Walter von Wistinghausen

Coat of arms of the von Wistinghausen noble family

Walter Siegfried Nikolai von Wistinghausen (also Wolter Siegfried Nikolai von Wistinghausen, artist name: Willbald Wickel, Russian : Вальтер Зигфрид Николай фон Вистингаузен, born June 19, 1879 in Tsitre parish Kuusalsburgu , Estonia ; † February 26, 1956 ) was a German in Ludwigsburgu , Estonia ; † February 26, 1956 Baltic journalist , writer , translator and actor .

Act

The family lived in Reval , today's Tallinn , until their father's death in 1883 . From 1883 to 1885 she lived in Kolck , together with her four children, her mother moved to Dorpat in 1885, after her father's death . Walter v. W. attended the Kollmannsche classical private high school in Dorpat from 1886 to 1890 and received private lessons from 1890 to 1892. From 1893 he went to the Lajus'sche Gymnasium in Reval, from 1896 to 1897 to the Nikolaigymnasium, then to the cathedral school in Saint Petersburg . From 1898 to 1900 he was a practical farmer on Gut Vääna with the family of Baron von Stackelberg . From 1900 to 1901 he was administrator of the Gurbatov estate in the Ryazan Governorate , south of Moscow, and from 1902 he took part in training in the manufacture of dairy products in East Prussia . Between 1907 and 1917 he held various administrative positions, for example he was a member of the staff of the Estonian governor's government from 1911 to 1912, inspector of a Russian insurance company in 1912 and an official of the Estonian knighthood from 1913 to 1917 . Since 1907 he worked for the Estonian governor in press matters and censorship .

His artistic career began in 1907 under the stage name Willibald Wickel in the "Dramatic Society" in Reval, in which he had been a board member since 1913. He appeared as an amateur actor in numerous, mostly comic roles and performances. During this time he translated the most famous Estonian comedy "Pisuhänd" (1913) by Eduard Vilde (1865-1933), which was published under the German title "Der Schratt". Despite the official ban on the German language, he staged several plays with students from the Knights and Cathedral School in Reval and young women from the Reval Society. In 1929 he played in the Estonian silent film " Dollarid ", directed by Mihkel Lepper (1900–1980). From 1924 to 1939 he was editor and theater columnist of the Revalsche Zeitung , in which he published more than 700 articles on theater , film and ballet . As a result of the resettlement of the German-Baltic population, he came to Germany in November 1939 . From 1940 to 1943 he was employed as an examiner at the international letter inspection center in Berlin. He was transferred to Estonia in 1943 and was censor in the German civil administration for the Estonian and Russian press in Tallinn and Tartu and lecturer for the Estonian press and literature at the press chief of the Reich Commissioner for the East in Riga. From 1943 to 1944 he worked in the censorship department headed by the German occupation. At the end of March 1944 he managed to escape to Germany.

Origin and family

Walter von Wistinghausen came from the Baltic noble family von Wistinghausen , who had lived in Raval since the middle of the 17th century. His father was the chamberlain and Dr. med. Karl Alexander von Wistinghausen (1826–1883), who was married to Adelheid Countess von Stenbock (1849–1922) for the second time . Walter married Isolde von Ungern-Sternberg (1882–1910), their son Rudolf von Wistinghausen (1905–1981) was German ambassador to Togo and his grandson Henning von Wistinghausen (* 1936) was the first ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1991-1995 of the Republic of Estonia .

Works

During the Second World War he translated the two-volume compilation about the first year of Russian occupation in Estonia, "The Year of Suffering of the Estonian People" (Eesti rahva kannatuste), but the translation was not published. He also translated, together with Fred Ottow , the novel “The Good Harbor” (Hea sadam) by the Estonian writer August Mälk from 1942, which was published in 1947 in Berlin . His memoirs were originally supposed to contain chapter 13, of which the first chapter "From my immediate environment" has been preserved. Other works are:

• A shock riddle in verse. Wistinghausen, Ludwigsburg, Württ. (1950).
• Pirk stewards his houseboy. 2nd Edition. Hanover - Döhren 1965.
• The Pokrovskoye ghost and other stories. (= The Baltic Library. Volume 3). Hanover Döhren 1960.

literature

• Vahur Aabrams: More nurrige face - four poems in Estonian half-German from a carnivalesque period of upheaval (II. The three authors and their poems, 2.3. Walter von Wistinghausen) Master's thesis. University of Tartu , Philosophical Faculty, Chair for German Philology, Tartu 2007.

Web links

• Wistinghausen, Walter von. In: Catalog of the German National Library
• Wistinghausen, Walter Siegfried Nikolai von (stage name: Willibald Wickel). In: Carola L. Gottzmann, Petra Hörner: Lexicon of German-Language Literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg. Volume 1: AG. Walter de Gruyter Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , pp. 1418 - 1419. (online)
• Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Walter Siegfried Nikolai von Wistinghausen. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wistinghausen, Walter Siegfried Nikolai von (stage name: Willibald Wickel). In: Carola L. Gottzmann, Petra Hörner: Lexicon of German-Language Literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg. Volume 1: AG. Walter de Gruyter Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , p. 95
2. ^ Gero von Wilpert : German Baltic Literature History. Verlag CH Beck, 2005, ISBN 3-406-53525-9 , p. 256. books.google.de
3. ↑ dspace.ut.ee  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.