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Bruno Maria Adler (14 October 1888 – 27 December 1968) was a German art historian and writer. He taught art history in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
and lectured about it at the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
. Adler fled Germany after the Nazis seized power and emigrated to England, where he worked first at a German-Jewish refugee school in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, then as a writer with the German Service of
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Radio.
Early years
Adler was born to Jewish parents in
Carlsbad,
Bohemia. His mother was Therese Adler (née Hirsch) and his father was Moritz Adler, editor and critic with the
social democratic newspaper, ''Volkswille'' and an elected representative.
[Joachim W. Storck; Christoph König]
''Internationales Germanistenlexikon: 1800–1950. Band 1: A–G''
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. (2003), pp. 6–8. Adler attended
gymnasium in Carlsbad and
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
.
From 1910 to 1916, he studied art history, the history of literature, and philosophy at universities in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
,
Erlangen
Erlangen (; East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 116,062 inhab ...
and
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, acquiring his doctorate in 1917 with a dissertation on the origin and beginning of woodcuts. From 1919 to 1924, Adler lectured on art history at the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
,
and between 1920 and 1930, he taught
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
at the
Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School
The Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar (German:Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar) was founded on 1 October 1860, in Weimar, Germany, by a decree of Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. It existed until 1910, when i ...
. His association with
Johannes Itten
Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus (''Staatliches Bauhaus'') school. Together with German-American painter Lyonel Feining ...
, who also taught at the Bauhaus, led to him publishing and editing ''Utopia: Dokumente der Wirklichkeit'' ("Utopia: Documents of Reality"). This included translations by Adler from the
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...
and work by
Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Re ...
. During this period, Adler also edited writings by
Adalbert Stifter
Adalbert Stifter (; 23 October 1805 – 28 January 1868) was an Austrian writer, poet, painter, and pedagogue. He was notable for the vivid natural landscapes depicted in his writing and has long been popular in the German-speaking world, while ...
and
Matthias Claudius
Matthias Claudius (15 August 1740 – 21 January 1815) was a German poet and journalist, otherwise known by the pen name of “Asmus”.
Life
Claudius was born at Reinfeld, near Lübeck, and studied at Jena. He spent the greater part of his li ...
.
Exile in England
After the Nazis
seized power, Adler was forced to flee to
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
. In 1936, he went to England. Writing under the pseudonymous
anagram ''Urban Roedl'', Adler released a biography of Stifter with the publisher
Ernst Rowohlt
Ernst R. Rowohlt (23 June 1887 in Bremen – 1 December 1960 in Hamburg) was a German publisher who founded the Rowohlt publishing house in 1908 and headed it and its successors until his death.
In 1912 he married actress Emmy Reye, but the marr ...
, who was afterward prohibited by the Nazis from working, having been charged with disguising Jewish writers. From 1936 to 1938,
Adler continued to use the pseudonym during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
and occasionally, after the war.
Adler taught at the
New Herrlingen School (also known as Bunce Court),
[Lesley Bellew, "Anna's children", ''Kent Messenger'' newspapers, '']Blitz
Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to:
Military uses
*Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign
*The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War
*, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...
Spirit'', special souvenir supplement (4 February 2011), p. 11 a German-Jewish school founded by
Anna Essinger with help from British
Quakers. Originally located in
Herrlingen
Blaustein () is a town in the district of Alb-Donau Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated on the Blau River, 6 km west of Ulm and has about 15,000 inhabitants.
Before 1968, Blaustein was known as Herrlingen. It was created in 19 ...
, Germany, it was relocated to
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England because of Nazi persecution, where it became a haven for refugees, including both children from the
Kindertransport
The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...
s and adults, who joined the staff. Adler's nephew,
Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung (22 March 192528 September 1959) was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.
Raised in Germany, Hoffnung was brought to London as a boy, to escape the Nazis. Over the next two decades in England, he became kno ...
, was a pupil at Bunce Court.
German Service of the BBC
During the war, Adler worked in the German Service of the
BBC World Service. Under the guise of literary entertainment, these German-language programs broadcast British propaganda using established native-speaking writers in exile, such as Adler and
Robert Lucas, and targeted the average German, who was growing weary of endless war. Listening carried severe penalties in Germany, imprisonment and even death, so the programs were short, between three and seven minutes. Characters had to be easily identifiable and they had little time to impress the thought of their target audience.
[Jennifer Taylor; Ian Wallace (Ed.)]
"The 'Endsieg' as Ever-Receding Goal. Literary Propaganda by Bruno Adler and Robert Lucas for BBC Radio"
''German-speaking exiles in Great Britain'', Volume 1. (1999), pp. 43–45. Retrieved 29 October 2011
Adler created the satirical "Frau Wernicke", a program broadcast from summer 1940 to January 1944. The lead role, Frau Gertrud Wernicke, was voiced by the German actress and cabaret artist
Annemarie Hase
Annemarie Hase (1900 – 1971) was a German actress and cabaret artist. She emerged as a star during the Weimar Republic, but because she was Jewish she faced increasing persecution following the Nazi takeover in 1933. In 1936 she went into exile ...
, also in exile.
The character was a Berlin woman married to a tradesman and
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
veteran. She commented on the shortages plaguing the German populace, the state of the war
[Jennifer Taylor]
"The 'Endsieg' as Ever-Receding Goal"
(1999), p. 49. Retrieved 29 October 2011 and she launched subversive tirades against the Nazis, turning them into a laughing stock. ''Frau Wernicke'' became one of the most popular programs of the BBC's German Service.
[ and Richard Dove (Eds.)]
''Stimme der Wahrheit: German Language Broadcasting by the BBC''
Editions Rodopi (2003) . Retrieved 29 October 2011
Adler wrote the satirical series "Kurt und Willi" with the Scottish poet
Norman Cameron. It featured two characters, a teacher named Kurt Krüger and Willi Schimanski, an official in the German Ministry of Propaganda. So skilled was the character Willi as a propagandist, that he was reputedly much admired within the actual
Nazi Ministry.
Adler later edited the monthly German-language magazine ''Neue Auslese aus dem Schrifttum der Gegenwart'', published by the US Information Services Division, Central Office of Information in London after the war.
Personal and legacy
Adler's first wife was Margit, née Téry (1892–1977), a painter, graphic designer and student of Johannes Itten. They were married in 1918 and had one son, Florian (1921–1998), an architect and editor. Adler married his second wife, Ilse, née Katz (1890–1974) in 1928.
Adler's personal papers are archived at the
German Literature Archive
The Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach (DLA - German Literature Archive), established in 1955, in Marbach am Neckar
Marbach am Neckar is a town about 20 kilometres north of Stuttgart. It belongs to the district of Ludwigsburg, the Stuttgart re ...
(''Deutsches Literaturarchiv'') in
Marbach am Neckar
Marbach am Neckar is a town about 20 kilometres north of Stuttgart. It belongs to the district of Ludwigsburg, the Stuttgart region and the European metropolitan region of Stuttgart. Marbach is known as the birthplace of Friedrich Schiller, to ...
. Included in the papers is correspondence with
Willi Baumeister
Willi Baumeister (22 January 1889 – 31 August 1955) was a German painter, scenic designer, art professor, and typographer. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics.
Life
Born in ...
,
Theodor Heuss
Theodor Heuss (; 31 January 1884 – 12 December 1963) was a German liberal politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His cordial nature – something of a contrast to the stern character of chancellor K ...
,
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...
, Itten,
Hermann Kasack
Hermann Robert Richard Eugen Kasack (24 July 1896 – 10 January 1966) was a German writer. He is best known for his novel '' Die Stadt hinter dem Strom'' (''The city beyond the river''). Kasack was a pioneer of using the medium broadcast for l ...
,
Alfred Kubin
Alfred Leopold Isidor Kubin (10 April 1877 – 20 August 1959) was an Austrian printmaker, illustrator, and occasional writer. Kubin is considered an important representative of Symbolism and Expressionism.
Biography
Kubin was born in Bohemia ...
,
Georg Muche
Georg Muche (8 May 1895 – 26 March 1987) was a German painter, printmaker, architect, author, and teacher.
Early life and education
Georg Muche was born on 8 May 1895 in Querfurt, in the Prussian Province of Saxony, and grew up in the Rhön ...
and
Max Stefl.
In 1958, Adler, again writing as Roedl, re-issued his 1936 biography of Stifter and dedicated it to his wife, Ilse Katz.
Roedl was also the author of the Adalbert Stifter,
monograph, which Adler dedicated to
Erich Heller.
Publications (selected)
;as Bruno Adler:
* Translation of
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...
, ''Die Sage von St. Julian, dem Gastfreien'', (Original title: ''La légende de Saint Julien l'hospitalier'') M. Biewald, Weimar(1923)
* ''Matthias Claudius. Werke'', Utopia-Verlag, Weimar (1924)
* ''Das Weimarer Bauhaus'', Bauhaus Archive, Darmstadt (1965)
* (Editor) ''Utopia: Dokumente der Wirklichkeit'', Martin Biewald, Weimar (1921); Kraus reprint, Munich (1980)
;as Urban Roedl:
* ''Matthias Claudius: sein Weg und seine Welt'', Wolff, Berlin (1934)
* ''Kampf um Polna'' (novel), Kacha, Prague (1934), reprinted Polná (1999)
* ''Adalbert Stifter in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten'', Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg (1965)
* ''Jodel-Franz'', (with Billy Dongen). Munich: Ed. Insel-Ton, (1955)
* ''Adalbert Stifter: Geschichte seines Lebens'', Francke, Bern (1958)
* ''Frau Wernicke: Kommentare einer "Volksjenossin'', Uwe Naumann (Ed.), persona verlag, Mannheim (1990)
Bibliography
* Werner Röder,
Herbert A. Strauss, Institut für Zeitgeschichte München (publisher.), ''Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933.'' (International biographical dictionary of Central European émigrés 1933–1945.) 4 Volumes, Saur, Munich (1983).
* Joseph Walk (Ed.), ''Kurzbiographien zur Geschichte der Juden 1918–1945''
Leo Baeck Institute
The Leo Baeck Institute, established in 1955, is an international research institute with centres in New York City, London, and Jerusalem that are devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. Baeck was its first intern ...
, Jerusalem. Munich: Saur (1988)
* Joachim W. Storck, "Adalbert Stifter im Exil. Urban Roedl (Bruno Adler) als Stifter-Biograph und Stifter-Interpret", in: Johann Lachinger (Ed.), ''Adalbert Stifter – Studien zu seiner Rezeption und Wirkung'', Kolloquium II Schriftenreihe of the Adalbert Stifter Institute, Upper Austria; 40 (2002)
* Ulrike Wendland, ''Biographisches Handbuch deutschsprachiger Kunsthistoriker im Exil. Leben und Werk der unter dem Nationalsozialismus verfolgten und vertriebenen Wissenschaftler''. Saur, Munich (1999)
References
External links
*
* Detlef Färber
''Ein Weltstar kam aus Halle'' ''Mitteldeutsche Zeitung'' (14 November 2007). Retrieved 28 October 2011
* W. Bernhard
''Für Urban Roedl''''Die Zeit'', (11 October 1963), No. 41. Retrieved 28 October 2011
* ''Roedl, Urban 1889?–1968'' a
worldcat* Werner Eugen Mosse (ed.)
''Second Chance: Two Centuries of German-speaking Jews in the United Kingdom''J.C.B. Mohr, Tübingen, Germany (1991), p. 149. Retrieved 20 October 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adler, Bruno
1888 births
1968 deaths
Writers from Karlovy Vary
German art historians
Staff of Bunce Court School
Academic staff of the Bauhaus
German male non-fiction writers
Czech Jews
Austro-Hungarian emigrants to Germany
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom