Ernst August Bertram (27 July 1884 – 3 May 1957) was a German professor of

German studies German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

, but also a poet and writer who was close to the

George-Kreis The George-Kreis (; George Circle) was an influential German literary group centred on the charismatic author Stefan George. Formed in the late 19th century, when George published a new literary magazine called ''Blätter für die Kunst'', the gro ...

and the lyricist

Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literar ...

Life

Bertram was born the son of Evangelical Lutheran Church Overseas merchant Ernst Bertram and his wife Johanne Müller in

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was in a docu ...

(today

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

). He passed the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

in the spring of 1903 at the in his hometown,. Bertram then studied German

history of literature The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment, enlightenment, or instruction to the reader/listener/observer, as well as the development of the literary techniques ...

, modern

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic vis ...

and philosophy in Berlin, Munich and Bonn. On 9 July 1907, he received his doctorate from the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

with a dissertation written under

Berthold Litzmann Berthold Litzmann (18 April 1857 – 14 October 1926) was a professor of German studies and a literature historian. He was a professor at the University of Bonn and the founder of the Society for Literature History, which also included Thomas M ...

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 ...

's novella technique. The year 1906 was marked by two central encounters for him: on the one hand, he found access to

through

Saladin Schmitt Saladin Schmitt (18 September 1883 – 14 March 1951), real name Joseph Anton Schmitt, also active under the pseudonym Harald Hoffmann) was a German theatre director. Life Born in Bingen am Rhein, Schmitt came from a family of wine merchants a ...

. On the other hand, he met his partner Ernst Glöckner at the beginning of the summer semester. Both understood their love as a "great mystery" and celebrated their '' Du-Tag'' with

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

's music and Thomas Mann reading. George's courtship of Glöckner led to a love triangle because Glöckner clung to Bertram. In terms of works, various essayistic writings on

Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. Early life Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, the son of an upper-class ...

, Stefan George,

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 ...

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 ...

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (11 October 1825 – 28 November 1898) was a Swiss poet and historical novelist, a master of literary realism who is mainly remembered for stirring narrative ballads like "Die Füße im Feuer" (The Feet in the Fire). Biogr ...

and

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

followed. Bertram was a close friend of the latter for a long time and even became godfather to his daughter Elisabeth. In 1918, Bertram's book ''Nietzsche - Versuch einer Mythologie'' was published, with which he quickly became known in literary circles. Mann's preserved letters to Bertram (256 documents in the

Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach The Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach (DLA - German Literature Archive), established in 1955, in Marbach am Neckar, is one of the most significant literary archives in the world. Its collections span literary and intellectual history from 1750 to ...

) as well as Mann's '' Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen'' (Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man), which appeared almost at the same time, bear witness to his influence on Thomas Mann during that time. The writing of these letters was accompanied by an intensive exchange of ideas. In 1919 Bertram was appointed lecturer at the University of Bonn, and in 1922 he received a professorship at the University of Cologne. In his poems in the Nornenbuch, he emphasised the inequality of peoples. After the seizure of power by the Nazis, Bertram greeted the

Nazi book burnings The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (, ''DSt'') to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representin ...

on 10 May 1933 with consecration verses: "Verwerft, was euch verwirrt, / Verfemt, was euch verführt! / Was reinen Willens nicht wuchs, / In die Flammen mit was euch bedroht“." (Reject what confuses you, / Condemn what seduces you! / What pure will did not grow, / Into the flames with what threatens you".)Quote by

Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concer ...

: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Who was what before and after 1945''. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt 2005, . The extent to which Bertram distanced himself inwardly and outwardly from National Socialism over the next twelve years cannot be conclusively assessed. In September 1945, an internal

denazification Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by remov ...

commission at the university concluded that Bertram was "proven to be a man who belongs to the nourishers of National Socialism". In 1946, Bertram was removed from his teaching post, and in 1950, a review of the denazification process resulted in his rehabilitation and emeritus status. He was no longer active as a university

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

. Bertram also appeared as a poet throughout his life. Most of his volumes of poetry (including ''The Rhine'', ''Strasbourg'', ''Patenkinderbuch'', ''Griecheneiland'') were published by

Insel Verlag Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010 the ...

. In addition, he wrote various so-called Spruchdichtungen, i.e. aphorisms that follow one another and stand in a certain context (''Der Wanderer von Milet'', ''Sprüche aus dem Buch Arja'', ''Deichgrafensprüche''), which in this form have a unique position in the

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...

of the 20th century. Bertram died in Cologne at the age of 72.

Honours

* 1939: Treuedienst-Ehrenzeichen in Silber, 2. Stufe *1939: * 1943: *1953: Wuppertaler Kunstpreis

Works

* ''Zur sprachlichen Technik der Novellen Adalbert Stifters''. Ruhfus, Dortmund 1907 * ''Gedichte''. Insel, Leipzig 1913 * ''Nietzsche. Versuch einer Mythologie''. Bondi, Berlin 1918 * ''Straßburg. Ein Gedichtkreis''. Insel, Leipzig 1920 * ''Zwei Gedichte aus dem unveröffentlichten Buch der Rhein''. Privatdruck (?), Weilburg 1921 * ''Rheingenius und Génie du Rhin''. F. Cohen, Bonn 1922 * ''Das Nornenbuch''. Leipzig, Insel 1925 * ''Beethovens Bild. Rede zur Beethoven-Gedächtnisfeier''. Oskar Müller, Cologne 1927 * ''Von deutschem Schicksal'', Gedichte. Insel Leipzig 1933 * ''Wartburg. Spruchgedichte''. Leipzig, Insel 1933 * ''Deutsche Gestalten. Fest- und Gedenkreden''. Insel, Leipzig 1934 * ''Griecheneiland''. Insel, Leipzig 1934 * ''Michaelsberg''. Insel, Leipzig 1935 * ''Das weiße Pferd''. Insel, Leipzig 1936 * ''Von der Freiheit des Wortes''. Leipzig, Insel 1936 ( 485/1) * ''Sprüche aus dem Buch Arja''. Leipzig, Insel 1938 * ''Persische Spruchgedichte''. Leipzig, Insel 1944 (Insel-Bücherei 87/3) * ''Hrabanus. Aus der Michaelsberger Handschrift''. Leipzig, Insel 1939 * ''Konradstein. Erzählung''. Insel, Wiesbaden 1951 * ''Moselvilla. Flavus an Veranius''. Bachem (commission), Cologne 1951 * ''Prosperos Heimkehr. Eine Gedenkmusik zur Wiederkehr von William Shakespeares Todestag ''. Auer, Donauwörth 1951 * ''Der Wanderer von Milet''. Insel, Wiesbaden 1956 * ''Möglichkeiten. Ein Vermächtnis'', edited by Hartmut Buchner. Neske, Pfullingen 1958 (mit Bibliographie Ernst Bertram S. 273–282)

References

External links

* * * Baal Müller:
Der Mythologe Ernst Bertram. Die Legende wirkt fort
' * Heribert Reul über seine Begegnung mit
Ernst Bertram
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertram, Ernst 20th-century German writers German editors Literary scholars Germanists Academic staff of the University of Cologne 1884 births 1957 deaths People from Elberfeld

Life

Honours

Works

References

Further reading

External links