Clara Hepner (December 9, 1860 – August 11, 1939) also known by the pseudonym Klara Hepner, or Clara Muschner, Klara Muschner, sometimes Clara Hepner-Muschner, born Clara Freund in

Görlitz Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...

, in Lower Silesia, Germany. She is best known as a poet and author of children's stories.

Personal life and family

She was the eldest of the six children of Dorothea (Sarah, known as Doris) Freund (1832–1915) and Rabbi Dr. Siegfried Freund (1829–1915), who was the main rabbi of the Jewish community in Görlitz, Germany from 1853 to 1909 - over 50 years. In 1881 she married Salo (Salomon) Hepner, with whom she lived in Görlitz for a number of years before they moved to Berlin. Shortly before their divorce in October, 1903, she moved to Munich, where she struggled to create an existence as a writer. Around that time she began a relationship with

Georg Muschner Georg Muschner (12 June 1885 – 17 May 1971) was a German cinematographer. He worked on over sixty productions during his career in the Weimar Republic, Austria, and Nazi Germany. Muschner originally worked as a portrait photographer, before en ...

(1875–1915), who was also living in the Nymphenburg area of Munich. He was simultaneously an Austrian playwright, poet, editor, and an Austrian Army lieutenant. He died in September 1915 while fighting at Jaroszowice on the Eastern Front during the First World War. They had not married, but she added his name to her own for a few years after his death (several sources wrongly give Hepner as being her maiden name) before returning to using only her own (married) name. Both her parents died at the end of that same year.

Career as a writer

Clara Hepner discovered a talent for writing late in life, publishing her first book in 1906 (''Sonnenscheinchens Erste Reise'', The Little Sunbeam's First Journey) at age 46, still under the German Empire. Her manuscript translation of

Gaspard de la Nuit ''Gaspard de la nuit'' (subtitled ''Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand''), M. 55 is a suite of piano pieces by Maurice Ravel, written in 1908. It has three movements, each based on a poem or ''fantaisie'' from the collection '' ...

from French to German had been rejected for publication by the Insel-Verlag in Leipzig the year before, in 1905. She wrote some poems that were set to music around 1910, but primarily she earned a reputation for herself as a German author of children's stories during the Weimar Republic. Her stories were illustrated by famous artists of the day, like , , Josef Mauder, , , ,

Else Wenz-Viëtor Else Wenz-Viëtor (30 April 1882 – 29 May 1973) was a German children's book illustrator and artist. She illustrated around 150 books in her lifetime, and was considered the most famous picture book illustrator in 1920s and 1930s Germany. Later ...

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

Otto Ubbelohde Otto Ubbelohde (5 January 1867 – 8 May 1922) was a German Painting, painter, etcher and illustrator.Bernd Küster: ''Otto Ubbelohde''. Worpsweder Verlag, Worpswede 1984 Life Ubbelohde was born and grew up in Marburg, where his father wa ...

, , among others. After the Nazis rose to power in January 1933, her main publishing house ( Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung in Stuttgart) at first was allowed to continue printing her books but came under increasing pressure to fire Jewish and "politically suspect" authors. Forced to abandon her apartment in Munich under the anti-Jewish laws of the Nazi government, she committed suicide in Munich on August 11, 1939, at age 78, and was buried in the New Jewish Cemetery there.

