Waldemar Hippius

Waldemar Hippius

Waldemar Hippius (Russian Vladimir Vasilievich Gippius , Владимир Васильевич Гиппиус; born July 15, ^jul. / 27. July  1876 ^greg. , Khimki in Moscow , Russian Empire ; † 5. November 1941 , Leningrad , USSR ) was a German-born Russian-speaking writers and teachers . Vladimir Nabokov and Ossip Mandelstam were among his students .

Life

His father Wilhelm Hippius was a Baltic German tsarist official with the rank of Active Councilor of State , who later held important functions in the Foreign Ministry and other authorities. His mother was Helene, née Egger, and one of his brothers Wilhelm became a professor of literature in Saint Petersburg. The writer Sinaida Hippius was a relative.

Waldemar Hippius attended a high school in Saint Petersburg. There he began with his school friend Alexander Dobroljubow to write first poems in the style of Western European symbolism and decadence. The first of them were printed in 1892.

In 1895 he began studying at the Faculty of History and Philology at the University of Saint Petersburg. During this time he became acquainted with the poets Nikolai Minsky and Valery Bryusov , who was enthusiastic about the talent of the young author. In 1897 further poems appeared.

In 1900 Hippius finished his studies. He became a teacher at a high school for girls in Saint Petersburg. Teaching remained a lifelong concern for him, especially as a way of helping and supporting the students to become aware of their creative possibilities and for the spiritual and moral renewal of Russia. He later became a teacher at the Teschinow technical center. There were Osip Mandelstam and the later Nobel laureate Vladimir Nabokov to his students. In their memoirs, both of them expressed respect for their teacher.

In 1915 Waldemar Hippius began to write articles on literary history. His essay Pushkin and Christianity attracted attention . In 1917 he became director of the Teschinow technical center.

Vladimir Hippius died of starvation during the Leningrad blockade in 1941 .

Works

He published a few volumes of poetry in the style of symbolism and decadence. Many had religious or metaphysical content.

After 1922 there were no more printed texts from him.

• «Песни» ( songs ), 1892, poems
• «Возвращение» ( Return ), 1912, poems (under the pseudonym Vladimir Bestuschew)
• «Ночь в звёздах» ( Night under the stars ), 1915, poems (under the pseudonym Wladimir Neledinski)
• “Пушкин и христианство” ( Pushkin and Christianity ), 1915, essay
• "Томление духа" ( Movement of the Spirit ), 1916, poems (under the pseudonym Vladimir Neledinsky)
• “Сон в пустыне” ( Dream in the Desert ), 1918, prose
• «Лик человеческий» ( Human Face ), Berlin 1922, poems

Web links

• Wladimir Wassiljewitsch Gippius (Russian)

Remarks

1. ↑ Исторический форум. Именной указатель
2. ↑ Сон в пустыне