Ricarda Huch
Ricarda Huch | |
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Ricarda Huch (German:
Early life and education
Huch was born in Braunschweig to Richard Huch (1830–1887) and Emilie, born Hähn (1842–1883), in 1864. The Huchs were a well off merchant family. Her brother Rudolf and cousins Friedrich and Felix were writers. While living with her family in Braunschweig, she corresponded with Ferdinand Tönnies.[1]
Because German universities did not allow women to graduate, Huch left Braunschweig in 1887 and moved to
After receiving her doctorate she found employment at the Zurich public library. In 1896 she taught at a girls' school in Bremen.[2]
Early publications and historic studies
In the 1890s Huch published her first poems and stories. In 1892 her first novel was published Erinnerungen von Ludolf Ursleu dem Jüngeren.[2] In 1897 Huch moved to Vienna to research Romanticism. In Vienna she met the Italian dentist Ermanno Ceconi, whom she married in 1898. In 1899 she gave birth to their daughter Marietta.[2]
In 1899 the first volume of her two volume study on
Huch's historical research was challenged by her contemporaries. While her meticulous research was admired and her breath of vision was honoured, she was criticised for poetic imagination. In her days historians would interpret the meaning of historic documents. While Huch focused on conjuring up images by describing contents, symbolism, colour and moods to invoke the world view of a historic period. Her contemporary Toni Wolff identified Huch as medial historian who had the ability to “evoke historical situations and persons”. This caused bewilderment among her contemporaries, who were used to thinking of history as big events, military campaigns and great men. Instead Huch presented the historic facts and drew character studies of the individuals, with their failures and triumphs. In her historic studies she also charted the lives of ordinary people, such as monks, society ladies and children.[5]
Huch and her husband moved to Trieste and then to Munich. In the early 1900 the couple divorced, though Huch remained close to Ceconi.[2] In 1903 Huch's novel Vita somnium breve was published, which was retitled and republished in 1913 as Michael Unger. In 1906 her treatise on Gottfried Keller Die Geschichte von Garibaldi was published. A volume with poetry followed in 1907.[6] In the same year Huch married her cousin Richard Huch, who had divorced from her sister in 1907.[6] In 1908 she published a treatise on the Italian unification Aus dem Zeitalter des Risorgimento.[6]
Publications during World War I
In 1914 Huch celebrated her fiftieth birthday, three weeks after the assassination of
In 1916 she moved to
Publications during the Weimar Republic
In the early years of the
In 1927 Huch, her daughter and her son-in-law
Publications during the Third Reich
When the
Huch remained in Berlin and researched early German history, starting with
Publications and work in the post-war period
When Jena was to become part of the
Huch was the honorary president of the 1947 German Writers' Congress in Frankfurt. She died at the age of 83 in November 1947, her book on the German resistance remained unfinished.[9]
Legacy
Professor Frank Trommler, University of Pennsylvania, in his study of the German literature elite during the Third Reich argues that Huch, along with Ernst Wiechert, Werner Bergengruen, Reinhold Schneider, Albrecht Haushofer and Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen, took a courageous stand on issues such as the suppression of freedom, the fight against tyranny, the longing for privacy and the simple life. Their reputation was grounded in their ability to articulate their opinions and in doing so authors like Huch shaped the political and cultural transformation in Germany after the demise of the Third Reich. These authors were closely observed by Nazi authorities because they were widely read by the German middle-class.[16]
