Richard Dehmel
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Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel (18 November 1863 – 8 February 1920) was a German poet and writer.


Life

A forester's son, Richard Dehmel was born in Hermsdorf near Wendisch Buchholz (now a part of Münchehofe) in the Brandenburg Province,
Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...
. He got his first impressions of nature wandering the oak forests tended by his father, and first attended school in his hometown. He then attended the Sophiengymnasium (a
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 ...
gymnasium) yet was expelled after clashing with the headteacher. He finished his school days in Danzig (today Gdańsk, Poland) and subsequently studied the
natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...
, economics, literature, and philosophy, first at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin and then at
Leipzig University Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...
, where he obtained a doctorate in economics with a thesis on the insurance industry.Burns, Friedrich (1980). "Dehmel, Richard". In Jean Albert Bédé & William Benbow Edgerton (Eds.), ''Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature'' (p. 195). New York: Columbia University Press. ; . He then worked as a secretary at a fire insurance association, and remained in this position until, after the publication of his second volume of poetry, he turned full-time writer. In 1889, Dehmel married Paula Oppenheimer, sister of Franz Oppenheimer. He became active as a writer and co-founded '' Pan'' magazine in 1894. Dehmel divorced Paula in 1899 and traveled Europe with Ida Auerbach (née Coblentz), who had formerly been engaged to Dehmel's rival Stefan George. Dehmel married Ida in 1901, and that same year they settled 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 ...
. Dehmel's poetic volume '' Weib und Welt'' (''Woman and World'') triggered a scandal in the late 1890s: denounced by the deeply conservative poet Börries von Münchhausen, Dehmel was tried for
obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...
and
blasphemy Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of Reverence (emotion), reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered Sanctity of life, inviolable. Some religions, especially Abrahamic o ...
.Stark, Gary D. (2009). ''Banned in Berlin: Literary Censorship in Imperial Germany, 1871–1918''. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. p. 204. . Despite being acquitted on technical grounds, the court condemned the work as obscene and blasphemous and ordered that it be burned.Stark, Gary D. (2009). ''Banned in Berlin: Literary Censorship in Imperial Germany, 1871–1918''. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp. 250–251. . Dehmel would again be prosecuted for obscenity and blasphemy, but again acquitted as earlier. Dehmel was a champion of the rights of workers. However, despite his record of fighting conservatives, Dehmel joined the many patriotic and pro-war German intellectuals who inveighed the masses to support the
German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
after the outbreak of the
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 ...
in 1914. Fifty-one at the time, Dehmel volunteered in 1914 and served until 1916, when he was wounded. He called on the Germans to keep fighting right until 1918. Dehmel died in 1920 in Blankenese from the after-effects of an injury sustained during the war.


Literary work

Dehmel is considered one of the foremost German poets of the pre-
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 ...
era. His poems are finished in form and use numerous metrical patterns. They were set to music by composers such as
Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...
(who met his principal librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal at Dehmel's house), Max Reger, Alexander von Zemlinsky,
Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...
, Luise Schulze-Berghof, Oskar Fried, Alma Mahler,
Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...
, Ignatz Waghalter, Carl Orff, and Kurt Weill, or they inspired them to write music. Dehmel's main theme was "love and sex ( Eros)", which he framed as a power to break away from middle-class values and fetters. In particular, his poem "Verklärte Nacht" (see that article for the poem) was set by Schoenberg in two versions and has been often performed.


Works

* ''Erlösungen'', poems 1891 * ''Aber die Liebe'', poems 1893 * ''Weib und Welt'', poems 1896 * ''Zwei Menschen. Roman in Romanzen'', 1903 * ''Die Verwandlungen der Venus'', poems 1907 * ''Michel Michael'', comedy 1911 * ''Schöne wilde Welt'', poems 1913 * ''Die Menschenfreunde'', Drama 1917 * ''Mein Leben'', autobiography 1922 (posthumously)


References


External links


Willkommen zur Richard-Dehmel-Website
at www.richard-dehmel.de



* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dehmel, Richard 1863 births 1920 deaths People from Dahme-Spreewald Writers from the Province of Brandenburg German socialists 19th-century German poets 19th-century German male writers German male poets German-language poets 20th-century German poets 20th-century German male writers Writers from Brandenburg People charged with blasphemy German military personnel of World War I German magazine founders