Otto Erich Hartleben was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and dramatist from Clausthal

Clausthal-Zellerfeld

Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000, Clausthal-Zellerfeld is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Oberharz....

, known for his translation of Pierrot Lunaire

Pierrot Lunaire

Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds 'Pierrot lunaire' , commonly known simply as Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 , is a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg...

.

Childhood, Education and Marriage

Orphaned as a child, Hartleben was brought up by his grandfather in Hanover

Hanover

Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

. Among his youthful acquaintances there were Karl Henckel, Arthur Gutheil and the future industrialist and politician Alfred Hugenberg

Alfred Hugenberg

Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg was an influential German businessman and politician. Hugenberg, a leading figure within nationalist politics in Germany for the first few decades of the twentieth century, became the country's leading media proprietor within the inter-war period...

 and together they published a volume of poetry Quartett in 1886. After completing his schooling in Celle

Celle

Celle is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the River Aller, a tributary of the Weser and has a population of about 71,000...

 in 1886 he went to study law, first in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, where he got to know Hermann Conradi and Adolf Bartels

Adolf Bartels

Adolf Bartels was a German journalist and poet. Known for his völkisch worldview, he has been seen as a harbinger of National Socialist anti-Semitism....

, and later in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. He studied for the civil service in Stolberg (Harz)

Stolberg (Harz)

' is a town and a former municipality in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz, in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated in the southern part of the Harz mountains, approx. west of Sangerhausen, and northeast of Nordhausen...

 and in Magdeburg

Magdeburg

Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....

. Giving up his legal studies, he returned to Berlin where he lived as a freelance writer, eventually moving to Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 in 1901. After the death of his grandfather in 1893, Hartleben inherited 80,000 marks and on 2 December married his lifelong companion, ex-waitress “little mop” Selma Hesse.

Career

In 1900 he had a resounding success with his “officer’s tragedy” Rosenmontag

Rosenmontag

Rosenmontag is the highlight of the German "Karneval" , and is on the Shrove Monday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The "Mardi Gras," though celebrated on Tuesday, is a similar event...

(Carnival Monday) which deals with an ill-fated affair between a simple girl and a young officer from an old military family. He used the proceeds to purchase the Villa Halkyone in Salò

Salò

Salò is a town and commune in the Province of Brescia in the region of Lombardy on the banks of Lake Garda. The city was the capital of Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945, with the ISR often being called the "Republic of Salò" .-History:Salò was founded in the Roman period as Pagus...

 on Lake Garda

Lake Garda

Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy. It is located in Northern Italy, about half-way between Brescia and Verona, and between Venice and Milan. Glaciers formed this alpine region at the end of the last ice age...

. Here he founded in 1903 the Halkyone Academy for the Pure Sciences, which included among its members Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens was a German architect and designer. He was important for the modernist movement, as several of the movements leading names worked for him when they were young.-Biography:Behrens attended the Christianeum Hamburg from September 1877 until Easter 1882...

, Otto Julius Bierbaum

Otto Julius Bierbaum

Otto Julius Bierbaum was a German writer.Bierbaum was born in Grünberg, Silesia. After studying in Leipzig, he became a journalist and editor for the journals Die freie Bühne, Pan and Die Insel. His literary work was varied...

, Franz Blei

Franz Blei

Franz Blei was an essayist, playwright and translator from Vienna...

, Gerhart Hauptmann

Gerhart Hauptmann

Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...

, Alfred Kubin

Alfred Kubin

Alfred Leopold Isidor Kubin was an Austrian printmaker, illustrator and occasional writer. Kubin is considered an important representative of Symbolism and Expressionism.-Biography:...

 and Emil Orlik

Emil Orlík

Emil Orlik was born in Prague, which was at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and lived and worked in Prague, Austria and Germany...

, and which boasted just two rules: "§ 1. Membership of the Halkyone Academy confers neither duties nor rights. § 2. Everything else is governed by the spirit of the Halkyone community."

Letters

Hartleben’s legendary reputation in turn-of-century letters is due chiefly to the many artistic groups he founded or contributed to, from the Bavarian Bohemian Beer Brotherhood at school in Celle (1885) to the Menschenclub (a club for “people”) in Magdeburg

Magdeburg

Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....

 (1890), the Karlsbad Idealists’ Club (1891), the Verbrechertisch (“Rogues’ Table”) in Berlin (1896), the Berlin Naturalists’ Society known as Durch (“Through”), the Berlin drama movement Freie Bühne (“Free Stage”), the Berlin Free Literary Society, the Leipzig "Auguren College", not to mention the lively interest he took in the Friedrichshagener Dichterkreis (Friedrichshagen Poets Circle).

Journalist

He also co-produced the weekly journal Die Jugend (“Youth”), in which he made humorous jibes at contemporary society and its morals. One of his key characters was Serenissimus, the gone-to-seed ruler of an imaginary peppercorn principality.

Translator

He is especially noted today for his translations of other writers’ poetic works, often improving the poetry of the original, in particular of Albert Giraud

Albert Giraud

Albert Giraud , was a Belgian poet who wrote in French.-Biography:Giraud was born Emile Albert Kayenbergh in Leuven, Belgium. He studied law at the University of Louvain. He left university without a degree and took up journalism and poetry...

’s Pierrot Lunaire

Pierrot Lunaire

Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds 'Pierrot lunaire' , commonly known simply as Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 , is a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg...

which forms the Sprechstimme text of Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...

’s work of that name.

Works

• "Studententagebuch", poetry, 1886
• "Die Serényi", stories, 1887
• "Angele", comedy, 1891
• "Hanna Jagert", comedy, 1893
• "Die Geschichte vom abgerissenen Knopfe", stories, 1893
• "Ein Ehrenwort", drama, 1894
• "Meine Verse", poetry, 1895
• "Vom gastfreien Pastor", stories, 1895
• "Der römische Maler", novella, 1898
• "Ein wahrhaft guter Mensch", comedy, 1899
• "Rosenmontag”, tragedy, 1900
• "Von reifen Früchten. Meiner Verse zweiter Teil", poetry, 1902
• "Liebe kleine Mama", stories, 1904
• "Diogenes", comedy, 1905
• "Im grünen Baum zur Nachtigall", Studentenstück, 1905
• "Das Ehefest", novella, 1906
• Tagebuch 1906
• Aphorismen, edited by van den Trelde 1920

External links

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Otto Erich Hartleben