Willi Stöppler

Willi Erich Heinrich Stöppler (born April 6, 1906 in Bielefeld , † April 6, 1985 in Hamburg ) was a German publisher , journalist and translator of Latvian literature into German. The Latvian transcription of his name is Vilis Šteplers (pronounced Willis Schtepplers).

Willi Stöppler is not to be confused with the National Socialist director and songwriter Wilhelm Stöppler (see also individual references under 8. and 9.).

Life

Willi Stöppler was born in Bielefeld as the son of Wilhelm and Anna Stöppler. He studied philology and philosophy . The student met the family of the Latvian poet and painter Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš on their vacation on Capri in 1926 . This changed his career decisively: in 1927 he married Lilija (Lilli) Jaunsudrabiņa (1902–1969), actress and daughter of Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš. He came to Riga to the Valters un Rapa publishing house , learned Latvian and became head of the foreign department.

After the relocation forced by the Hitler-Stalin Pact in 1939, he ended up in the Warthegau in Litzmannstadt ( Łódź ). Soon he was drafted into the German military. He was taken prisoner in France and only returned to Germany after the war. He then worked in publishing in Bielefeld . Later he founded his own publishing house. In 1946 Stöppler was suspected of being the lyricist of the song Bomben auf Engelland . But it turned out that this was the scriptwriter of the same name.

In 1948 Willi Stöppler was a delegate of the North Rhine-Westphalia state committee in the zone press council.

In 1956 it traded as Willi Stöppler, Buch- und Kunsthandlung, Bielefeld, Renteistraße 28.

In 1984 he was unable to provide a full translation of the “White Book” due to illness.

In the address on his 80th birthday in 1957, Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš had to justify himself for having given permission to print his works “Aija” and “Baltā grāmata” in the Soviet Union. Some Latvians in exile and also the CIA suspected that he and his son-in-law Willi Stöppler were active as agents of the Soviet Union. The royalties from the very high editions for Soviet-occupied Latvia were blocked in Soviet accounts. Jaunsudrabiņš and Stöppler had to travel to East Berlin for negotiations.

Translations from Latvian

• Edvarts Virza: Straumehni ( Straumēni ). Semneeka Domas / Zemnieka Domas publishing house, Riga 1934; Digitized (PDF, 37.8 MB) in the LNB
  • New edition under the title Die Himmelsleiter by Paul List Verlag, Leipzig 1935

• Aleksanders Grīns: Tobago , published in 1935 in sequels in the "Rigaschen Rundschau"

• Jānis Ezeriņš: hurdy-gurdy ( Lejerkaste )

• Ādolfs Erss: Latgale Tales ( Latgales stāsti )

• Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: The Money ( Nauda )

• Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: Rasma and Spodris after Vēja ziedi ( Wind Blossoms ) in the DP weekly magazine “Abroad” from September 6, 1947

• Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: The young host and the devil ( Jaunsaimnieks un velns ). Valters un Rapa publishing house , Riga 1939

• Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: Neuwirt und Teufel (excerpt from Jaunsaimnieks un velns ) in Rigasche Post from January 18, 1937

• Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: The Sheep Trader (From Baltā grāmata ) in Rigasche Post from November 18, 1937

• Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: Kienspäne (From Baltā grāmata ) in Rigasche Post from November 18, 1937

• Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: evening of the week

• Further stories by Jaunsudrabiņš, which were not printed, but only broadcast on the radio

• Mārtiņš Zīverts: Swan of Avon. Scenes from Shakespeare's Life . First performance on the Latvian Independence Day, November 18, 1937, at the Deutsches Schauspiel in Riga

• Two hundred Latvian folk songs

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ž. Unāms (Ed.): Es viņu pazīstu. Latviešu biogrāfiskā vārdnīca. Riga 1939.
2. ↑ Obituaries in the weekly newspaper Latvija from April 15, 1985, p. 5 ( digitized in the LNB ).
3. ↑ Wolfhard Raub in the foreword to the book by Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: I tell my wife about the flight from Latvia and the exile in Westphalia (Es stāstu savai sievai). Waxmann Publishing House, Münster 2006.
4. ↑ Māra Niedra: Teātris un kino biogrāfijās . Preses nams publishing house, Riga 1999, ISBN 9984-00-331-0 .
5. ^ Picture of the Jaunsudrabiņa couple - Šteplers 1927
6. ↑ Daugava magazine 1936 No. 4 page 327ff: Literāts V. Šteplers . Autobiographical portrait.
7. ↑ Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: I tell my wife about the flight from Latvia and the exile in Westphalia , page 201.
8. ↑ The other Willi Stöppler as a copywriter of bombs on Engelland
9. ^ The other Wilhelm Stöppler as a screenwriter in the Internet Movie Database
10. ↑ Conceptions of occupation policy by the Allies ( Memento of the original dated December 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ Liene Lauska: Pēteris Ērmanis and Janis Jaunsudrabiņš: The social and cultural integration of Latvian writers in Latvia and in exile in Germany . Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-61087-9 .
12. ^ "Laiks" newspaper, September 12, 1984.
13. ↑ LAIKS No. 70 of September 1, 1962: Nezūdams mantojums . Translations into Latvian by Jaunsudrabiņš and translations into German by his son-in-law.
14. ^ The document released by the CIA in 2007 with the investigation into Jaunsudrabiņš and Stöppler
15. ↑ Rigasche Rundschau No. 32 of Feb. 7, 1935 : Tobago . Novel by Aleksandrs Grīns in the translation by Willi Stöppler (first episode)
16. ↑ Ojārs Jānis Rozītis writes in an annotation to his translation of the book Es stāstu savai sievai ( "I tell my wife" , Waxmann 2006) by Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš: "A German translation was planned, but it did not materialize."
17. ↑ Rigasche Post of Jan. 18, 1935 : Excerpt from Der Jungwirt and the Devil under the title Neuwirt und Teufel .
18. ↑ Rigasche Post No. 54 of Nov. 18, 1937: Two stories from the White Book : The Sheep Trader and Kienspäne .
19. ^ Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland, June 3, 1944 : evening of the week . Story by Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš in the translation by Willi Stöppler.
20. ↑ Rigasche Rundschau No. 154 of July 14, 1930: Morning on the radio : Sleepless night . Story by Jaunsudrabiņš; Rigasche Rundschau No. 55 of March 10, 1931: Tomorrow on the radio : stories by Jaunsudrabiņš.
21. ↑ Rigasche Rundschau of November 17, 1937.
22. ↑ Laiks (New York) of September 29, 1956 : VEIKALS, KAS APGĀDĀS AR LATVIEŠU GRĀMATĀM EIROPU (The shop that will supply Europe with Latvian books)