Richard Hallgarten

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Richard "Ricki" Hallgarten (born January 14, 1905 in Munich ; † May 5, 1932 in Holzhausen near Utting am Ammersee ) was a German painter and graphic artist, author and illustrator of children's books.

Life

Place of childhood in Munich

Hallgarten was the son of the lawyer and Germanist Robert Hallgarten and the pacifist and women's rights activist Constanze Hallgarten . The Protestant family with assimilated Jewish ancestors lived in the neighborhood of the Mann family of writers , at Pienzenauerstraße 15 (from 1945 to 2008 the location of the Ukrainian Free University in Munich ). Ricki Hallgarten's brother, George WF Hallgarten , also known, was a historian and political scientist .

In 1919, Ricki Hallgarten, together with Klaus and Erika Mann , as well as Gretel and Lotte Walter, the daughters of the conductor Bruno Walter , founded the Laienbund Deutscher Mimiker play group , which alternated between their parents' living rooms. From this time a lifelong friendship arose with Klaus and Erika Mann, which was processed literarily in particular by Klaus Mann in his autobiographies Child This Time and The Turning Point . The players in the lay association also visited the private Ebermayer Institute of Ernestine and Ottilie Ebermayer in Schraudolphstrasse, Erich Ebermayer's aunts .

Hallgarten's envelope for Stoffel flies over the sea

Hallgarten emigrated to New York in the late 1920s to establish himself as an artist, but he had to earn his living as a dishwasher and flower delivery. Erika and Klaus Mann visited him there during their world tour in 1929. Erika Mann tried to dissuade Hallgarten from his longing for death by working on her texts and doing other joint activities. In 1930, however, he failed because of the illustration of Thomas Mann's Mario and the Magician . In the spring of 1931 he and Erika Mann took part in a 10,000 km car race across Europe, which they both won.

In his last years he wrote the Christmas fairy tale Jan's little dog with Erika Mann . A children's play in seven pictures (1931), but it never saw the world premiere on December 14, 1932 in the Landestheater Darmstadt . Katja encouraged Ricky to write and illustrate a children's book himself. The 11 killer picture book (probably for Kadidja Wedekind ) did not get beyond the original copy. He then illustrated Erika's first children's book, Stoffel flies over the sea (1932), which was published shortly after his death , presumably in Holzhausen .

Last stop in Holzhausen

Hallgarten shot himself at noon on May 5, 1932 in a rented summer house in the park of the Villa Gasteiger on the Ammersee. The suicide took place one day before a planned trip "through Asia Minor, Persia and Russia", which Hallgarten wanted to undertake with Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Erika and Klaus Mann. He only left the succinct message: “Dear Sergeant! Just shot me. Please notify Ms. Thomas Mann in Munich. Yours faithfully “After the estate affairs had been sorted out, the friends Klaus Mann with Erika, Annemarie Schwarzenbach and the young actor at the Münchner Kammerspiele, Herbert Franz (“ Babs ”), set out on a trip to Venice in May.

Klaus Mann erected a literary monument to his friend with the essay Ricki Hallgarten, written in the same year . Radicalism of the heart . Thomas Mann described the act as "Rikkis (sic) great naughtiness".

Works

  • Erika Mann: Stoffel flies over the sea. With pictures by Richard Hallgarten, afterword by Dirk Heisserer. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2005, ISBN 3-499-21331-1 .
  • Erika Mann, Richard Hallgarten: Jan's miracle dog. A children's piece in seven pictures. With an explanation by Erika Mann, afterword by Dirk Heißerer. Anja Gärtig, Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-936609-20-2 .

literature

  • Dirk Heißerer : Death in Utting. Ricki Hallgarten in Holzhausen (1932). In: Literature in Bavaria. Volume 21, Issue 82, Munich December 2005, pp. 63–65
  • Heinz J. Armbrust, Gert Heine: Who is who in Thomas Mann's life? A dictionary of persons. Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main, 2008; ISBN 978-3-465-03558-9 , p. 95
  • Klaus Mann: The turning point. A life story. Extended new edition, edited with text variations and drafts in the appendix and with an afterword by Fredric Kroll . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2006, ISBN 3-499-24409-8 .
  • Klaus Mann: Child of this time. Extended new edition of the autobiography with an afterword by Uwe Naumann. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-499-22703-7 . The book is dedicated to Ricki Hallgarten.
  • Uwe Naumann , Michael Töteberg (ed.): The new parents. Articles, speeches, reviews 1924–1933. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1992, ISBN 3-499-12741-5 (contained therein: Ricki Hallgarten. Radikalismus des Herzens. ).
  • Rong Yang: I just can't stand life any longer: Studies on the diaries of Klaus Mann (1931–1949). Tectum Verlag, 1996, ISBN 978-3-89608-934-2 , p. 80 ff. (Dissertation University of Saarbrücken)
  • Astrid Fernengel: Children's literature in exile. Tectum, Marburg, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8288-9592-8 (Diss. TU Berlin 2006). Short bio p. 233f

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to Klaus Mann's autobiography The turning point , Utting is given imprecisely as the place of death.
  2. ↑ Dirk Heisserer (Ed.), Erich Ebermayer: Eh 'I forget ... LangenMüller, 2005, ISBN 978-3-78443028-7
  3. ↑ Irmela von der Lühe : Erika Mann. A biography. Fischer 2001, ISBN 3-596-12598-7 , pp. 53, 77 ff.
  4. ↑ Today in the Munich City Library, Monacensia (Kadidja Wedekind Archive)
  5. ^ Annemarien Schwarzenbach in a letter to Carl J. Burckhardt dated May 15, 1932
  6. ↑ Harald Neumann: Klaus Mann. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 1995, ISBN 978-3-17013884-1 , p. 153
personal data
SURNAME Hallgarten, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hallgarten, Ricki (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1932
Place of death Holzhausen am Ammersee