Reinhard Sorge
Reinhard Sorge | |
---|---|
Ablaincourt, France | |
Occupation | Writer |
Literary movement | Expressionism |
Reinhard Johannes Sorge (29 January 1892 – 20 July 1916) was a
Early life
Sorge was born in
When he was nine years old, Sorge's father died and his family moved to Jena. There, Sorge befriended the poet Richard Dehmel and, "absorbed the neo-romantic influences of the day."[2] He was also inspired by the writings of Stefan George and August Strindberg.
Sorge began to write at the age of sixteen, but lost his faith in
Writing career
After leaving school, Sorge switched to writing full-time. According to O'Brien, "His first poem was called, 'The Youth,' and described his own Nietzschean ideals. The second was a complete play called, 'The Beggar: A Theatrical Mission,' which was again a drama about himself, a describes in a series of violent scenes how he tests and rejects various classes of men as unfit for the highest ideals."[4]
The Beggar was written during the last three months of 1911.[5]
According to Michael Paterson, "The play opens with an ingenious inversion: the Poet and Friend converse in front of a closed curtain, behind which voices can be heard. It appears that we, the audience, are backstage and the voices are those of the imagined audience out front. It is a simple, but disorienting trick of stagecraft, whose imaginative spatial reversal is self-consciously theatrical. So the audience is alerted to the fact that they are about to see a play and not a 'slice of life.'"[6]
According to Walter H. Sokel, "The lighting apparatus behaves like the mind. It drowns in darkness what it wishes to forget and bathes in light what it wishes to recall. Thus the entire stage becomes a universe of [the] mind, and the individual scenes are not replicas of three-densional physical reality, but visualizes stages of thought."[7][8]
While he awaited its publication, Sorge first visited Denmark and then stayed at the North Sea resort of Norderney, where he had a mystical experience that changed both his beliefs and the course of his entire life.[9]
According to his fiancee Susanne, Sorge attempted at Norderney to fulfill the doctrines of Nietzsche, who had argued that every pupil must surpass his teacher. Sorge struggled, amid the constantly overcast skies, to bring a new insight to mankind solely out of himself. Instead, Sorge drove himself on the edge of a mental breakdown and chose instead to accept the existence of the
In 1912, "The Beggar" was published to rapt reviews and subsequently awarded that year's Kleist Prize due to the influence of Richard Dehmel.
Sorge used his winnings to marry his fiancée, Susanne Maria Handewerk. Together, they took a honeymoon cruise via
In a letter to his mother, Sorge wrote,
"In the
Mary). See, all quite Catholic, and that from St. John, a favorite disciple of the Lord. Our earthly Church must be a copy of the heavenly."[11]
Conversion
After returning to Germany, the Sorges were received into the
"My soul was always inherently Christian, but I was misled by Nietzsche, entangled in suns and stars. In Der Bettler, I invoked the Name of God many a time quite unconsciously, and yet thought myself a fervent disciple of Nietzsche, who denies God's very existence."[12]
To the distress of Germany's Expressionist movement, Sorge vowed, "Thenceforth my pen has been and forever will be Christ's stylus—until my death."[13] As a result, his subsequent writings were all centered on fervently religious themes. Admirers of avant garde theater, however, were disappointed by the more traditional stagecraft of Sorge's subsequent plays.[14]
Sorge also succeeded in winning over many of his friends and relatives to Catholicism. Sorge had less success in his evangelizing letters to
Military service in the First World War and death
Sorge was conscripted into the
According to his letters to Susanne and a subsequent letter she received from his battalion's
"I suppose it is the imperfection of it all that I feel, and then the longing for our life together breaks through; but soon my soul is soothed and consoled by the conviction that this period has to be, that without it there can be no perfection."[19]
Burial
According to the website of the
Legacy
On 23 December 1917, legendary Austrian
According to Michael Paterson, "The genius of the 20-year old Sorge already showed the possibilities of abstract staging, and Reinhardt in 1917, simply by following Sorge's stage directions, was to become the first director to present a play in wholly Expressionist style."[22]
Reinhardt's production of the play, which he had meticulously planned ever since he had purchased the rights from Sorge in 1913, proved enormously popular and productions immediately began to be staged in other German cities, such as Cologne. After the 1918 Armistice, newspapers in the German language in the United States also published articles highly praising Reinhardt's production of the play, which singlehandedly gave birth to Expressionism in the theatre.[23]
Furthermore, the subsequent influence of Reinhard Sorge upon
The centenary of Lance Corporal Reinhard Sorge's death was commemorated, alongside those of Allied
Writings
Stage Plays
- Der Bettler. Eine dramatische Sendung (1912);
- Guntwar. Die Stunde eines Propheten (1914);
- Metanoeite. Drei Mysterien (1915);
- König David (1916);
- Mystische Zwiesprache (1922);
- Der Sieg des Christos. Eine Vision (1924);
- Der Jüngling (frühere Dramen umfassend;1925);
Poetry
- Mutter der Himmel. Ein Sang in zwölf Gesängen (1917);
- Gericht über Zarathustra. Vision (1921);
- Preis der Unbefleckten. Sang über die Begegnung zu Lourde's (1924);
- Nachgelassene Gedichte (1925);
Collected works
- Werke, 3 Volumes (1962–67).
