Agnes Miegel (9 March 1879 – 26 October 1964) was a German author, journalist and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. She is best known for her poems and short stories about East Prussia, but also for the support she gave to the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

Biography

Agnes Miegel was born on 9 March 1879 in Königsberg into a Protestant family. Her parents were the merchant Gustav Adolf Miegel and Helene Hofer. Miegel attended the Girls' High School in Königsberg and then lived between 1894 and 1896 in a guest house in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

, where she wrote her first poems. In 1898 she spent three months in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In 1900 she trained as a nurse in a children's hospital in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Between 1902 and 1904 she worked as an assistant teacher in a girls' boarding school in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, England. In 1904 she attended teacher training in Berlin, which she had to break off because of illness. She also did not complete a course at an agricultural college for girls near

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. In 1906 she had to return to Königsberg to care for her sick parents, especially her father, who had become blind. Her mother died in 1913, her father in 1917. As early as 1900 her first publications had drawn the attention of the writer

Börries von Münchhausen Börries Albrecht Conon August Heinrich Freiherr von Münchhausen (20 March 1874 – 16 March 1945) was a German poet and Nazi activist. Biography He was born in Hildesheim, the eldest child of Kammerherr Börries von Münchhausen and his ...

. Her first bundle of poems was published thanks to his financial support. In later years he was still an untiring promoter of her work. She lived in Königsberg until just before it was captured in 1945, and wrote poems, short stories and journalistic reports. She also made a few journeys. During the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

she revealed herself as an ardent supporter of the regime. She signed the Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft, the 1933 declaration in which 88 German authors vowed faithful allegiance to

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. In the same year she joined the

NS-Frauenschaft The National Socialist Women's League (, abbreviated ''NS-Frauenschaft'') was the women's wing of the Nazi Party. It was founded in October 1931 as a fusion of several nationalist and Nazi women's associations, such as the German Women's Order ( ...

, the

women's wing A women's wing, sometimes also known as a women's group or women's branch, is an auxiliary or independent front or faction within a larger organization, typically a political party, that consists of that organization's female membership or acts to ...

of the

. In 1940 she joined the Nazi party itself. In August 1944, in the final stages of World War II, she was named by

as an "outstanding national asset" in the special list of the most important German artists who were freed from all war obligations. In February 1945 she fled by ship from the approaching

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and reached

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. After Denmark's liberation on 5 May 1945 she stayed in the Oksbøl Refugee Camp until November 1946. In 1946 she returned to Germany, where she was under a

publication ban A publication ban is a court order which prohibits the public or media from disseminating certain details of an otherwise public judicial proceeding. In Canada, publication bans are most commonly issued when the safety or reputation of a victim ...

until 1949. In that year a

denazification Denazification () was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Par ...

committee issued a declaration of no objection. At first she stayed in Apelern with relations of her former patron Börries von Münchhausen, who had committed suicide in 1945. In 1948, being a refugee, she was assigned a house in Bad Nenndorf, where she kept writing until her death. Agnes Miegel now mainly wrote poems and short stories about

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

, the land of her youth. She was considered the voice of the

Heimatvertriebene The German Expellees or ''Heimatvertriebene'' (, "homeland expellees") are 12–16 million German citizens (regardless of ethnicity) and ethnic Germans (regardless of citizenship) who fled or were expelled after World War II from parts of Ge ...

, the German-speaking people who had lived before the war in Czechoslovakia and Poland and in parts of Germany annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union after the war, who had to leave when Nazi Germany was defeated. Miegel received the honorary title ''Mutter Ostpreußen'' ("Mother East Prussia") from her admirers. She died on 26 October 1964 in a hospital in

Bad Salzuflen Bad Salzuflen () is a town and thermal spa resort in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. At the end of 2013, it had 52,121 inhabitants. Geography Bad Salzuflen lies on the eastern edge of the Ravensberg Basin, at the confluenc ...

