Walter Bloem

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Walter Julius Gustav Bloem ( pseudonym : B. Walter ) (born June 20, 1868 in Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal ), † August 19, 1951 in Lübeck ) was a German writer. He wrote novels that expressed his national German attitude and made him one of the most widely read authors of his time with a total circulation of two million.

Walter Bloem

Life

Walter Bloem was the eldest of five sons of the Privy Councilor, lawyer and notary Julius Bloem and his wife Maria Helene nee. Hermes.

From the 1896 born with Margarete. Kalähne's marriage resulted in the daughter Margareta (Eta, born August 19, 1897) and the son Walter Julius Bloem . In his second marriage he was married to his cousin Judith Bloem from 1923. Eta later married the Swiss journalist and Turkologist Max Rudolf Kaufmann (himself an opponent of German militarism and National Socialism, who lived in the USA and Switzerland from 1925 to 1952).

Until 1914

From 1877 Bloem attended the Elberfelder Gymnasium , where he founded a literary circle that lasted until his death. After graduating from high school, Bloem began studying philology and history at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in 1886 . In Heidelberg, he became a member of satisfaction giving Hamburg Society . In 1887 he moved to the Philipps University of Marburg to study law and economics. In 1887 he became active in the Corps Teutonia Marburg . As an inactive he moved to the University of Leipzig , where he also joined the Corps Lusatia Leipzig during the three emperor's year . He processed his time in Marburg in his first novel Der krasse Fuchs (1906), in which he changed the name of his own Corps Teutonia to "Corps Cimbria" and that of Corps Hasso-Nassovia to "Nassovia", but retained that of Corps Guestphalia . He completed the last part of his studies at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn . It was 1890, the trainee exam and was in Jena to the Dr. iur. PhD . He did his military service in Düsseldorf . After the assessor examination , he worked as a lawyer in Barmen from 1895 . At first he was a part-time writer and editor of entertainment literature, so he had taken over the editing of the literary entertainment newspaper for West Germany in Elberfeld. In 1904 he gave up his practice as a lawyer and moved to Berlin as a freelance writer . There he also worked as a dramaturge at the New Theater . In 1912 he published his trilogy about the Franco-German War ( The Iron Year , People Against People , The Forge of the Future ), which made him famous throughout Germany. He became one of the favorite authors of the German Emperor Wilhelm II , who awarded him the Order of the Red Eagle 4th class for this trilogy . From 1911 to 1914 he lived in Stuttgart , where he worked as a director and chief dramaturge at the Hoftheater Stuttgart . Shortly before the outbreak of war, however, he gave up this position in order to devote himself entirely to writing.

First World War

Captain Walter Bloem

On the First World War Bloem took as captain d. R. and finally as Major d. R. part. Wounded on the Western Front as the company commander of the Grenadier Regiment "Prince Carl von Preußen" (2nd Brandenburgisches) No. 12 , he was employed in the staff of the General Government of Belgium in Brussels from January to July 1915 before returning to the war front at his own request was moved. He was on the Eastern Front as chief of the 2nd, later 1st Battalion of the 341 Infantry Regiment, before he had to spend several months in medical treatment due to a gunshot wound and a malaria-like illness. From mid-February to mid-March 1916 he was battalion chief of the 1st battalion of Grenadier Regiment 12. The battalion fought in the Battle of Verdun . His battalion was scheduled to take Fort Douaumont . This did not succeed; the unit was worn almost 90%. From March 1916 to the beginning of 1918 he worked in Department III b in the Army General Staff , where he headed the field press office. His immediate superior was Walter Nicolai . In the German spring offensive in 1918 , Bloem was again deployed at the front. His son Walter Julius Bloem fought at his side. Walter Bloem was badly wounded and was sidelined for the remainder of the war, but was still promoted to Major d. R. promoted.

He processed his experiences as an officer and troop leader in memories, diaries and novels. During the war he often had the opportunity to accompany the emperor on visits to the front and troops. He described the nature and character of the emperor in his book The whole thing! (1919).

Republic and Nazi era

Through his literary successes Bloem became a millionaire and after the war he lived at the Rieneck Castle in Mainfranken, which he acquired . However, he lost his fortune again in the course of the inflationary years. In 1926/27 he went on a world tour with his wife, which took him to the Soviet Union , China , Japan and the United States . Thanks to his reputation and good connections, he was able to travel with a diplomatic passport . He met numerous high-ranking personalities, including US President Calvin Coolidge . In 1929 Bloem sold Rieneck Castle and moved back to Berlin.

From 1931 he was chairman of the Association of National Writers. Bloem saw in Hitler the man who could remove the Versailles Treaty and the degradation of Germany connected with it and restore the honor of the nation. In 1932 Bloem was elected chairman of the Association of German Writers . After the National Socialists came to power , from May 1933 he was honorary chairman of the synchronized SDS, which was then transferred to the RDS. In October 1933 Bloem was one of the 88 German writers who signed the pledge of loyal allegiance to Adolf Hitler . He no longer played a significant role in the state-controlled cultural operations of the Nazi state , which may also be due to the fact that Bloem had clearly opposed anti-Semitic tendencies in the German population in works such as Brotherhood (1922) . In 1937 he wrote the screenplay for the war film Urlaub auf Ehrenwort , which was banned by the Allied military censorship after the end of the Second World War . In June 1938 he took part in the Reich Front Poet Meeting in Guben . In the same year he joined the NSDAP . In 1941 he once again showed his approval of National Socialist policy by adding a poem of devotion to Karl Hans Bühner's anthology Dem Führer , which begins with the words “Mein Führer!”.

