Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
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, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
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, postal ...
– 30 January 1984, in Stockholm) was a German literary scholar. He was an active member of the Deutsche Liga fur Menschenrechte ( League for Men's Rights), a spinoff of the pacifist Bund Neues Vaterland, until 1933 when he fled for Sweden when the group was dissolved by Nazis.GoogleBooks preview "An American in Hitler's Berlin: Abraham Plotkin's Diary 1932-33" (published 2009 by University of Illinois) page 31: (original diary December 1932): "Walter A. Berendsohn was a professor of Scandinavian literature at the University of Hamburg and active member of the League for Men's Rights. He emigrated to Sweden in 1933." .. "The Deutsche Liga fur Menschenrechte had been formed out of the Bund Neues Vaterland, a pacifist organization founded in November 1914. It was forced to dissolve in 1933 because of persecution by the Nazis."
Life
Berendsohn was educated at the universities of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
,
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, and
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
at Kiel in 1911 and after completing his habilitation, became a professor at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...
, teaching German literature and Scandinavian studies. Besides his academic career, he lectured and officiated at
baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
s and
wedding
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
Aryanized
Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...
his property. He escaped imminent arrest by immigrating to
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
rescue of the Danish Jews
The Danish resistance movement, with the assistance of many Danish citizens, managed to evacuate 7,220 of Denmark's 7,800 Jews, plus 686 non-Jewish spouses, by sea to nearby neutral Sweden during the Second World War.Stockholm University and lived in the city until his death in 1984.
Work
Berendsohn is considered to have founded the study of German
Exilliteratur
German ''Exilliteratur'' (, ''exile literature'') is the name for works of German literature written in the German diaspora by refugee authors who fled from Nazi Germany, Nazi Austria, and the occupied territories between 1933 and 1945. These dis ...
with his seminal book ''Die humanistische Front'' (1939). He worked for several decades at the German Studies Institute of Stockholm University, where he, together with the Institute's present-day director Prof. Dr. Helmut Müssener, opened the ''Stockholmer Koordinationsstelle zur Erforschung der deutschsprachigen Exil-Literatur'' (Stockholm Coordinating Center for Research into Germanophone Exile Literature) in 1969. In 2001, the ''Hamburger Arbeitsstelle für deutsche Exilliteratur'' (''HafdE'') was renamed the '' Walter-A.-Berendsohn-Forschungsstelle für deutsche Exilliteratur'' (''BFfdE'') in his honor. Berendsohn is also well known for writing the
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
and championing the work of the writer
Nelly Sachs
Nelly Sachs (; 10 December 1891 – 12 May 1970) was a German-Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of he ...
. He successfully nominated Nelly Sachs for the
Nobel Literature Prize
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901 ...
(1966) and
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
for the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...
Knut Hamsun
Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, Point of view ...
: Das unbändige Ich u. die menschliche Gemeinschaft''. Munich: A. Langen, 1929.
* ''Zur Vorgeschichte des " Beowulf"''. 1935.
* ''Humanisme i det 20. Aarhundererde''. Kolding, 1937.
* ''
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
und die Seinen''. Bern, Munich: Francke, 1973. .
* ''
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...
: der Mensch und seine Umwelt, das Werk, der schöpferische Künstler''. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1974. (Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Literatur; Bd. 4). .
* ''August Strindberg. Ein geborener Dramatiker''. Munich, 1956.
* ''Der Meister des politischen Romans,
Lion Feuchtwanger
Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht.
Feuchtwanger's J ...
''. Stockholm: Dt. Inst. d. Univ. Stockholm, 1976. (Schriften des Deutschen Instituts der Universität Stockholm).
* ''Nelly Sachs: Einf. in das Werk der Dichterin jüdischen Schicksals''. Darmstadt: Agora-Verlag. .
* ''Innere Emigration''. Bromma, 1971.
* ''Die humanistische Front: Einführung in die deutsche Emigranten-Literatur''. Zürich, 1946.
* ''153 Autobiographien der Flüchtlinge aus dem Dritten Reich''. Bromma, 1966.
References
* Zabel, Hermann (ed.). ''Zweifache Vertreibung: Erinnerungen an Walter A. Berendsohn, Nestor der Exil-Forschung, Förderer von Nelly Sachs''. Essen: Klartext, 2000. .
* Plick, Eckhart (ed.). ''Lexikon freireligiöser Personen''. Rohrbach: Peter Guhl, 1997. .
* ''Lexikon deutsch-jüdischer Autoren''. Archiv Bibliographia Judaica, 1992.
* Plick, Eckhart. "Zwischen Theorie und Glauben – Disparate Tendenzen im Monismus", in A. E. Lenz and Volker Müller (eds.), '' Darwin,
Haeckel
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...
und die Folgen: Monismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart''. Neustadt am Rübenberge: Lenz, 2006. .