Literary career

Miegel's first bundle of poems appeared in 1901 and was called ''Gedichte''. By 1945 she had published 33 books of poems, short stories and plays. She also regularly wrote for newspapers (especially the ''Ostpreußische Zeitung'') and magazines. In her early career she mainly wrote about universal themes like man's course of life, nature, life in the countryside, the relationship with God and the past (especially the German past). A minority of these poems and stories were set in East Prussia, and these became her most popular works. Her most famous early poem was ''Die Frauen von Nidden'' ("The Women of Nidden", 1907), in which the village of Nidden (present-day Nida in

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

) falls victim to a

bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of Plague (disease), plague caused by the Bacteria, bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and ...

epidemic. The seven women who survive the plague let themselves be buried alive by the drifting sand dunes near the village. During the Third Reich National Socialist themes appear in her work: complaints about the "heavy yoke" borne by cities like Memel and Danzig, which had been separated from Germany after the First World War; glorification of the war; glorification of the mothers who bear German children. But as early as her 1920 poem "Über der Weichsel drüben" ("On the other side of the Vistula") (republished in ''Ostland'') she propagated fear of the Poles, who, she suggested, wanted to overrun East Prussia. She wrote two odes to Adolf Hitler. The first of these, ''Dem Führer'', was published in 1936 and cited in ''Werden und Werk'' (1938), a study of Miegel's life and works. The second poem, ''An den Führer'', is, in Tauber's words, an "hysterical adulation" of Hitler, published as a kind of preface in ''Ostland''. In the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

in Germany after the Second World War both ''Werden und Werk'' and ''Ostland'' were forbidden books. To her credit it may be said that her works were free from

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

, although by no means free from the Nazis'

Blut und Boden Atrocity is a German Heavy metal music, metal band from Ludwigsburg that formed in 1985. History First started in 1985 as Instigators and playing grindcore, Atrocity arose as a death metal band with their debut EP, ''Blue Blood'', in 1989, foll ...

ideology. After her publication ban had been lifted in 1949, she mainly wrote about East Prussia as she remembered it. The title of her first bundle of poems after the war is characteristic: ''Du aber bleibst in mir'' ("You however stay within me"). Her best known stories and poems are melancholic reflections on her ''Heimat'' (homeland) that had been destroyed and was now forever out of reach. This is certainly true of her most famous poem, ''Es war ein Land'' ("That was a country", 1949). Blackbourn shows that this was "exactly the idealized image that the expellee organisations cultivated – as if all had been pastoral harmony until the Red Army marched west, as if the mass flight of Germans had fallen out of a clear blue sky." She was not vindictive towards the Russians and Poles who had taken possession of East Prussia. In a poem from 1951 she urged her readers ''nichts als den Haß zu hassen'' ("to hate nothing but hate"). She refused to account for her doings during the Nazi era. The only thing she was willing to say was: ''Dies habe ich mit meinem Gott alleine abzumachen und mit niemand sonst'' ("I have to settle this with my God and with no one else"). Publications of her works in Germany after 1945 usually omit her works between 1933 and 1945, propagating the myth of an apolitical author. Miegel's poems usually consist of lines of unequal length, some rhyming and some not. Marcel Reich-Ranicki included three of her poems (''Die Schwester'', ''Die Nibelungen'' and ''Die Frauen von Nidden'') in his anthology of exemplary German literature '' Kanon lesenswerter deutschsprachiger Werke'' (Part ''Gedichte'', 2005).

Reputation

Agnes-Miegel-Haus Bad Nenndorf IMG 6791 retouched

During her lifetime Agnes Miegel received several marks of honour. In 1916 she received the Kleist Prize for lyrics and in 1924 was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...

. During the Nazi era she was overloaded with marks of honour. In 1933 she joined the writers' section of the

Akademie der Künste The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

in Berlin, together with prominent Nazis such as

Hanns Johst Hanns Johst (8 July 1890 – 23 November 1978) was a German poet and playwright, directly aligned with Nazi philosophy, as a member of the officially approved writers’ organisations in the Third Reich. The statement “When I hear the word cult ...

. They filled the vacancies that had arisen because some members, amongst them

Alfred Döblin Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel '' Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of ...

and

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

, had to give up their seats for not being loyal to the Nazi regime. In 1935 she received the "honorary ring" of the ''Allgemeiner Deutscher Sprachverein'' and in 1936 the Johann-Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis (the predecessor of the

Herder Prize The Herder Prize (), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and Southeast Europe whose life and wor ...

