Walther Victor

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Conference of young authors on March 7, 1954 in Leipzig, Walther Victor to the left of the lectern

Walther Victor (born April 21, 1895 in Bad Oeynhausen ; † August 19, 1971 in Bad Berka ) was a publicist , editor and German writer . He also wrote under the pseudonym “C. Redo ".

Live and act

Victor was born on April 21, 1895 as the son of a factory owner in Bad Oeynhausen. After graduating from high school in Poznan , he joined the Wandervogel movement and studied German from 1913 to the outbreak of war in 1914 and after 1918. 1914 to 1918 combatant. 1919 Joined the SPD. 1919–1923 editor of the Hamburger Echo and 1923–1931 of the Saxon Volksblatt Zwickau. 1926–1931 Social Democratic City Councilor in Zwickau. From 1919 Victor worked for numerous magazines such as Die Weltbühne and from 1932–1933 editor of the 8 o'clock evening paper in Berlin.

After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Victor worked illegally, lived under different names in Berlin and on the island of Reichenau on Lake Constance and was arrested in 1935. After his release, Victor went into exile in Switzerland in 1935. In 1937 he visited Louise Freyberger (see also Karl Kautsky ), Friedrich Engels ' last housekeeper , in London and discovered the grave of Engel's wife Lydia Burns with his second wife Maria Gleit .

In November 1938, the editor and writer Walther Victor wrote his Naturfreunde credo in the journal “Der Naturfreund”, published in Zurich, with “From community through the idea”. Coming from the Wandervogel movement, he joined the German Friends of Nature in 1919. After several years of editing work on “Naturfreund” (1936–1939), his path took him to the USA in 1940 via Luxembourg, France, the Pyrenees and Portugal. This magazine “Der Naturfreund” also published the report “Acquaintance with American Naturefriends” in May 1941 by the former editor Walther Victor (Brooklyn, USA): “I was in Bridgeport (Connecticut) and spoke there. [...] Half a dozen Saxon friends hugged me. "

After his return in 1947, he worked first as a ministerial advisor in the Saxon state government in Dresden , then as a freelance writer and editor. 1947 member of the SED . Victor lived in Berlin from 1948 . As co-founder (1948) and 2nd chairman of the " Protection Association of German Authors Zone", he demanded from Johannes R. Becher , President of the Kulturbund for the democratic renewal of Germany , the creation of a "real writers' association" as early as 1949 and thus gave an important impetus for the foundation of the German Writers' Association DSV.

From 1950–1952, Victor was executive chairman of the German Writers 'Association in the Kulturbund for the Democratic Renewal of Germany , a founding member of the Commission for Young Talent Issues, a longstanding board member of the Writers' Union and since 1961 an honorary member of the board. In 1957 he received the newly founded Heinrich Heine Prize from the Ministry of Culture of the GDR . As a western emigrant and adversary of Johannes R. Becher, he was denied more influential positions, but was allowed to live in the so-called intelligence settlement in Berlin-Schönholz , to which Straße 201 also belongs. In 1965 he was appointed professor, in 1966 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Greifswald .

The model developed by Victor and Franz Hammer in 1947 with the “Young Authors Working Group” was adopted by the German Writers 'Association in the 1950s as an institution for promoting young literary talent and continued in the Young Authors' Working Group .

Victor was a major editor and publicist. He founded the book series reading books for our time (folk reading books ) with an introduction and a timetable. As the author of the Gutenberg Book Guild , Victor has made a contribution to the re-establishment of the Book Guild since 1949 and was its director for a while. Since 1961 Victor lived and worked in Weimar . Victor had a summer studio in Bad Berka, where he had a close friendship with the director, actor and writer Martin Hellberg . In 1961 he received the GDR National Prize for Art and Literature "for his great contribution to popularizing classical German literature, especially for his popular reading books and writings for young people" and in 1960 the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver and in 1969 in gold.

tomb

Victor died on August 19, 1971 in Bad Berka and was buried in the honorary grave field of the historical cemetery in Weimar. His estate was looked after by his widow. The Akademie der Künste (Berlin) has the extensive Walther Victor archive in its literature archive .

