Dmitry Merezhkovsky
Dmitry Sergeyevich Merejkowski (Russian: Дмитрий Сергеевич Мережковский, scientific transliteration: .. Dmitry Sergeevič Merežkovskij; * 2 Augustjul / August 14 1865greg in Saint Petersburg, † December 9, 1941 in Paris) was a Russian writer.
Life
Merejkowski, whose father was a court official of Ukrainian nobility, studied from 1884 to 1889 in his hometown of St. Petersburg history. He is a brother of the biologist Konstantin Sergeyevich Merejkowski. In 1888 he published his first volume of poetry, 1889, he married the poet Zinaida Nikolaevna Hippius ( Gippius ). The couple chatted since 1901 in St. Petersburg and in exile since 1920 in Paris ( " Green light " ) a theologically influenced literature salon. They are regarded as spiritual pioneers of Russian Symbolism. Her salon was regarded as an influence participating center Christian religious Nationalist intellectuals.
Merejkowski became famous through a series of historical novels and novellas. His novel Leonardo da Vinci (1901, middle part of the trilogy Christ and Antichrist), which was translated immediately after publication of the Russian edition often reached worldwide - also in Germany - enormously long runs and was in various translations in renowned paperback publishers like Knaur program or Piper. Merejkowski finds mention in the diaries Georg Heym, the Leonardo da Vinci estimated. Also in 1896 appeared the first part of Christ and Antichrist entitled Julian the Apostate was at times very well known in Germany and was edited in translation by Alexander Eliasberg from the German Bücherbund. The third volume of the trilogy, Peter and Alexei appeared in 1905.
In November 1919, the couple Merejkowski emigrated in the wake of the October Revolution and traveled to Warsaw in October 1920 to Paris.
Merejkowski was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but his support for Adolf Hitler is not a ceremony have been beneficial. Generally, it is currently not possible to outline Mereschkowkis relationship to fascism exactly. Add Hanns Martin Elster's Preface to Julian the Apostate ( Dusseldorf 1951) it is said that he hoped to temporarily Mussolini as political theorists, " without being able to trust the fascism." Of the Germans Merejkowski has kept according to Elster.
Only since 1987, re-published and performed in Russia Mereschkowskis work.
Thinking and action
Mereschkowskis works are " dominated by the idea of an epoch- forming resistance dispute between Christ and Antichrist and a mixing dekabristischer traditions with mystical Orthodox elements ," and he understood, as Volker Weiss, his " work always also political." In its East-West dualism he rejects the Enlightenment and Western romance a " East" in reference to the Old Testament and mystical traditions of ancient Egypt as the eschatological "Third Reich".
An important role in this thinking played in it for him Dostoevsky. In his essay The march of the mob, a critique of the anarchist Alexander Herzen and Mikhail Bakunin, he provides Dostoyevsky as " Easterners" and Leo Tolstoy's opponent to the west, because the Enlightenment embossed intellectuality dar. The march of the mob appeared in 1907 in German and should so white, " make a profound Christian culture critique of the Konkurrenzbourgeoise and represents a Christian anti-liberalism ". Later Merejkowski found in his essay Tolstoy and Dostoevsky to a balanced assessment of the two writers, however, who took antagonistic positions for him still.
Influence on the " boy Rights" in Germany
In particular, by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, whose mentor was Merejkowski in Paris, the Moeller van den Bruck as " Ostideologie " designated political ideology Mereschkowskis got great influence on the young rights in Germany. After White " secularized " Moeller Mereschkowskis " political theory " but "radical and resolves them by their Christian pacifist elements. " Christian idea of empire learned by Moeller " their nationalization".
Even Thomas Mann, who was attached to the June club until 1922, was in its "anti- rational ( n ) and anti-Western (s) attitude " influenced by Merejkowski: " Dmitry Mereschkowskij! ! The most brilliant critics and Weltpsycholog since Nietzsche " (from: Russian Anthology, 1921) and is a reason for his" affinity for the beginnings of the conservative revolution " ( Lehnert / Wessell ). How Urs Heftrich proves so white, " have influences Mereschkowskis far found in the form of thoughts of Allmenschentum, Third Reich and the will to wildness ' in the literary work of Thomas Mann reflected. It 'll even try to drag along these three points, a line that is aimed at the heart of Doctor Faustus - namely the experience of demonic Re - barbarism of culture ' ( Heftrich 1995) ".
Cited sources
- Volker Weiss: Dostoevsky's Demons. Thomas Mann, Dmitri Merejkowski and Arthur Moeller van den Bruck in the fight against " the West". In: Heiko Kauffmann, Helmut Kellershohn, Jobst Paul ( ed.): Völkische gang. Decadence and rebirth - analysis right ideology. Munster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-737-9