Arno Holz (26 April 1863 – October 1929) was a German naturalist poet and dramatist. He is best known for his poetry collection ''Phantasus'' (1898). He was nominated for a
Nobel prize in literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
nine times.
Life and Works
Holz was born in
Rastenburg,
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
(now
Kętrzyn
Kętrzyn (, until 1946 ''Rastembork''; german: link=yes, Rastenburg ) is a town in northeastern Poland with 27,478 inhabitants (2019). Situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (since 1999), Kętrzyn was previously in Olsztyn Voivodeship (197 ...
, Poland), the son of pharmacist Hermann Holz and Franziska ''née'' Werner. The family moved to Berlin in 1875. After his schooling, Holz worked in 1881 as a journalist but chose a living as a freelance writer. He was beset with financial difficulties for much of his life. He established contacts with the Berlin naturalist club ''Durch'' where he met famed writer
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He recei ...
. In 1885 his poetry collection, ''Buch der Zeit'' (book of time) won the Schiller Prize. Around this time, Holz was fascinated by
Darwinism
Darwinism is a scientific theory, theory of Biology, biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of smal ...
.
From 1888 onward Holz lived and worked together with translator and writer Johannes Schlaf. Together they developed a theory of "consistent naturalism" in their programmatic text, ''Art: its Nature and its Laws,'' wherein they aimed to provide art an exact description and incorporated colloquial elements. They tried, in their description, to eliminate subjectivity from art, to the extent it was scientifically possible, summarized in Holz's formula,
::Art = Nature − ''x''
where ''x'' is the materials needed to produce art. Ideally, art is to be as close to nature as possible, and it is the artist's responsibility to minimize ''x'' in this formula. Holz and Schlaf attempted to apply the theoretical postulate of "consistent naturalism" in their joint works, ''Papa Hamlet'' and ''Die Familie Selicke'', plays published under the pseudonym ''Bjarne P. Holmsen'' (premiered 1890 in Berlin and Madeburg). The demand that art should be an accurate reproduction of reality lead to new experimental modes of expression – for example, the "second by second style" (german: Sekundenstil) in which social deprivation is described in exact minute detail in real time. Reception of ''Papa Hamlet'' was quite varied. Most critics deplored it, but others, including
Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known toda ...
, found it contained high artistic value.
Schlaf and Holz quarreled over revenue from the two plays, which was relatively modest, causing a break in their relations. Holz claimed he could have done more and had contributed more artistically to both works. Holz went on to experiment with unrhymed styles breaking traditional rules of form. He claimed works should be determined by "inner rhythm" and free from regular rhyme and versification. He laid down these principles in his writing, ''Revolution in Poetry'' (1899).
In 1893 he married Emilie Wittenberg with whom he had three sons.
In 1896 Holz commenced work on a dramatic cycle, ''Berlin'' inspired by
Zola's series of novels, ''Rougon-Macquart''. His work, ''Change in Dramatic Time'', originally drawn from twenty five separate pieces, remains unfinished in three works: the comedy ''Socialaristokraten'' ("Social Aristocrats," 1896) and the tragedies ''Eclipse'' (1908) and ''Ignorabimus'' (1913). These late dramas failed with contemporary theater audiences; the book editions, in spite of numerous revisions, found few buyers.
In 1898 Holz published his masterpiece, the poetry volume ''Phantasus'', a work in which he displayed his linguistic virtuosity. The work describes the milieu of slighted hungry poets of Holz's own
Wedding
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
neighborhood in Berlin. Holz had worked on the poems throughout his creative life, often amending, casting aside, and revisiting his varied texts. A typographical feature of the poetry is that all the lines are centered on an axis giving both a right and left ragged edge (common in the modern day of computers but rare at the time). For example, the following (practically untranslatable) passage about St. George's Church in Rastenburg, from "Childhood paradise"
...
landfernhin schauenden, landfernhin lugenden, landfernhin
sichtbaren
Burgbelfriedtürme
der massig, der mächtig, der
wuchtig
der
sturmtrotzig, ehrwürdig, bollwerkkühn,
letztzufluchtstark
stolzen,
feldsteinuntermauerten, ziegelstumpfbraunrötlichen,
berghügelkrönenden,
strebepfeilerigen, sternkreuzgewölbigen,
buntfensterigen
Sankt
Georgenkirche.
[... / looking out remotely on the country, peeping out on the country, remotely from the country / visible / castle belfry towers / of massive, of mighty, of / powerful / of / storm defying, venerable, boldly bulwarked / the last refuge / proud / underpinned by fieldstones, dull reddish brown bricked / mountain hill crowning / buttressed, starry cross-vaulted / colorfully windowed / Saint / George's Church]
![Arno Holz, Dafnis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Arno_Holz%2C_Dafnis._Lyrisches_Portrait_aus_dem_17._Jahrhundert%2C_1904.jpg)
In 1903, he wrote ''Songs on an old Lute'' inspired by the poetry of the
Baroque era
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including th ...
. This volume was later expanded as ''Dafnis'' and published by Reinhard Piper, and one of Holz's few financial successes. The poems incorporated in the volume's, design, subject, and layout celebrations of Baroque eating and erotic events. Holz also received recognition for his tragicomedy ''Traumulus'' (1904), the first of five he created with his friend Oskar Jerschke. The work was produced on many stages upon its publication and
in 1935 it became the basis of a film produced by
Carl Froelich
Carl August Hugo Froelich (5 September 1875 – 12 February 1953) was a German film pioneer and film director. He was born and died in Berlin.
Biography
Apparatus builder and cameraman
From 1903 Froelich was a colleague of Oskar Messter, one of ...
starring
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a Swiss born German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' The L ...
in the title role.
Between 1910 and 1929 Holz lived in the
Schöneberg
Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelh ...
district of Berlin. He divorced and remarried in 1926, and is buried in an
honored grave at the
Friedhof Heerstrasse. Several monuments have been erected in his honor.
Notes
References
*
*
* Phantasus edited by Donatella Casarini ed Enzo Minarelli, Udine, Campanotto Editore, 2008.
talian Translation* Phantasus / Fantazus translated and edited by Krzysztof D. Szatrawski, Kętrzyn, Stowarzyszenie im. Arno Holza dla Porozumienia Polsko-Niemieckiego, 2013
ilingual edition with Polish translation* L'Altro Phantasus di Arno Holz by Enzo Minarelli, Donatella Casarini translation, with a DVD including a videopoem and an oral performance, Udine, Campanotto Editore, 2015
talian translation* Neun Liebesgedichte / Dziewięć wierszy miłosnych, translated and edited by Krzysztof D. Szatrawski, Kętrzyn, Stowarzyszenie im. Arno Holza dla Porozumienia Polsko-Niemieckiego, 2017
ilingual edition with Polish translation
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holz, Arno
1863 births
1929 deaths
People from Kętrzyn
People from the Province of Prussia
German poets
German male poets
German male dramatists and playwrights
19th-century German dramatists and playwrights
19th-century German male writers
20th-century German dramatists and playwrights
German-language poets