Elisabeth Langgässer
Elisabeth Langgässer | |
---|---|
Born | (1899-02-23)23 February 1899 Alzey, Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Empire |
Died | 25 July 1950(1950-07-25) (aged 51) Karlsruhe, West Germany |
Nationality | German |
Occupation | Writer |
Partner | Hermann Heller |
Children | Cordelia Edvardson |
Elisabeth Langgässer (23 February 1899 – 25 July 1950) was a German author and teacher. She is known for lyrical poetry and novels. Her short story Saisonbeginn, for example, provides a graphically human portrayal of a 1930s German Alpine village erecting a sign forbidding the entry of Jews.
Early life
In 1899 Langgässer was born in Alzey into a middle-class Catholic family. In 1922 Langgässer became a school teacher. Following an affair with Hermann Heller she gave birth to her illegitimate daughter Cordelia in 1929. As a consequence she was sacked from her teaching position.[1]
Publications during the Weimar Republic
From 1924 onwards Langgässer published poetry and reviews. After losing her employment as a teacher she devoted herself to a literary career.[1] Her writings were regarded as Naturmagie (nature magic), where a magic sense unfolded within the realm of an ambivalent nature. This movement was connected with writers who published in the journal Die Kolonne between 1929 and 1932. Other members of the Naturmagie literary movement were Günter Eich, Horst Lange, Peter Huchel, Wilhelm Lehmann and Oskar Loerke.[2]
Persecution in the Third Reich
Langgässer became a member of the Reichsschrifttumskammer (Reich Chamber of Literature).[3] In 1935 Langgässer married Wilhelm Hoffman and together they had three daughters. Langgässer was classified as a "half-Jew" due to Jewish relations on her father's side of the family.[1] She was excluded on racial grounds from the Reich Chamber of Literature and appealed to Hans Hinkel in August 1937 and then to Goebbels in April 1938. In the appeal letters she makes reference to the pure Aryan line on her mother's side and points to the criticism of her literary work by the Jewish author Alfred Döblin.[3] After her death the letters were used as evidence for Langgässer's willingness to compromise, accusations that she had prostituted herself politically, or were interpreted as interventions by a Catholic German citizen who had not yet seen where fascist Germany was heading.[4]
Ultimately the marriage to Hoffman saved Langgässer from deportation. However, her daughter, Cordelia, whose father was a prominent Jew, was deported aged 15. Cordelia was deported to Theresienstadt and then Auschwitz in 1944. Cordelia survived following an exchange of camp inmates with German prisoners in Sweden.[1]
Post-war years
Langgässer wrote and publish prolifically in the immediate post-war years. Her most famous works were published shortly after the war. She became known as an author of the Inner emigration because she stayed in Germany during the Nazi reign, opposed the Nazi doctrine but was not outwardly critical of it. She continued to write until just before her death from multiple sclerosis on 25 July 1950. Following her death Langgässer was posthumously awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1950.[1]
Legacy
As a well-known pre-war author who became victim of the Nazi racial laws Langgässer received a lot of public and academic attention after her death. Her works found fame and a readership in the immediate post-war period. Less noted have been her letters, which were published by her husband after her death in 1954 under the title ...soviel berauschende Vergänglichkeit: Briefe 1926–1950 (...so much intoxicating transience: Letters 1926–1950).[5] Langgässer's letters were republished by her granddaughter Elisabeth Hoffmann, the daughter of Cordelia, in 1990.[6] The letters give an insight into the effects the Nuremberg Laws on her family and cover the period from 1933 until 1945.[1]
Langgässer's daughter Cordelia had several children with a Swedish Protestant, becoming Cordelia Edvardson. She immigrated to Israel at the height of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and wrote a searing autobiography, Burnt Child Seeks the Fire.[7]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f Joanne Sayner (2007). Women Without a Past?: German Autobiographical Writings and Fascism. Rodopi. p. 119. ISBN 978-90-420-2228-7.
- ^ Ingo Roland Stoehr (2001). German Literature of the Twentieth Century: From Aestheticism to Postmodernism. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 214. ISBN 978-1-57113-157-7.
- ^ a b Joanne Sayner (2007). Women Without a Past?: German Autobiographical Writings and Fascism. Rodopi. p. 135. ISBN 978-90-420-2228-7.