). In 1939 she was made an honorary citizen of Königsberg; in the same year she received the Golden Decoration of the '' Hitlerjugend'' (Hitler Youth). In 1940 she received the

Goethe Prize The Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt () is an award for achievement "worthy of honour in memory of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe" made by the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was usually an annual award until 1955, and thereafter has been ...

of the city of

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. In 1944 Adolf Hitler and

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...

put together a " Gottbegnadeten-Liste" of the most important artists of the Third Reich. A separate list, the ''Sonderliste der Unersetzlichen Künstler'' ("special list of irreplaceable artists"), put together by Hitler himself, mentioned those 25 people whom the Nazi leaders considered as the Third Reich's greatest artists. Agnes Miegel was (with

Gerhart Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of Naturalism (literature), literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into h ...

and Hanns Johst, among others) ranked as one of the six greatest German writers. The artists on the special list were freed from all war obligations. After the Second World War she received, ''inter alia'', the ''Westfälischer Kulturpreis'' (1952), the ''Großer Literaturpreis'' of the '' Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste'' (Bavarian academy of fine arts) (1959) and the ''Kulturpreis der Landsmannschaft Westpreußen'' (1962). In 1954 she became an honorary citizen of Bad Nenndorf, her place of residence. After her death her house in Bad Nenndorf was rechristened the Agnes-Miegel-Haus. It is now a museum, dedicated to her life and works, and situated in the Agnes-Miegel-Platz ("Agnes Miegel Square"). In several places in Germany, streets received the name Agnes-Miegel-Straße. A few schools were named Agnes-Miegel-Schule. In 1979 the

Deutsche Bundespost The (, ) was a German state-run postal service and telecommunications business founded in 1947. It was initially the second largest federal employer during its time. After staff reductions in the 1980s, the staff was reduced to roughly 543,20 ...

issued a postage stamp in honour of her 100th birthday. There is a monument dedicated to Agnes Miegel in Wunstorf. A monument in Bad Nenndorf has been removed in 2015. In Filzmoos near

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

there is a plaque dedicated to the Hofers, Miegel's mother's family, who had their roots there. On 26 October 1992 a plaque was put on her former dwelling house in Königsberg, now

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad,. known as Königsberg; ; . until 1946, is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, an Enclave and exclave, exclave of Russia between Lithuania and Poland ( west of the bulk of Russia), located on the Prego ...

, with texts in German and Russian. Miegel's reputation was badly damaged when her poems to Hitler were rediscovered and published on the internet in the 1990s. Much discussion arose about her Nazi past. As a result, all the schools and many streets that had been named after her have been renamed. For instance, Agnes-Miegel-Schule in Willich was renamed Astrid-Lindgren-Schule in 2008 and the Agnes-Miegel-Straße in St. Arnold in the Steinfurt district was renamed Anne-Frank-Straße in 2010. After a lengthy dispute about whether the Miegel monument in Bad Nenndorf should be kept or removed, it was removed in February 2015.

