Fritz Oswald Bilse

Fritz Oswald Bilse ( born March 31, 1878 in Kirn, Rhine Province, † 1951 in Eberswalde, Brandenburg ) was a German writer and lieutenant in the Prussian army. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of the Kyrburg Fritz and Fritz Wernthal. He became famous in 1903 with the military critical novel from a small garrison.

Life

Early years

Karl August Bilse, the father of Fritz Oswald Bilse, was a teacher at the Kirner Piarist, the forerunner of today's high school. Among his ancestors also heard the conductor Benjamin Bilse. At the age of twelve years Bilse moved to Eisenach. After graduation he joined in 1896 in the service of Kurhessische Train Battalion 11 in Kassel, where he became an officer in 1898. In 1901 he left for unknown reasons, the army, but the following year his name is in the officer corps of the Train Battalion 16 in Forbach (Lorraine ) again. Known Abruptly Bilse was when he first under the pseudonym " Fritz of the Kyrburg " (after the symbol of his hometown ), the novel from a small garrison. A military Time Image (1903 ) published.

From a small garrison

The novel, in which Lieutenant Bilse the customs of the garrison and the Prussian- German military takes on the grain, became a scandal success. Bilses military career is for the emergence of the book of immediate relevance. Among his superiors as to his comrades Bilse developed mostly not a good ratio: " The thoughtful young man is a critic of the army. Instead of being a member of the officer corps to be, he finds himself in the role of a detached observer. He finds in his company commander a fatherly friend with whom he can discuss ideas to reform the army. But his commanding officer he fails open the respect and will incur a number of disciplinary. " During this suspension in 1902 was also the novel from a small garrison.

Bilses criticism of a " intrigue and immorality depraved officer corps ", however, was so sharp and place and characters encrypted so little that several of the injured in their honor sentient officers filed a lawsuit against him before the military court strained that from 9 to 13 November. , 1903 held in Metz. Bilse was found guilty of insulting his superiors and other senior officers guilty, dishonorably discharged from the army and sentenced to six months in prison. His novel should be " taken out of circulation, the printing plates are destroyed ." But the ban does not seem to have been permanent, because as early as 1904 appeared in Braunschweig the 150th thousand of the book.

The disclosure frightening abuses in the army was discussed in the Reichstag, even the Emperor responded with a secret decree "to all commanding generals with the order, their attention to states such as Bilse she described to respect in their organizations and with even greater zeal morality and discipline in their troops to watch. "

Bilse had become famous overnight: He was henceforth regarded as the enfant terrible of the German army; the novel was abroad, first in France in particular - bearing the words " interdit en Allemagne " - highly traded; a French translation appeared soon. In 1904 appeared an English translation with a log of the process in the appendix and with an introduction and a preface, in which the German - American writer Theodore Dreiser Bilse praised as a great realist. Even earlier than that authorized by Bilse translation appeared in New York one of Schierbrand worried by Wolf English version, in which some of the most scandalous posts were deleted. In a foreword to the fourth edition of the authorized English edition (1909 appeared on dated July 1904 ) criticized Bilse these distortions and cried at the same time after a military alliance between Germany and England; he admired this country, not least because of its tradition of free speech. The novel was also translated into Russian and Others.

From a small garrison found numerous imitators, called in addition to the satirical riders but also some literary defender of the military on the scene. The response from the press was great at home and abroad; the German press took Bilses critique of the culture of the officer corps seriously quite, while the novel in Great Britain, not least as a warning against a supposedly resurgent German militarism. The literary quality of the novel Meanwhile today to be low, mainly because Bilses not always successful satire is gone at the expense of structure as well as the character drawing.

Thomas Mann was referring to Bilse and his novel, as he saw himself exposed in his hometown of Lübeck a " pressing process ", the subject of the novel Buddenbrooks. Was Decline of a Family. In his essay " Bilse and I " (1906 ) Man defended the right of the writer, to design artistic living persons that had been resented by some citizens of Lübeck. This man, however, laid emphasis on the distinction between " impudence and freedom." Man reported also, one of his accusers have the Buddenbrooks called " Bilse novel", a term which was then common for key novels.

After the process

His military career had to give Bilse. He studied agriculture and eventually was called " academic farmer and writer [ ... ]. As his hobbies painting and music are called, his specialty is foreign policy. " In 1907 he married.

The new career as a writer began Bilse initially continued, including as a playwright in the style of naturalism, but his later writings fell short of the success of his first-. However, noteworthy is the temporary resumption of his literary activity, after a fifteen- year hiatus, in the 1920s, which in turn had a political background. Thus appeared within two years the mills of God. Novel from a great nation (1924 ) and the alleged " Negro novel " The Black Wave (1925 ). In that Bilse draws a picture of a corrupt and depraved France; this is evidence of resentment against the Treaty of Versailles, especially against one of its consequences, the stationing of black African occupation troops in French uniforms in Germany. In addition Bilse was sometime editor of the Bund Youth attributed magazine German homeland. Bilse was at that time a member of the German National People's Party.

After his release Bilse lived over the years among other things in Paris and London, then managed the estate Frabertsham in Upper Bavaria, lived in Munich and last in Ziethenstraße village at wholesale Ziethenstraße later. In 1946 he was elected for the CDU in Brandenburg state parliament and also sat in the council of the county Angermuende. No details are known about his last years.

In our memory is Bilse as an object of man 's essays and generally a prime example of how a writer must not represent anyone living literary. When it comes to the allegation of a violation of personal rights in literary works, the case Bilse is still regarded as an example. So dispute over the court banned novel by Maxim Biller Ezra (2003) were recently pulled back comparisons with the process to Bilse the long-term.

Works

• From a small garrison. A military time image (novel, 1903)
• Two military - Humoresken. The alarm. A happy Flop (1903 )
• The blue castle. Novel in a previous chapter, and two books (1904 )
• Truth (Drama, 1904)
• Windfalls (Drama, 1905)
• Dear Fatherland. Novel from the soldier's life (1905 )
• The Great Battle (Drama, 1906)
• Silence ways (novel, 1907)
• Transfiguration (novel, 1909)
• The technique of the novel (1909 )
• The mills of God. Novel from a great nation (1924 )
• The black shaft. A Negro novel by Afim Assanga, edited and published by Fritz Oswald Bilse (1925 )
• How can the farmer survive the present and future hard times and double its income without any special costs? : Practical advice for the peasantry (1928 )