Otto Borngräber (19 November 1874 – 19 October 1916) was a German writer and playwright.

Life

Borngräber was born in

Stendal The Hanseatic City of Stendal () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the capital of the Stendal District and the unofficial capital of the Altmark region. Geography Situated west of the Elbe valley, the Stendal town centre is located s ...

Altmark :''See German tanker Altmark for the ship named after Altmark and Stary Targ for the Polish village named Altmark in German.'' The (English: Old MarchHansard, ''The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time ...'', Volume 32. 1 F ...

, on 19 November 1874 to Wilhelm and Flora Borngräber. His father was a primary school teacher. After completing school in Stendal with 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 ...

, he began studies of theology and philosophy at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

in 1896. He moved to the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

in 1898, and on to the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

after a short time, returning to Halle in 1900. In 1908, he was promoted to the doctorate with a dissertation about the awakening of philosophical speculation during the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

("Das Erwachen der philosophischen Spekulation der Reformationszeit"). He then worked for a short time as

dramaturge A dramaturge or dramaturg is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programmes (or helps others with these tasks), consults auth ...

for Neues Theater Berlin. He married the writer , known under her pen name Gerda von Robertus, on 10 July 1911. They were divorced two years later. His drama ''Die ersten Menschen'' (The first humans), completed in 1908 and subtitled ''Erotisches Mysterium'' (erotic mystery play), was banned in Bavaria in 1912 after its premiere in Munich. He joined the group of the

Monte Verità Monte Verità (Italian; German 'Berg Wahrheit', meaning "Mount Truth" or "Mountain of Truth") is a 321 metres above sea level high hill and a cultural-historical ensemble in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The site is in the municipality of Ascona, a ...

, and became friends with the dancer

Rudolf von Laban Rudolf von Laban, also known as Rudolf Laban (German; also ''Rudolph von Laban'', hu, Lábán Rezső János Attila, Lábán Rudolf; 15 December 1879 – 1 July 1958), was an Austro-Hungarian, German and British dance artist, choreographer a ...

. A dance drama in three parts with text by Borngräber was performed in 1917, titled ''Sang an die Sonne'' (Song to the sun), with masks and costumes created by

Marcel Janco Marcel Janco (, ; common rendition of the Romanian language, Romanian name Marcel Hermann Iancu ; 24 May 1895 – 21 April 1984) was a Romanian and Israeli visual artist, architect and art theorist. He was the co-inventor of Dadaism and a leading ...

. Bornräber joined an call to a convention "Vegetarisch-sozialer Kongress") (Vegetarian-social congress), that was held in April 1916, intended as a demonstration for peace and against capitalism, and led by the pacifist , a friend of

Tolstoi Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

. Borngräber was a member of the . When nationalist tendencies showed in the association in 1915, he reacted writing a ''Friedensappell an die Völker'' (Appeal for peace to the nations) and the ''Weltfriedensdrama'', a drama for world peace. Borngräber died in

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

on 19 October 1916 at age 41.

Legacy

Borngräbers Drama ''Die ersten Menschen'' was set as an opera, ''

Die ersten Menschen ''Die ersten Menschen'' ''(The first humans)'' is an opera in two acts by Rudi Stephan. For the libretto the composer chose poetry of the same name by Otto Borngräber. The opera was premiered at the Oper Frankfurt on 1 July 1920. History The p ...

'', by

Rudi Stephan Rudi Stephan (29 July 1887 – 29 September 1915) was a German composer of great promise who was considered one of the leading talents among his generation. He was killed in action during World War I. Life Stephan was born at Worms, Germany, W ...

, completed in 1915, premiered in 1920 by the

Oper Frankfurt The Oper Frankfurt (Frankfurt Opera) is a German opera company based in Frankfurt. Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Shrek's ''Der ferne Klang'' in 1912, '' Fennimore und Gerda'' by Frede ...

, and revived beginning in the 1980s.

Work

Stage

* ''Das neue Jahrhundert. (Giordano Bruno) Eine Tragödie. Mit einem Vorwort von Ernst Haeckel.'' Strauß, Bonn 1900.
Digitalisat der 2. Aufl. 1901
Steiner 1900. * ''König Friedwahn. Germanisches Trauerspiel in fünf Aufzügen''. Schwetschke, Berlin 1905. * ''Die heiligen zehn Gebote des Freien. Der heilige Glaube des Freien. Das heilige Gebet des Freien. Moses oder die Geburt Gottes.'' tragedy, Verlag Neues Leben, Ron /Berlin 1907. * ''Die ersten Menschen. Erotisches Mysterium in zwei Akten''. Marquardt, Berlin 1908. * ''Althäa und ihr Kind. Die Tragödie der Reinheit. Ein Vorspiel und vier Akte in einem Aufzuge''. Borngräber, Berlin 1912. * ''Die andere Nacht. Mysterium der Liebe''. Borngräber, Berlin 1910. * ''Weltfriedensdrama. Ein Weihespiel''. Borngräber, Berlin 1916.

Philosophy

* ''Gottfreies Christentum''. 1903 (lost) * ''Das Erwachen der philosophischen Spekulation der Reformationszeit in ihrem stufenweisen Fortschreiten beleuchtet an Schwenkfeld, Thamer, Sebastian Franck von Wörd.'' (dissertation) Gärtner, Schwarzenberg 1908. * ''Gottfreies Menschentum. Die Fortsetzung der alten, die Vollendung einer neuen Reformation''. Neues Leben, Berlin 1909. * with

Georg Brandes Georg Morris Cohen Brandes (4 February 1842 – 19 February 1927) was a Danish critic and scholar who greatly influenced Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind ...

: ''Friedens-Appell an die Völker.'' Stockholm 1916.

Poetry

* ''In Wald und Welle und Heide''. Ebering, Berlin 1900. * ''Neue Gedichte''. 1903 (lost). * ''Die Hymnen an die Größe und das tiefe Leid''. 1915 (lost).

References

Sources

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a ...

:
"Das Neue Jahrhundert". Eine Tragödie von Otto Borngräber
'. In: ''Magazin für Literatur'' 1900, 69th year, Nos. 24, 28, 29 (GA 29, pp. 385–392).

External links

Otto Borngräber
monteverita.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Borngraber, Otto 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German male writers People from Stendal 1874 births 1916 deaths