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German novelist (1863?1945)
Gustav Frenssen
(19 October 1863 ? 11 April 1945) was a German novelist. He wrote patriotically about his native country and promoted
Heimatkunst
(
regionalism
) in literature.
Biography
[
edit
]
Frenssen was born in the village of
Barlt
, in the
Duchy of Holstein
, then under the control of the
Kingdom of Denmark
. He was educated at the universities of
Tubingen
,
Berlin
and
Kiel
. He took orders and from 1892 to 1902 was
pastor
at
Hemme
, taking his degree as doctor of theology at
Heidelberg
in 1903. But he had already for some years been known as a writer of novels, and in 1902, a year after his great success with
Jorn Uhl
(1901), he gave up his pastorate and devoted all his time to literature.
[1]
In his later years, he abandoned Christianity because Christian morals were in conflict with his
racialism
. Instead, he turned to a form of
Germanic Neopaganism
which also suited his liberal views on sexuality.
While the Nazis were coming to power, and afterwards, Frenssen showed great loyalty to the party. He was vocally anti-Semitic and supported euthanasia.
[2]
Writings
[
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]
- Dorfpredigten
("Village Sermons", 1899?1902; Vandenhoed & Ruprecht, Gottingen; the 1900 cover page indicates that he was pastor in Hemme, Holstein)
- Jorn Uhl
(1901)
- Die Sandgrafin
(1895, 3rd ed. 1902)
- Die drei Getreuen
(1898)
- Das Heimatsfest
, a play (1903)
- Hilligenlei
("Holyland", 1905)
- Peter Moor's Fahrt nach Sud-West
(1906), on the
Herero and Namaqua Genocide
, a very colonialistic and racist story about a soldier in the German war (1904-05) in
Namibia
; translated into English by Margaret May Ward in 1908; one of the most popular novels of the
Third Reich
- Klaus Henrich Baas
(1909)
- Sonke Erichsen
, a play (1912)
- Die Bruder
(1918)
- Der Pastor von Poggsee
("The Pastor of Poggsee", 1921)
- Otto Babendiek
("The Anvil")
- Grubeleien
, observations (3 vols.)
- Recht
oder Unrecht
: Mein Land
, a defense of Germany's actions in
World War II
("Right
or Wrong
: My Country," the title is also a popular saying, cf.
patriotism
; 1940)
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922).
"Frenssen, Gustav"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
(12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
- ^
Ulrich Pfeil
:
Vom Kaiserreich ins ?Dritte Reich“: Heide 1890?1933.
Selbstverlag Heide 1997. Zugleich Hamburger Universitatsdissertation 1995/96.
External links
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