Swen Hans Wilhelm Heyck (19 September 1891 in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

– 24 June 1972 in Kempfenhausen,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

) was a German writer and poet. He sometimes used 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 ...

Harro Loothmann.

Life

Hans Heyck was a son of the historian and editor Eduard Heyck (1862–1941), a son-in-law of the journalist and editor (Norddeutshe Allgemeine Zeitung) Otto Runge (1864–1940), a grandson of the novelist and poet

Wilhelm Jensen Wilhelm Hermann Jensen (15 February 183724 November 1911) was a German writer and poet. Biography Wilhelm Jensen was born at Heiligenhafen in the Duchy of Holstein (now Germany), the illegitimate son of Swenn Hans Jensen (1795–1855), the Ma ...

(1837–1911), a great-grandson of the mayor of the city of

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, finance minister of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

and administrator (Landvogt) of the island of

Sylt Sylt (; ; Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, with a distinctively shaped shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Fris ...

, Schwen Hans Jensen (1795–1855), and a great-grandson of the journalist, writer and literary historian Johann August Moritz Brühl (1819–1877). After stays in Freiburg,

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

Donaueschingen Donaueschingen (; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Eschinge'') is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the States of Germany, federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar ''Districts of Germany, Kreis''. It ...

and

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 ...

, he attended "Gymnasien" (classical high schools) in

Bad Doberan Bad Doberan () is a town in the district of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It was the capital of the former district of Bad Doberan. In 2012, its population was 11,427. Geography Bad Doberan is situated just west of Rostock's city c ...

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 ...

and Munich and graduated in 1910. After a three-year internship at an import-export company in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, he emigrated in 1913 to

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

; he returned to Germany, however, in the fall of 1914 after the start of

First World War 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 ...

and served first with an artillery unit and later as a pilot and flight instructor in France and West Prussia. He was decorated with the Iron Cross Second Class and awarded a "Purple Heart". In the Second World War Heyck was drafted into the German Luftwaffe and served with an anti-aircraft unit. He married in 1916 and had four children. After working in various occupations, among others as a full-time employee of the

German National People's Party The German National People's Party (, DNVP) was a national-conservative and German monarchy, monarchist political party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major nationalist party in Weimar German ...

East Frisia East Frisia () or East Friesland (; ; ; ) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisia (peninsula), East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia and to the ...

, a hobby farmer in Bavaria and teacher at an agricultural college in Diez, Heyck in 1931 became a full-time writer in

Bad Aibling Bad Aibling (; ) is a spa town and former district seat in Bavaria on the river Mangfall, located some southeast of Munich. It features a luxury health resort with a peat pulp bath and mineral spa. History Bad Aibling and its surroundin ...

and from 1935 also in

Reit im Winkl Reit im Winkl is a small village (locally known as a snow-magnet) located on the German/Austrian border in the southeastern part of Bavaria, Germany. Part of the Traunstein district, it was previously an immigration and customs control point (pri ...

. He joined 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 ...

in 1931.

Writings

Heyck began to publish poems and short stories during the First World War (1914–18). Starting in 1925 there followed contemporary, later historical novels which dealt mainly with Prussian history. His most successful novels were ''Friedrich Wilhelm I.'', ''Der Grosse Kurfürst von Brandenburg'', ''Der Grosse König'', and ''Das Welpennest, Ein Buch von Siedlern, Tieren und Kindern''." In total his books had sales of about 500,000 copies, almost all before 1945. After 1945 his novels were not very popular; the only substantial published work after 1945 was ''Clausewitz. Ein Lebens- und Zeitbild'' with a printing of 5,000 copies. In 2018 a translation of 'Pegasus im Paradies' was published under the title 'Happiness in Bavaria". Heyck was also a poet and was awarded the "Ring of Honor for the German Poem of 1955".

References

* "Dictionary of German Biography", Munich, 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Heyck, Hans 1891 births 1972 deaths German National People's Party politicians Writers from Freiburg im Breisgau Nazi Party members German male writers Military personnel from Freiburg im Breisgau Politicians from Freiburg im Breisgau