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Rudolf Leonhard (27 October 1889, in Lissa,
Rudolf Leonhard (27 October 1889, in Lissa, German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
(today Leszno
Leszno (german: Lissa, 1800–1918 ''Lissa in Posen'') is a historic city in western Poland, within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seventh-largest city in the province with an estimated population of 62,200, as of 2021. Previously, it ...
, Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
) – 19 December 1953, in East Berlin
East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...
) was a German author and communist activist.
Life
Leonhard came from a family of lawyers and studied law andPhilology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
. In 1914 he volunteered for the German military effort in World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, but quickly converted to pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
and was brought before a military court
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
for his convictions.
In 1918 he joined the USPD
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was establish ...
(Independent German Social Democratic Party) and fought alongside Karl Liebknecht
Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German socialist and anti-militarist. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag from ...
and Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...
in the 1918 revolution. In 1919, he joined the KPD (Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
), but left that party in favor of the left-communist KAPD
The Communist Workers' Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Arbeiter-Partei Deutschlands; KAPD) was an anti-parliamentarian and left communist party that was active in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. It was founded in April 1 ...
(German Communist Workers’ Party), which he also left after a year. In 1918 he married the author Susanne Köhler, but was divorced from her after one year. However, Susanne had a son Wladimir Leonhard in 1921 (later called Wolfgang), for whom the presumed father was Rudolf.Susanne Leonhard, ''Gestohlenes Leben'', Steingrüben (1959), p. 13
In the early 1920s he married Frieda Gertrud Riess, a prominent Berlin portrait photographer.
From 1919 onwards he was a freelance author for the publication ''Die Weltbühne
''Die Weltbühne'' (‘The World Stage’) was a German weekly magazine for politics, art and the economy. It was founded in Berlin in 1905 as (‘The Theater’) by Siegfried Jacobsohn and was originally a theater magazine only. In 1913 it beg ...
'', and from the summer of 1922 he worked for the publishing house ''Verlag Die Schmiede
''Verlag Die Schmiede'' was an avant-garde literature publishing house in the 1920s in Berlin. It published works by Franz Kafka, Alfred Döblin, Joseph Roth, Rudolf Leonhard, and many more. Most of its dust jackets were designed by George Salter ...
'' as a lector and as the editor of a series of books
A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pub ...
, “Außenseiter der Gesellschaft”. In late November 1925, he began and led the Gruppe 1925 which counted Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
, Alfred Döblin
Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel '' Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of ...
, Albert Ehrenstein
Albert Ehrenstein (23 December 1886 – 8 April 1950) was an Austrian-born German Expressionist poet. His poetry exemplifies rejection of bourgeois values and fascination with the Orient, particularly with China.
He spent most of his life in B ...
, Leonhard Frank
Leonhard Frank (4 September 1882 in Würzburg – 18 August 1961 in Munich) was a German expressionist writer. He studied painting and graphic art in Munich, and gained acclaim with his first novel ''The Robber Band'' (1914, tr. 1928). When a Ber ...
, Walter Hasenclever
Walter Georg Alfred Hasenclever (8 July 1890 – 22 June 1940) was a German Expressionist poet and playwright. His works were banned when the Nazis came to power and he went into exile in France. There he was imprisoned as a "foreign enemy". H ...
, Walter Mehring
Walter Mehring (29 April 1896 – 3 October 1981) was a German author and one of the most prominent satirical authors in the Weimar Republic. He was banned during the Third Reich, and fled the country.
Early life
He was the son of the trans ...
and Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky (; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel.
Tucholsky was on ...
among its members. After a difference of opinion, Leonhard left the group in 1927.
In March 1928, he moved to Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
at the invitation of his friend Walter Hasenclever and lived with him until 1934. In April 1933, Leonhard took part in the foundation of the „Ligue des Combattants de la Paix" and was co-president of the German sector alongside Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
. After the “Schutzverband Deutscher Schriftsteller” was taken over by the „ Reichsverband deutscher Schriftsteller", he successfully founded the „Schutzverband Deutscher Schriftsteller im Ausland" and became leader of the French section. He describes his experiences in the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
in his collection of stories “Der Tod des Don Quijote”. From 1939 until 1944, he was detained. First he was held in Le Vernet, then he was transferred to Castres
Castres (; ''Castras'' in the Languedocian dialect, Languedocian dialect of Occitan language, Occitan) is the sole Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administ ...
. He fled, was recaptured, and eventually fled again, living in underground Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
until the end of the war.
He returned to Paris in 1944. In 1947 he took part in the first Congress of German Authors. In 1950 he returned to Germany and took up residence in East Berlin. He was very ill at this point. Because he was seen as an immigrant from the West and due to his son’s activities, he was only granted a small place on the East German literary scene.
He died in 1953.
Selected works
His works include plays, poems, novels, and political essays: * Angelische Strophen (1913) * Der Weg durch den Wald (Poems) (1913) * Barbaren (Ballads) (1914) * Über den Schlachten (Poems) 1914) * Äonen des Fegefeuers (Aphorisms) (1917) * Bemerkungen zum Reichsjugendwehrgesetz (1917) * Beate und der große Pan (Novel) (1918) * Katilinarische Pilgerschaft (Poems) (1919) * Kamp gegen die Waffe (Speech) (1919) * Briefe an Margit (Poems) (1919) * Das Chaos (Poems) (1919) * Die Vorhölle (Tragedy) (1919) * Poems about "Mother" (1920) * Alles und Nichts! (Aphorisms) (1920) * Spartakus-Sonette (1921) * Die Ewigkeit dieser Zeit. Eine Rhapsodie gegen Europa (1924) * Segel am Horizont (Drama) (1925) * Das nackte Leben (Poems) (1925) * Das Wort (ein sinnliches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 1932) * Der Tod des Don Quijote (Poems from the Spanish Civil War, 1938) * Le Vernet (Gedichtzyklus, entstanden 1939–1944) * In derselben Nacht (dream journal from his time in Le Vernet, written 1939–1944) * Geiseln (Tragedy, 1945, dt. 1946) * Unsere Republik (Essays and Poems, 1951). * Selected Works in Four Volumes (1961 ff)References
*This article was initially translated from the German Wikipedia entry)External links
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonhard, Rudolf 1889 births 1953 deaths People from Leszno People from the Province of Posen Jewish German politicians Jewish writers Jewish socialists Independent Social Democratic Party politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians Communist Workers' Party of Germany politicians Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians German-language poets German male poets