Lulu von Strauss und Torney (1873–1956) was a German poet and writer. Best remembered for her

ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

, she also wrote historical fiction with rural settings in

northwest Germany Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...

Life

Lulu von Strauss und Torney was born in 1873 in

Bückeburg Bückeburg (Northern Low Saxon: ''Bückeborg'') is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the border with North Rhine Westphalia. It is located in the district of Schaumburg close to the northern slopes of the Weserbergland ridge. Population: 21,0 ...

. She was the daughter of a German general, who had served as an adjutant at the court of the Prince of Schaumberg-Lippe. She studied in Bückeburg. In her twenties she began to write poetry and ballads, contributing to the ballad's early-20th-century revival as a genre. Encouraged by

Börries von Münchhausen Börries Albrecht Conon August Heinrich Freiherr von Münchhausen (20 March 1874 – 16 March 1945) was a German poet and Nazi activist. Biography He was born in Hildesheim, the eldest child of Kammerherr Börries von Münchhausen and his ...

, she wrote from 1901 to 1905 for Münchhausen's literary magazine ''Göttinger Musenalmanach''. Her 1911 novel ''Judas'' was later reworked as the 1937 ''Der Judenhof''. In 1916 she married the publisher Eugen Diederichs, settling with him in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

. Another collection of ballads appeared in 1919. In 1921 she wrote the play ''Der Tempel''. Her 1922 novel ''Der jüngste Tag'' treated the Münster rebellion by

Anabaptists Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re-baptizers"), considering it biased. ...

. Her politics moved to the right, and she proclaimed

Hans Grimm Hans Grimm (22 March 1875 – 29 September 1959) was a German writer. The title of his 1926 novel '' Volk ohne Raum'' became a political slogan of the expansionist Nazi ''Lebensraum'' concept. Early life Hans Grimm was born in Wiesbaden, in the P ...

's 1926 novel ''

Volk ohne Raum "" (; "people without space") was a political slogan used in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. The term was coined by the nationalist writer Hans Grimm with his novel ''Volk ohne Raum'' (1926). The novel immediately attracted much attention an ...

'' to be "a German spiritual event". She published a biography of her husband after his death, and her own memoirs in 1943. Correspondence with Agnes Miegel and with

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 ...

was posthumously published. She also translated from the French.

Works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strauss und Torney, Lulu von 1873 births 1956 deaths People from Bückeburg Ballads German poets German women poets 20th-century German novelists German historical novelists German women novelists German autobiographers French–German translators Lula