Huch was in her 70s when the Nazi seized power, and unlike authors such as Thomas Mann who first fled into ‘‘inner emigration‘‘ and then went into exile, she took a stand against the Nazi doctrine from the outset. Huch continued to live in Germany, made no attempt to conceal her convictions and published in Germany through Swiss publishers. In 1934 Mann wrote of his intellectual struggle against the powers that be "Getting through it and maintaining one’s own personal dignity and liberty is everything."[17] When Alfred Andersch assessed German literary output during the Nazi reign in 1947 he categorised Huch alongside Gerhart Hauptmann, Rudolf Alexander Schröder, Hans Carossa and Gertrud von Le Fort as older and established poets who had stayed in Germany and upheld a tradition of "bourgeois classicism". Andersch counted the poets Stefan Andres, Horst Lange, Hans Leip, Martin Raschke and Eugen Gottlob Winkler among the younger generation who stayed in Germany and contributed to the resistance against Nazi authorities with their literary work.[18] After the second world war Thomas Mann honoured Huch as "the first lady of German letters".[10]
Publications by Huch
- Gedichte Dresden 1891
- Evoe Berlin 1892
- Erinnerungen von Ludolf Ursleu dem Jüngeren Berlin 1893
- Gedichte Leipzig 1894
- Der Mondreigen von Schlaraffis Leipzig 1896
- Teufeleien, Lügenmärchen Leipzig 1897
- Haduvig im Kreuzgang Leipzig 1897
- Fra Celeste und andere Erzählungen Hermann Haessel Verlag, Leipzig 1899
- Blütezeit der Romantik Leipzig 1899
- Ausbreitung und Verfall der Romantik Leipzig 1902
- Dornröschen. Ein Märchenspiel Leipzig 1902
- Aus der Triumphgasse. Lebensskizzen Leipzig 1902
- Vita somnium breve Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1903
- Von den Königen und der Krone Stuttgart 1904
- Gottfried Keller Schuster & Loeffler, Berlin und Leipzig 1904
- Seifenblasen. Drei scherzhafte Erzählungen Stuttgart 1905
- Die Geschichten von Garibaldi (Volume 1: ‘’Die Verteidigung Roms’’; Volume 2: ‘’Der Kampf um Rom’’) Stuttgart/Leipzig 1906–1907
- Neue Gedichte Leipzig 1908
- Menschen und Schicksale aus dem Risorgimento Leipzig 1908
- Das Leben des Grafen Federigo Confalonieri Leipzig 1910
- Der Hahn von Quakenbrück und andere Novellen Berlin 1910
- Der letzte Sommer Stuttgart 1910
- Der große Krieg in Deutschland Leipzig 1912–1914 (later as: Der Dreißigjährige Krieg Leipzig 1929)
- Natur und Geist als die Wurzeln des Lebens und der Kunst München 1914 (new edition: Vom Wesen des Menschen. Natur und Geist Prien 1922)
- Wallenstein. Eine Charakterstudie Leipzig 1915
- Luthers Glaube. Briefe an einen Freund Leipzig 1916
- Der Fall Deruga Berlin 1917
- Der Sinn der Heiligen Schrift Leipzig 1919
- Alte und neue Gedichte Leipzig 1920
- Entpersönlichung Leipzig 1921
- Michael Bakunin und die Anarchie Leipzig 1923
- Stein Wien / Leipzig 1925
- Teufeleien und andere Erzählungen Haessel, Leipzig 1924
- Graf Mark und die Prinzessin von Nassau-Usingen’’ Leipzig 1924
- Der wiederkehrende Christus. Eine groteske Erzählung Leipzig 1926
- Im alten Reich. Lebensbilder deutscher Städte (3 Volumes: Der Norden/Die Mitte des Reiches/Der Süden) 1927
- Neue Städtebilder Im alten Reich’’ Leipzig 1929
- Gesammelte Gedichte 1929
- Lebensbilder mecklenburgischer Städte 1930/1931
- Die Hugenottin Bern 1932
- Alte und neue Götter (1848) Die Revolution des 19. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland Berlin und Zürich 1930 (later as: 1848 Die Revolution des 19. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland 1948)
- Deutsche Geschichte 1934–49
- Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation Berlin 1934
- Das Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung Zürich 1937
- Untergang des Römischen Reiches Deutscher Nation Zürich 1949
- Frühling in der Schweiz Zürich 1938
- Weiße Nächte Zürich 1943
- Herbstfeuer Insel, Leipzig 1944
- Mein Tagebuch Weimar 1946
- Urphänomene Zürich 1946
- Der falsche Großvater Insel, Wiesbaden 1947
- Der lautlose Aufstand. Bericht über die Widerstandsbewegung des deutschen Volkes 1933 - 1945 Edited by Günther Weisenborn, Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 1953
References
- ISBN 9783039107605.
- ^ ISBN 9783039107605.
- ISBN 9781139827539.
- ISBN 9781139827539.
- ISBN 9781317484486.
- ^ ISBN 9783039107605.
- ISBN 9780803206946.
- ^ ISBN 9781135314101.
- ^ ISBN 9783039107605.
- ^ ISBN 9781317484486.
- ISBN 978-1-107-62783-3.
- ISBN 9783039107605.
- ISBN 9783039107605.
- ISBN 9781317484486.
- ISBN 9783039107605.
- ISBN 9781571810021.
- ISBN 9781571810021.
- ISBN 9781571810021.
External links
- Media related to Ricarda Huch at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by Ricarda Huch at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Ricarda Huch at Faded Page (Canada)
- Works by or about Ricarda Huch at Internet Archive
- Works by Ricarda Huch at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Newspaper clippings about Ricarda Huch in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW