Menno ter Braak (26 January 1902 – 14 May 1940) was a Dutch

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

writer,

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or govern ...

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

, and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

Early career

Ter Braak was born in Eibergen and grew up in the town of

Tiel Tiel () is a municipality and a town in the middle of the Netherlands. The town is enclosed by the Waal river and the Linge river to the South and the North, and the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal to the East. Tiel comprises the population centres Kape ...

where he was an exemplary student. He went on to the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other bei ...

where he majored in

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...

and History. He was a regular contributor to the student magazine Propria Cures and involved himself in the study of film (then a very young discipline). Together with

Joris Ivens Georg Henri Anton "Joris" Ivens (18 November 1898 – 28 June 1989) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker. Among the notable films he directed or co-directed are '' A Tale of the Wind'', '' The Spanish Earth'', ''Rain'', ''...A Valparaiso'', '' ...

, Menno ter Braak was also a founder of the ''Filmliga'' (Movie League), an organisation for the study of animated film. He completed a Ph.D. dissertation on the medieval emperor

Otto III Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of ...

and consecutively worked as a teacher in a number of secondary schools, lastly in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

''Forum'' movement

In 1932 ter Braak, together with Eddy du Perron and , started the literary magazine ''Forum'' which proved to be one of the most important literary periodicals in the Dutch-speaking world (it expressly involved Flemish intellectuals as well) in the nineteen-thirties. ''Forum'' is widely considered a bulwark of cultural elitism, advocating a high cultural level of discourse, a rational form of literary criticism, consequent individualism and a stern disapproval of all intellectual ornamentation. “Vent boven vorm” (loosely translated: ‘personality over form’) was the catchword of the ''Forum'' movement, and

Multatuli Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 182019 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin ''multa tulī'', "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel '' Max Havelaar'' (1860), which denounced the ...

was one of its most important paragons.

Political involvement

In 1933 ter Braak married Ant Faber, daughter of the social-democratic

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

and

reverend The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. ''The Reverend'' is correctly ...

Jan Lambertus Faber. They moved to

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital ...

, where Ter Braak joined the Dutch

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and ...

daily ''Het Vaderland'' (the Fatherland) as a literary affairs editor and was one of the first Dutchmen to understand the looming threat of

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

. It is in these years that he started ''het Comité van Waakzaamheid'' (the Committee for Vigilance). As a public

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

, he is most famous for his

essays An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

, most of which deal with

European culture The culture of Europe is rooted in its art, architecture, film, different types of music, economics, literature, and philosophy. European culture is largely rooted in what is often referred to as its "common cultural heritage". Definition T ...

, politics, or a mixture of the two. He is distinctly influenced by

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ca ...

and his style is deliberately paradoxical.

Later writing

In his last, and best-known essays he chastises those who would subject themselves to "higher" and "spiritual" values, unmasking the hierarchies behind those values who are working to further their own agenda. Against this subjection to extraneous authorities and false values, ter Braak posits the individualist ideal of the ''honnête homme'', the "Man of Integrity" who will not conform himself to other people's expectations and systems. A born

polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

ist, he managed to find himself a diverse group of opponents and by the end of his life had entered into polemics, some of which were hostile with the self-proclaimed representatives of what he considered to be "nebulous collectivisms" such as

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

humanism Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "huma ...

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialec ...

and

fascism Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

Graf van Menno ter Braak op begraafplaats Oud Eik en Duinen te Den Haag

Death

Towards the end of his life he became increasingly involved in the growing

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

movement in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Neth ...

. When the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

broke out in 1939 he fell into a deep depression. Four days after Nazi Germany had invaded the

, on 14 May 1940, the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

carpet-bombed his former hometown Rotterdam. Earlier that day, ter Braak and his wife had made a half-hearted attempt to find out if they could flee to England by boat from the port of

Scheveningen Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (''wijk'') of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is p ...

, only to learn that under the circumstances such a trip was prohibitively expensive. When the Dutch army's supreme command announced capitulation in the late afternoon, Menno and Ant ter Braak went to the house of Menno's brother Wim and Ant's half-sister Mineke, also in The Hague. There, Menno ter Braak committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

by using a sedative, combined with an injection of poison (most likely administered by his brother, who was a neurologist). Coincidentally, his friend du Perron died at about the same time from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may ...

caused by

angina pectoris Angina, also known as angina pectoris, is chest pain or pressure, usually caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle (myocardium). It is most commonly a symptom of coronary artery disease. Angina is typically the result of obstru ...

