Paula Banholzer

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Paula Banholzer (born August 6, 1901 in Markt Wald , † February 25, 1989 in Augsburg ) was a kindergarten teacher and Bertolt Brecht's first sweetheart.

Life

The daughter of the doctor Carl Banholzer was born and raised in the central Swabian town of Markt Wald in what is now the Unterallgäu district . She later attended a girls' college, the Maria-Theresia-School in Augsburg (today Maria-Theresia-Gymnasium ). Banholzer and Brecht met in Augsburg in the spring of 1917. Brecht also called Paula "Bi" or "Bittersweet" (bittersweet). This pet name he took from the drama The exchange of Paul Claudel .

At the end of 1918, Banholzer von Brecht became pregnant. He therefore went to her father to get his consent to a marriage, but the latter refused and sent his pregnant daughter to the country, to Kimratshofen in what is now the Oberallgäu district . Her son Frank was born there in July 1919, named after Brecht's role model at the time, Frank Wedekind ; he fell on November 13, 1943 as a corporal in Porchow on the Eastern Front . After the birth, Banholzer resumed her love affair with Brecht, who now lives in Munich. Another pregnancy ended in November 1921, possibly through an abortion . Brecht continued the relationship, but at the same time had love stories with Marianne Zoff and the medical student Hedda Kuhn.

In July 1921, Banholzer took a first step towards distancing herself when she accepted a position as a teacher in Nuremberg. When Brecht, now married to Marianne Zoff, found out in February 1924 that Banholzer was planning to marry her future husband, the Augsburg merchant Hermann Groß, he sent Helene Weigel to Augsburg to bring "Bi" to Berlin. However, Paula Banholzer did not come.

In 1981 she wrote her memoirs, which were published as a book. 29 letters from Brecht to Banholzer were found in the estate of his brother Walter Brecht . They appeared in book form in 1992.

literature

  • Paula Banholzer (co-author), Axel Poldner and Willibald Eser (ed.), Paula Banholzer, as much as love: the unknown Brecht (memories and conversations) , Munich, Universitas, 1981, ISBN 3-8004-0899-6 (Republished as Paula Banholzer, my time with Bert Brecht , Munich, Goldmann, 1984, ISBN 3-442-06669-7 ).
  • Bertolt Brecht (edited by Helmut Gier and Jürgen Hillesheim ), Dearest Bi: Letters to Paula Banholzer , Frankfurt / Main: Suhrkamp, ​​1992, ISBN 3-518-40487-3 .
  • Jürgen Hillesheim: Paula Banholzer . In: ders .: Augsburger Brecht Lexicon. People - Institutions - Schauplätze , Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2000, pp. 38–40.
  • Jürgen Hillesheim: Bertolt Brecht - First love and war. Augsburg 2008.

See also

Brecht (film biography)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.volksbund.de/mektiven/aktuelles-artikel/news/am-grab-des-obergefreiten-frank-banholzer.html
  2. ↑ According to a diary entry by Brecht (November 11, 1921, GBA Volume 26, p. 259), Banholzer “could help himself” with regard to ending the pregnancy.
personal data
SURNAME Banholzer, Paula
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Banholzer, Bi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator, Bertolt Brecht's first childhood sweetheart
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Market forest
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1989
Place of death augsburg