Hans Egon Holthusen (15 April 1913 – 21 January 1997) was a German Nazi, lyric poet, essayist, and literary scholar. Holthusen was born in Rendsburg the Province of Schleswig-Holstein, the son of a Protestant clergyman. He studied German philology, history, and philosophy at the universities of Tübingen, Berlin, and Munich, gaining reputation as a

Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

scholar with the publication of his ''Rilkes Sonette an Orpheus: Versuch einer Interpretation'' in 1937, at the age of 24.Munich, Neuer Filser-Verlag, 1937. Holthusen was a member of the SS (since 1933) and of the Nazi Party (since 1937). During the Second World War, between 1939 and 1944, he served in the

German army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

. In the early 1960s, Holthusen worked at the Goethe-Institut in New York City, subsequently obtaining a professorship at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, a post which he held until 1981. In 1960,

Mascha Kaléko Mascha Kaléko (born Golda Malka Aufen; 7 June 1907 – 21 January 1975) was a German-language poet. Biography Kaléko was born Golda Malka Aufen in Chrzanów, Galicia (now Poland). She was the daughter of Fischel Engel, a merchant, and Roza ...

refused the Berlin ''Theodor Fontane Price'' because Holthusen was a jury member. Holthusen died in Munich. There exists an unpublished 233-page English-language biography covering the first sixty-seven years of his life or so (he died at the age of 83);John Joseph Rock (b. 1950), ‘Toward Orientation: The Life and Work of Hans Egon Holthusen’ (unpublished dissertation; University Park, Pennsylvania,

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

, 1980). a comprehensive bibliography of his works came out posthumously in 2000.Mechthild Raabe, ''Hans Egon Holthusen: Bibliographie 1931–1997'' (Hildesheim, Universitätsbibliothek, 2000). His personal papers (including manuscripts, diaries, private correspondence (encompassing more than five thousand letters), genealogical records, and a photographic archive) are preserved at the Library of the University of Hildesheim (Universitätsbibliothek Hildesheim) in Lower Saxony (‘The Papers of Hans Egon Holthusen’ — ''Nachlass Hans Egon Holthusen''). The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., holds a sound recording of the lecture on post-war German literature, entitled ‘Crossing the Zero Point’, which he delivered in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress on 25 January 1960 (and which he begins by mentioning ‘the German catastrophe of 1945’, ''not'' that of 1933).This was published in printed form by the Reference Department of the Library of Congress in ''French and German Letters Today: Four Lectures; by Pierre Emmanuel, Alain Bosquet, Erich Heller, and Hans Egon Holthusen...'' (Washington, D.C., 1960), pp. 39ff.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holthusen, Hans Egon 1913 births 1997 deaths German essayists Germanists German-language poets German literary critics People from Rendsburg People from the Province of Schleswig-Holstein German Army personnel of World War II SS personnel University of Tübingen alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Northwestern University faculty Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century German poets German male essayists German male poets 20th-century essayists 20th-century German male writers

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