Walter Calé

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Walter Calé (born December 8, 1881 in Berlin ; † November 3, 1904 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German poet whose narrow oeuvre was only known after his early death.

Life

Walter Calé was born on December 8, 1881 in Berlin, the son of a businessman. After graduating from high school, he began in Berlin and Freiburg i. Br. A law degree. After submitting the written thesis on time, at the urging of friends and his own doubts, he broke off this course in November 1903 shortly before the oral examination. In the following period of psychological shock and deep embarrassment at this failure, he turned from then on to philosophy and conceived an extensive work on the New Platonists . In addition, he gave several lectures in a Berlin association for art and science and intensified his own literary activities. Despite an unmistakably death-longing feature in Calé's poems, his sudden suicide on November 3, 1904 appeared completely surprising.

Most of his literary work, including a multi-volume "psychological" novel entitled Professor Elias Pistocelius and his house, as well as other extensive philosophical and philological studies, had previously been destroyed by Calé himself. The remaining works, which had escaped this destruction by chance, were finally published in 1907 by the renowned S. Fischer Verlag in Berlin as Nachged Schriften by a hitherto completely unknown author. This volume, edited by his friend Arthur Brückmann , combined around a hundred poems and songs, the dramatic fragment Franciscus , the novella Regina del Lago and the fairy tale story of the Xaver steam boiler and the lady Musica as well as a few pages of diary entries.

In a benevolent preface, the writer and literary historian Fritz Mauthner rated the author as “cannon fodder for the poetry of the future” and prophesied: “And yet, I believe, the history of literature will take note of the name. I will have to say: this is what a small, pure tuning fork of great poetry sounded like at the beginning of the 20th century. ”The publication met with a surprisingly positive response from the contemporary reading public and by 1920 had a total of six editions.

In its romantic pathos and subject matter, Calé's poetry is strongly reminiscent of the poems of the young Hugo von Hofmannsthal , his prose works show influences from Gottfried Keller and ETA Hoffmann . For Gustav Landauer , Calé's embodiment of a “complete hopelessness” is the real fascination of this poet, which is of interest to posterity.

Works

  • Legacy writings. S. Fischer, Berlin 1907. (6 editions up to 1920; digitized 3rd edition, 1910 Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Music in the evening. Postponed poems. (With drawings by Hans Meid ) Thorbecke, Lindau 1948.
  • And no bridge is from person to person. (Poems, 2nd, extended edition) Gallimathias, Petersberg 1989, ISBN 3-925654-12-7 .
  • Art Nouveau and a longing for death. Edition Fremde Fahnen, Berlin 2004. (Brochure on the 100th anniversary of death, edited by Florian Voss )

literature

  • G. Stange: Walter Calé . In: Das literäre Echo / Die Literatur , vol. 28, Stuttgart 1926.
  • Guido K. Brand : The early completed. A contribution to the history of literature . De Gruyter, Berlin 1929 [1928], pp. 267-273.
  • J. Deussen: Walter Calé - a fate. In: Zeitschrift für Menschenkunde, No. 6, 1930.
  • Theodor Lessing : The Jewish self-hatred . Jüdischer Verlag, Berlin 1930, pp. 152–166. (Reprint: Matthes and Seitz, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-88221-347-7 )
  • K. Oppert: In memory of Walter Calé. In: Wirkendes Wort , No. 5, 1954/55.
  • Gustav Mendelssohn: Portrait of Walter Calé. In: ensemble 11, 1980. pp. 59-66.
  • Gustav Landauer: Walter Calé. In (ders.): The human being. Essays on literature . Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1980, pp. 164-171.
  • Calé, Walter. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 4: Brech-Carle. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-22684-5 , pp. 398-403.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the biographical introduction by Arthur Brückmann in: Walter Calé: Nachgelassene Schriften. S. Fischer, Berlin 1907, pp. 1-39.
  2. ↑ Walter Calé: Postponed writings. S. Fischer, Berlin 1907, p. 16.
  3. ↑ Walter Calé: Postponed writings. S. Fischer, Berlin 1907, p. 10.
  4. ^ Gustav Landauer: Walter Calé. In (ders.): The human being. Essays on literature . Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1980, p. 167.
  5. ^ Gustav Landauer: Walter Calé. In (ders.): The human being. Essays on literature . Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1980, p. 164.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Calé, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 1904
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau