Hermann Kesten (28 January 1900 – 3 May 1996) was a German novelist and dramatist. He was one of the principal literary figures of the

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, wh ...

movement in 1920s Germany. The literary prize Hermann Kesten Medal has been given in his honor since 1985.

Life

Kesten was born in Pidvolochysk (

Galicia (Eastern Europe) Galicia ()"Galicia"
''

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

) in 1900, a son of a Jewish merchant. The family moved to

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

in 1904. In the early 1920s, while a student in Frankfurt, he was already writing plays and forging literary plans. Even at this early stage, he seems to have envisaged twin careers for himself, as a writer and as a publisher. Personal contacts – Kesten always relished the company of fellow writers and publishers – facilitated the move to Berlin to take up, in 1928, a post as an editor with the left-wing publisher Kiepenheuer. In the same year he published his first novel, ''Josef sucht die Freiheit'' ("Josef breaks free"). Two more novels quickly followed: ''Ein ausschweifender Mensch'' ("Running Riot", 1929) and ''Glückliche Menschen'' ("Happy Man", 1931). 1933, when Hitler came to power, he left Germany, and in Paris Kesten began working for the Amsterdam publisher Allert de Lange. Amsterdam became a centre of exile for German book-publishing in the 1930s and Kesten, who moved there and became part of it, took seriously the task of creating communities and preserving continuities, editing banned writers known and unknown, past and present, from

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

Bertholt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

. In 1940 Kesten emigrated to New York and later acquired American citizenship. Throughout the Hitler years and beyond, Kesten continued to write prolifically. Indeed, the experience of those troubled times yielded fiction and nonfiction: novels tracing contrasting fates – ''Die Zwillinge von Nürnberg'' ("The Twins of Nuremberg", 1946) – or a Jew's recovery, against the odds, of his faith – ''Die fremden Götter'' ("Strange Gods", 1949) – or biographies of seekers after varieties of freedom – Copernicus (1948) and Casanova (1952). Kesten's periodic moves (he lived in New York, Munich, Switzerland and for many years in Rome) did not sever his links with Germany. Distance and seniority gave him a special status as Germany, and German literature, in particular, emerged from the ruins. In the

Group 47 Gruppe 47 (Group 47) was a group of participants in German writers' meetings, invited by Hans Werner Richter between 1947 and 1967. The meetings served the dual goals of literary criticism as well as the promotion of young, unknown authors. In a d ...

, by far the most influential grouping of writers and critics in the 1950s and early 1960s, he was regarded as "the Old Master", "the kindly, almost paternal mentor". He embodied, it seemed, a continuity reaching back into the far-distant 1920s. The recognition was there – Kesten received many prizes and acted as President of the West German

PEN A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...

from 1972 to 1976.

Works

Novels

* ''Josef sucht die Freiheit'' (1927) * ''Ein ausschweifender Mensch'' (''Das Leben eines Tölpels'') (1929) * ''Glückliche Menschen'' (1931) * ''Der Scharlatan'' (1932) * ''Der Gerechte'' (1934) * ''Ferdinand und Isabella'' (1936) * ''König Philipp II.'' (1938) * ''Die Kinder von Gernika'' (1939) * ''Die Zwillinge von Nürnberg'' (1947) * ''Die fremden Götter'' (1949) * ''Ein Sohn des Glücks'' (1955) * ''Die Abenteuer eines Moralisten'' (1961) * ''Die Zeit der Narren'' (1966) * ''Ein Mann von sechzig Jahren'' (1972)

Novella collections

* ''Vergebliche Flucht und andere Novellen'' (1949) * ''Die 30 Erzählungen von Hermann Kesten'' (1962) * ''Dialog der Liebe'' (1981) * ''Der Freund im Schrank'' (1983)

Biographies, Essays

* ''Copernicus und seine Welt'' (1948) * ''Casanova'' (1952) * ''Meine Freunde die Poeten'' (1953) * ''Der Geist der Unruhe'' (1959) * ''Dichter im Café'' (1959) * ''Filialen des Parnaß'' (1961) * ''Lauter Literaten'' (1963) * ''Die Lust am Leben. Boccaccio, Aretino, Casanova'' (1968) * ''Ein Optimist'' (1970) * ''Hymne für Holland'' (1970) * ''Revolutionäre mit Geduld'' (1973)

Stories

* Ich bin, der ich bin. Verse eines Zeitgenossen (1974). * Ein Jahr in New York

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kesten, Hermann 1900 births 1996 deaths German people of Jewish descent Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Writers from Nuremberg Jewish German writers German biographers Male biographers German essayists German male short story writers German short story writers American people of German-Jewish descent Exilliteratur writers Georg Büchner Prize winners 20th-century German translators 20th-century German novelists 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights 20th-century biographers German male essayists German male novelists German male dramatists and playwrights German-language poets 20th-century German short story writers 20th-century essayists 20th-century German male writers