Wilhelm Speyer (writer)

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Wilhelm Speyer, 1906.

Friedrich Wilhelm Otto Kurt Speyer (born February 21, 1887 in Berlin ; † December 1, 1952 in Riehen near Basel ) was a German writer .

Life

Wilhelm Speyer was born as the younger son of the Berlin merchant Paul Speyer and his wife Rosa, b. Star, born. The social politician Edith Mendelssohn Bartholdy was his sister.

Dissatisfied with the intellectual tightness he felt at the grammar school in Bellevuestrasse, Wilhelm Speyer became a student at the Haubinda Landerziehungsheim , a Hermann Lietz school that still exists today . In addition to teaching and sports, people worked there in workshops and in the fields. Speyer gained his first literary experience as the editor of the “DLEH monthly” published in the school. After graduating from high school , he studied law, but was active as a writer. After participating in World War I , he finally moved to Berlin, about which he wrote several contemporary novels . He became famous through the youth novels "The Battle of Tertia" and its sequel "The Golden Horde". His novel “Charlott a little crazy” also achieved large editions. Baptized Protestant but of Jewish origin, Wilhelm Speyer had to leave the country in 1933 . He emigrated to Austria , in 1938 to France . In 1941 he arrived in the USA and moved to Los Angeles, where he received a one-year contract as a screenwriter from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . After that year he lived in very bad circumstances, as he was advised against taking up a job for health reasons. In 1949 he returned to Europe. The late novel "Das Glück der Andernachs" about the situation of Jews in the German educated middle class before 1914 was significant .

Since the 1970s, the works of Speyer, whom Albert Vigoleis Thelen considered “one of the most cultivated and charming storytellers in German literature”, have been forgotten. A detailed appraisal of his furious novel “Charlott something crazy” from 1927 (which has meanwhile also been reprinted) was given by two German scholars. A collection of articles testifies to further efforts to rediscover the author. Various aspects of his work are highlighted in it.

Works

Bibliography Wilhelm Speyer: independent writings, translations, films . In: Wilhelm Speyer (1887–1952). Ten contributions to its rediscovery. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2009 (Modern Studies 4) ISBN 978-3-89528-652-0

  • Oedipus. 1907.
  • How happy we were once 1909.
  • Grace. 1911.
  • The Duke, the Cocotte and the Waiter. 1912.
  • The princely house of Herfurth in 1914 (since 1928 under the title “Sibyllenlust”).
  • He cannot give orders. 1919.
  • The revolutionary. Munich 1919.
  • Charles the Fifth. Munich 1919.
  • Mynheer van Heden's great journey. Berlin 1921.
  • Rugby. Berlin 1921.
  • Sadness of the seasons. Berlin 1923.
  • South seas. Berlin 1923.
  • Wife of Hanka. Berlin 1924.
  • The girl with the lion head. Berlin 1925.
  • Charlott a little crazy. Novel. Berlin 1927. - New edition: Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-89528-646-9 .
  • The battle of the tertia. Berlin 1927.
  • Night faces. Stories and visions. Leipzig 1928.
  • Eccentrics. Berlin 1929.
  • It works. But it's also afterwards! (Berlin?) 1929.
  • The golden horde. Berlin 1930.
  • Napoleon. (Berlin?) 1930.
  • Every once in Berlin! 1930.
  • I go out and you stay there. Berlin 1931.
  • Summer in Italy. A Lovestory. Berlin 1932. - New edition: Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8498-1024-5 .
  • Novel one night. (Berlin?) 1932.
  • A coat, a hat, a glove. 1933.
  • Crusaders. Zurich 1934.
  • The court of the beautiful girls. A novel from 1805. Amsterdam 1935.
  • Second love. Amsterdam 1936.
  • The hour of the tiger. Amsterdam 1939.
  • The happiness of the Andernachs. Zurich 1947.
  • Señorita Maria Teresa. A Spanish-Californian story. Zurich 1951.
  • Andrai and the fish. A novel from the time of Jesus. Cologne 1951.
  • The lazy girl. Film novels and other texts from American exile. First prints from the estate. Edited by Helga Karrenbrock and Walter Fähnders. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8498-1048-1 (AISTHESIS archive 19).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ New edition: "Charlott a little crazy". Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2008; ISBN 978-3-89528-646-9
  2. ↑ Quotation from: Louven, Erhard (Hrsg.): The literature in the foreign: literary criticisms / Albert Vigoleis Thelen. 1st edition Bonn 1996. ISBN 3-931135-21-7 . P. 238.
  3. ↑ Walter Fähnders, Helga Karrenbrock: "Charlott a little crazy". Wilhelm Speyer's flirtation with the New Objectivity. With the first print “In Memoriam Wilhelm Speyer” by Kadidja Wedekind. In: Jahrbuch zur Literatur der Weimarer Republik 5, 1999/2000, pp. 283-312
  4. ^ Wilhelm Speyer (1887-1952). Ten contributions to its rediscovery . Edited by Helga Karrenbrock / Walter Fähnders. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2009 (Modern Studies 4). ISBN 978-3-89528-652-0
personal data
SURNAME Speyer, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Speyer, Friedrich Wilhelm Otto Kurt (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1952
Place of death Riehen near Basel