Georg Weerth

Georg Ludwig Weerth ( born February 17, 1822 in Detmold, † 30 July 1856 in Havana, Cuba ) was a German writer, satirist, journalist and businessman.

• 3.1 Bibliography
• 3.2 Lexical Entries

Life

Weerth was born in Detmold, the son of the pastor and General Superintendent Ferdinand Weerth and the pastor's daughter Wilhelmina Weerth (nee Burgmann ) on 17 February 1822. 1836 the father suffered several strokes and therefore could not practice his profession. Weerth therefore left the school in Detmold and began on September 16, 1838 in Elberfeld (now Wuppertal to ) in the Twist, silk and Wollgarnhandlung JH Brink & Co. a commercial apprenticeship. In his spare time he learned French and English for the foreign-language correspondence.

During his teaching learned Weerth Püttmann Hermann (1811-1874) know, an editor of the liberal newspaper Barmer, who also worked as a poet and writer and Weerth made ​​familiar with the literature, but it also sensitized to the issue of social question. 1838 Weerth friend of Ferdinand Freiligrath whose literary - wreath he joined in the same year. This group consisted of 15 people who regularly met in Barmen, to discuss literature and mutually partly to carry forward its own, partly foreign poems.

In 1840 it moved to Cologne Weerth in the management of lead ore mines Count Meinertzhagen, but two years later, in 1842, he went to Bonn to work in the cotton spinning and weaving Weerth & Peill. The company was owned by a close relative, Friedrich aus'm Weerth. Besides working Weerth attended lectures at the University of Bonn. He learned the theologian Gottfried Kinkel and the Altgermanisten Karl Simrock know that liberal poet Circle organized. The two scientists encouraged Weerth to be literary works. Together, they met in the cockchafer Federal Government, a circle of poets. Weerth first poem The stone squire appeared in 1841 in a collection of poems.

1843 moved Weerth to Bradford in Yorkshire, to work there for two and a half years as a correspondent for the worsted and woolen company Ph. Passavant & Co. The time there shaped him sustained and politicized it. About the doctor friend John L. MacMichan, who practiced in the workers' quarters, he learned the consequences of industrialization, that is, to know the poverty and misery of the workers in the textile factories.

During his time in England Weerth made ​​acquaintance with Friedrich Engels and met on a trip to Belgium in the summer of 1845, Karl Marx. He joined the communist movement whose worldview is reflected in his poems. For founded by Marx and Engels 1846 Communist Correspondence Committee and the League of Communists of the traveling salesman Weerth worked part-time as a courier. " Weerth, the first and most important poet of the German proletariat ," wrote Engels later.

In March 1846 Weerth was offered a job in the comb spinning Emanuel & Son in Brussels, which he accepted immediately. At the same time he published a number of articles in the German newspaper Brussels. When he heard of the outbreak of revolution in France in February / March 1848 he traveled to Paris to witness it and to participate in it.

In April 1848 he went with Engels and Marx to Cologne, to assist in the founding of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. On the run by Marx newspaper Weerth worked as an editor for the UK and Belgium and directed the feature pages. Here he published in 1848-1849 sequels his satire on the nobility of life and deeds of the famous knight Schnapphahnski; served as the model for the title character of Prince Felix Lichnowsky Weerth. The name Schnapphahnski was a tribute to Heine, in his epic poem Atta Troll this knight shows up twice. As Lichnowsky was assassinated on September 19, 1848 - The first chapter is published in early August - that Weerth brought proceedings for " insulting the dead " one. In January 1850 he was found guilty and sentenced to three months imprisonment and loss of civil rights for five years. On February 25, 1850 Weerth came into Cologne to his imprisonment.

After completion of the punishment and disappointed by the failure of the revolution Weerth published nothing more literary. He undertook long trading journeys across Europe (including Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France). Following the bankruptcy of his company Weerth took over on 7 December 1852, the agency of the company Steinthal & Co. for the West Indies. He moved to the Caribbean island of Saint Thomas and remained there until June 1855. During this time he traveled for his company, the U.S., Mexico, Cuba and Brazil.

On 15 June 1855 he returned to Southampton; to his second cousin, Betty Tendering to make a marriage proposal, among others. When they refused, Weerth returned on December 2, 1855 to St. Thomas. In March 1856 he decided to Havana, Cuba, emigrate and to put to rest there. On July 23, 1856 on a business trip to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), he fell ill with fever in Haiti. Although immediately was bestowed him medical attention, the doctor diagnosed until 26 July, a meningitis. Since she was already well advanced and due to cerebral malaria, he could not be cured.

On July 30, 1856 Georg Weerth died at the age of 34 years in Havana. In the district of Cayo Hueso ( Calle Aramburu ) is located since 1974 on a wall, the only preserved by the then main cemetery Espada rest, a memorial plaque that recalls Weerth. His literary and personal estate is divided into three archives. The most important manuscripts of works Internationaal Instituut voor located in the Social History in Amsterdam. In 1936 they were sold in two boxes for 5000 marks there. A portion of the original manuscripts are in the Marx- Engels Institute in Moscow. These were purchased from a literary and politically interested private citizen in the 1920s. In the Lippe Detmold library next poem autographs and Weerth hand copy of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung were purchased several hundred original letters of the great son of the city and opened to the public.

Works (selection)

• The Hunger song. 1844.
• The arms of the Senne. In: Hermann Püttmann (ed.): German citizen book for 1845, pp. 266-271. .
• The industry. In: Hermann Püttmann (ed.): German citizen book for 1845, pp. 346-347. .
• Journeymen song. (1846 ) The Social No 24 of 7 June 1883. According to Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 21, pp. 5-8.
• Journeymen songs. In: Hermann Püttmann (ed.) album. Original poems. Rich, Borna 1847, pp. 6 ff digitized
• La Liberté du commerce considérée du point de vue par Prolétaire MG Weerth et Les protectionnistes, les libres et la classe ouvrière échangistes par M. Karl Marx. C. G. Vogler, Bruxelles 1847.
• Life and deeds of the famous knight Schnapphahnski. 1848 - digitized.

Werkausgaben

• Bruno Kaiser ( ed.): Georg Weerth. Selected Works. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1948.
• Bruno Kaiser ( ed.): Georg Weerth. All works in five volumes. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1956-1957.
• Georg Weerth. Works in two volumes. People's Publishing House, Weimar, 1963 ( = German Library classics )
• Bruno Kaiser ( ed.): Georg Weerth. Correspondence with Betty Tendering. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin and Weimar in 1972.
• Jürgen- Wolfgang Goette, Jost Hermand (ed.): Georg Weerh. Forgotten texts. Selected works in two volumes. Leske, Cologne 1975-1976.
• Jürgen- Wolfgang Goette (ed. ): All letters. 2 volumes, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1989 ISBN 3-593-33913-7.