Theodor Kroeger

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Theodor Kröger (actually Bernhard Altschwager, born December 5, 1891 in Saint Petersburg , Russia , † October 24, 1958 in Klosters-Serneus , Graubünden ) was a German writer.

Life and work

Kröger grew up as the son of Bernhard Friedrich Altschwager (1862–1931), the owner of a watch shop in St. Petersburg. Kröger attended the grammar school of the Reformed congregations in St. Petersburg, began an apprenticeship as a watchmaker in Neuchâtel in 1913 and, when he returned, was exiled as an Imperial German to Verkhoturye in the Urals after the outbreak of World War I.

Kröger was a recognized writer and member of the National Socialist Reichsschrifttumskammer in Berlin. In 1941 he moved to Austria for health reasons, and in 1946 to Switzerland.

He processed his experiences in several works:

  • With his supposedly autobiographical novel The Forgotten Village, Four Years of Siberia, A Book of Comradeship (1934, most recently 1981), Kröger achieved his greatest success with over a million copies. As a first-person narrator, Kröger describes how he tried to flee to Germany after the outbreak of the First World War , but was arrested as a suspected German spy and exiled to Nikitino on the other side of the Iwdel train station in Siberia . He describes the experiences as a German prisoner of war; In the action he befriends the police captain Ivan Ivanovich, marries the beautiful Tartar Fayme, campaigns for German and Austrian prisoners of war, and arranges for a school to be built. The novel ends dramatically with the downfall of the town of Nikitino in the turmoil of the October Revolution. A second, also fictional autobiographical novel, with the title Natascha describes his life after his return to Germany; the novel was published posthumously in 1960.
  • The romance novel Heimat am Don from Russia in the time of the First World War and the Bolshevik rule contains acts of war and love against the background of the last desperate struggle of the White Army in the Crimea . During the Nazi era , the title was a bestseller with a circulation of over 300,000 copies.
  • The book Brest-Litovsk , subtitle: Beginning and Consequences of Bolshevik World Fraud , contains numerous black and white photos of the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk in 1917. It specifically criticizes negative side effects of the Russian Revolution from the perspective of a world citizen of German origin.

Fonts

  • The forgotten village. Four years in Siberia. A book of comradeship. Propylaen-Verlag Berlin 1934. 1st new edition: Bertelsmann-Lesering 1954; 2nd new edition (786th – 790th thousand): Fleischhauer and Spohn Verlag, Bietigheim-Bissingen 1981; 3rd new edition: Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89350-941-0 .
  • Home on the Don. Propylaen-Verlag, Berlin 1937. New editions: Bertelsmann-Lesering 1955; Fleischhauer and Spohn Verlag, Bietigheim-Bissingen 1981; Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89350-941-0 .
  • Brest-Litovsk. Beginning and consequences of the Bolshevik world deception . Ullstein, Berlin 1937.
  • Little Madonna . Propylaea Publishing House, Berlin 1938.
  • The Guardian angel. A memory from the forgotten village . Propylaea Publishing House, Berlin 1939.
  • Smiling Buddha enthroned . W. Classen Verlag, Zurich 1947 (1950 under the title Storm over the Himalayas ).
  • Storm over the Himalayas . German Book Club, Hattingen 1951.
  • Chiseled by the will. A novel about the building of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road . Rabenstein Verlag, Salzburg 1951.
  • Shadow of the soul . Rabenstein Verlag, Salzburg 1952.
  • Natasha . Bertelsmann Lesering, Gütersloh 1963. Posthumously arranged by his wife Hildegard Kröger in autumn 1960 due to repeated inquiries from readers. New editions: Fleischhauer and Spohn Verlag, Bietigheim-Bissingen 1981; Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89350-941-0 .

swell

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tobias Schneider: Bestseller in the Third Reich. Determination and analysis of the best-selling novels in Germany 1933–1944 . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , vol. 52 (2004), issue 1, pp. 77–97, here p. 84 and p. 95 ( digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Kröger, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Altschwager, Bernhard (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1958
Place of death Klosters-Platz , Graubünden