Raymond Schwartz

Raymond Schwartz

Raymond Schwartz (born April 8, 1894 in Metz , † May 14, 1973 ) was a French Esperanto writer and bank director .

Life

Schwartz learned Esperanto even before the First World War and in 1913 founded an Esperanto club in his native city. In 1920 he founded the Esperanto cabaret La Verda Kato , which he led until 1926. In 1949 he was a co-founder of the Tri Koboldoj , which existed until 1956.

Schwartz published poems in Tutmonda Espero as early as 1912 . In the interwar period he published in various magazines, especially in Literatura Mondo , and wrote two volumes of poetry. From 1933 to 1935 he published the satirical magazine La Pirato .

After the Second World War he published his great novel Kiel Akvo de l 'Rivero , in which he portrayed the life of a young Frenchman from the Franco-German border region, who came to Berlin for some time after graduating from school when the war broke out in 1914 must flee. During the occupation of France in World War II, he became part of the Resistance , survived the war and finally met a Berlin sweetheart in Paris.

In the interwar period, Schwartz was considered the enfant terrible of the Esperantists because he targeted all excesses of Esperantist enthusiasm and used them for his satires. His portrayal was never hurtful, so that finally the somewhat too 'green' samideanoj could laugh at themselves. “ A people who don't dare to make fun of themselves are not yet ripe ” was one of his favorite sayings. Since then, Schwartz has had the reputation of a great humorist, who a little obscures his serious side, which can be found in the collection of novels Vole… Novele and especially in his novel Kiel Akvo de l 'Rivero . But even here his joke flashes again and again in absurd secondary characters.

His feeling for word and sound games in Esperanto and his talent to impale some strange activities in the Esperanto movement in an intelligent and funny, but never hurtful way, is still considered unique today.

Works

• Verdkata Testamento (Poems, 1926)
• Anni kaj Montmartre (short novel, 1930)
• La Stranga Butiko (poems, 1931)
• La Ĝoja Podio (poems, 1949)
• Kiel Akvo de l 'Rivero (novel, 1963)
• Vole… Novele (novellas, 1971)
• Kun siaspeca spico (Articles, 1971)

Web links

• Literature by and about Raymond Schwartz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Raymond Schwartz in the ONB's collection for planned languages