. Menno ter Braak's influence remained fairly large and lasted well into the 1950s; during the fifties his influence began to wane but a number of literary periodicals, especially ''Libertinage'' and ''Tirade'' remained faithful to a number of ter Braak's ideas.

Bibliography

*1928 - ''Kaiser Otto III. Ideal und Praxis im frühen Mittelalter'' (Ph.D. dissertation) *1929 - ''Cinema militans'' (essay) *1930 - ''Het carnaval der burgers. Een gelijkenis in gelijkenissen'' (essay) (The Burghers' Carnival. A Parable in Parables) *1931 - ''De absolute film'' (essay) (The Absolute Film) *1931 - ''Afscheid van domineesland'' (essay) (Saying Goodbye to the Country of Pastors) *1931 - ''Hampton Court'' (novel) *1931 - ''Man tegen man'' (essay) (Man to Man) *1932 - ''Démasqué der schoonheid'' (essay) (Démasqué of Beauty) *1932-1935 - ''Forum'' Maandschrift voor letteren en kunst (magazine) (Forum, magazine for literature and the arts) *1933 - ''Dr. Dumay verliest...'' (novel) (Dr. Dumay Loses) *1934 - ''Politicus zonder partij'' (essay) (Politician without Party) *1935 - ''De pantserkrant. Een tragicomedie van wapens, schrijfmachines en idealen. Gevolgd door een brief aan een vijandin van het tooneel'' (play) (The Armoured Newspaper; a tragicomedy of Arms, Typewriters and Ideals, Followed by a Letter to an Enemy of the Theatre) *1935 - ''Het tweede gezicht'' (essays) (The Second Face) *1937 - ''Douwes Dekker en Multatuli'' (essay) (Douwes Dekker and

) *1937 - ''Van oude en nieuwe Christenen'' (essay) (Of Old and New Christians) *1937 - ''Het Christendom. Twee getuigenissen in polemische vorm'' (essays) (Christianity, two testimonies in polemical form) (with Anton van Duinkerken as co-author) *1937 - ''Het nationaal-socialisme als rancuneleer'' (essay) (National-Socialism as a Doctrine of Resentment) *1938 - ''In gesprek met de vorigen'' (essay) (Talking with the Predecessors) *1938 - ''Mephistophelisch'' (essay) (Mephistophelian) *1938 - ''De Augustijner monnik en zijn trouwe duivel'' (essay) (The Augustinian Monk and his loyal Devil) *1939 - ''De nieuwe elite'' (essay) (The New Elite) *1943 - ''De duivelskunstenaar. Een studie over S. Vestdijk'' (essay) (The Devil's artist, a study on S. Vestdijk) *1944 - ''Reinaert op reis'' (essays) (Reinaert on the Move) *1945 - ''Over waardigheid en macht. Politiek-cultureele kroniek'' (essay) (On Truth and Dignity, a political-cultural Chronicle) *1945 - ''Journaal 1939'' (diary) (Journal 1939) *1946 - ''In gesprek met de onzen (essay) (Talking to one's Own) *1949 - ''Briefwisseling Ter Braak - Du Perron. Een bloemlezing'' (Selected Correspondence between Ter Braak and Du Perron) *1949-1951 - ''Verzameld werk'' (seven volumes) (Collected Works) * 1962-1967 - ''Briefwisseling 1930-1940'' (correspondence) (Correspondence between Menno ter Braak and Edgar du Perron, four volumes) * 1965 - ''Het verraad der vlaggen (essays)'' (The Treason of the Flags) * 1978 - ''De Propria Curesartikelen. 1923-1925'' (The articles from ''Propria Cures'') * 1980 - ''De artikelen over emigrantenliteratuur. 1933-1940'' (Articles on Migrant Literature) * 1992 - De draagbare Ter Braak (The Portable ter Braak)

References

External links

*
Forum (complete texts from ''Forum'')
*
DBNL auteur - Menno ter Braak
at

Digital Library for Dutch Literature The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. It contains thousands of literary texts, secon ...

Menno ter Braak Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braak, Menno ter 1902 births 1940 suicides People from Berkelland People from Tiel Dutch male writers Modernism Modernist writers University of Amsterdam alumni Drug-related suicides in the Netherlands