Works

  • Breaths of reflection . Book Guild Gutenberg Berlin 1928.
  • Beloved manuscript . Laubsche Verlagbuchhandlung Berlin 1930.
  • One of many. Sketches . JHW Dietz Nachf., Berlin 1930.
  • Mathilde. A life around Heinrich Heine. With 12 pictures, 12 vignettes and a facsimile . Leipzig and Vienna 1931.
  • General and the women. From experience to theory . Gutenberg Book Guild, Berlin 1932.
  • C. Redo: Two Germans. Goethe and Hitler . Eichen-Verlag, Arbon 1936.
  • A wreath on Bebel's grave. Sketch on the history of the German labor movement . Aarau printing cooperative, Aarau 1938.
    • A wreath on Bebel's grave. Sketch on the history of the German labor movement . Volksverlag, Weimar 1948.
  • Return over the mountains. An autobiography . Willard Publishing Company, New York, NY 1945.
    • Return over the mountains. An autobiography , edited by Herbert Greiner-Mai with the collaboration of Marianne Victor. Aufbau Verlag, Berlin and Weimar 1982.
  • Handbill on Free Press . Girad, Kansas 1946.
  • It was spring 1848. Pictures from a great year . Berlin 1948.
  • Statue of freedom . Thüringer Volksverlag GmbH, Weimar 1949.
  • A package from America . Thüringer Volksverlag GmbH, Weimar 1950
  • You alone I give the voice… . Notes on Goethe. Petermänken Verlag Schwerin 1952.
  • Marx and Heine. Fact and speculation in the representation of their relationships . Henschel-Verlag Berlin 1952.
  • Existence and work. Goethe 1809 . Volksverlag Weimar 1955.
  • Our Germany. A book for everyone who loves it. Talk . New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1957.
  • Schiller. An introduction to life and work with special consideration of his youth . New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1961.
  • The best friend. Friedrich Engels, his life and his work . Children's book publisher Berlin 1961.
  • Weimar memories. Sonnets . Berlin and Weimar 1961.
  • But it depends on changing them. Journalism, polemics, portraits . Volksverlag, Weimar 1962.
  • Do not disparage the masters to me. Speeches and writings on the classics of German literature and Marxism . Berlin and Weimar 1965.
  • Marx and Engels. Her life and work written down for young readers . Children's book publisher, Berlin 1968.
  • Goethe in Berlin . Construction Verlag, Berlin and Weimar 1970.
  • ... how big is your animal kingdom! Eulenspiegel, Berlin 1975.
  • Walther Victor. Friend and foe. Five decades of criticism . Edited by Herbert Greiner-Mai. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin and Weimar 1980.
  • Bild der Welt, feuilletons from five decades , edited by Herbert Greiner-Mai with the collaboration of Marianne Victor, Aufbau Verlag, Berlin and Weimar (3rd edition 1980)

as editor:

  • Goethe. A reader for our time . Volksverlag Weimar 1949. Additional editions in the Aufbau-Verlag
  • Heine. A reader for our time . Volksverlag Weimar 1950.
  • Lessing - A reading book for our time . Berlin and Weimar 1951.
  • Tucholsky. A reader for our time . Volksverlag Weimar 1953.
  • Shakespeare. A reader for our time . Volksverlag Weimar 1953.
  • Hebbel. A reader for our time . Volksverlag Weimar 1955.
  • Brecht. A reader for our time . Volksverlag Weimar 1958.
  • Kleist. A reader for our time . Volksverlag Weimar 1959.
  • Weeps. A reader for our time . Volksverlag Weimar 1961

letter

  • Letter from the camp in Montauban of July 13, 1940 to the publisher Emil Oprecht in Zurich, in: Egon Schwarz & Matthias Wegner (eds.): Banishment. Records of German writers in exile. Christian Wegner 1964, pp. 88-92.

Secondary literature

Web links

Commons : Walther Victor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Memories of Friedrich Engels. The three last women in the “Generals” house . In: The People's Illustrated . VI. Vol., 1937, No. 35.
  2. ↑ http://www.max-lingner-stiftung.de/intellektivensiedlung
  3. ^ New Germany , October 7, 1961, p. 7
  4. ↑ Neues Deutschland, April 28, 1960, p. 2
  5. ↑ Neues Deutschland, August 28, 1969, p. 4
  6. ↑ about his difficult personal and family situation, the bureaucratically enforced temporary separation from Maria Gleit , his second wife (of three in total) and his son Vito. The letter is listed here because it is not included in any Victor bibliography. The ed. misspelled Victor's first name as "Walter".
personal data
SURNAME Victor, Walther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Redo, C. (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Oeynhausen
DATE OF DEATH 19th August 1971
Place of death Bad Berka