Richard Sexau

Richard Sexau

Richard Sexau (born January 11, 1882 in Karlsruhe , † August 23, 1962 in Munich ) was a German writer, diplomat and historian .

Richard Sexau graduated from high school in his place of birth and devoted himself to studying philosophy , economics , literature , music and art history at the universities of Munich, Bern, Berlin and Heidelberg . He received his doctorate in philosophy in 1905. In 1904 he married Margarethe Freiin von Krafft-Ebing (* June 18, 1882, † February 17, 1921), daughter of the well-known Viennese psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing . In his second marriage he was married to Maria-Josefa Freiin von Redwitz (* June 16, 1893, † September 4, 1986). He made extensive trips through Europe and North Africa. During the First World War , Sexau did military service as an orderly officer on the Western Front . In the early summer of 1918 he was appointed as a delegate to the German embassy in Haag , where he worked for two years.

View of Ascholding Castle after a copper engraving by Michael Wening around 1680

From 1920 on, Richard Sexau devoted himself entirely to his writing activities at the Schloss Ascholding estate in Ascholding near Dietramszell in Upper Bavaria, which he acquired in 1914 . He is the author of several novels and essays . Sexau was u. a. awarded the Kronprinz Rupprecht Medal and the Bavarian Order of Merit on June 23, 1962 .

Works (excerpt)

Book editions

• Death in the German Drama of the 17th and 18th Centuries - A Contribution to the History of Literature; Bern, Francke, 1906, ISBN 380670502X / ISBN 3-8067-0502-X
• The old way ; War novella, Munich, Georg Müller, 1916
• Brigitta ; Munich, Parcus & Co., 1918
• Rebirth ; Berlin, Schlieffen, 1928, edition 1956
• The better me ; Three novels of love, 1931
• The avenger ; Dramatic poetry in three acts, Munich, “Die Wende”, 1931
• Brigitta - A Legacy; Two novels, Hamburg, Hoffmann & Campe, 1933
• Venus and Mary ; Berlin, Vier Falken Verlag, 1932, edition 1933, edition 1942
• March shoots ; Munich, Kaiser Verlag, 1941
• Emperor or chancellor ; Palladium Verlag, 1960
• Prince and doctor Dr. med. Duke Carl Theodor in Bavaria - Fate between Wittelsbach and Habsburg, Graz, Verlag Styria, 1963

Essays and studies

appeared in leading magazines and the daily press:

• 1. To understand the moral and formal basis of literature and culture:

Poetry and poet; Literature and ethos; Life and poetry; Discipline and talent; The broadcast of German literature; Prometheus or Thersites - The epic poet at the crossroads; The autobiographer between Scylla and Charybdis ; Vanity and addiction to work under the mask of biographical historiography; Panem et circenses ; etc.

• 2. On history and questions of time:

History and poetry; South and North - from 1848 until the Versailles coronation - in the light of Wittelsbach - Habsburg correspondence and diplomatic secret reports; Ludwig II of Bavaria and Bismarck ; Elisabeth of Austria ; Mayerling ; Hugo Graf Lerchenfeld ; Diplomats under Hitler ; Papen on his own behalf; Winston Churchill ; among others

• 3. Poet portraits:

Hugo von Hofmannsthal ; Knut Hamsun ; Frank Thiess ; Heinrich Mann ; Otto von Taube ; Max Dauthendey ; Hermann Eris Busse ; Herbert Eulenberg ; Dostoyevsky ; Martin Andersen Nexø ; John Galsworthy ; etc.

literature

• Franz Lennartz : German poets and writers of our time. Individual presentations on beautiful literature in German : Kröner's pocket edition, Volume 217. Stuttgart: Kröner Verlag 1959 (8th expanded edition). 9th ext. Ed. 1963. 10th extension. 1969 edition

Web links

• Richard Sexau in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• Estate in the Bavarian State Library