Oskar Grosberg

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Commemorative plaque for Oskar Grosberg on the former editorial building of the Rigaschen Rundschau (today Hotel Gūtenberg) in Mūku iela (German Monks Street) in Riga

Oskar Johann Martin Grosberg (born March 20, July 1  / April 1, 1862 greg. In Adiamünde (Lat. Skulte , Gouvernement Livonia , today District Limbaži ); † March 10, 1941 in Berlin ) was a German-Baltic writer , journalist and Politician . Occasionally he is quoted as Oskar Großberg ; in Latvian texts as Oskars Grosbergs .

Life

Oskar Grosberg was the son of the tenant farmer Martin Grosberg of Latvian origin and his wife Anna geb. Ickner. He attended the city high school in Riga , then the governorate high school in Mitau (Lat. Jelgava ). Because of the financial hardship of his parents' home, he had to drop out of school prematurely. He worked as a bookseller in Riga and learned agriculture from his father.

After working as an estate manager, he became a civil servant in the Ministry of Transport in Saint Petersburg , where he found his life's work as a journalist. He became an employee of the St. Petersburg Herald newspaper and from 1892 was the "dispatching editor" of the St. Petersburg newspaper , primarily a theater and ballet critic. From St. Petersburg he was a correspondent for Reich German newspapers, from 1912 to 1915 for the German monthly for Russia . In 1898 he married Wanda (Vanda) Bartelsen, who died in 1934. Their son Werner Grosberg was also an editor for the Rigaschen Rundschau for many years .

In 1916 Oskar Grosberg returned to Riga, where he stayed until the resettlement in 1939. From 1916 to 1939 he was editor of the Rigaschen Rundschau , with an interruption from 1918 to 1919. During this period of upheaval, when Latvia gained its independence, he was editor of the Baltic newspaper , a newly founded “liberal” paper, and publisher of the Baltic homeland . His art and theater reviews and feature sections became very popular.

From 1918 to 1920 he represented the German-Baltic Progressive Party in the Temporary People's Council of Latvia . From 1920 to 1922 he was managing director of the Committee of the Baltic German Parties (AP). He had to give up this task because it left him too little freedom for his work as a journalist. In 1923 this office was filled by a full-time politician.

As a founding member of the Association of German Journalists, he played an intermediary role between Germans and Latvians. As a member of the Presidium of the PEN Club of Latvia, he worked in the Latvian language on the newspaper Brihwà Seme (Brīvā Zeme / Free Land) of the Latvian Farmers' Union .

Grosberg wrote the libretto for the Latvian ballet Ilga , which was performed with great success in the National Opera in Riga with the music of Jānis Vītoliņš . After the resettlement forced by the Hitler-Stalin Pact in 1939, he worked in Berlin for various newspapers, including a. for the culture section of the Berliner Börsenkurier and the Frankfurter Zeitung .

Relations with Latvian Literature

In the times of the Tsars, the Latvian-speaking people were mainly active in agriculture, whether as small farmers or dependent on manors under Baltic German rule. The brothers Reinis Kaudzīte (1839–1920) and Matīss Kaudzīte (1848–1926) described this world in their first novel in the Latvian language Mērnieku laiki (1879, surveyors ). Rūdolfs Blaumanis (1863–1908) also wrote pieces such as Indrāni (1904, The Indrans ) from personal experience . The German translation was done by the author himself, while another play by this author was translated by Grosberg: Pazudušais dēls / The lost son . Also Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš (1877-1962) the country life portrayed in his books. His novel Aija from 1911 was published in Grosberg's translation in 1922.

Grosberg was at home in both worlds, the Latvian-speaking and the German-speaking. This gave him contact with contemporary writers from both worlds. His best-known novel Meschwalden is about life on a typical Latvian estate. Jēkabs Janševskis (1865–1931) used the same theme in his most popular novel Dzimtene (1925). Both writers drew from their own experiences of life on the estate. Edvarts Virza (1883–1940) took these novels as a model for his major work Straumēni (1933). Straumēni was translated into German as early as 1935 under the title Die Himmelsleiter . This translation comes from Willi Stöppler , whose father-in-law Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš was certainly not uninvolved in this project. This closes the circle from Jaunsudrabiņš to Grosberg and again to Jaunsudrabiņš and shows Grosberg's role as a mediator to the Latvian authors.

In his Baltic tragedy, Siegfried von Vegesack coined the term “glass wall”: the division between the Latvian and Baltic German populations. Grosberg is one of the few who helped overcome it.

Awards

During the period of the independent Republic of Latvia, he was awarded the three-star medal twice:

  • 1930 with the 4th degree
  • 1937 with the III. Degree.

