Else Lasker-Schüler
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 Else Lasker-Schüler Stele in Wuppertal |
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| Born: | February 11, 1869 Elberfeld (today Wuppertal), Germany |
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| Died: | January 22, 1945 Jerusalem |
| Occupation: | Poet |
Else Lasker-Schüler was a Jewish German poet.
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[edit] Biography
Else Schüler was born on February 11, 1869 in Elberfeld (now a district of Wuppertal). Her mother, Jeannette Schüler (born Kissing) became a central figure in her poetry. Her father Aaron Schüler, a Jewish banker, later became the inspiration for the protagonist in her drama Die Wupper.
In 1894, She married the physician Dr Jonathan Berthold Lasker (the older brother of Emanuel Lasker, for many years World Chess Champion) and moved with him to Berlin in the same year. There she worked on training as an artist. On August 24, 1899 her son Paul was born and her first poems were published. Her first full volume of poetry was called Styx and was published three years later in 1902. On April 11, 1903, she and Berthold Lasker were divorced and on November 30, she remarried to Georg Lewin to whom she gave the name Herwarth Walden.
In 1906, Lasker-Schüler's first prose work, Das Peter-Hille-Buch, was published after Hille's death. Hille had been one of her closest friends. In 1907 the prose collection Die Nächte der Tino von Bagdad was published. In 1909 she published the play Die Wupper, which however was not performed straight away. With the Meine Wunder volume of poetry in 1911, Lasker-Schüler became the leading female representative of German expressionism.
After separating from Herwarth Walden in 1910, her second marriage also ended in divorce in 1912. Without her own source of income, Else Lasker-Schüler had to live on the financial support given to her by her friends, in particular Karl Kraus. She also met Gottfried Benn in 1912. An intense friendship developed between them which found its literary outlet in a large number of love poems dedicated to Benn. The death of her son in 1927, however, sent her into a deep depression.
Although the poet had been awarded the Kleist Prize in 1932, she emigrated to Zürich after physical attacks and faced with the threat of National Socialism. There, however, she was still banned from working. From here she made two journeys to Palestine in 1934 and 1937.
In 1938 she was deprived of her German citizenship and a year later in 1939 she travelled to Palestine for the third time. However, the outbreak of World War II prevented her from returning to Switzerland.
In 1944 she became severely ill. After a heart attack on January 16, Else Lasker-Schüler died on January 22, 1945. She was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
[edit] After death
There is a memorial plaque to Else Lasker-Schüler at Motzstraße 7, Berlin-Schöneberg, where she lived from 1924 to 1933. Part of this street was renamed Else-Lasker-Schüler-Straße in 1996. In Elberfeld in Wuppertal there is now a school named after her (The "School without Racism"). A memorial stele is erected at Herzogstrasse, Wuppertal.
In Israel: The municipality of Jerusalem, the city which she died in, named a street after her located in the neighberhood of Nayot.
[edit] Works
Else Lasker-Schüler left behind an extensive collection of poetry, three plays and, in terms of prose, short sketches and stories as well as letters and documents. During her lifetime her poems were published both in various magazines, such as for example her second husband's magazine Der Sturm or Karl Kraus' Fackel, and also in a large number of volumes of poetry which she compiled and, in some cases, illustrated herself. These included:
- Styx (first published volume of poetry, 1902)
- Der siebente Tag (second volume of poetry, 1905)
- Meine Wunder (first edition, 1911)
- Gesammelte Gedichte (1917)
- Mein blaues Klavier (1943)
Else Lasker-Schüler wrote her first and most important play, Die Wupper, in 1908. It was published in 1909 and the first performance took place on April 27, 1919 at the Deutsche Theater in Berlin.
A large part of her work is composed of love poetry, but there are also deeply religious poems and prayers. Transitions between the two are often quite fluid. Her later work above all is rich in Biblical and oriental motifs. Lasker-Schüler was very free with regard to the external rules of poetic form, however her works thereby achieve a greater inner concentration. She was also not averse to linguistic neologisms.
A good example of her poetic art is "Ein alter Tibetteppich" ("An old Tibetan rug"), a poem which was reprinted many times after its first publication in Sturm, the first of these being in Fackel.
| "Ein alter Tibetteppich" | "An old Tibetan rug" |
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| Deine Seele, die die meine liebet, | Your soul, which loveth mine, |
| Ist verwirkt mit ihr im Teppichtibet. | Is woven with it into a rug-Tibet. |
| Strahl in Strahl, verliebte Farben, | Strand by strand, enamoured colours, |
| Sterne, die sich himmellang umwarben. | Stars that courted each other across the length of heavens. |
| Unsere Füße ruhen auf der Kostbarkeit, | Our feet rest on the treasure |
| Maschentausendabertausendweit. | Stitches-thousands-and-thousands-across. |
| Süßer Lamasohn auf Moschuspflanzenthron, | Sweet lama-son on your musk-plant-throne |
| Wie lange küßt dein Mund den meinen wohl | How long has your mouth been kissing mine, |
| Und Wang die Wange buntgeknüpfte Zeiten schon? | And cheek to cheek colorfully woven times? |
[edit] References
- This article is based on a translation of the corresponding article from the German Wikipedia, retrieved on May 6, 2005.
