Fritz Steuben (3 December 1898 – 4 June 1981), the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

of Erhard Wittek, was a German author who wrote popular novels and stories about romanticised Native Americans. His bestselling novels depicting the life of the

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

chief

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; (March 9, 1768October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the Territorial evolution of the United States, expansion of the United States onto Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

were influenced by

national socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

. He wrote several war novels based on personal experiences in World War I, including "Durchbruch anno achtzehn: Ein Fronterlebnis" (''"Breakthrough 1918: A Frontline Experience"'') and other novels under his birth name.

Early life and military service

Wittek was born in Wongrowitz,

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (; ) was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920, occupying most of the historical Greater Poland. The province was established following the Greater Poland Uprising (1848), Poznań Uprisi ...

. He participated in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Career

After the war he started as a book-seller apprentice and became finally head of production in the publishing house Franckh-Kosmos in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. From 1929 until 1952 Steuben wrote stories on American Indians under his pseudonym. The eight volumes of his Tecumseh anthology follow the Shawnee chief Tecumseh from his childhood to his death. In 1937 Wittek moved to

Neustrelitz Neustrelitz (; ) is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 until 1918 it was the capital o ...

, where he lived as an independent writer. In 1955 he moved again to

Pinneberg Pinneberg (; ) is a town in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. It is the capital of the Pinneberg (district), district of Pinneberg and has a population of about 43,500 inhabitants. Pinneberg is located 18 km northw ...

, where he died. Using the pen name Fritz Steuben, initially for his Native American Indian (Tecumseh) stories, he wrote many of his works under the influence of

. However, contrary to the Western novels of

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his novels of travels and adventures, set in the American Old West, the Orient, the Middle East, Latin America, China and Germany. He als ...

, famous in Germany, yet temporarily discredited by false claims to authenticity, his fiction was based on real persons and comparatively serious use of sources available to him. In Germany his books had already achieved a circulation of 790,000 copies in the Thirties. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the Tecumseh-anthology reappeared ideologically cleaned (or at least superficially politically corrected) by Nina Schindler and is still on sale in this form.

Selected works

Erhard Wittek

* ''Das Buch als Werbemittel'', 1926 * ''Durchbruch anno achtzehn. Ein Fronterlebnis'', Stuttgart 1933 * ''Männer. Ein Buch des Stolzes'', 1936 (''Männer, heroische Anekdoten aus dem Krieg'', 1944) * ''Bewährung der Herzen'', Novelle, Dresden 1937 * ''Traum im Februar'', Erzählung, 1939 * ''Ein Becher Wasser, und andere Begebenheiten aus Polen'', Dresden 1940 * ''Der Marsch nach Lowitsch. Ein Bericht'', 1940 * ''Dem Vaterland zugute ...'', Erzählung, Dresden 1943 * ''Wir, von der Weichsel und Warthe'' edited with Karlheinz Gehrmann, Hanns von Krannhals, Salzburg 1950 * ''Der alte Witt und andere Geschichten aus dem Osten'', Würzburg 1963