Writings

*''Die Geschichte vom Kuckuck'' in Pussi Mau, Schaffstein, Cologne (ca. 1904) *''Der Tod'' published in Jugend, Vol. 28 (1905) *''Sonnenscheinchens Erste Reise'' (1906), 2nd Edition Scholz, Mainz (1925) *''Eine unappetitliche Geschichte'' published in Jugend, Vol. 42 (1908) *''Neue Märchen: Mit Bildern von Josef Mauder''. Verlag der Jugendblätter (Carl Schnell), Munich (1908, 1909) *''Der Himmelswagen'' - A Comedy for Small and Large People in Four Acts (1908) *''Hundert Neue Tiergeschichten'' (1910) *''Der Erdgucker'' (1911) *''Der Tod'' published in ''Kinderland : Blätter für ethische Jugenderziehung'' (1911) *''Warum das Meerwasser salzig ist : nach einer norwegischen Volkssage'' in Kinderland (1912) *''Vom tapferen Eichhörnschen'' in Kinderland (1912) *''Mensch und Tier'' in Kinderland (1913) *''Die Hygiene der jungen Mädchen'' published in ''Kinderland : Blätter für ethische Jugenderziehung'' (1913) *''Eine Mutter'', published in ''Kinderland: Blätter für ethische Jugenderziehung''; (1914) *''Die beiden Lokomotiven'' (1914) *''Indische Fabeln : Bodhisattva dem Weisen nacherzählt'' with illustrations of von Diveky (1914) *''Seine letzte Nuß - Neue Tiergeschichten,'' K.Thienemanns Verlag (~1915 & reprint 1926) *''L. I'', published in ''Kinderland : Blätter für ethische Jugenderziehung''; (1915) *''Die Freunde'' published in ''Kinderland : Blätter für ethische Jugenderziehung''; (1915) *''Feldgraue Tiergeschichten'' in Kinderland (1916) *''Ungeladene Erntegäste'' in Kinderland (1917) *''Sonnenscheinchens erste Reise: Märchen u. Erzählungen f. Klein u. Groß.'' Schall & Rentel, 1920. *''Eine Arbeiterin'' and ''Im Rachen des Todes'' in ''Deutsches Mädchenbuch,'' Vol. 27, Thienemanns Verlag, Stuttgart (ca. 1920) *''Auf der Kuckuckswiese'' (1921) *''Märchen-Almanach'': N. F., Vol. 1 (1922) *''Der Meister und seine Schüler'' (1922) *''Arachne und andere Tiergeschichten'' (1922) *''Lux, der Leithund und andere Tiergeschichten: Mit 4 farbigen und vielen schwarzen Holzschnitten von Fritz Lang,'' K. Thienemann, Stuttgart (1922 & Reprint 1946) *''Hundert Neue Tiergeschichten'' 8th edition, Franckh'sche Verlag, Stuttgart (approximately 1922) *''Mariannes Abenteuer mit dem Küchenvölkchen, erz. f. Mädels, die kochen wollen'' (1922) *''Was der Storch in Afrika erlebte. Märchen aus Feld, Wald und Heide nach Karl Ewald.'' Illustrations by Willy Planck. Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart (1923). *''Der Mann von Geburt und die Frau aus dem Volke: Ein Roman aus d. Leben/ Marie Sophie Schwartz'', edited by Clara Hepner. Heimat u. Welt-Verlag Dieck & Co., Stuttgart (1923) *''Der Meisterfänger'' (1925) *''Die drei Schlüffelein'' (1925) *''Woher die gelben Blumen kommen'' (1925) *''Was Tiere erleben'', Verlagsanstalt Tyrolia, Innsbruck (1925) *''Gulnar die Meerfrau und andere Märchen'' *''Das Wichtl und andere Märchen aus der Zeit nach Grimm'' (1927) *''Lustige und traurige Geschichten aus dem Leben eines Huhnes'' (O. Bowen, Hennchen Gakelei) - Translation from English, 1927 Deutsches Literatur Lexikon (ed. Wilhelm Kosch) Band 17, Zurich & Munich 2011 *''Bei den Kranken'' in Unser Heim in der Sonne, editor Maria Domanig, Verlagsanstalt Tyrolia A.G., Innsbruck *''Tiergeschichten für Kinder'', drei Erzählungen von Klara Hepner (1929) *''Warum grad der Hase die Ostereier bringt'', ''Vom furchtsamen Hasen'', ''Wackelohr'' in Neue Märchen/Erzählungen/Gedichte, from ''Das neue Frida Schanz Buch'', editor W.G. Schreckenbach, Verlag Löwensohn, Fürth, 1929 *''Rudi, Rosel und Reiß, der Hund'' Abenteuerliche Ferienerlebnisse (1932) *''Der bestrafte Spatz und viele andere Tiergeschichten'', Franckh'sche Verlag / Kosmos, Stuttgart (1935) *''Sonnenscheinchens Erste Reise'', (reprint) Scholz, Mainz (1937)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hepner, Clara 1860 births 1939 deaths Pseudonymous women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers People from Görlitz 20th-century German poets German children's writers 20th-century German women writers Suicides in Germany