Herbert Eulenberg

Herbert Eulenberg
Born Herbert Eulenberg
25 January 1876
Köln-Mülheim, Germany
Died 4 September 1949 (aged 73)
Düsseldorf, Germany
Occupation Playwright, short story writer, essayist
Period 1896–1949
Genre Drama, Historical novel
Notable works Belinde, Schattenbilder
Notable awards Nationalpreis der DDR
1949
Signature

Herbert Eulenberg, 1876-1949, was a German poet and author born in Cologne-Mülheim, Germany. He was married from 1904 to Hedda Eulenberg.

Biography

1920s

Eulenberg was the publisher of many books, for which he wrote the introductions. His speech on Schiller, which he wrote in 1909, generated heated debates. In 1911 he published Letter of a Father of our Times in the magazine PAN for which he was accused, tried and later acquitted of the charges of circulating obscene writing.

In the 1920s, he was one of the most performed playwrights on German stages. His essays on various subjects and topics on literature, theatre, music, and fine arts were published in numerous newspapers and magazines throughout Germany and Austria. He was awarded prizes and honours for his literary work such as “Der Preis des Frauenbundes zur Ehrung rheinischer Dichter”, the ”Volks-Schiller-Preis”, the “Preis of the Peter Wilhelm Müller Trust”, or the ”Wiener Volksschillerpreis”.

In 1919 Eulenberg, together with painters Arthur Kaufmann and Adolf Uzarski, founded the modern union of artists, “Das Junge Rheinland” in Düsseldorf. In 1923 he lectured in the United States, where he was invited as the “first German after Einstein” to speak at Columbia University.

Eulenberg's "Ausgewählte Werke" (Selected Works) were published in 1925/26. In 1926, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, he was made honourable member of the “Rheinische Kunstakademie” in Düsseldorf. He was “sympathizer” of “Die Maler des Jungen Rheinlands”, the painters of the young Rhineland, and was in contact with personalities such as Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Frank Wedekind, Gerhart Hauptmann, Lulu von Strauß und Torney, Felix Hollaender, Else Lasker-Schüler, Erich Mühsam, Peter Hille, John Henry Mackay, Herwarth Walden, Emil Ludwig, Franz Werfel, Wilhelm Schmidtbonn, and others.

1930s and 1940s

During Nazi Germany, Eulenberg’s dramas were banned, his books were no longer printed or sold. Yet, he stood firm against the threats of party members, who continuously denounced the pacifist and humanist as a “red-haired Jew”. If it had not been for his great fame he would have ended up in a Nazi concentration camp.

During World War II, he published short articles under his pseudonyms “Siebenkäs”, “Lynkeus” or “Der lächelnde Zuschauer” in “Der Mittag”, a Düsseldorf daily newspaper. At the same time he wrote a multitude of dramas, in which he sharply attacked and disputed the current political situation.

After 1945 he was permanent contributor to the magazines “Aufbau” and “Die Weltbühne”. He received further prizes: 1948 the “Heinrich-Heine Prize” of the "Heinrich-Heine-Gesellschaft" at Hamburg for his biography of Heinrich Heine. In the cultural alliance for the democratic renewal of Germany he committed himself to the rebuilding of a cultural program for the bombed Düsseldorf. In 1948 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bonn. Eulenberg died in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth on September 4, 1949 of serious injuries after an accident. In 1949 he was posthumously awarded the Nationalpreis der DDR.

Awards and honours

Literary works

Literature

External links