Works

Poems, short stories, plays

*1901: ''Gedichte'', Cotta, Stuttgart. *1907: ''Balladen und Lieder'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1920: ''Gedichte und Spiele'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1925: ''Heimat: Lieder und Balladen'', Eichblatt, Leipzig. *1926: ''Geschichten aus Alt-Preußen'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena.One of the four short stories in this collection, ''Die Fahrt der sieben Ordensbrüder'', has been published as a separate book in 1933 and reprinted many times, most recently in 2002. *1926: ''Die schöne Malone: Erzählungen'', Eichblatt, Leipzig. *1927: ''Spiele'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1928: ''Die Auferstehung des Cyriakus: Erzählungen'', Eichblatt, Leipzig. *1930: ''Kinderland: Erzählungen'', Eichblatt, Leipzig. *1931: ''Dorothee: Erzählungen'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1932: ''Der Vater: Erzählungen'', Eckhart, Berlin. *1932: ''Herbstgesang: Gedichte'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1933: ''Weihnachtsspiel'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1933: ''Kirchen im Ordensland: Gedichte'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1934: ''Gang in die Dämmerung: Erzählungen'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1935: ''Das alte und das neue Königsberg'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1935: ''Deutsche Balladen'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1936: ''Unter hellem Himmel: Erzählungen'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1936: ''Kathrinchen kommt nach Hause: Erzählungen'', Eichblatt, Leipzig. *1936: ''Noras Schicksal: Erzählungen'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1937: ''Das Bernsteinherz: Erzählungen'', Reclam, Leipzig. *1937: ''Audhumla: Erzählungen'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1937: ''Herden der Heimat: Erzählungen mit Zeichnungen von Hans Peters'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1938: ''Und die geduldige Demut der treuesten Freunde: Versdichtung'', Bücher der Rose, Langewiesche-Brandt, Schäftlarn. *1938: ''Viktoria: Gedicht und Erzählung'', Gesellschaft der Freunde der deutschen Bücherei, Ebenhausen. *1939: ''Frühe Gedichte'' (reissue of the 1901 collection), Cotta, Stuttgart. *1939: ''Herbstgesang'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1939: ''Die Schlacht von Rudau: Spiel'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1939: ''Herbstabend: Erzählung'', published by herself in Eisenach. *1940: ''Ostland: Gedichte'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1940: ''Im Ostwind: Erzählungen'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1940: ''Wunderliches Weben: Erzählungen'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1940: ''Ordensdome'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1944: ''Mein Bernsteinland und meine Stadt'', Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen. *1949: ''Du aber bleibst in mir: Gedichte'', Seifert, Hameln. *1949: ''Die Blume der Götter: Erzählungen'', Eugen Diederichs, Köln. *1951: ''Der Federball: Erzählungen'', Eugen Diederichs, Köln. *1951: ''Die Meinen: Erzählungen'', Eugen Diederichs, Köln. *1958: ''Truso: Erzählungen'', Eugen Diederichs, Köln. *1959: ''Mein Weihnachtsbuch: Gedichte und Erzählungen'', Eugen Diederichs, Köln (a new, extended edition appeared in 1984). *1962: ''Heimkehr: Erzählungen'', Eugen Diederichs, Köln.

Selections and collected works

*1927: ''Gesammelte Gedichte'', Eugen Diederichs, Jena. *1952: ''Ausgewählte Gedichte'', Eugen Diederichs, Köln. *1952-1955: ''Gesammelte Werke'', Eugen Diederichs, Köln (six volumes). *1983: ''Es war ein Land: Gedichte und Geschichten aus Ostpreußen'', Eugen Diederichs, München (reprinted by Rautenberg, Leer in 2002). *1994: ''Spaziergänge einer Ostpreußin'', Rautenberg, Leer (journalism 1923–1924). *2000: ''Wie ich zu meiner Heimat stehe'', Verlag S. Bublies, Schnellbach (journalism 1926–1932). *2002: ''Die Frauen von Nidden: Gesammelte Gedichte von unserer ‘Mutter Ostpreußen’'', Rautenberg, Leer. *2002: ''Wie Bernstein leuchtend auf der Lebenswaage: Gesammelte Balladen'', Rautenberg, Leer.

Books about Agnes Miegel

*Walther Hubatsch, ''Ostpreussens Geschichte und Landschaft im dichterischen Werk von Agnes Miegel'', Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Minden, 1978. *Harold Jensen, ''Agnes Miegel und die bildende Kunst'', Rautenberg, Leer, 1982. *Marianne Kopp, ''Agnes Miegel: Leben und Werk'', Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2004. *Agnes Miegel, ''Werden und Werk, mit Beiträgen von Professor Dr. Karl Plenzat'', Hermann Eichblatt Verlag, Leipzig, 1938. (This is what the title page says. In fact this is a study by Plenzat about Miegel's work, with a foreword by Miegel herself and many citations from her work.) *Anni Piorreck: ''Agnes Miegel. Ihr Leben und ihre Dichtung''. Eugen Diederichs, München, 1967 (a corrected edition appeared in 1990). *Alfred Podlech (editor), ''Agnes-Miegel-Bibliographie'', Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Minden, 1973. *Annelise Raub, ''Nahezu wie Schwestern: Agnes Miegel und Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Grundzüge eines Vergleichs'', Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Bad Nenndorf, 1991. *Ursula Starbatty, ''Begegnungen mit Agnes Miegel'', Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Bad Nenndorf, 1989.

References

External links (all in German)

Literature about Agnes Miegel in the Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek

Website of the Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft

Agnes Miegel in the ‘Literaturatlas Niedersachsen’

About Agnes Miegel's Nazi sympathies

The Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft about Agnes Miegel's Nazi sympathies

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miegel, Agnes 1879 births 1964 deaths Writers from Königsberg Writers from East Prussia Nazi Party members German women journalists German journalists German women poets 20th-century German women Kleist Prize winners