Others
- Bekenntnisse und Lobpreisungen, edited by Otto Karrera (München, 1960).
Resources
- Rev. B. O'Brien, S.J., "From Nietzsche to Christ: Reinhard Johannes Sorge," Irish Monthly, December 1932, pages 713-722.
- Lance Corporal, Reserve Infantry Regiment 69, 6 Kompagnie; Prussian casualty list No. 607 of 15 August 1916, p 14057/Deutsche casualty list.
Notes
- ^ Tim Cross, "The Lost Voices of World War I: An International Anthology of Writers, Poets, and Playwrights," University of Iowa Press, 1989. Page 144.
- ^ Tim Cross, "The Lost Voices of World War I: An International Anthology of Writers, Poets, and Playwrights," University of Iowa Press, 1989. Page 144.
- ^ "From Nietzsche to Christ," page 714.
- ^ "From Nietzsche to Christ", page 716.
- ^ Tim Cross, "The Lost Voices of World War I: An International Anthology of Writers, Poets, and Playwrights," University of Iowa Press, 1989. Page 144.
- ^ Tim Cross, "The Lost Voices of World War I: An International Anthology of Writers, Poets, and Playwrights," University of Iowa Press, 1989. Pages 144-145.
- ^ Tim Cross, "The Lost Voices of World War I: An International Anthology of Writers, Poets, and Playwrights," University of Iowa Press, 1989. Page 145.
- ^ Walter H. Sokel (1959), The Writer in Extremis, Stanford University Press.
- ^ Tim Cross, "The Lost Voices of World War I: An International Anthology of Writers, Poets, and Playwrights," University of Iowa Press, 1989. Page 144.
- ^ "From Nietzsche to Christ", .
- ^ "From Nietzsche to Christ", page 719.
- ^ "The Lost Voices of World War I," page 144.
- ^ "The Lost Voices of World War I," page 144.
- ^ "The Lost Voices of World War I," page 144.
- ^ Gefreiter, Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 69, 6. Kompagnie; Preußische Verlustliste Nr. 607 vom 15. August 1916, S. 14057/Deutsche Verlustliste. (prussian R.I.R. 69/15th Reserve Division/German casualty roll entry)
- ^ Jack Sheldon (2007), The German Army on the Somme; 1914-1916, Pen & Sword Military Classics. Page 401.
- ^ "The Lost Voices of World War I," page 144.
- ^ Gefreiter, Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 69, 6. Kompagnie; Preußische Verlustliste Nr. 607 vom 15. August 1916, S. 14057/Deutsche Verlustliste. (Pussian R.I.R. 69/15th Reserve Division/German casualty roll entry)
- ^ "The Lost Voices of World War I," page 144.
- ^ "Vermandovillers, Département Somme, 22632 German Casualties of the First World War (in German)". Archived from the original on 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
- ^ Tim Cross, "The Lost Voices of World War I: An International Anthology of Writers, Poets, and Playwrights," University of Iowa Press, 1989. Page 144.
- ^ "The Lost Voices of World War I," page 145.
- ^ REINHARD SORGE’S THE BEGGAR (DER BETTLER), World War One: Plays, Playwrights & Productions, July 9, 2019.
- ^ The Catalan Government pays homage to the Catalan volunteers of the First World War at Belloy en Santerre 4 July 2016.
External links
- Zeno.org Reinhard Sorge: Biography and Writings Online (In German)
- Reinhard Sorge at Project Gutenburg (In German)
- Reinhard Sorge in the German National Library Catalogue
- Reinhard Sorge: A German Poet in Switzerland (In German)
- Catalogue of Sorge Manuscripts in the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar
- Rev. B. O'Brien, S.J., "From Nietzsche to Christ: Reinhard Johannes Sorge," Irish Monthly, December 1932, pages 713-722.
- Biblioteca Augustana