Theodor Kramer

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Memorial plaque for Theodor Kramer (Vienna-Leopoldstadt, Am Tabor)
Grave of Theodor Kramer, Vienna Central Cemetery

Theodor Kramer (born January 1, 1897 in Niederhollabrunn , † April 3, 1958 in Vienna ) was an Austrian poet.

Life

Theodor Kramer was born on January 1st, 1897 in Niederhollabrunn in the Lower Austrian Weinviertel . His father was the community doctor Dr. Max (Michael) Kramer, who came from a Jewish family from Bohemia, as well as Theodor's mother Babette Kramer, née Doctor. Mother Babette was deported by the National Socialists to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on July 22, 1942 . On that day, around 1,000 other Viennese residents were transported with her and later murdered. However, he only found out about his mother's murder after the end of the war. Theodor Kramer graduated from secondary school in Vienna with the Matura , was drafted in 1915 and seriously wounded in 1916 in the First World War. He served as an officer in the Austrian army until the end of the war. He broke off a subsequent study of German and political science for financial reasons and subsequently worked as a civil servant, bookseller and sales representative. Among other things, he was employed in the J. Berger bookstore on the Kohlmarkt and in the Heller'schen bookstore on the farmers' market. Due to chronic intestinal inflammation, however, he was restricted in the exercise of his work. From 1931 he lived as a freelance writer. In 1933 he was a founding member of the Association of Socialist Writers , which only existed for one year due to a government ban under Austrofascism .

After Austria was annexed to the German Reich , Kramer, as a Jew and Social Democrat, was banned from working and practicing, and all of his writings were put on the list of harmful and undesirable literature . Due to his delicate situation and the unsuccessful efforts to leave the country with an exit permit, a suicide attempt was made in 1938. Finally in 1939, with great difficulty, his wife Inge (Rosa) Halberstamm and then himself succeeded in emigrating to London , where he lived until 1957. From 1940 to 1941 he was interned as an enemy foreigner . In October 1942, his marriage to his wife Inge broke up. They separated from each other but never filed for divorce . In 1943 he found a job as a librarian at the County Technical College in Guildford , to which he remained committed until 1957, he also worked again and again for the German service of the BBC, by designing contributions and programs. In 1946 he received British citizenship. He was a board member of the Austrian PEN Exile Club and was in close contact with colleagues such as Elias Canetti , Erich Fried and Hilde Spiel .

Theodor Kramer's idea of ​​participating in the literary reconstruction in Austria was quickly rejected. After the Second World War, because of worries about his existence and distrust of the new situation in Austria, he turned down Viktor Matejka's offer to return to Vienna. In the 1950s he became more and more lonely and fell ill with depression . Only in 1957, after a stay in a mental hospital, was he brought back to Vienna on the intervention of his friend Michael Guttenbrunner , but also Bruno Kreiskys , where he received an honorary pension from the Federal President. He died on April 3, 1958, unhappy and little noticed after a stroke in Vienna and was buried in the central cemetery (30B-1-2) in an honorary grave .

The Austrian- American painter and pioneer of art therapy Edith Kramer (* 1916; † 2014) was Theodor Kramer's niece.

plant

Theodor Kramer wrote around 12,000 poems, of which only 2,000 have been published to date, achieved great success and became known throughout the German-speaking area. His work was forgotten after the Second World War. His song-like, but unromantic poetry draws strength and poetry from a sensual milieu of outsiders: the proletarians, tramps, craftsmen, servants and whores. Kramer wrote sensitive role poems and idiosyncratic landscape poetry, literary role models were Georg Trakl and Bertolt Brecht . Typical of his poems were easy comprehension (simple vocabulary, often from the rural milieu) and a folksong-like, conventional tone.

