Waldemar Augustiny

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Waldemar Augustiny (born May 19, 1897 in Schleswig , † January 26, 1979 in Worpswede ) was a German writer.

Life

Waldemar Augustiny grew up in a family of pastors from Schleswig and after graduating from high school, studied German , philosophy and art history at the cathedral school in Schleswig in Kiel, Hamburg and Berlin . He was a soldier in both world wars and worked in numerous professions, he was a student trainee, worker, employee, publishing editor (1925–1932), bookseller, journalist (he wrote for National Socialist newspapers, after the war about art for the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung ). From 1932 until his death in 1979 he lived as a freelance writer in Worpswede near Bremen.

He was married to Else Popp and had two children.

Literary work

Augustiny is considered a North German narrator and has become known nationwide , especially with his main work The Great Flood , which has appeared in numerous new editions. This is a chronicle of the Frisian island of Strand , which went down during the storm surge of 1634. The protagonists represent a national-conservative attitude towards people and their fate, which is characterized by a love of their homeland, patriarchal structures of living and working together, skepticism and fear of foreign Dutch dyke builders.

His exciting stories and novels deal with the hard life of the coastal inhabitants and mostly have a cultural and historical background. In doing so, the author “opposes the unrest and uprooting of time with pure humanity and community in the Christian spirit ”. Augustiny also wrote artist portraits, for example about Paula Modersohn-Becker and Otto Modersohn . Some of his works, e.g. B. his book on Albert Schweitzer , have been translated into several languages.

Criticism. Augustiny and National Socialism

Augustiny's image of man in his homeland stories was not very differentiated: the homeland is idealized, the foreign is bad, the man a patriarch, the woman humbly and diligently serving him, etc. The image that Augustiny gave of himself, namely as a “bog man” far from the literary scene Having lived “spun in” on the edge of the Teufelsmoor is refuted by the research carried out by Ferdinand Krogmann for his book “Waldemar Augustiny -“ Schöngeist ”under the swastika”. The presentation highlights the involvement of Low German writers in the Nazi system and the denial of their guilt after the war. With his reports in the " Niedersächsische Tageszeitung - Kampfblatt für den Nationalozialismus" u. a. Augustiny - in keeping with the Nazi ideology - at least had a formative effect on the cultural scene of the time. Augustiny was a member of the Eutin poets' circle founded in 1936 , an important group of authors in Nazi Germany. After 1945, Augustiny, who later won the Federal Cross of Merit, as chairman of a denazification committee, helped fellow poets to obtain the coveted "Persilscheine". According to Krogmann, Augustiny propagated racial segregation and campaigned for racial purity in his book The Great Flood , published in 1943 . And at the end of 1945 Augustiny wrote: “The Lower Saxon race has been abandoned by the influx of refugees. In Worpswede, marriages between strangers and locals are already flourishing. ”On the other hand, according to Krogmann's statement, Augustiny and Fritz Mackensen wrote a letter to the Gauleiter for the painter Bernhard Huys , who was denounced as a listener by enemy broadcasters.

The Canadian historian Lawrence D. Stokes , on the other hand, describes Waldemar Augustiny in his book "The Eutin Poets and National Socialism" from 2001 as one of the few non-political exceptions to the Eutin poets' circle. Augustiny was neither in the NSDAP, nor do his works contain any National Socialist denominations. However, a letter from the Worpswede painter Carl Emil Uphoff , local supervisor of the Nazi community Kraft durch Freude and “district chief”, to Augustiny is indicative of Augustiny's attitude . Uphoff was critical of the Germans' approach in the French campaign . At the end of his letter of June 11, 1940, Uphoff threatens: “As a member of the NSDAP and as a political leader, I am obliged to inform the responsible party office of this, as you, as a writer working in the public eye, claim to be yours in this brief Incident expressing absurd spiritual attitude to spread in our people or to claim it for it. "

