Wilhelm Michel
Wilhelm Michel (born August 9, 1877 in Metz , † April 16, 1942 in Darmstadt ) was a German writer.
Life
Michel grew up in Frankenstein (Palatinate) and studied philology and law in Würzburg and Munich . In 1901 he settled in Munich as a freelance writer.
He began early on with the publication of writings and monographs on Friedrich Hölderlin , which ended in 1940 with a comprehensive biography of the poet and which often earned him the name "Hölderlin-Michel". In addition, he mainly dealt with religious topics, was friends with the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber and wrote against anti-Semitism, which he described as "betrayal of Germanism" (book title) as early as 1922. His art-critical books and reviews are also very extensive, in particular due to his constant collaboration with the magazine German Art and Decoration in Darmstadt. From 1906 to 1930 he worked, among other things, for the magazine Die Weltbühne . In February 1933 there was a falling out with the publisher Carl von Ossietzky because Michel had turned against the performance of Bertolt Brecht's play The Holy Johanna of the slaughterhouses in Darmstadt. On February 1, 1933, in the Kölnische Rundschau newspaper, Michel described the resistance to the play as "an exhilarating impulse of unbroken vital instincts against an artistically disguised attempted murder of our souls".
Michel was first married to Rosa Eva Storck (* December 20, 1881 Ludwigshafen ) with whom he had six children, including the painter Heinz Michel (1903-1972), the KPD activist Fritz Michel (Osthofen concentration camp 1933) and later British Spion (1906–1979) and Anny Michel (1907–1955), mother of the church musician and composer Josef Michel . After the divorce in 1909, Wilhelm Michel married Anita Traboldi in 1910, the divorced wife of his friend and colleague René Prévot , who died of influenza in 1912. In 1915 he married the textile artist Herta Koch, with whom he had three children, and moved to Darmstadt. His first wife Rosa was the second marriage to the poet and writer Karl Schloß and was murdered on January 6, 1944 in the Ravensbrück concentration camp because, as a Protestant, she did not divorce her Jewish husband. The actress Sybille Schloß (1910–2007) came from her marriage to Karl Schloß .
Wilhelm Michel died on April 16, 1942 in Darmstadt and was buried in the old cemetery (grave site: II Wall 53). A street in Darmstadt was named after him. His extensive work has largely been forgotten today.
Wilhelm Michel is the grandfather of the church musician Josef Michel and the great-grandfather of the church musician Johannes Matthias Michel .
Awards
- 1925: Büchner Prize
Works (selection)
- Apollo and Dionysus. Dualistic forays: 1904
- Rainer Maria Rilke. 1905
- The audience. Poems 1907
- The diabolical and grotesque in art. 1911
- Friedrich Holderlin. 1912
- Man fails. 1920
- Betrayal of Germanness. A pamphlet on the Jewish question. 1922
- Holderlin's occidental turn. 1923
- Holderlin and the German spirit. 1924
- The suffering of the ego. 1930
- We bid you hope! Reflections on the new world hour. 1933
- The life of Friedrich Hölderlin. 1940
- Confession to the Church. Eckart, Witten / Berlin 1953.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Answers. Wilhelm Michel, Darmstadt. In: The world stage. February 7, 1933, pp. 230f.
- ↑ Book on books.northwestern.edu
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Michel, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 9, 1877 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Metz |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 16, 1942 |
| Place of death | Darmstadt |