His literary work can basically be divided into three phases. The first is characterized by local literary tendencies, in which he describes, for example, the landscape of Burgenland or the working life of farmers and compatriots. However, during this time Kramer's poetry is free of any glossing over or idealization, rather he tries to portray the circumstances of the time realistically. His poems are always characterized by a certain lack of stability and alienation, but on the other hand also by hope and praise for the fullness of life. Again and again he expresses the right of the “little people” to enjoyment and happiness, for example in the poem Der bohmische Knecht (from: Collected poems in three volumes ). In this phase, Kramer also seems to pay special attention to changes in the landscape and social structure, so even then the destruction of the environment (e.g. through pollution of the rivers) took a place as a theme in his poems.

His second creative phase is again shaped by the experiences he had to make due to his Jewish descent during World War II. He also addresses the psychological damage he sustained from this time. So z. B. in You suddenly ran out of strength ( from: Collected poems in 3 volumes), which refers to the suicide attempt in 1938. His poems also include the experiences from his exile in Great Britain and also the frustration and disappointment with his home country ( O Austria, I cannot argue for you, from: Collected poems in 3 volumes). As with many poets, Kramer's writing is a kind of "self-therapy", that is, a valve or means for processing his experiences. It even goes so far that Kramer himself claimed that writing poetry was like an addiction for him, as indicated by the large number of lyrical texts he wrote (approx. 12,000, or on average one poem a day) .

In Kramer's last phase of work (similar to the first phase), he again attached great importance to home and the description of the landscape.

Thomas Mann called him “one of the greatest poets of the younger generation” . Stefan Zweig and Carl Zuckmayer sponsored his work. Yet the eighteen years of exile in Great Britain were enough for his work to be forgotten - at least among the broader literary public.

Since the late 1970s, the interpretations of the duo Zupfgeigenhansel had played a major role in the rediscovery of Kramer, initiated by the suggestion of the songwriter Hans-Eckardt Wenzel . In recent years, the Berlin singer Wenzel has set poems by Kramer to music on two albums, thus further increasing interest in him.

However, it was mainly his administrator Erwin Chvojka who was responsible for integrating Kramer's work into the literary public. In the 1980s he succeeded in convincing a publisher to publish the collected poems in three volumes . Although this did not lead to an excessive reputation for Theodor Kramer, the volumes of poetry were a good basis for further research projects on the author. Since that time, i.e. from the 80s, texts by Kramer have been published again and again, e.g. B. in the magazine Zwischenwelt, which appeared regularly from 1984 onwards . In addition, the "Theodor Kramer Society" was founded in Vienna in 1984.

Since 2004 the musicians Heike Kellermann and Wolfgang Rieck have performed regularly with a program with Kramer texts.

Excerpt from the cycle of poems “Vienna 1938”, volume of poetry “The truth is, one has done nothing to me”, beginning in Vienna in 1938 after a failed suicide attempt and continued in England in 1942/43:

THE TRUTH IS, NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE TO ME

The truth is, I wasn't harmed.
I haven't been allowed to write in a newspaper for a long time, my
mother is still allowed to stay in the apartment.
The truth is, I wasn't harmed.

The old man cuts the ham for
me and thanks me like a child when I pay him;
What I will live on is inexplicable.
The truth is, I wasn't harmed.

I take the tram as I used to
and walk through the streets unmolested;
I just don't know if they'll let me go
The truth is, I wasn't harmed.

No country opens the way for me,
I cannot lift myself off myself:
I simply have no room to live.
The truth is, I wasn't harmed.

Awards

The Theodor Kramer Society awards the Theodor Kramer Prize for writing in resistance and in exile .

In 1983 the Theodor-Kramer-Strasse in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after him.

