Walter Höllerer

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Walter Höllerer (left) at the Fontane Prize award ceremony with Cornelia Froboess and Walter Rossow (1966)

Walter Friedrich Höllerer (born December 19, 1922 in Sulzbach ; † May 20, 2003 in Berlin ) was a German writer , literary critic and literary scholar .

Life

The evangelical teacher's son Höllerer graduated from elementary school in Sulzbach in Upper Palatinate and then from the humanistic high school in Amberg. From 1941 he was a soldier in World War II and was subsequently taken prisoner. After 1945 he first studied theology, then philosophy, history, German and comparative literature in Erlangen (among others with Johannes Straub ) and Göttingen (among others with Nicolai Hartmann ). In 1949 he passed the teaching examination for secondary schools in Erlangen and received his doctorate in the same year under Helmut Prang with a work on Gottfried Keller's cycle of novels " The People of Seldwyla ". In 1953 he became a research assistant at the University of Frankfurt am Main with Kurt May , where he worked in 1956 with the work “Between Classic and Modern. Laughing and Weeping in the Poetry of a Transitional Period ”.

He then taught in Frankfurt as a private lecturer for German literature and also worked as a lecturer at Suhrkamp-Verlag . During his time as an assistant and private lecturer in Frankfurt, an informal group of students and doctoral students formed around Höllerer, who shared his interest in contemporary literature and some of whom also wrote literary texts themselves. This circle of friends and students included Karl Markus Michel , Klaus Wagenbach , Herbert Heckmann , Volker Klotz and Norbert Miller . In 1958, together with his teacher Kurt May, Höllerer founded the series “Literature as Art”. From 1959 until his retirement in 1987 he was a full professor for literary studies at the Technical University of Berlin , where he founded the Institute for Language in the Technical Age in 1959. In 1973 he was visiting professor for German and comparative literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign .

In addition to his academic work, he published his own poems and novels, wrote reviews and epilogues. In 1954, Höllerer founded the bimonthly magazine Akzente, one of the most important literary forums in the Federal Republic. From 1954 he took part in the meetings of Gruppe 47 , a loose association of young German-speaking post-war authors. In 1960 he became a member of the German PEN Center (Federal Republic) . In the early 1960s he moderated literary programs on the broadcaster Free Berlin . In 1961 he launched the magazine Language in the Technical Age , and in 1963 the Literary Colloquium Berlin . Through his work as editor and critic and as a professor at the TU Berlin, Höllerer helped shape the intellectual life of an entire epoch. In 1966 Robert Neumann sharply criticized Höllerer's leading role in Gruppe 47 and in the literature of the time. In 1977 he founded the Sulzbach-Rosenberg literary archive, into which he brought the archive of the Akzente magazine ; from 1985, Höllerer was the director of the literary archive .

In 1965 Höllerer married the photographer Renate von Mangoldt . The marriage resulted in two sons.

Since 1959 Walter Höllerer was a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry . In 1966 he received the Fontane Prize and in 1974 the Culture Prize of the city of Sulzbach-Rosenberg . His hometown Sulzbach-Rosenberg gave him honorary citizenship in 1991, and in 1993 he was made an honorary member of the TU Berlin. In 1993, Höllerer and Robert Creeley received the Horst Bienek Prize for Poetry , in 1994 the Rahel Varnhagen von Ense Medal from the City of Berlin and the Nordgau Prize from the Upper Palatinate Cultural Association in the “ Poetry ” category .

Walter Höllerer's tombstone in the Heerstrasse cemetery

Walter Höllerer died on May 20, 2003 at the age of 80 in Berlin. At the burial, which took place on May 28, 2003 at the state's own cemetery in Heerstraße in Berlin-Westend (grave site: 16-D-7/8), Günter Grass read the poem "Walter Höllerer recalled".

In the context of the International Germanist Lexicon 1800–1950 , published by Christoph König in the year of Höllerer's death , it became public that Höllerer was listed in the NSDAP's membership file from 1941 onwards . However, there are no indications for the handing over of the membership card, which would be constitutive for membership according to the statutes of the party. Also no membership application signed by Höllerer has been received. Nonetheless, an expert report by the Munich Institute for Contemporary History commissioned by König assumes that "it [was] not possible to become a member of the NSDAP without doing anything myself."

In 2004, the widow Renate von Mangoldt gave the literary archive of Sulzbach-Rosenberg as a gift the estate of Walter Höllerer, which has been scientifically researched since 2007.

On April 19, 2007, the state secondary school Sulzbach-Rosenberg was renamed Walter-Höllerer-Realschule .

Works

Title page of Walter Höllerer's theory of modern poetry

Non-fiction

  • Gottfried Keller's “ People of Seldwyla ” as a mirror of a turning point in the history of ideas. A study of the history of the novella in the 19th century . Dissertation Erlangen 1949.
  • Between classic and modern. Laughing and weeping in the poetry of a transitional period . Klett, Stuttgart 1958; Revised new edition: SH, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89498-133-4 .
  • Theory of Modern Poetry. Documents on poetics 1 . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1965.
  • Modern theater on small stages . Literary Colloquium, Berlin 1965.

Literary works

  • The other guest . Poems. Hanser, Munich 1952.
  • Poems . Attached: How is a poem created? Suhrkamp ( edition suhrkamp 83), Frankfurt am Main 1964.
  • Systems. New poems . Literary Colloquium, Berlin 1969.
  • The elephant clock . Novel. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1973, ISBN 3-518-03271-2 ; Abbreviated paperback edition ibid. 1975, ISBN 3-518-06766-4 .
  • All birds, all. A comedy in two acts with a report and comments on the theater . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1978, ISBN 3-518-03272-0 .
  • Poems 1942–1982 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-518-03273-9 .
  • Oberpfälzische Welttei explorations (with Werner Gotzmann as co-editor). Weiden 1987, ISBN 3-924350-09-4 . (Collection of essays and poems, some of them strongly autobiographical).

Editing (selection)

  • Young American Poetry (with Gregory Corso ). Hanser, Munich 1960.
  • Transit. Mid-century poetry book. With notes in the margin . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1956.
  • Movens. Documents and analyzes on poetry, fine arts, music, architecture (with Franz Mon and Manfred de la Motte ). Limes, Wiesbaden 1960.
  • Play in one act. 35 exemplary pieces (with Marianne Heyland and Norbert Miller). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1961.
  • A poem and its author. Poetry and essay . Literary Colloquium, Berlin 1967.
  • Dramaturgical. An exchange of letters (with Max Frisch ). Literary Colloquium, Berlin 1969.
  • World of language. Examination of signs and sign systems of the present . Academy of Arts, Berlin 1972.
  • Shouts, contradictions. Essays on poets and poems (with Michael Krüger ). BWV Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag , Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-87061-405-6 .

Movies

  • Literature in the Technical Age , TV series, 13 films, Sender Freies Berlin, 1961/62, first episode: November 13, 1961
  • Berlin presents . TV series, 39 films, Sender Free Berlin, 1962, First episode: May 28, 1962
  • Modern theater on small stages , TV series, 10 films, together with Ernst Schnabel, Sender Freies Berlin, 1964/65, first episode: November 18, 1964
  • The white hop garden , director: Wolfgang Ramsbott, text: Walter Höllerer, photos: Renate von Mangoldt, 1966
  • A poem and its author , TV series, 11 films, Sender Freies Berlin, 1966/67, first episode: December 1, 1966
  • The Battle of Alexandria, director: Wolfgang Ramsbott, text: Walter Höllerer, 1968
  • The literary profile of Prague , directed by Wolfgang Ramsbott, 1969
  • The literary profile of Stockholm , directed by Wolfgang Ramsbott, 1969
  • The literary profile of London , directed by Wolfgang Ramsbott, 1970
  • The literary profile of Rome , directed by Wolfgang Ramsbott, 1970
  • The literary profile of Berlin . Directed by Wolfgang Ramsbott, 1971
  • Birds and ghosts . Directed by Wolfgang Ramsbott, 1973

literature

  • Barbara Baumann-Eisenack (Red.): Walter Höllerer: On his poems and his poetry anthology "Transit" . Literature archive Sulzbach-Rosenberg 2002, ISBN 3-9808442-0-X .
  • Helmut Böttiger, Lutz Dittrich: Elephant rounds. Walter Höllerer and the invention of the literary business. Exhibition book, texts from the Literaturhaus Berlin, Volume 15, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-926433-42-6 .
  • Walter Höllerer: Memorandum for the establishment of an institute “Language in the Technical Age”. In: Berliner Hefte on the history of literary life. 8, 2008, ISSN  0949-5371 , pp. 103-109.
  • Roland Berbig, Alexander Krüger: A novelty under the aegis of a professor. Walter Höllerer in 1959. In: Berlin books on the history of literary life. 8, 2008, ISSN  0949-5371 , pp. 89-99.
  • Achim Geisenhanslüke, Michael Peter Hehl (ed.): Poetics in the technical age. Walter Höllerer and the emergence of the modern literary business . Transcript, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-1598-2 .
  • Burkhard Meyer-Sickendiek: From the free to the necessary rhythm of the poem: Walter Höllerer's poetics and the everyday lyrics by Becker, Brinkmann and Kiwus, in: Fluxus and / as literature. On the work of Jürgen Beckers , edited by Burkhard Meyer-Sickendiek and Anne-Rose Meyer-Eisenhut, Munich (edition text and criticism) 2014, pp. 87–107.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Christoph König (Ed.): Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, entry Walter Höllerer , p. 766.
  2. ↑ Achim Geisenhanslüke , Michael Peter Hehl: Walter Höllerer and the emergence of the modern literary business. In: Poetics in the Technical Age. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, pp. 7–13, here p. 12.
  3. ↑ For example, on November 11, 1962, Höllerer moderated a recording of Group 47 in the culture wave SFB 3, in whose meeting he took part. Source: Archive of the Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting Corporation , archive number 0903151
  4. ↑ Robert Neumann: cronies. Group 47 in Berlin. In: concrete , 8/1966. Also in: Hermann L. Gremliza (Ed.): 30 years of concrete . Hamburg 1987, pp. 88-93.
  5. ^ Günter Grass : Walter Höllerer called after. In: Der Tagesspiegel . May 30, 2003. Accessed on November 23, 2019. Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin Burial Sites . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 488.
  6. ↑ a b broadcast Kulturzeit on 3sat from November 25, 2003: Member against his will / A dictionary of Germanists reveals connections to the NSDAP
personal data
SURNAME Höllerer, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Höllerer, Walter Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, literary critic and literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Sulzbach
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 2003
Place of death Berlin