Works

  • Rudolf Alexander Schröder. Conferences and citizens of the world . Döll, Bremen 1978. ISBN 3-920245-46-6 /
  • Lower Saxony. Landscape, cities, art . Peters, Hanau 1971. ISBN 3-87627-020-0
  • Elise and Christine. The two women in Friedrich Hebbel's life . Salzer, Heilbronn 1971. ISBN 3-7936-0178-1
  • The splendor of God. A painter's fate from the baroque era . Salzer, Heilbronn 1969
  • A man like Samson . Novel. Salzer, Heilbronn 1968
  • Lower Saxony in color . Umschau, Frankfurt 1967
  • Otto Modersohn. Figure and likeness on the occasion of his 100th birthday . Schünemann Verlag , Bremen 1966
  • Maria Rubens - the painter's mother . Narrative. Salzer, Heilbronn 1963
  • Go into all the world. 2 millennia Christian mission . Gütersloh 1992
    • Dutch translation: "Ga heen en Verkondig". Wageningen 1963
  • Paula Modersohn-Becker . S. Mohn, Gütersloh 1960 (most recently: Fischerhude 1986. ISBN 3-88132-234-5 )
  • The women of La Rochelle . Selected stories. Schünemann, Bremen 1959
  • The splendor of God. The painter Johan Liss's last days in Venice . Eckart, Witten 1956
  • Albert Schweitzer and you . Luther, Witten 1955
    • Dutch translation: "Albert Schweitzer en wij". Gaade, Delft 1955
    • English translation: "The Road to Lambaréné". A biography of Albert Schweitzer. London 1956
    • Finnish translation: "Albert Schweitzer". Helsinki 1960
  • But love remains . Novel. Kangen Müller, Munich 1952
  • The admiral's bride . Love story from Friesland. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1950
  • The return of Novalis. Report by council servant Johann Christoph Böttcher from 1945 . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1948
  • Told at night . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1947 (most recently: Fischerhude 1990. ISBN 3-88132-084-9 )
    • Norwegian translation: "Drømmens blå blomst". Oslo 1950
    • Swedish translation: “Den blå blomman”. Stockholm 1950
  • The great flood. Chronicle of the island beach . Hamburg 1943 (most recently: Husum 2007. ISBN 978-3-88042-125-7 )
  • The admiral's bride . Love stories from Friesland. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1942
  • The Black Gret . Stories. Hamburg 1941
  • The daughter of Tromsee . Novel. Hamburg 1938
  • The jade ring . Narrative. Schünemann, Bremen 1936
  • Dronning Marie . Novel. Korn, Breslau 1936
  • The fishermen from Jarsholm . Novel. Berlin 1935
    • Swedish translation: "Fiskarna i Jarsholm". Malmo 1940

literature

  • Waldemar Augustiny . In: Frank Lennartz: “German writers of the 20th century in the mirror of criticism”. Vol. 1. Kröner, Stuttgart 1984. ISBN 3-520-82101-X
  • Waldemar Augustiny . In: Wilpert: “Lexicon of World Literature. Authors ”. Vol. 1. DTV, Munich 1997. ISBN 3-423-59050-5
  • Kai Artinger, Ferdinand Krogmann, Arn Strohmeyer: Landscape, Light and Low German Myth. The Worpswede art and the National Socialism . VDG, Weimar 2000. ISBN 3-89739-126-0
  • Ferdinand Krogmann: Waldemar Augustiny - "Schöngeist" under the swastika. A contribution to the Low German homeland movement during National Socialism . VDG, Weimar 2005. ISBN 3-89739-350-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "The great flood": bestseller from the pen of a Schleswiger , Schleswiger Nachrichten of October 18, 2011
  2. ↑ Walter Habel: Who is who? , Vol. 1 (West), Berlin 1967, p. 43
  3. ↑ Gero von Wilpert. Quoted from: Lexicon of World Literature . Authors. Vol. 1. S. 89. Munich 1997
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ See: Ferdinand Krogmann: Waldemar Augustiny - "Schöngeist" under the swastika. A contribution to the Low German homeland movement during National Socialism . VDG, Weimar 2005
  6. ↑ Uwe Danker , Astrid Schwabe: Schleswig-Holstein and National Socialism . Neumünster 2005, page 88
  7. ↑ Hitler and Heimatkunst Interview with Ferdinand Krogmann
personal data
SURNAME Augustiny, Waldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Schleswig
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1979
Place of death Worpswede