Walter Maas

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Walter Maas (born July 18, 1900 in Aachen , † December 5, 1981 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German writer . He represented his socio-political views, which were progressive for his time, primarily as a publicist .

Life

After several semesters of mechanical engineering in Aachen and studying economics in Munich and Cologne, Walter Maas received his doctorate in 1927. In the following year he was a trainee at the Aachen Chamber of Crafts and Editor of the Aachener Verkehrszeitung . In 1929 he moved to Berlin and in the same year married the photographer Martha Rosenfeld . He worked as a freelance researcher in various institutions. Due to his marriage to a Jewish woman, he had increasing professional difficulties from 1933, which is why he worked in his wife's photo studio from 1933 to 1938 . The convening of Walter Maas to the Wehrmacht in February 1940. followed a short time later the dismissal due to "Wehrunwürdigkeit because Aryan Versippung". From 1941 to 1945 he worked commercially in an armaments company . From 1946 he lived as a freelance writer. He wrote the first German-language biography about Mahatma Gandhi ; it was published in 1949. In 1961 the couple moved to Gurtberg, Post Lichtensteig , near St. Gallen , where they settled down without acquiring Swiss citizenship . Martha Maas died in 1970. Walter Maas was the author of plays, poems, stories and journalistic texts.

Maas represented modern views and therefore campaigned for a Christian-Jewish understanding , for a more child-friendly education, for nature conservation and for homosexuals . After the war he worked with the German branch of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation for international understanding and world peace on a Christian basis. Later, in Switzerland, he was a member of the Zurich Christian-Jewish Working Group and the Swiss League for Human Rights.He also supported the Zurich branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), with which he made his charitable commitment, which he had volunteered during his time in Berlin socio-educational work in juvenile detention centers and kindergartens continued.

Some of his journalistic contributions appeared in the St. Galler Tagblatt or in less-circulated periodicals such as the Kirchenbote of the Evangelical Church of the Canton of St. Gallen ; He wrote regularly for the general weekly newspaper of Jews in Germany (Düsseldorf), the Israel Forum (Haifa) and Das neue Israel (Zurich). His best-known poem Question of a Child , which deals with the transport of a found Jewish mother and child to the extermination camp , has been published many times. Wilhelm Daughtermann found it moving that the child, who was not allowed to utter a peep in hiding, now asked whether it should finally cry: “In the simplicity of its statement, this poem is just as convincing as some literature on this topic that is published today, because too tendentious , hardly able to grasp. "

Works

Independent works

  • 1928: The taxation of the legal person as a pre-tax burden on solid income. Dissertation, Cologne.
  • 1949: Mahatma Gandhi. His life and work. With a portrait and a folding card. Also an addition. Comenius publishing house, Berlin.
  • 1962: ... because you can cry ... Voice of the Jewish Passion. Der Vier-Groschen-Bogen (= episode 10; October 1962), Dülmen.

Anthology contributions

  • 1973: The six poems city in the morning mist , March sun , wonders of the Abbey Library , environment today , childlike question and the suffering of Israel endorse ... in: Menschereien. Our environment challenges 52 authors. Jürgmeier [d. i. Jürg Meier] (Ed.) On behalf of the World Wildlife Fund Zurich.
  • 1975: Poem A provost in the “Grossen Walsertal” in: Julian Dillier (Ed.): XII. Alpine writers' meeting 1975. St. Gerold in the Great Walser Valley. Vorarlberg. Nussbaum Verlag, Sarnen, p. 23 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter Maas Archive. Short biography / history of the institution. In: adk.de. Retrieved January 14, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b Walter Maas: ... because you can cry ... Voice of the Jewish Passion . Ed .: Circle of Friends, Dülmen (=  Der Vier-Groschen-Bogen. Sheets for contemporary literature . Volume 10). Dülmen October 1996, p. [11] (copies with different colored cardboard covers).
  3. ^ Walter Maas: Free choice of partner - a human right . In: The deed . No. 303/1974 , December 28, 1974, letters to “Tat”.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Daughtermann: Culture is continuity . Northeast Upper Franconian monthly for art and culture. In: Oberfränkische Kulturwarte . 9th year, number 9th Hof / Saale September 1963.
personal data
SURNAME Maas, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1981
Place of death Frankfurt am Main