Ehm Welk

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Welk in 1952

Emil "Ehm" Welk (August 29, 1884 – December 19, 1966) was a German journalist, writer, professor and founder of

Die Heiden von Kummerow
(The Heathens of Kummerow) and used Thomas Trimm as a pseudonym.

Life

Welk was born as the son of a farmer in Biesenbrow (now part of Angermünde), Brandenburg. After frequenting the village school, the 16-year-old moved away from home, completed a commercial education, worked on the sea and as a journalist for several papers, e.g. in Brunswick for the Braunschweiger Allgemeiner Anzeiger, whose editor-in-chief he was from 1910 on to 1919. Afterwards, he worked for the Braunschweiger Morgenzeitung.

During these times, Welk experienced the

East Germany

In 1922 Welk traveled to the United States and Latin America. One year later, he went back to Weimar Germany and worked as a writer and journalist, mainly in Berlin and neighbourhood. Two revolutionary dramas, Gewitter über Gotland (1926) and Kreuzabnahme (1927), caused scandals and had to be taken out of the theatres' repertoires – despite their popular success.

In 1934, one year after Hitler's

KZ Oranienburg
for a short while. After his discharge (that was mainly due to protests by foreign journalists), he was banned from his profession.

In 1935, Welk settled in the

Spreewald with his wife Agathe Lindner
, who was also a writer; she is known for her novel Juliane Wied and was together with Welk from 1924 until his death. Despite the ban, Welk began writing again, but only wrote – seemingly – "unpolitical books". In this era, his successful novels Die Heiden von Kummerow (1937), Die Lebensuhr des Gottlieb Grambauer (1938), and Die Gerechten von Kummerow (1943) were born. These novels described life in northern Germany's villages in a humorous way. It is supposed today that the character Martin Grambauer wears autobiographical traces of his author, while Gottlieb Grambauer is a tribute to the author's father.

After 1945, Welk ceased his literary work for a few years. He stayed in

Volkshochschulen (adult education centres) in Mecklenburg. In 1946, he became director of a Volkshochschule in Schwerin
.

In 1950, Welk moved to

Nationalpreis in 1954), and became an honorary citizen of the towns Bad Doberan and Angermünde. At the University of Greifswald
, he became an honorary doctor in 1956 and professor of the philosophy faculty in 1964.

Welk died in 1966 in Bad Doberan.

Censorship

Before World War II Welk was often compared with the "hunger priest"

hottentotisch" instead of "polnisch") were changed, as were contents and motives. Christian and biblical elements were replaced by belief in revolution and class conflict
. For instance, Krischan's humbleness when he is banished from the village is not Christian anymore, but self-accusing- he accuses himself of not having supported the revolt of the seamen.

Selected works

Literature and films about him

  • Ingeborg Gerlach: Ehm Welk: „Im Morgennebel“. Entstehung und Rezeption des Romans. In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch, volume 75, Brunswick 1994
  • Konrad Reich: Ehm Welk – Stationen eines Lebens. Rostock: Hinstorff, 1976
  • Matthias Friske: Kummerow im Bruch hinterm Berge.
  • Christian Lehmann: "Im Bruch hinterm Berge – Ehm Welk und Biesenbrow", Dokumentary film, DEFA, 1978

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ehm_Welk&oldid=1172918891"