Quotes

“ I'm not there for the sweet, only for the spicy and bitter; strike, you people, not the harp, play the accordion. "

- Theodor Kramer

Works

  • The crook tine. Poems. Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt am Main 1929, DNB 574449302 . (also in: Gesammelte Gedichte 1. Paul Zsolnay Verlag , 2005, ISBN 3-552-05360-3 )
  • We were lying in the morass in Volhynia ... poems. Zsolnay, Vienna 1931.
  • With the accordion. Poems. Gsur-Verlag u. Co., Vienna 1936, DNB 993252354 .
  • Banished from Austria. New poems. Austrian PEN, London 1943.
  • Vienna 1938 - The green squad. Poems. Globus Verlag, Vienna 1946.
  • Michael Guttenbrunner (ed.): About black wine. Poems. Edited by M. Guttenbrunner. Otto Müller Verlag, Salzburg 1956.
  • One testifies ... poems. Introduced and selected by Erwin Chvojka . Stiasny, Graz, Vienna 1960
  • Praise of despair. Poems. Youth and People, Vienna, Munich 1972
  • Erwin Chvojka (ed.): Collected poems in three volumes. 3 volumes. Europa Verlag, Vienna 1984, 1985, 1987.
  • Erwin Chvojka (ed.): Late song. Poems. Europaverlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-203-79255-9 .
  • Erwin Chvojka (ed.): The old zither player. Images of man. Club Niederösterreich, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85326-117-5 .
  • Herta Müller (Ed.): The truth is, nothing has been done to me. Poems. Paul Zsolnay, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-552-04917-7 .
  • As long as our breath carries us . Poems. Theodor Kramer Society, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-901602-19-4 .
  • Erwin Chvojka (ed.): Collected poems in three volumes. 3 volumes. Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-552-04875-8 .
  • Erwin Chvojka (ed.): Let me lie quietly with you ... love poems. Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-552-05358-1 .
  • Karl Müller and Peter Roessler (eds.): Selected poems. With an afterword by Peter Roessler. Theodor Kramer Society, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-901602-79-5 .

Settings

  • Zupfgeigenhansel : Others who didn't love the country so much - songs based on texts by Theodor Kramer . 1985 (LP, EMI 1C 066/14 7088 1)
  • Reinhard Fehling : Life is mighty - an oratorical song cycle for solos, choir and orchestra. 1995 (CD from the composer)
  • Hans-Eckardt Wenzel : Song on the edge - Wenzel sings Theodor Kramer . 1997 (CD, Buschfunk 0053)
  • Hans-Eckardt Wenzel: Four o'clock in the morning - Wenzel sings Theodor Kramer vol. II . 2006 (CD, Conträr Musik 6963-2)
  • Heike Kellermann, Wolfgang Rieck: What else should we start ... 2006 (CD)
  • Georg Siegl, Doris Windhager, Adula Ibn Quadr: At the Stromwirt - songs based on texts by Theodor Kramer . 2008 (CD, extra plate 741-2)
  • Peter Zwetkoff: The lower tavern - seven songs for a voice and piano. Innsbruck 1998
  • Ottiker / Kraft: Whenever a man . 2005 (CD from the composer)
  • Albert Neumayr: The night is already running out (song for baritone and piano, comp. 1966)
  • The Feuersteins : drinking song before leaving . 2017, (CD, ruhrfolk 4021)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Kramer biography on the pages of the Theodor Kramer Society
  2. ^ Axel Goodbody: Theodor Kramer . In: Ursula Heukenkamp and Peter Geist (eds.): German-language poets of the 20th century . Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-503-07999-5 , p. 228-234 .
  3. ^ Axel Goodbody: Theodor Kramer . In: Ursula Heukenkamp and Peter Geist (eds.): German-language poets of the 20th century . Erich Schmidt, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-503-07999-5 , pp. 228-234 .
  4. ^ Axel Goodbody: Theodor Kramer . In: Ursula Heukenkamp and Peter Geist (eds.): German-language poets of the 20th century . Erich Schmidt, Berlin 2007, p. 228-234 .
  5. ^ Axel Goodbody: Theodor Kramer . In: Ursula Heukenkamp and Peter Geist (eds.): German-language poets of the 20th century . Erich Schmidt, Berlin 2007, p. 228-234 .
  6. ^ Heike Kellermann, Wolfgang Rieck: Concert and literature program based on texts by Theodor Kramer
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Rieck: About me
personal data
SURNAME Kramer, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lyric poet
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Niederhollabrunn , Lower Austria , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1958
Place of death Vienna , Austria