Renata of Scheliha

Renata von Scheliha (born August 16, 1901 at Gut Zessel , Oels district , province of Silesia , German Empire ; † November 4, 1967 in New York , USA ) was a German classical scholar .

Life

Renata von Scheliha, the daughter of the Silesian manor owner Rudolph von Scheliha and his wife Elisabeth, a daughter of the Prussian Minister Johannes von Miquel , was the four years younger sister of Rudolf von Schelihas , who was executed in 1942 as a legation councilor in the Foreign Office for alleged betrayal of secrets. She was brought up by private tutors and passed the Abitur in 1925 as an external student at the Matthias Gymnasium in Breslau . She then studied Sanskrit in Munich, where her interest in the poet Stefan George was nourished by Maria Fehling , a daughter of the Lübeck mayor Emil Ferdinand Fehling and sister of the director Jürgen Fehling . After two years she switched to Ancient History , Greek and Latin with Sanskrit as a minor. In 1931 she received her doctorate in Breslau with a dissertation on The Water Limit in Antiquity , in which she examined water limits in the oriental empires, in Egypt, Greece and among the Romans. During a visit by her brother in Prague in 1928, she was introduced to the poet Johannes Urzidil , who later remarked: “A slender, pale girl, shy and silent, a student of philosophy [sic] and particularly devoted to ancient literature. But also write your own verses. "

After completing her doctorate, she moved to Berlin. Here she earned a meager living with guided tours and lectures in museums and with evening courses at the Lessing University , an institution for adult education. Through Berthold Vallentin , she came into contact with the George Circle again and made friends with Edith Landmann and Ernst Morwitz , among others . She also met Wolfgang Frommel here, who describes her as follows: “At our first meeting I was struck by this slim figure, by this face framed by dark brown hair as if by wings, the large black-blue eyes, the initially almost frightening dark voice. "the intention to Frankfurt habilitation , she gave in 1933 after the seizure of power by the Nazis, which she refused firmly. In 1934 her second book about Dion was published , which, according to Plato , was “the next and greatest disciple”. In it she dealt with Dion's position at the court of his predecessors in Syracuse , his triumphant advance, downfall and fame. She emphasized "the state significance of Platonic philosophy" and declared: "State order could be regained solely from the creative powers of the spirit." In 1938, the translation of the scriptures attributed to Longinos on the sublime followed .

Due to the worsening political situation, she accepted Edith Landmann's invitation to move to Basel in August 1939. Her residence permit required enrollment at the local university, with which Edgar Salin helped. Two years later she translated Euripides ' Heracles and received the Julius Landmann Prize from the University of Basel . From June 1942 she supported Edith Landmann in the work on a book, the two volumes of which were to be titled George and the Greeks and George as a Thinker , and of which only parts were published under Edith Landmann's name.

In 1943 Renata von Scheliha's book Patroklos appeared , which Karl Wolfskehl called the "most descriptive, lovable, most extensive and almost maternally cleverest book on Homer and the first world of Greece". In fact, in the 418-page book, she not only dealt with the title character , but wanted to develop "Thoughts on Homer's Poetry and Figures" according to the subtitle. She turned against the “method based on fragmentation” of recent research, which “lost the understanding of everything essential in poetry”, “stifled every effect of the poet”, and wanted the “essence of Homeric” to distinguish it from what he found Poetry ”, make the“ genuinely Homeric ”clear, namely“ the uniform method of composition and the human development of the figures ”. In the dispute over the question of whether the Iliad and the Odyssey are the work of one poet or are composed of several epics by different authors, she consequently defended the first thesis, referring to the purification of the older saga by Homer, the morality of the Homeric world, Homer's art of Representation and the figures invented by Homer - such as Patroclus - went down. If her thesis that Homer lived in the 11th century BC was problematic, her interpretation of Homer as an educator for humanity and the emphasis on the high ethos of his characters included an indirect criticism of National Socialism and its followers.

In the Basel years she also gave a series of non-university lectures on ancient topics, some of which were published posthumously. She spoke about ancient humanity (May 1944), political and intellectual freedom, education and friendship among the Greeks (winter 1944–1945), the image of antiquity from the Renaissance to the present (spring 1945), Pindar's life, his XIV. Olympic and I Pythian Ode, Sophocles ' Philoctetes (winter 1945–1946), the Comedies of Aristophanes (winter 1946–1947) and the Oresty of Aeschylus (April – May 1948).

Above all, however, she was preparing a treatise on a subject seldom dealt with: the poets' competitions in ancient Greece in the period from about 700 to 200 BC. BC, in which rhapsodes , comedy and tragedy poets participated. She continued to work on this essay after she moved to the United States in June 1948, for which she received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation . In order to secure her livelihood and to be able to work professionally, she has now supplemented her previous studies in classical philology with training as a librarian. She worked at libraries in Cleveland , New Haven (Connecticut) and New York, among others . But this activity and the weakened health through lifelong privations prevented the conclusion of the treatise, which could only be published in part from the estate.

Fonts

Monographs

• The water limit in ancient times . Marcus, Breslau 1931.
• Dion : the Platonic founding of the state in Sicily . Dieterich, Leipzig 1934.
• Patroclus. Thoughts on Homer's Poetry and Creation . Schwabe, Basel 1943.
• From the competition of the poets: The musical agon among the Greeks . Amsterdam 1987 (= Castrum Peregrini , issue 177–178; edited from the estate).

Lectures

• Freedom and friendship in Hellas. Six Basel lectures . Amsterdam 1968 (= Castrum Peregrini , issue 82-83).
• The Philoctetes of Sophocles. A contribution to the interpretation of the Greek ethos . Amsterdam 1970 (= Castrum Peregrini , issue 93-94).
• The comedies of Aristophanes, interpreted in seven lectures . Amsterdam 1975 (= Castrum Peregrini , No. 116-117); Reprinted by Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2008, ISBN 3-8353-0387-2 .

Translations

• The writing of the sublime . Attributed to Longinus, Greek-German, edited and translated by Renata von Scheliha, Bondi, Berlin 1938; 2nd edition, Küpper previously Bondi, Düsseldorf / Munich 1970.
• Euripides: Heracles . Amsterdam 1995 (= Castrum Peregrini , issue 219-220).

Letters

• Letters from Renata von Schelihas to Karl Wolfskehl in: Cornelia Blasberg (Ed.): Karl Wolfskehl's correspondence from New Zealand 1938–1948 . Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1988, pp. 818-843.
• Wolfgang Frommel, Renata von Scheliha: Correspondence 1930–1967 . Edited by Claus Victor Bock and Manuel R. Goldschmidt. Amsterdam 2002 (= Castrum Peregrini , issue 251-252).

literature

• Renata von Scheliha 1901–1967 memorial book . Amsterdam 1972 (= Castrum Peregrini , issue 104-105).
• Michael Landmann : Figures around Stefan George. Ten portraits . Castrum Peregrini Presse, Amsterdam 1982, pp. 105-114.
• Johannes Urzidil : Renata Eudaimonike . In: Castrum Peregrini , No. 81, Amsterdam 1968, pp. 77-82.

Web links

• Literature by and about Renata von Scheliha in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ↑ See Ulrich Sahm : Rudolf von Scheliha 1897–1942. A German diplomat against Hitler . CH Beck, Munich 1990.
2. ↑ At the time of study cf. Momme Mommsen : Renata von Scheliha in memory . In: Renata von Scheliha 1901–1967 Memorial Book , pp. 7–26, esp. 11–14.
3. ↑ Johannes Urzidil : Renata Eudaimonike , p. 77.
4. ^ Wolfgang Frommel: Renata von Scheliha . In: Renata von Scheliha 1901–1967 Memorial Book , pp. 116–133, quotation p. 117.
5. ↑ Scheliha: Dion , p. VII.
6. ↑ See Edith Landmann's letters to Karl Wolfskehl from April 26 and August 10, 1946, in: Blasberg (Ed.): Karl Wolfskehls Briefwechsel ... , pp. 812 and 815 (“our book”). Marianne von Heereman: Renata von Scheliha. The Swiss years . In: Renata von Scheliha 1901–1967 Memorial Book , pp. 27–99, esp. 57 f.
7. ↑ Edith Landmann: Georges resurrection of the Greeks , in: Castrum Peregrini , Heft 25, Amsterdam 1955, pp. 7–33; Edith Landmann: Stefan George and the Greeks. Idea of ​​a new ethic . Edited by Michael Landmann, Amsterdam 1971 (= Castrum Peregrini , issue 99-100; on Renata von Scheliha's “Suggestions” see here p. 141).
8. ^ Letter from Karl Wolfskehl to Margarethe Pohl-Collin of October 11, 1946, in: Blasberg (Ed.): Karl Wolfskehls Briefwechsel ... , pp. 757–759, here p. 758.
9. ↑ Scheliha: Patroklos , p. 12 f.