Peter Hammerschlag

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Peter Hammerschlag also Peter Hermann Hammerschlag ; (* June 27, 1902 in Vienna ; † 1942 in the Auschwitz concentration camp ) was an Austrian poet , writer , cabaret artist and graphic artist .

Origin, childhood, education

Peter Hammerschlag was born in the IX. Vienna district of Alsergrund as the son of the ear specialist and university professor Victor Hammerschlag , and Hedwig Hammerschlag, b. Bunzl, born. His parents had married in 1899 according to the Jewish rite; on the occasion of Peter's entry into elementary school in 1908, his mother converted to Catholicism with him. A year later, in 1909, the younger brother Valentin was born. Even at the Staatsreformrealgymnasium Vienna VIII, Albertgasse, Peter Hammerschlag stood out for his extraordinary talent for drawing and acting. After graduating from high school, Peter Hammerschlag studied from the winter semester 1921/22 to the summer semester 1923 (a total of 4 semesters) at the Faculty of Law and Political Science and from the winter semester 1923/24 to the summer semester 1928 (a total of 10 semesters) at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Vienna and attended the course for the book and illustration trade at the Higher Graphic Education and Research Institute in Vienna for one semester (1921/22).

Cabaret and literary work

In the years that followed, Hammerschlag lived from various, mainly illustrative, commissioned works. On the occasion of two stays in Berlin (May 1929, December 1929 to summer 1930) there were first cabaret appearances, including a. in the " Küka "; From 1930 (until 1937) he worked for the Prager Tagblatt through the mediation of his fellow writer and later friend Friedrich Torberg , among other things as the author of numerous children's poems (only the synopsis of an extensive children's book has survived).

When Stella Kadmon opened the legendary Viennese cabaret, Der liebe Augustin , on November 7th, 1931 , Peter Hammerschlag was part of her team from the very beginning as author, conférencier , actor and, above all, lightning poet . Hammerschlag's ability to create impromptu poems at the request of the audience, including apparently sophisticated parodies of contemporary poets such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Theodor Kramer , fitted perfectly into the improvisational-spontaneous line of the stage in her early years.

From 1933 Peter Hammerschlag also wrote articles for other Viennese cabaret establishments, for example for “ Die Stachelbeere ”, “ Literatur am Naschmarkt ” (alongside Jura Soyfer , Rudolf Weys , Hans Weigel and many others), the “ ABC ” (again together with Jura Soyfer, next to Fritz Eckhardt , Leo Aschkenasy ...), the Austrian Volksbühne in the Vienna “Culture Observatory” “ Urania ” and for “ Cabaret in the Colonnades ”. In addition, he published articles in magazines such as B. in the world stage , which he often furnished with his own illustrations and caricatures. The press praised Hammerschlag for the high quality of his poems, which are always spontaneously and loosely sketched. One of these poems is the Krüppellied , which became famous in the 1960s due to the reinterpretation by Helmut Qualtinger . In it he describes the contrasts of the Viennese soul in the form of a Viennese song. Roland Neuwirth writes about him:

“Peter Hammerschlag [...] could no longer stand the all too often emetic mendaciousness of the Heuriger singers and put the" golden Viennese heart "into severe extrasystoles with a targeted hammer blow. With this mirror held up in front of him, however, he saved the life of the Wienerlied, which would otherwise have decayed in its eternal self-repetitions. "

- Roland Neuwirth

Persecution and death

In July 1938, the parents' apartment, in which Peter Hammerschlag also lived, was "Aryanized". Of Peter Hammerschlag's family, only his younger brother Valentin was able to save himself from the Nazis by fleeing to Buenos Aires . Peter Hammerschlag tried to flee to Yugoslavia. In Belgrade he met Stella Kadmon again, who managed to leave for Israel, while Hammerschlag was arrested in Yugoslavia in November 1939 and deported to Vienna. For the first program of the Wiener Werkel cabaret (under this name the “Aryan” authors and performers of the “Literatur am Naschmarkt” tried to continue their time-critical work under the Nazi dictatorship) Hammerschlag contributed a few more texts.

From 1941 he had to do forced labor. In 1942, Hammerschlag's parents were deported and perished in the Theresienstadt concentration camp . Peter Hammerschlag was hidden as a submarine by his friend, the composer Alexander Steinbrecher , in his apartment. When he left Steinbrecher's apartment, he was arrested and deported to Auschwitz via Theresienstadt on July 17, 1942 . Since then he has been considered lost.

Peter's brother Valentin Hammerschlag returned to Europe from emigration in 1966 and committed suicide in 1975.

Rediscovery of the work

The rediscovery of Peter Hammerschlag's work is thanks to his administrator Friedrich Torberg , who in 1972 published a small selection of Hammerschlag's poetry under the title The moon struck just half past seven . However, the edition was heavily criticized because of the strong adaptation of the poems by Torberg (see also the similar edition and reception history of the selected edition of the works of Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando by Friedrich Torberg). Artists like André Heller , Helmut Qualtinger , Gerhard Bronner and Peter Wehle subsequently began to interpret works by Peter Hammerschlag in readings and settings. Further editions of the work followed, with the editor Monika Kiegler-Griensteidl in particular taking care of the editorial and making some of Hammerschlag's illustrations available to the public again. In 1997 the Jewish Museum Vienna dedicated the exhibition Kringel Schlingel Borgia to Peter Hammerschlag with a rich supporting program of readings and musical homage to the murdered artist.

Works

Books

  • Friedrich Torberg (Ed.): The moon just struck half past seven. Grotesque poems . Introduced and with 51 pen drawings by Bil Spira . Zsolnay, Vienna 1972.
  • Gerhard Bronner (Ed.): The wind blows stiffly from the Post Office Savings Bank. Grotesque poems and casual prose . Zsolnay, Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-552-03614-8 (+ 1 music cassette)
  • Friedrich Achleitner , Monika Kiegler-Griensteidl (eds.): The desert is made of yellow flour. Grotesque poems . With 12 drawings by the author. Zsolnay, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-552-04829-4 .
  • Volker Kaukoreit a . Monika Kiegler-Griensteidl (ed.): The monkey party. Prose . With 11 drawings by the author. Zsolnay, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-552-05164-3 .

vinyl

Videos

  • Gerhard Bronner, Elfriede Ott (interpreters): The hammer blow of dear Augustine. Highlights from the cabaret . Edition Hoanzl, Vienna 2000 (VHS, 102 min.)

CDs

  • Gerhard Bronner, Elfriede Ott (interpreters): The hammer blow of dear Augustine. Highlights from the cabaret . Waku Word Edition, Lienz 1999 (70 min.)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ UA Vienna, Jurid. Nationalities, WS 1921/22 to SS 1923
  2. ^ UA Vienna, Phil. Nationalien, WS 1923/24 to SS 1928
  3. ^ Roland Josef Leopold Neuwirth : Das Wienerlied . Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-552-04934-7 , p. 52 .
  4. ↑ Hammer blow, Peter. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1959, p. 170.

Web links

Commons : Peter Hammerschlag  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Hammer blow, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian poet, writer, cabaret artist and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 1942
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp