Paul Hennings (bookseller)

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Paul Hennings (born January 13, 1893 in St. Annen ; † April 15, 1965 in Hamburg ) was a German bookseller , antiquarian and writer .

Life and work as a bookseller

Paul Hennings was the eldest son of a large farmer from Dithmarschen . From the age of six, up to which he had only spoken Low German, he learned High German at an elementary school. After graduating in 1913, he studied German and philosophy for three semesters at the University of Munich until he was drafted into military service in 1915. During the First World War he wrote the poem Ironisches Kleinstadtbild under the pseudonym Paul Heim Hennings . This was published in the magazine Die Schöne Rarität by Adolf Harms and was dedicated to Klabund . From September 1918 Hennings was a French prisoner of war, during which he continued his education in the camp library.

From 1921 Hennings worked as a bookseller. According to encyclopedias from 1930, he initially ran the Büsch bookstore . In 1931 he opened his own shop at Speersort 26 in Hamburg, which was destroyed by bombs in 1943 during World War II . Hennings temporarily had a new bookstore at Paulstrasse 2 and then moved to Burchhardstrasse 19. In addition to this long-running business, he had a second shop at Altstädter Strasse 15, which existed until at least 2001.

Hennings, who was admired and revered for his greater literary knowledge, last lived at Pagenfelder Straße 14. His grave, adorned with a stone owl, can be found in the Ohlsdorf cemetery .

Works as an antiquarian and writer

In 1933, Hennings happened to find a complete and faithful edition of Gulliver's Travels in which he saw his criticism of the Nazi rule anticipated. From then on he collected “out of opposition” for his private library, which he maintained in his apartment at Schulstrasse 5 (between Speersort and Schopenstehl ). When Hamburg was bombed, in which it was destroyed, it comprised 14,000 volumes, including 3,000 titles by Jonathan Swift .

After the end of the war, Hennings continued his collecting activity, but now also wrote himself. He dealt with Swift in the drama Bickerstaff in 1947 and, ten years later, spoke on the night program of NDR radio about a trip that he was following in Swift's footsteps to England and Ireland had led. He also translated, including in 1940 The Ballad of a Barber by Aubrey Beardsley , which was published as a German-English private print. In 1928 he wrote Low German sayings and in 1964 a Low German version by Max and Moritz . He could also be heard on the NDR radio, for example on June 27, 1964 with a version by Max and Moritz developed for this purpose . On March 26, 1965, the radio play Die soft Liese , which the actors Uwe Friedrichsen , Friedrich Schütter and Heidi Kabel had spoken, was broadcast.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The company Antiquariat Paul Hennings stopped selling on December 16, 2009. The stock and reference library was taken over by the antiquarian bookshops Hermann Wiedenroth (Bargfeld) and Jörg Tautenhahn (Lübeck). Report in the Börsenblatt online, accessed on March 4, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Hennings, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bookseller, antiquarian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Anne
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1965
Place of death Hamburg