Victor Hadwiger

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Victor Hadwiger (born December 6, 1878 in Prague ; died October 4, 1911 in Berlin ) was a German-speaking writer who was often referred to as an early forerunner and pioneer of literary expressionism .

Life

Victor Hadwiger was born as the son of an Austrian chief medical officer on December 6, 1878 in Prague, which at that time still belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After a difficult school years, which he spent at many different places of residence, he began studying literary history and philosophy at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague in 1899 . In addition, he frequented the neo-romantic literary circle “Jung-Prag”, where he made closer acquaintance with Paul Leppin and Hugo Wiener , but also with Gustav Meyrink, ten years older , and soon became one of the most prominent figures of artistic bohemia. “Leppin and Hadwiger usually appeared together as twin brothers. They were both very tall and wore enormous hats, and were also conspicuous in the street. Both very pale, colorful artist's ties fluttered around their necks ”, recalled Max Brod , friend and estate administrator of Franz Kafka , in his notes on the“ Prague Circle ”. Shortly before the turn of the century, Hadwiger's first poems were written, which were published in book form in 1900.

In 1901, Hadwiger went on a trip to Paris with a fellow student , the impressions of which remained unforgettable. The following year, shortly after his mother's death, there was a definitive break with his father, who withdrew any further financial support out of anger about the careless way of life of his son. Without finishing his studies, Hadwiger moved to Berlin in the spring of 1903, heavily in debt, but with a small scholarship, to earn a living there by working on the “Vossische Zeitung” and doing his own literary work. His volume of poetry, Ich bin, which was published in the same year, gave him a much-noticed debut here.

In Berlin, too, Hadwiger was primarily involved in the well-known bohemian and cabaret scene around Peter Hille and Erich Mühsam . Like the legendary Vagant Hille, who died in 1904, he now also moved unsteadily from one quarter to the next, lugging the ever-increasing volume of his manuscripts around with him. Erich Mühsam describes him in his “Nonpolitical Memories” as “excessive in everything: in drinking, smoking and swearing, in the exuberance of bliss and in Weltschmerz”.

It was not until his marriage to the writer Else Strauss, a great niece of the famous theologian David Friedrich Strauss , that Hadwiger's lifestyle continued to be settled. At the same time his literary fame increased through various publications in magazines and anthologies, for example in “Das Blaubuch”, “Hyperion” or “Aktion”. For the "Guide through modern literature" published by Hanns Heinz Ewers in 1906, he made a number of contributions in the form of, for example: T. slightly satirical author portraits. In 1911 Hadwinger's novella “ The Reception Day ” and the two love stories “ Blanche ” and “ Des Affen Jogo Liebe und Hochzeit ” appeared. His sudden death on October 4, 1911, however, ended a successful career as a writer.

A large part of Hadwinger's poetic work only came to the public light posthumously: In addition to a selection from his lyrical estate under the title “ When there is a wanderer among us ” (1912), the two novels “ Abraham Abt ” and “ Il Pantegan ”is of importance.

Hadwinger's prose is consistently characterized by an excessively extravagant fantasy, in which grotesque and absurd effects can often suddenly turn into atmospherically dense descriptions of intense pictorial quality. As a content-related motive, especially in the novels, a pronounced disgust against all dull philistine morality asserts itself, which leads to a mostly excessive breakout of the individual into a demonic viciousness. Similar echoes of Friedrich Nietzsche's conception of the “superman” can be found, in addition to the influences of Rainer Maria Rilke and neo-romanticism , in Hadwinger's poems, which for the most part address the solitary wanderings of a “lyrical self” in ecstatic visionary images.

Hadwinger's works, which, with their sprawling, fantastic language jungle, are obliged to an abstruse aesthetics of the ugly, fell into oblivion among the broad reading public soon after the First World War and later only occasionally celebrated a short-lived renaissance. Thus three of his apocalyptic visions were included in the anthology "Lyrik des Expressionist Dezehnts", first published in 1962, the two novels " Il Pantegan " and " Abraham Abt " were reissued in 1984 as a double volume in the renowned " edition text + kritik ", further sparse individual editions followed.

Works (selection)

  • Poems . Dresden and Leipzig 1900.
  • I am . Poems. Leipzig and Berlin 1903.
  • The day of reception . Novella. Berlin 1911.
  • Blanche. The monkey Jogo love and wedding. Berlin 1911.
  • Abraham Abbot . Berlin: Alfred Richard Meyer , 1912
  • When there is a wanderer among us . Selected poems from the estate. Edited by Anselm Ruest. Berlin: Alfred Richard Meyer, 1912.
  • Death and the goldfish . Munich: Bachmair, 1913.
  • Il Pantegan . With six copper prints by Walter Gramatté , Axel Juncker, Berlin, 1919 (edition of 500 copies).

Further editions

  • The tragic monkey Jogo love and wedding. A tragicomic story. Berlin: Axel Juncker, 1920.
  • Il Pantegan. Abraham Abt. Ed. By Hartmut Geerken . (Early modern texts). Munich: edition text + kritik, 1984. ISBN 978-3-88377-172-4 .
  • Il Pantegan. Berlin: Rütten & Loening, 1992.
  • Blanche. Five chapters of a love story. Münster: Grin, 2009. ISBN 978-3-640-23114-0 .
  • When there is a wanderer among us - poems. Potsdam: Degener, 2011. ISBN 978-3-940531-35-3 .

literature

  • Paul RaabeHadwiger, Victor. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 419 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ferdinand Josef Schneider: Victor Hadwiger 1878-1911. A contribution to the history of Expressionism in contemporary German poetry . Hall 1921.
  • Victor Hadwiger , in: Jürgen Serke : Bohemian Villages. Wanderings through a deserted literary landscape . Vienna: Paul Zsolnay, 1987 ISBN 3-552-03926-0 , pp. 388-392
  • Hans J. Schütz : Victor Hadwiger . In: Ders .: "I was once a German poet". CH Beck, Munich 1988, pp. 104-108, ISBN 3-406-33308-7 .
  • Hartmut Vollmer: "And remained a poet and a fool". Victor Hadwiger, born in Prague in 1878, died in Berlin in 1911. In: Focus Berlin. Prague writer in the German metropolis. Edited by Hartmut Binder. Bonn 1995, pp. 73-99.

Web links

Wikisource: Victor Hadwiger  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max Brod: The Prague Circle . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1966, p. 73.
  2. Erich Mühsam: Non-political memories . Guhl, Berlin 1977, p. 87.