Pseudonym Fritz Steuben

* Tecumseh-Reihe, Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1930–1939 ** 0. ''Schneller Fuß und Pfeilmädchen'' 1935 ** 1. ''Der fliegende Pfeil'', 1930, ''Tecumseh – The Flying Arrow'' ** 2. ''Der rote Sturm'', 1931 ** 3. ''Tecumseh, der Berglöwe'', 1932 ** 4. ''Der strahlende Stern'', 1934 ** 5. ''Tecumseh, der große Seher'' ** 6. ''Der Sohn des Manitu'', 1938 ** 7. ''Tecumseh, der große Häuptling'', (''T.-Häuptling der Indianer''. =''Tecumseh, Strahlender Stern'' + ''Großer Häuptling Tecumseh''). ** 8. ''Tecumsehs Tod'' 1939, ''Tecumseh's Death'' (part 1 of this separated as ''Ruf der Wälder'', 1951) * ''Die Karawane am Persergolf. Eine abenteuerliche Kriegsfahrt durch die arabische Wüste'', 1935 * ''Der ehrliche Zöllner. Kleine Geschichten aus dem Osten'', 1949 * ''Wolfram fährt nach Südtirol. Die Geschichte einer Kinderfreundschaft'', 1949 * ''Bewährung der Herzen'', 1949 * ''Emir Dynamit. Bilder aus dem Leben des Obersten Lawrence'', 1949 * ''Die Anna'', Roman, Stuttgart 1951 * ''Dort hinter dem gläsernen Berge'', 1952 * ''Zwei Mädel wie Hund und Katze. Ein fröhliches Buch aus glücklichen Tagen'' (Illustrationen von Ulrik Schramm), 1954 * ''Müllers ziehen um. Zwei Mädel wie Hund und Katze in der neuen Heimat'' (Illustrationen von Ulrik Schramm), 1955 * ''Mississippi Saga, Sieur de la Salle, Entdecker, Eroberer, Edelmann'', 1956. (''Tragödie am Mississippi'', 1957) * ''Gunnar vom Eisland'', 1957 * ''Der Weg nach Bethlehem. Zeichn. v. Willy Kretzer'', Wien 1957 * ''Der ewige Hunger nach Gold. Interessantes, Amüsantes und Verwunderliches aus der Geschichte des Handels'', Gütersloh 1965 * ''Abenteuer, Abenteuer!'', (Editor) 1957 * ''Gunnar vom Eisland. Illustr. v. Heiner Rothfuchs'', 1957 * ''Der weite Ritt'', Roman, Gütersloh 1960 * ''Die reinsten Musterkinder'' (Illustrationen von Heiner Rothfuchs), 1968 * ''Auf großer Fahrt. Wanderungen zwischen Pregel und Beskiden'', Freiburg 1966 * ''Der Thronfolger. Fürstensohn Ibn Saud gründet das heutige Königreich Saudi-Arabien'', 1976 Steuben edited also renarrated editions of

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

. Cooper was together with Kipling his preferred model author.

Translations

Roland Dorgelès Roland Dorgelès (; 15 June 1885 – 18 March 1973) was a French novelist and a member of the Académie Goncourt. Born in Amiens, Somme, under the name Roland Lecavelé (he adopted the pen name Dorgelès to commemorate visits to the spa town of ...

: ''Die hölzernen Kreuze'' (jointly with Tony Kellen) * Richard Morenus: ''Alaska Slim. Ein Leben in der Wildnis'', 1956 * Glenn Tucker: ''Tecumseh'', Bremen 1969 (Tecumseh, Vision of Glory)

Literature

Secondary literature concentrates mostly on the ideological function and the corresponding developments after the war. * Barbara Haible: ''Indianer im Dienste der NS-Ideologie. Untersuchungen zur Funktion von Jugendbüchern über nordamerikanische Indianer im Nationalsozialismus.'' Hamburg: Kovac 1998. (= Schriftenreihe Poetica; 32) ( an analysis of youth fiction on (Native American) Indians in the Service of NS-ideology) * Winfred Kaminski: ''Heroische Innerlichkeit. Studien zur Jugendliteratur vor und nach 1945.'' Frankfurt am Main: dipa-Verlag 1987. (= Jugend und Medien; 14) * Thomas Kramer: ''"''Tecumseh und Toka-itho: Edle Wilde unter roten Brüdern. Zur Rezeption der Indianerbücher von Fritz Steuben und Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich in der DDR"''.'' In: ''Berliner Blätter. Ethnographische und Ethnologische Beiträge'' (noch im Druck) * Günter Waldmann: ''Die Ideologie der Erzählform. Mit einer Modellanalyse von NS-Literatur.'' München: Fink 1976. (= Uni-Taschenbücher; 525)

References

External links

Short biography Erhard Wittek in German, portrait photography

Winfred Kaminski
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steuben, Fritz 1898 births 1981 deaths People from Wągrowiec German children's writers German military personnel of World War I Writers from the Province of Posen Western (genre) writers German male essayists German male novelists 20th-century German novelists 20th-century German essayists 20th-century German male writers