Stefan Żeromski

Stefan Żeromski

Stefan Żeromski (  [ ˈstɛfan ʐɛˈrɔmski ] ; born  October 14, 1864 in Strawczyn near Kielce ; †  November 20, 1925 in Warsaw ) was a Polish writer .

Life

Stefan Żeromski came from impoverished Polish landed gentry . His father took part in the January uprising of 1863/1864 against the Russian occupation, which is why the family was expropriated after its suppression. In 1873/74 he attended the village school in Psary and then from 1874 to 1886 the grammar school in Kielce, which he left without a high school diploma due to a tuberculosis disease. He later processed his experiences there in the novel Sisyphus work . He then went to Warsaw, where he studied veterinary medicine. After the death of his parents in 1888, he had to break off his studies for financial reasons. Therefore Żeromski was a tutor in 1889, last from 1890 to 1892 in Nałęczów . At the same time he began to write and published his first stories in a Warsaw weekly newspaper. In 1892 he married the widowed Oktawia Radziwiłłowicz-Rodkiewicz. In the same year he left Poland with his wife and stepdaughter and went to Switzerland . The family settled in Rapperswil SG near Zurich, where he worked as a librarian in the Polish National Museum . Between 1895 and 1898 he published numerous short stories.

In 1897 the family went back to Warsaw and Żeromski also worked here as a librarian. In 1899 his son Adam was born. Żeromski made his official apartment available to a conspiratorial socialist group, which is why he was briefly arrested in 1900. After an extensive trip to Italy and Corsica in 1902, he moved to Zakopane in 1903 . After the success of his first novels, he devoted himself exclusively to writing from 1903. Żeromski was one of the main exponents of Polish positivism and remained in the tradition of critical realism.

From around 1905 Żeromskis began working in democratic-socialist groups, he was a. a. one of the initiators of the Society of People's Libraries founded in Warsaw in 1907 . Secret school lessons were held in his home. In 1908 he was arrested and banished from Congress Poland . He went to Krakow. During World War I he supported the establishment of the Polish Legions . From September 30 to November 16, 1918 he was President of the Republic of Zakopane ( Rzeczpospolita Zakopiańska ). In 1919 Żeromski went to Warsaw, the capital of the re-established Poland . There he was involved in the establishment of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1919. In 1920 he became chairman of the Polish Writers' Association Związek Literatów Polskich ( ZLP ) and in 1922 co-founder of the Polish PEN Club.

Żeromski's grave in Warsaw

Because of his social commitment he is called “the literary conscience of Poland”. In 1924 Żeromski was under discussion as one of the most promising candidates for the Nobel Prize . His influence in Poland was greater than that of Władysław Reymont , who received the award. The criticism of his last work probably drove him out of the way. In recognition of his services to the young Polish state, the President provided him with an apartment in the Warsaw Royal Castle , where he died in 1925. He was buried with a state funeral in the old Evangelical cemetery in Warsaw. Even though the right had attacked him and accused him of having spread Bolshevik ideas with his novel Przedwiośnie , a national democratic minister held one of the funeral speeches.

Awards and honors

• Order of Polonia Restituta , Commander-in-Chief (1921)
• Order of Polonia Restituta, Grand Cross (1925)
• Order of the White Eagle (2019)

Works

Monument to Żeromski in Kielce

The consequences of the unsuccessful uprising of 1863 and the subsequent Russification policy are already reflected in the works written before the First World War.

Żeromski spent the summers from 1920 in Gdynia , u. a. as a guest of the mayor Jan Radtke, or in Adlershorst / Adlerówka (renamed Orłowo Morskie in 1931) in a former fishing hut. In 1921 Żeromski followed closely the construction of the temporary war port and the berth for fishermen in Gdynia. Inspired by these works, he wrote the novel Wiatr od morza (The Wind from the Sea), in which he provided a surprisingly true picture of the nascent port and the nascent city of Gdynia from what did not yet exist, as it soon turned out to be. His novel Przedwiośnie (Early Spring), published at the end of 1924, became an important focal point of the debates about the character and future of the young Polish republic. The novel tells the story of a young Pole who experienced the horrors of the Russian Revolution, but after his return to Poland became increasingly radical on the left because of the disappointment with the living conditions there. The novel was admired as well as hostile - over 100 reviews, replies and commentaries appeared.