A memorial plaque on the former editorial building of the Rigaschen Rundschau (Domplatz 1 / Mūku iela, Riga) has been commemorating Oskar Grosberg since 2011 .

Works (book editions)

Grosberg: Russian silhouettes
  • Russian silhouettes from war and revolution . Verlag Amelang, Leipzig 1918. ( Digitized in the Berlin State Library).
  • Meschwalden. An old Livonian farm in the cycle of the year . Verlag Löffler, Riga 1922. (Later editions were partially shortened. A complete edition was published by Verlag von Hirschheydt, Hanover approx. 1968). Latvian editions: Oskars Grosbergs: Mežvalde bei Valters un Rapa, Riga 1928; near Gulbis, Riga 1942 (with illustrations by Sigismunds Vidbergs); at v. Hirschheydt, Aizpute 2005.
  • Nichewó. Cultural images from a sunken realm . Verlag Ruetz, Riga 1926. (Reprint Verlag von Hirschheydt, Hanover 1960)
  • The Latvian press. With a historical review . Baltic Publishing House, Riga 1927.
  • Paul v. Kügelgen and the St. Petersburg newspaper at the end of the last century. Memories. Berlin 1928.
  • Peep box. Baltic stories . Ruetz publishing house. Riga 1929 and publisher v. Hirschheydt, Hannover-Döhren 1963.
  • Latvia, country and people. Chat book . With drawings by Siegfried Bielenstein . Ruetz Verlag, Riga 1930. (Several reprints have been published)
  • Strypin. Roman from Imperial Petersburg . Baltic Publishing House, Riga 1930.
  • My friends among the animals. Little stories of big and small animals . Ruetz Publishing House, Riga 1934.
  • Guesthouse Tampin. A fun summer story in Livonia . Ruetz Publishing House, Riga 1934.
  • Motley. Memories . Ruetz Publishing House, Riga 1937.
  • Elsa Thode. The story of a marriage . Ruetz Publishing House, Riga 1938.
  • Semgallic stories . Manuscript, 1938. Only the Latvian translation of Olģerts Liepiņš was printed: Zemgales stāsti , Valters un Rapa publishing house, Riga 1938.

Translations from Latvian

  • J. Jaunsudrabin ( Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš ): Aija . Gulbis Publishing House, Riga 1922.
  • Andrejs Upīts : Jeanne d'Arc ( Žanna darka ). Tragedy. Gulbis Publishing House, Riga 1934.
  • Kārlis Skalbe : The Mermaid ( Jūras vārava ), fairy tale collection. Zeltā Ābele publishing house, Riga 1939.
  • Rūdolfs Blaumanis The Prodigal Son ( Pazudušais dēls ), play, 1931. Translation as a manuscript.
  • Jēkabs Līgotnis (Līgotņu Jēkabs): In Bieranti ( Bierantos ), peasant drama, 1938. Translation as manuscript.
  • Richard Waldess (. Rihards Valdess, prop Rihards Berzins): tars ( Jūras vilki , 1930), novel. 1934 sequels appeared in the Rigaschen Rundschau .

At least two further translations of Latvian literature by Oskar Grosbergs were planned, but have not been published. In Ilustrēts Žurnāls No. 7/1925 it says: “Lai mūsu rakstnieku labākiem darbiem atvērtu ceļu uz Vakareiropu, Leta izdos Janševska Dzimteni vācu (Oskara Grosberga) tulkojumā. Pirmais sējums iznāks visdrīzākā laikā. ”(To pave the way for our writers 'best works to Western Europe, LETA Jēkabs Janševskis ' [four-part novel] Dzimtene (Heimat) will be published in German translation (by Oskar Grosberg). The first volume will appear in very soon.)

In her review of the novel Jauna valsts (A New State) by Ansis Gulbis in the Izuītības Ministrijas Mēnešraksts (Ministry of Education Monthly) No. 4/1932, Zenta Mauriņa judges : “Gulbja romāns rakstīts Eiropas tulāns rakstīts Eiropas tulštabā, tākoapsrotc ar […] Valodā ”(Gulbis' novel has a European format, which is why it is understandable that Grosberg translates it into German).

