Wilhelm Arent

Wilhelm Arent (born March 7, 1864 in Berlin as Wilhelm Ludwig Carl Arendt , † after 1913) was a German poet and editor of an important contemporary anthology of early naturalism .

Life

Wilhelm Arent was born the son of a high and wealthy forest clerk. The father died when Arent was ten years old. He attended the Pforta state school and various high schools in Berlin, but fell into mental illness early on. Since the 1880s he has published poems and works on literary history. He later trained as an actor and singer.

His first volume of poetry, Lieder des Leides , printed on his own account in 1883 , received neither criticism nor public recognition. The following year, Arent published poems supposedly from the estate of the poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz under the pseudonym Karl Ludwig , some of which he had written himself. In 1884 Arent worked on the Revue Auf der Höhe and the weekly Deutsches Dichterheim , but also wrote for other, mostly southern German newspapers. In 1885 Arent published the volume of poetry from the deepest soul , to which Hermann Conradi wrote the introduction.

Instead of his own poems was Arent, located in the Berlin circle around the brothers Heinrich and Julius Hart as patron excelled, as editor of the poetry anthology Modern poets characters known mainly because of programmatic forewords by Hermann Conradi and Karl Henckell too important document of naturalism . Barely noticed by the public, the collection was heavily discussed in literary circles with contributions from a total of 21 authors.

In 1890 Arent became an actor in Berlin and worked on Michael Georg Conrad's leading early naturalist magazine Die Gesellschaft . From 1895 to 1896 he was the editor of a literary magazine ( The Muses ). After 1896 he stopped his literary work because of a nervous disease and withdrew completely from the public. Heinrich Hart wrote in 1907,

“[Arent] was reluctant to hide the fact that he had repeatedly been placed in sanatoriums; he was one of those who found their pride in being sick and abnormal [...] He was different every day. Today full of tender devotion, full of joyful humor, tomorrow full of malice and hatred. Today he showered us with poems that celebrated us as lions, eagles and other high animals, the next morning a letter came almost regularly in which he renounced us forever and only said things that were only forgiven him. "

Max Halbe later described him as follows:

“Arent was a beautiful person who made a big impression on women and was constantly involved in love affairs. With his Roman Antinous head he looked like an actor and later took this path too, only to end up in madness early on. "

According to Albert Soergel, Arent “died” in Berlin in 1911, “mentally broken.” However, Hans Bethge wrote a year earlier that Arent had died in Berlin. Since a novel Arents was published in 1913 under the pseudonym Karl Ludwig, he was probably still alive that year. After that, every trace of him is lost.

Poem example

The children lost in the century

A joyless generation seeking salvation
, Children lost in the century,
So we stumble! white pain is real?
White lust is no intoxication? who is not a sinner? ...

Selfishness drives everyone, wild greed for gold,
insatiable sensual desires,
Mother earth is not fond of any one -
only the endless desert is dreadful !

Chaotic surf thunders around us;
Consumed by demonic embers, Not consumed by a
ray of eternal light,
We must bleed to death miserably ... Belief in

fairy tales Don't

laugh the child's belief in fairy tales,
What is it that your spirit invented?
What are the Bibles, the Systems
Because other than fairy tale?

Everyone seals his sky
as he likes it in the blue,
And brooding over a fairy tale,
he finally falls asleep tired.

Works

• Songs of sorrow. Poems (2 parts). Berlin, 1883
• Reinhold Lenz. Lyric items from the estate found by Karl Ludwig. Kamlah'sche Buchhandlung (Georg Nauck), Berlin 1884 ( archive.org )
• From the bottom of my soul. With a preface by Hermann Conradi. Publishing house by Georg Nauck (Kamlah'sche Buchhandlung), Berlin 1885 ( digitized in the Google Book Search USA as well as scan PDF, 24 MB).
  • Second, completely changed and increased edition under the title: Kunterbunt. Lyric pen drawings. Published by F. Thiel, Berlin (Friedenau) and Leipzig 1886 ( digitized in the Google book search USA ).
• Modern poet characters. Anthology with poems by 21 authors. Self-published by the publisher (in commission of the Kamlah'sche Buchhandlung), Berlin 1885 ( digitized in the Google Book Search USA , scan (PDF, 58 MB) as well as digitized and full text in the German text archive and text based on the one from Friedrich, Leipzig (1885) published edition at Zeno.org .)
  • Second edition under the title: Young Germany. Leipzig, 1886.
• Copenhagen - Elsa - Faust moods and other things. A series of cyclic seals. E. Pierson's Verlag, Dresden and Leipzig 1889 ( digitized from the Faust collection of the Duchess Anna Amalia library ).
• Liebfrauenmilch. With an introductory poetic epistle by Aloys John-Eger, a preface and a closing words by the author and an epilogue by Paul Hankel. E. Pierson's Verlag, Dresden and Leipzig 1889 ( digitized from the Faust collection of the Duchess Anna Amalia library).
  • Second edition 1892 ( digitized in the Google Book Search USA ).
• Through the kaleidoscope. With an epilogue by the author E. Pierson's Verlag, Dresden and Leipzig 1891 ( digitized in the Google Book Search USA )
• From the big city boom. With a foreword by Lucian von Prager Verlags-Magazin (J. Schabelitz), Zurich 1891 ( digitized in the Google Book Search USA ).
  • (apparently also published separately from this): Three women (Thanosia - Satanella - Elsa Radiviva). Zurich, 1891.
• Viola of the night. A song book. CF Conrads Buchhandlung (Paul Ackermann), Berlin 1891 ( digitized in the Google Book Search USA ).
• Willflames. Mood nervousness, lyrical sensations & diary sheets. Poeßl, Munich 1893 ( digitized in the Google book search USA ).
• under the pseudonym "Karl Ludwig": a walking tightrope walker. Novel. Hillger, Leipzig and Berlin, 1913.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baptismal register Jerusalemskirche Berlin, No. 238/1864
2. ↑ Max Halbe reports in his autobiography Scholle und Schicksal , first published in 1933, that Arent had told him that he thought he was a reincarnation of Lenz; see. Max Halbe: Complete Works. First volume. Verlag “Das Bergland-Buch”, Salzburg 1945, p. 412. - Ariane Martin: Die kranke Jugend offers a detailed account of the forgery affair with prints of various Arent texts including an extensive bibliography . JMR Lenz and Goethe's “Werther” in the reception of Sturm und Drang up to naturalism. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2002, ISBN 3-8260-2381-1 . limited preview in Google Book search.
3. ^ Hermann Conradi: Our Credo. Introduction to: Modern Poet Characters. 1885.
4. ^ Karl Henckell: The new lyric. Introduction to: Modern Poet Characters. 1885.
5. ↑ germanistik.fu-berlin.de ( Memento from January 15, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ Max Halbe: Complete Works. First volume. Verlag "Das Bergland-Buch", Salzburg 1945, p. 411 f.
7. ↑ germanistik.fu-berlin.de ( Memento from January 15, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ From: Modern Poet Characters (1885) full text at zeno.org

Web links

• Works by Wilhelm Arent at Zeno.org .