- ^ Joanne Sayner (2007). Women Without a Past?: German Autobiographical Writings and Fascism. Rodopi. p. 136. ISBN 978-90-420-2228-7.
- ^ Joanne Sayner (2007). Women Without a Past?: German Autobiographical Writings and Fascism. Rodopi. p. 13. ISBN 978-90-420-2228-7.
- ^ Joanne Sayner (2007). Women Without a Past?: German Autobiographical Writings and Fascism. Rodopi. pp. 13 & 135. ISBN 978-90-420-2228-7.
- ^ Lang, Berel, ed. (1989). Writing and the Holocaust. contribution by Raul Hilberg. New York: Holmes & Meyer. ISBN 0-8419-1185-1.
- v
- t
- e
- 1923 Adam Karrillon and Arnold Mendelssohn
- 1924 Alfred Bock and Paul Thesing
- 1925 Wilhelm Michel and Rudolf Koch
- 1926 Christian Heinrich Kleukens and Wilhelm Petersen
- 1927 Kasimir Edschmid and Johannes Bischoff
- 1928 Richard Hoelscher and Well Habicht
- 1929 Carl Zuckmayer and Adam Antes
- 1930 Nikolaus Schwarzkopf and Johannes Lippmann
- 1931 Alexander Posch and Hans Simon
- 1932 Albert H. Rausch and Adolf Bode
- 1933–1944 not given
- 1945 Hans Schiebelhuth
- 1946 Fritz Usinger
- 1947 Anna Seghers
- 1948 Hermann Heiss
- 1949 Carl Gunschmann
- 1950 Elisabeth Langgässer
- 1951 Gottfried Benn
- 1952 not given
- 1953 Ernst Kreuder
- 1954 Martin Kessel
- 1955 Marie Luise Kaschnitz
- 1956 Karl Krolow
- 1957 Erich Kästner
- 1958 Max Frisch
- 1959 Günter Eich
- 1960 Paul Celan
- 1961 Hans Erich Nossack
- 1962 Wolfgang Koeppen
- 1963 Hans Magnus Enzensberger
- 1964 Ingeborg Bachmann
- 1965 Günter Grass
- 1966 Wolfgang Hildesheimer
- 1967 Heinrich Böll
- 1968 Golo Mann
- 1969 Helmut Heißenbüttel
- 1970 Thomas Bernhard
- 1971 Uwe Johnson
- 1972 Elias Canetti
- 1973 Peter Handke
- 1974 Hermann Kesten
- 1975 Manès Sperber
- 1976 Heinz Piontek
- 1977 Reiner Kunze
- 1978 Hermann Lenz
- 1979 Ernst Meister
- 1980 Christa Wolf
- 1981 Martin Walser
- 1982 Peter Weiss
- 1983 Wolfdietrich Schnurre
- 1984 Ernst Jandl
- 1985 Heiner Müller
- 1986 Friedrich Dürrenmatt
- 1987 Erich Fried
- 1988 Albert Drach
- 1989 Botho Strauß
- 1990 Tankred Dorst
- 1991 Wolf Biermann
- 1992 George Tabori
- 1993 Peter Rühmkorf
- 1994 Adolf Muschg
- 1995 Durs Grünbein
- 1996 Sarah Kirsch
- 1997 H. C. Artmann
- 1998 Elfriede Jelinek
- 1999 Arnold Stadler
- 2000 Volker Braun
- 2001 Friederike Mayröcker
- 2002 Wolfgang Hilbig
- 2003 Alexander Kluge
- 2004 Wilhelm Genazino
- 2005 Brigitte Kronauer
- 2006 Oskar Pastior
- 2007 Martin Mosebach
- 2008 Josef Winkler
- 2009 Walter Kappacher
- 2010 Reinhard Jirgl
- 2011 Friedrich Christian Delius
- 2012 Felicitas Hoppe
- 2013 Sibylle Lewitscharoff
- 2014 Jürgen Becker
- 2015 Rainald Goetz
- 2016 Marcel Beyer
- 2017 Jan Wagner
- 2018 Terézia Mora
- 2019 Lukas Bärfuss
- 2020 Elke Erb
- 2021 Clemens J. Setz
- 2022 Emine Sevgi Özdamar
- 2023: Lutz Seiler