Susanne Kerckhoff

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Susanne Kerckhoff , born as Susanne Harich (born February 5, 1918 in Berlin ; † March 15, 1950 there ), was a German writer , journalist and poet .

Life

Susanne Kerckhoff was the second daughter of the harpsichordist, musicologist and Japanologist Eta Harich-Schneider and the literary historian Walther Harich . Her parents divorced in 1922, and her mother raised her and her two years older sister Lili (1916–1960), a soprano, alone. Her half-brother Wolfgang Harich (1923–1995), writer and philosopher, and her half-sister Gisela Harich, married Witkowski (* 1925), came from their father's second marriage.

Susanne grew up in a bourgeois-liberal manner in Berlin. There were meetings and correspondence with Carl Sternheim , Carl Schmitt , Erich Kästner , Klabund , Kurt Hiller , Gottfried Benn . She attended the Auguste Viktoria School and later the Bismarck School in Charlottenburg and graduated from high school in 1937. As a student, she joined the socialist youth workers . From 1935 it was published and in 1937 it was accepted into the Reichsschrifttumskammer.

In 1937, at the age of 19, she married the bookseller Hermann Kerckhoff. Their children were born in 1937 (Hermann), 1938 (Dina) and 1945 (Christian).

From 1941 to 1943 she studied philosophy at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin.

In May 1945 the Kerckhoffsche Buchhandlung at Alexanderplatz in Berlin was destroyed and Kerckhoff experienced the end of the war with her children in Emsland , where she worked as an interpreter and became a member of the SPD . A year later she separated from her husband and children (her husband received custody of the children in 1949) and moved to East Berlin . In 1947 Hermann Kerckhoff was divorced.

In 1947 Kerckhoff took part in the 1st German Writers' Congress in Berlin. Also from 1947 she worked for the Ulenspiegel , an American-licensed magazine, from 1948 as an editor. In 1948 she became a member of the SED and board member of the Association of German Authors. From 1949 she was the features editor of the Berliner Zeitung , from 1949 until her death the head of the culture department.

On March 15, 1950 Susanne Kerckhoff committed suicide in Berlin-Karolinenhof suicide . Previously, in SED circulars, she had been accused of a "fluctuating ideological attitude". She was buried in the Berlin forest cemetery in Grünau . Arnold Zweig was one of those who paid tribute to her after her death with the words: "What ingredients did you use to mix the drink that denigrated your lust for life?"

reception

Susanne Kerckhoff's first literary works were still apolitical, light entertainment literature, "intellectual results of a secure bourgeois girl's existence". After 1945 she also campaigned for a democratic renewal of Germany in literary terms. She dealt with the subject of the persecution and murder of Jewish citizens. In her book “Berliner Briefe”, for example, she dealt with the intellectual and moral condition of Germans in the post-war period: In the form of fictitious letters to an emigrated Jewish childhood friend, she made her position on the question of guilt and repression clear.

After her death, Susanne Kerckhoff was not mentioned in literary stories or literary encyclopedias either in the GDR or in the West. It had sparked heated controversy and blame in both East and West; political as well as private reasons for her suicide were assumed. Only since 1989 has it been increasingly given a place in literary history.

Works

  • Susanne Harich: Song . In: Almanac of the Lady. Poems. Berlin 1935, p. 47.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: Die Mark, Lied, Spiel, Nachtgedanken. To Hermann Hesse. Memory. Poems . In: Early Harvest . A small collection of young poets. Hamburg 1939. pp. 5-10.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: daughter from a good family . Novel. Berlin 1940.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: The magical year . Novel. Dresden 1940.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: In the golden ball . Novel. Dresden 1944.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: The inner face . Poems. Berlin 1946.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: End of War and Guilt. Poems . In: De Profundes. German poetry during this period . Edited by Gunter Groll. Munich 1946, pp. 207-211.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: The burned stars . Narrative. In: end and beginning. Berlin 1947.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: The lost storms . Novel. Berlin 1947.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: Human Breviary . Poems. Berlin 1948.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: Berlin letters . Berlin 1948.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: Time that loves us. Poem . In: East and West . Berlin 1949, p. 52.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: The fault. Poem . In: Outside the door. German literature 1945–1960 . Edited by Heinz Ludwig Arnold. Munich 1995. pp. 240-241.
  • Susanne Kerckhoff: Burning with love. Poetry and prose . Edited by Monika Melchert. Berlin 2004.
  • Lüdecke, Heinz (Ed.): Time that loves us. A memorial book for Susanne Kerckhoff . With contributions by Arnold Zweig and Paul Rilla. Halle (Saale) 1950.

literature

  • Ines Geipel (ed.): The world is a box. Four women authors in the early GDR. Susanne Kerckhoff - Eveline Kuffel - Jutta Petzold - Hannelore Becker . Berlin 1999. ISBN 978-3-88747-141-5 .
  • Ines Geipel and Joachim Walther : Gesperrte Ablage: Suppressed literary history in East Germany 1945–1989. Lilienfeld, Düsseldorf 2015, ISBN 978-3-940357-51-9 .
  • Ines Geipel: Censored, Discreet, Forgotten: Women Authors in East Germany 1945-1989 . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-583-07269-5 .
  • Susanne Jahn-Manske: The poem “Volkslied” by Susanne Kerckhoff (5.2.1918–15.3.1950) from a biographical point of view. LaG magazine 08/2013.
  • Monika Melchert: "Mother Berlin" and her daughters. In: Heukenkamp, ​​Ursula: Untererm Notdach: Post-War Literature in Berlin 1945–1949. Berlin 1996.
  • Monika Melchert: "... and watch the morning burning in the face". Susanne Kerckhoff in her poetry and prose. In: Birken, Margrid, Lüdicke, Marianne and Peitsch, Helmut: Breaks and upheavals: women, literature and social movement . Potsdam 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Spiegel 12/1950 of March 23, 1950, p. 33 , accessed on June 30, 2020
  2. ↑ Lisa Hertel: Susanne Kerckhoff. A forgotten poet. at Neues-Deutschland.de on February 7, 1998, accessed on June 30, 2020
  3. ↑ Monika Melchert: "... and watch the morning burning in the face". Susanne Kerckhoff in her poetry and prose . Ed .: Birken, Margrid, Lüdicke, Marianne and Peitsch, Helmut: Breaks and upheavals: Women, literature and social movement. Potsdam 2010, p. 380 .
personal data
SURNAME Kerckhoff, Susanne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, journalist and poet
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1950
Place of death Berlin