From autumn 1941 to spring 1942 Bloem was stationed in Riga , where he took an active part in the art and music life and distinguished himself with an enthusiastic article on the Latvian painter Vilhelms Purvītis . Zenta Maurina writes in her autobiography: “Walter Bloem had won the trust of local artists, and when he was suddenly recalled from Riga, there was sincere sadness. The news came over the Whisper Bridge that the reason for his unexpected transfer was his sympathy for the Latvian people and Latvian art. [...] Now he is already resting under the earth, he and his grand dream of mother Germania, who takes all other peoples under her wings. "

Many of his works were put on the list of literature to be sorted out after the war in the Soviet occupation zone and GDR .

Late years

After his return from Soviet captivity , he lived in Lübeck , where he died on August 19, 1951 at the age of 83. He was buried in the Franconian town of Rieneck , where a local street is named after him.

Honors

Works

Novels

Dramas

Others

  • On home shores , 1912 (photo book)
  • Vormarsch , Verlag Grethlein Co, Leipzig 1916 (War Memories - reprinted in Great Britain in 2004 under the title The Advance from Mons 1914: The Experiences of a German Infantry Officer ).
  • Storm signal , 1918 (war memories)
  • The whole halt , 1919 (war memories)
  • Der Weltbrand - Germany's Tragedy 1914–1918 , 2 volumes, 1923 (History of the First World War . A one-volume, abridged “People's Edition” of this was also published. Illustrated by Ludwig Dettmann )
  • Weltface , 1928 (report of his world tour, which took him to the Soviet Union , China , Japan and the United States )
  • Immortal Germany , 1933 (photo book)
  • The Grenadier Regiment Prince Carl of Prussia (2nd Brandenburg.) No. 12: according to the memorial sheets of Major v. Schönfeldt and the notes of other fighters / edited by Walter Bloem. Edited by the Reichsverband formerly 12er

literature

(in order of appearance)

  • Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft - The handbook of personalities in words and pictures . First volume, Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, ISBN 3-598-30664-4
  • Gerhart Werner:  Bloem, Walter Julius Gustav. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 312 ( digitized version ).
  • Zenta Maurina : Chapter German guests. In: Breaking the iron bars. Story of a life , Maximilian Dietrich Verlag, Memmingen 1957, pp. 182–191.
  • Rodler F. Morris: From Weimar philosemite to Nazi apologist. The case of Walter Bloem . Lewiston, NY: Mellen. 1988. (= Studies in German thought and history; No. 7).
  • Egbert Weiß : Don't be afraid of Walter Bloem! Deutsche Corpszeitung 2/1993, p. 19 f.
  • Rudibert Ettelt: The Great War. Part 2: Walter Bloem, a successful author of the Wilhelminian era . Kelheim: City Archives. 2001.
  • Holger Zinn: The crass fox in Once and Now , 2003, Volume 48, pp. 327–336.
  • Bloem, Walter Julius Gustav , in: Friedhelm Golücke : Author's lexicon for student and university history. SH-Verlag, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89498-130-X . Pp. 47-49.
  • Horst Heidermann : On the way to the Führer: Walter Bloem . In: Geschichte im Wuppertal 2006, 15th year, pp. 28–44. ( PDF, 142 kB )
  • Peter Stauffer: Walter Bloem. Biography of an Advocate, Story of an Offended Man , 2009.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Blue Book of the Corps Teutonia in Marburg 1825 to 2000, p. 160 f.
  2. Jump up ↑ Rodler F. Morris: From Weimar Philosemite to Nazi Apologist: The Case of Walter Bloem - Volume 7 of Studies in German Thought and History, Vol 7: Edwin Mellen Press, 1988 (Ph D. thesis U of California), p. 197
  3. ↑ a b Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 102 , 699; 3 , 651
  4. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 58.
  5. ↑ Zenta Maurina, Breaking the Iron Bar , pp. 182–191
  6. ↑ Ainavas atklājējs . Latvian translation of Bloem's essay in the supplement Literatūra un Māksla of the daily Daugavas Vēstnesis of April 26, 1942.
  7. ↑ Zenta Maurina: Breaking the Iron Bars , p. 191
  8. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1946-nslit-b.html
  9. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1947-nslit-b.html
  10. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1948-nslit-b.html
  11. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1953-nslit-b.html
  12. ↑ Mentioned in the newspaper article Portrait of the Day - Walter Bloem in the Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland № 167 of June 20, 1943, p. 3
personal data
SURNAME Bloem, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bloem, Walter Julius Gustav (full name); B. Walter (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 1951
Place of death Lübeck