Walter Wenghöfer

Walter Wenghöfer (born October 6, 1877 in Magdeburg ; † October 1, 1918 there ) was a German poet who was close to the George Circle . His narrow oeuvre is attributed to symbolism .

Life

Wenghöfer was born the son of a master carpenter in Magdeburg. In 1898 he passed his Abitur at the secondary school in Osterode am Harz and then began studying philosophy in Munich and Berlin , but returned to Magdeburg early in 1901 to devote himself exclusively to his own poetry for a few years. It was not until 1906 that he resumed university studies in Jena , and received his doctorate in 1907 on the subject of "The problem of personality in Jean Paul ".

Wenghöfer had been in correspondence and personal contact with Stefan George since 1903 , in whose sheets for art he had the two series of poems The dark hall and The days of Endymion published between 1899 and 1909 . He was in friendly contact with some writers in the vicinity of George, including u. a. Friedrich Wolters and Karl Wolfskehl .

With the beginning of the First World War , the mentally unstable poet increasingly withdrew. After a longer stay in Berlin, he returned to Magdeburg and lived at Königstrasse (today Walter-Rathenau-Strasse) 90. Only a few weeks before the end of the war on October 1, 1918, he attempted suicide in the Elbe .

Works

Published during his lifetime:

• The dark hall (selection of 22 poems), in: Carl August Klein (ed.): Blätter für die Kunst . A selection from the years 1904–1909. Berlin: Georg Bondi 1909, p. 136ff.
• The days of Endymion (poems), in: Carl August Klein (Hg.): Blätter für die Kunst . Volume 8, 1909 and Volume 9, 1910.

Posthumously:

• Poems and letters , edited by Bruno Pieger. Amsterdam: Castrum Peregrini Press 2002.

Web links

• Entry on Walter Wenghöfer on the website of the University of Magdeburg

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/mbl/Biografien/1764.htm (accessed on November 1, 2019)
2. ^ Magdeburg address book 1916, Part I, page 382