Rūdolf's blue anise

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Rūdolf's blue anise

Rūdolfs Blaumanis (born January 1, 1863 in Ērgļi , Livonia Governorate , † September 4, 1908 in Punkaharju , Finland ) was one of the most famous Latvian writers and playwrights.

Life

Portrait of Rūdolfs Blaumanis, painted by Janis Rozentāls (1908)

Rūdolfs Blaumanis was born on the estate of Ērgļi, whose owner Baron Gustav Rudolph von Transehe-Roseneck (1828-1905) was his godfather . He had a younger brother named Arvīs Blaumanis (1875-1940), who later worked as a school teacher and left several written references to Rūdolfs' biography.

Rūdolfs Blaumanis attended a German business school in Riga . He wrote his first publications in German. When he later returned home, he devoted himself to studying the Latvian language . In 1888 he became a freelance journalist in Riga and later a permanent editor of the liberal newspaper for town and country . He wrote prose works such as the novellas Die Raudup-Wirtin (1889) or In the Shadow of Death (1899), which are still very well known in Latvia today, and is considered the founder of the psychological short story in Latvian. From 1890 onwards, his first plays dealing with the problems of rural life in Latvia were performed. Skroderdienas Silmačos (Tailoring Days in Silmači) is the most frequently performed Latvian play.

Blaumanis translated many works written in Latvian, such as his naturalistic drama Die Indrans (1904), into German. For a short time he worked for the newspaper of the New Current Dienas lapa and worked together with Aspazija , Jānis Poruks , Augusts Deglavs at Mājas Viesis . In 1900 a collection of poems appeared together with Andrievs Niedra . In 1901 he was with the magazine Pēterburgas Avīzes and in 1906 with the magazine Latvija . In 1906, Paul Neldner Verlag, Riga, published his adaptation of the Latvian texts from the collection of compositions by Jāzeps Vītol's 200 Latvian folk tunes with piano accompaniment , which he had worked out together with Hans Schmidt . Between these activities, some of which he wrote under a pseudonym, he returned to his farm Braki near Ērgļi for a long time and published a large number of successful stories, plays and poems. However, his health deteriorated increasingly, so that in 1908 he went to a sanatorium in Finland, where he died as a result of tuberculosis .

Commemorations and honors

The Braki homestead of Rūdolfs Blaumanis. Monotype by Edgars Vinters (1971).

In several Latvian cities streets have been named after Blaumanis ( Blaumaņa iela in Baldone , Jelgava and Riga; Rūdolfa Blaumaņa iela in Dubulti / Jūrmala ). In Riga there is a museum for blue anis and Janis Rozentāls in his former apartment . In 1929, the blue anise monument was unveiled in a city park . His home courtyard near Ērgļi was set up as a museum in 1959. For its 150th birthday, Latvijas Banka issued a commemorative coin with a face value of 1 lats in 2013 - one of the last lats coins before the changeover to the euro.

Works in German translation

(in chronological order of publication)

  • The Indrans. Drama from Latvian folk life . Translated from Latvian by the author and Oskar Schönhoff. Gulbis, Riga 1921.
  • Novellas . Gulbis, Riga 1921.
  • Through the swamp . Gulbis, Riga 1922.
  • In the shadow of death. Novella . In: Internationale Literatur , Vol. 10, No. 10. Verlag für Fremdsprachige Literatur, Moscow 1940.
    • Reprint: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, Berlin 1962.
    • Translated from Latvian by the author. With an afterword by Rolf Füllmann: hochroth Verlag, Berlin 2014. ISBN 978-3-902871-47-3 .
  • The Raudup landlady . Translated from Latvian by the author. Latviju Grāmata, Riga 1941.
  • Swamp walkers . Bavaria-Verlag, Gauting near Munich 1949 (= Voices of the Nations, Vol. 4)
  • Ten Latvian short stories . New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1953.
  • In the swamp and other Latvian short stories . Reclam, Leipzig 1954 (= Reclams Universal Library, vol. 7976/77).
  • The devils . Liesma, Riga 1980.
  • Frost in spring. The German-language stories . Complete edition of all works written by the author himself in German. Edited by Benedikts Kalnačs and Rolf Füllmann. Aisthesis , Bielefeld 2017, ISBN 978-3-8498-1256-0 .

literature

  • Rolf Füllmann, Antje Johanning, Benedikts Kalnačs, Heinrich Kaulen (eds.): Rūdolfs Blaumanis (1863–1908). Latvian modern and German-language literature . Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2019.
  • Benedikts Kalnačs: Rūdolfs Blaumanis (1863-1908) between Latvian and German culture . In: Deutsch-Baltisches Jahrbuch Vol. 66, 2018, pp. 148–160.
  • Aija Priedite: Rudolf's blue anise . In: Baltica. The quarterly publication for Baltic culture. Issue 2 / June 1993. pp. 2-18.
  • Inara Waack: Investigations on the human-nature problem in the prose and dramatic works of Rudolfs Blaumanis . Diss. A, University of Rostock 1981.
  • Arvids Ziedonis: A study of Rūdolfs Blaumanis . Helmut Buske Verlag, Hamburg 1979. (= Hamburg Philological Studies, Vol. 48). ISBN 3-87118-406-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benedikts Kalnačs, Rolf Füllmann (Ed.): Frost im spring. The German-language stories , Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2017, ISBN 978-3-8498-1256-0 , p. 271
  2. ↑ Benedikts Kalnačs, Rolf Füllmann (Ed.): Frost im spring. The German-language stories , Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2017, ISBN 978-3-8498-1256-0 , p. 275
  3. ↑ Latvian literature ( Memento of the original from November 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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.latvia.lv
  4. ↑ letonika.lv
  5. ↑ Benedikts Kalnačs, Rolf Füllmann (Ed.): Frost im spring. The German-language stories , Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2017, ISBN 978-3-8498-1256-0 , p. 325
  6. ↑ Janis Rozentāls and Rūdolfs Blaumanis Museum. (English)
personal data
SURNAME Blue anise, Rūdolfs
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blaumann, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Latvian writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Ērgļi , Livonia Governorate
DATE OF DEATH 4th September 1908
Place of death Punkaharju