood-and-soil ideology .

In addition to the literary works, Numsen wrote several poems, some of which went to print. He sent all of the poems home as a collection with his last letter. For the most part, they describe moods that are characterized by a devoted, idealistic National Socialism. He described death for the German Reich as fulfilling.

family

On October 2, 1938 Numsen married in Remagen "Elisabeth (Lisa)" Helene Freiin von Türckheim (born February 28, 1918 in Stuttgart ). She was a daughter of the captain a. D. Ulrich Freiherr von Türckheim (1883–1932) and his wife Irene, née Duderstadt (1889–1968), who owned a factory in Eßlingen am Neckar .

Numsen had two daughters and a son.

literature

• Johannes H. Voigt: Numsen, Numme . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , pages 250-252.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Johannes H. Voigt: Numsen, Numme . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 250.
2. ^ Johannes H. Voigt: Numsen, Numme . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , pages 250-251.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Johannes H. Voigt: Numsen, Numme . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 251.
4. ^ Johannes H. Voigt: Numsen, Numme . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 252.
5. ^ Johannes H. Voigt: Numsen, Numme . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , pages 251-252.
6. ^ Johannes H. Voigt: Numsen, Numme . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 252.