Theodor Bohner

Theodor Bohner (pseudonym: Paul Hirner ) (born July 6, 1882 in Abokobi ( Gold Coast ); † February 4, 1963 in Berlin ) was a publicist, association official and liberal politician.

Youth and education

Theodor Paul Bohner, who was a Protestant, was born on July 6, 1882 in Abokobi (Gold Coast) in what is now Ghana , the eldest son of ten surviving siblings, the second wife of his father Heinrich . He was a missionary for the Basel Mission for the Gold Coast and later for Cameroon . The family comes from the Rheinpfalz near the Ebernburg . His mother was Philippa (called Hannah), b. War. Like his younger brother Hermann , he was educated in the mission house in Basel from 1889–1895. He studied at the Universities of Freiburg / B. , Zurich , Basel , Heidelberg and Leipzig . In Freiburg he was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD.

Act

At first he worked as a philologist in the higher education service. First from 1904 to 1907 in Baden, from 1907/08 in Berlin and from 1908 to 1915 as head of the German School in Rome. From 1909 he was also a university lecturer for the German language. After his return from Italy he was a teacher in Saarbrücken and Berlin, from April 1, 1917 to 1929 senior director of studies at the Viktoria School in Magdeburg and from 1929 to 1933 senior teacher in Berlin. He was dismissed from this position in 1933 for political reasons. He then worked as a freelance writer.

Since 1919 city councilor in Magdeburg. As a member of the Prussian state parliament (1924–32), to which he belonged as a member of the German Democratic Party , Bohner represented the cultural and political claims of German literature in the Weimar Republic . He was president of the Association of German Writers until he had to give up this post in 1933. In June 1945 he was a co-founder of the CDU. In 1950 he called the protection association back to life, headed it in 1951/52 and was its honorary president from 1953.

Married to Martha Lydia, daughter of Reinhold Seeberg . He had three daughters with her: Eva (* 1915), Christa (* 1918) and Margret (* 1924). He lived in Berlin during the Second World War and after the war went to England, where he worked for the War Office in London in German prison camps from 1946 to 1948 .

1948-49 he was a lecturer in philosophy at the American South Western University in Georgetown (Texas) . From 1949 Bohner lived in Berlin again. In 1956 he took a trip to Moscow to look around and finally find out “what is true.” He died at the age of 80 - in the same year as two of his brothers - in 1963.

Works

As a writer, Bohner emerged on topics from the Mediterranean and Africa, and he also wrote several biographical works. Taken from his complete works:

• "Contributions to a Goethe dictionary" (1904)
• "The German War Poetry" (1914, 15)
• "On all streets", (two-volume novel: 1; "Kwabla," 2; "The way back"; 1919 and 1921)
• "Laughing, loving Rome" (novella, 1921)
• "The conquered continent, German fate in Africa around Gustav Nachtigal" (1934)
• "The shoemaker of God, a German life in Africa" ​​(biography of his father , 1934)
• "Aé Ntonga" (Hello, friend)
• "Our Life in Cameroon" (1935)
• "The Woermanns , from becoming great" (1935, also Czech.)
• " JP Hebel , the German people's house friend" (1936)
• “The honorable businessman. A century in German offices and factories "(1936, 1956)
• "Court Marshal Graf Zedlitz- Trützschler" (1936)
• "German Parents" (1936)
• "The light and its shadow" (1937)
• " Philipp Otto Runge " (1937)
• "Friendship with Gustav Frenssen , experiences and letters" (1938)
• " Gordon , Fighter and Christ" Gießen, Basel 1938 (fountain)
• “The German merchant across the sea. One hundred years of German trade in the world "(1939)
• "The trip to Basel"
• "With the eyes of the Italian" (1940)
• " House of Savoy " (1941)
• "Africa, continent of European promise" (1941)
• "They Fought for New Living Space" (1941)
• "From Dresden to Canton" (1945)
• "Saat in die Welt" (1945)
• "Schiller" (1946)
• "The Open Shop" (1954)

Bohner also worked as a translator and published “The most beautiful sagas of classical antiquity” by Gustav Schwab .

school books

• Collection of sources for history lessons in secondary schools (Book 134) Teubner, Leipzig 1916 (digitized version)

Biographical information

in:

• German Biographical Archive (DBA) II 150,171-176; III 95,444-447
• Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag (ed.); Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft: the handbook of personalities in words and pictures; Berlin 1930–1931 (German business publisher)
• Cuno Horkenbach (ed.); The German Reich from 1918 until today: therein: leading personalities; Berlin 1931–35 (publisher for press, economy and politics)
• Oehlke, Waldemar ; Contemporary German Literature; Berlin 1942 (Deutsche Bibliothek Verlagsges.)
• Who is who? the German Who's Who, 12th edition 1955
• Kosch, Wilhelm; Biographical State Handbook: Lexicon of Politics, Press and Journalism; Bern [et al.] 1963 (Francke)
• Carl, Viktor; Lexicon of Palatinate Personalities; Edenkoben ²1998 (Hennig)

literature

• Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft - The handbook of personalities in words and pictures . First volume, Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, ISBN 3-598-30664-4