The memorabilia associated with him are now kept in his former house in Adlershorst, and the Society of Orłowo Friends regularly organizes exhibitions and other events in his honor.

Selection of works

• Eating crows and ravens (Rozdziobą nas kruki, wrony) , story, 1885
• The Athlete (Siłaczka) , novella, 1895
• Sisyphean works (Syzyfowe prace) , historical novel, 1898
• Twilight (Zmierzch) , novella, 1898
• Forgetting (Zapomnienie) , novella, 1898
• In ruins (Popioły) , novel, 1904
• Story of a Sin (Bodzanta) , 1908
• The Rose (Róża) , drama, 1909
• The Homeless (Ludzie bezdomni) , novel, 1910
• Sułkowsky , Drama, 1910
• Forest Echo (Echa leśne) , narrative
• The Faithful Stream (Wierna rzeka) , novel, 1912
• The Avenger , novel, 1915
• The Struggle with Satan (Walka z szatanem) , trilogy, 1916–1919
• Wind from the Sea (Wiatr od morza) , 1922
• Early Spring (Przedwiośnie) , novel, 1924

Film adaptations

• Wierna rzeka ( Der getreue Strom ), POL 1936, directed by Leonard Buczkowski
• Popioły ( Legionaries / Between Fire and Ashes ), POL 1965, directed by Andrzej Wajda
• Dzieje grzechu (Story of a Sin) , POL 1975, directed by Walerian Borowczyk
• Sisyphus works (Syzyfowe prace) , POL 2000, directed by Pawel Komorowski
• Vorfrühling (Przedwiośnie) , POL 2001, directed by Filip Bajon

literature

• Irena Kwiatkowska-Siemieńska: Stefan Żeromski. La nature dans son expérience et sa pensée . Préface de Jean Fabre, professor à la Sorbonne. Paris, Nizet 1964, 256 pp.
• Stefan Żeromski: Early spring , German by Kurt Harrer and Eckhaard Thiele, Frankfurt a. M. 1983, ²1994, ISBN 3-518-04527-X .

Web links

Commons : Stefan Żeromski  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Heinrich Riggenbach: Stefan Żeromski. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Marta Kijowska : Stefan Żeromski , in: Karl Dedecius (Ed.): Panorama of Polish Literature of the 20th Century 4. Portraits , pp. 1019-1025, ISBN 3-250-50003 -8th
2. ↑ ^{a b} Włodziemierz Borodziej, History of Poland in the 20th Century , Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60648-9 , pp. 145–147.
3. ↑ Polska Rada Ministrów Prezydium: Order Rebirth of Poland: trzechlecie pierwszej kapituły: 1921-1924 . Warszawa, 1926, p. 22 (Polish, edu.pl [accessed July 7, 2019]).
4. ↑ Ordery Orła Białego przyznane pośmiertnie 25 wybitnym Polakom. November 11, 2018, accessed July 7, 2019 (Polish). 
5. ↑ Historia Gdyni , section Powstanie i Rozwoj Portu i Miasta , accessed on September 27, 2011.
6. ↑ About the city: History , section 'In the beginning was just a dream' ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 28, 2011. 
7. ^ W. Borodziej : History of Poland in the 20th Century , Munich 2010, p. 146
8. ↑ Wojciech Antoszkiewicz, Mariusz Jablonski, Bogdan Kwiatkowski u. a., Gdynia: Tourist Vademecum , Gdynia: Gdynia Turystyczna, 2009, p. 33. ISBN 978-83-929-211-0-3 .