Other works

  • In addition to the book editions, numerous articles appeared in periodicals (newspapers, magazines, calendars) and field post editions .
  • As editor with Carlo v. Kügelgen and Heinrich Pantenius: German Life in Old St. Petersburg. A book of memory . Riga 1930 and Verlag von Hirschheydt, Hannover-Döhren 1983.
  • Libretto for the ballet Ilga (4 lifts and 5 pictures), music: Jānis Vītoliņš , choreography: Osvalds Lēmanis, stage design and costumes: Niklāvs Strunke ; the ballet saw a total of 23 performances in 1937.
  • Libretto for the ballet Maija, Turaidas Roze (Maija, Rose von Treyden, 1924–1926). The music of the composer Emilis Jūlis Melngailis (1874–1954) remained unfinished.

literature

  • Gero von Wilpert : German Baltic literary history . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2005. ISBN 3-406-53525-9
  • May Redlich: Lexicon of German Baltic Literature . A bibliography. Published by the Georg Dehio Society. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1989. ISBN 3-8046-8717-2
  • Carola L. Gottzmann, Petra Hörner: Grosberg, Oskar Johann Martin. In: Lexicon of German-Language Literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg. From the Middle Ages to the present. 3 volumes; Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , p. 497 f. (Vol. 1).
  • Wolfgang Wachtsmuth : From German work in Latvia 1918–1934. An activity report . Materials on the history of the Baltic Germanness. 3 volumes; Comel publishing house, Cologne 1953.
  • Erik Thomson: Baltic memorial days in the yearbook of the Baltic Germans , Volume 38 (1991), published by the Carl-Schirren-Gesellschaft, Lüneburg 1990. ISBN 3-923149-19-0

Web links

Wikisource: Oskar Grosberg  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Oskar Grosberg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Feldmann / Heinz von zur Mühlen: Baltic historical local dictionary . Part 2: Latvia. Böhlau publishing house, Cologne / Vienna 1990
  2. ↑ The Latvian place name Skulte also exists in the urban area of ​​today's Riga, to the left of the Daugava, which was also incorrectly named as Adiamünde. However, the paternal farm Skultesmuiža is clearly to be found near the river Aģe , (German Adja or Adia ) and its mouth. See Astrīda Iltnere (vadītāja): Enciklopēdija Latvijas pagasti . Izdevniecība preses nams, Rīgā 2002 g.
  3. ↑ According to Wilpert "Estonian" origin. However, both the entry with Gottzmann and Grosberg's publications in Latvian speak against this.
  4. ^ Wolfgang Wachtsmuth : From German work in Latvia 1918–1934 . Vol. 3: The political face of the German ethnic group in Latvia in the parliamentary period 1918–1934 . Comel, Cologne 1953.
  5. ↑ World premiere of the Latvian ballet "ILGA"
  6. ↑ Rūdolfs Blaumanis: The Prodigal Son (in German)
  7. ↑ Konstantīns Karulis: The emergence of the Latvian homeland novel - Theodor Hermann Pantenius and Jēkabs Janševskis . In: Michael Garleff (ed.): Literary relations between Baltic Germans, Estonians and Latvians. Twelve contributions to the 7th Baltic Seminar 1995 . Carl-Schirren-Gesellschaft, Lüneburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-923149-39-1 , pp. 71-89, here p. 88.
  8. ↑ Edvarts Virza : Straumēni / The Ladder to Heaven
  9. ↑ German-language literature in the Baltic States and St. Petersburg - cultural- historical aspects , including Māra Grudule's contribution to overcoming the “glass wall”, accessed on October 14, 2017.
  10. ↑ Latvian Biographies
  11. ↑ Memorial plaque on Cathedral Square in Riga ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.domus-rigensis.eu
  12. ↑ Zemgales stāsti ( Semgallic Tales )
  13. ↑ Jānis Rudzītis discusses Oskar Grosberg's work: Zemgales Stāsti
  14. ↑ The National Theater plays In Bieranti
  15. ↑ Oskar Grosberg reviews the Latvian peasant drama Bieranto
  16. ↑ Section Panākumi un izredzes grāmatniecībā , p 242 .
  17. ^ Rubric Kritika un bibliogrāfija , p. 370 f. .
  18. ↑ Extensive bibliography from Gottzmann.
  19. ↑ The composer Jānis Vītoliņš - world premiere of his ballet “Ilga” in the National Opera on April 23rd . In: Atpūta No. 651 of April 23, 1937, p. 5. (In some reviews the composer's name is incorrectly given as Jāzeps Vītols .)
  20. ^ The new Latvian ballet "Ilga" . Review in the Rigaschen Post on April 25, 1937.
  21. ^ Georgs Štāls: The Latvian Ballet of the Riga Opera . J. Kadilis Verlag, Riga 1943.
  22. ↑ Mara Grudule: The German Balts in the cultural history of Latvia and the Latvian people
personal data
SURNAME Grosberg, Oskar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grosberg, Oskar Johann Martin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Adiamünde ( Scults , Livonia )
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1941
Place of death Berlin , Germany