Hermann Allmers

Hermann Ludwig Allmers ( born February 11, 1821 in Rechtenfleth; † March 9, 1902 ) was a German writer. As a poet, he wrote mostly march on culture and landscape of his native north-west Germany.

• 2.1 prose and poetry
• 2.2 poem example

Life

Childhood, Youth, Travel

Hermann Allmers grew up as the only child of wealthy parents. His father came from a reputable Wirich Osterstader peasant family, his mother was a pastor's daughter from Sandstedt. Allmers ' parents felt obliged to an enlightened Christianity. Because of the bad school situation in the Osterstader march Allmers was taught by a private tutor and was also dependent on autodidactic studies.

The boy was interested first of Natural History, in particular the tropical botany. Later, the tutor aroused his interest in the ancient world and of history, particularly the history of his homeland. The father allowed the son several trips through Germany, the Alps and northern Italy, reported on the Allmers in prose and poetry with great success in Bremen newspapers.

In the 1840s Hermann Allmers worked mainly in the field of public education ( creation of a choral society and a public library ), while his motivation was political ( Allmers felt the objectives of the pre-March obliged ). After the death of his father in 1849 he took over the family farm.

Formative encounters

In his travels learned Allmers known and influential personalities know him. 1845 first trip led him among other things to Friedrich Ludwig Jahn to Freyburg (Unstrut ). For a longer stay in Berlin he learned in 1856 Carl Ritter, the founder of comparative geography, and Franz Kugler, with whom Allmers shared scientific and artistic interests. Ritter encouraged him to go ahead with his North German vegetation images, which were then published in 1858 as a march book.

In a second alpine travels, he met in 1856 in Zurich with the writers Adolf Stahr and Fanny Lewald together. On June 6, 1856 he was inducted into the Masonic Lodge to olive branch in Bremen. 1858 appeared the march book with the subtitle land and people pictures from the marshes of the Weser and the Elbe, the first closed-form representation of a German landscape. This book caught the attention of Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, the founder of scientific folklore, who visited the author in Rechtenfleth and introduced him to the Royal Round Table, who was also Emanuel Geibel.

Also in 1858 he undertook his most important and longest journey; they took him for 15 months to Italy, where he met his lifelong friend Ernst Haeckel. In Rome, he gathered a group of German artists around him, who met daily in a café on the Piazza Colonna and therefore called Colonna Society. His impressions he worked in the book Roman Schlender days.

In Rechtenfleth

Returning from Italy made ​​Allmers since 1860, his house and his garden with the help of his artist friends redesign. The residential part of the farm was increased and provided with a stepped gable. The facade jewelry got a friend of Allmers sculptor Diedrich Kropp. Inside Allmers created - as a mirror of his world view and his own creation - one above the other a Roman room and the so-called march hall.

During painted by Arthur Fitger Antikensaal the preparation of casts of antique sculptures served Allmers let the overlying Hall of Heinrich von Dörnberg, Erwin Küsthardt ( after submission Otto Knilles ), equip Hugo dealers and Fitger with paintings. These pictures make the Allmers - house to a historical shrine of landscapes on the German North Sea coast. With the renovation of his house Allmers had the intention to create his home an artistic and historical education center; therefore, it was already free in his lifetime everyone to visit the house.

As in 1862 in the Kingdom of Hanover Lutheran- Orthodox catechism should be introduced, Allmers sat vehemently for the retention of the previously applicable enlightened Catechism of 1790 and participated in 1863 as synodical to the introduction of a Lutheran synod in which lay people should be represented. With his book The Basilica as a model Protestant church building, he participated in the public discussion about the construction of neo-Gothic churches. His religious seals under the title Fromm and Frei ( 1889) advocate a dogmatic conception of Christianity.

Hermann Allmers was a regular guest at the painter Georg Müller from the Dredge in the artists' colony Dötlingen. Here met, among others, the poet Georg Ruseler, the painter and poet Arthur Fitger, the painter Ludwig Fischbeck, the editor of Wilhelm Busch and the graphic artist Marie Stone tendril. Even the painters in the Worpswede Hermann Allmers had regular contact. The traces of these and other life-long friendships can be found today in Allmers ' estate, which includes more than 11,000 letters. The circle of correspondents is widely spread, the Nobel laureate to the prisoners.

He was a friend and patron of the arts and culture of his homeland. In 1882 he founded the Heritage Association of the men from Morning Star and on the western side of the Weser Rüstringer Heimatbund. Both clubs still exist today and each have about 1,500 members.

He is buried in a crypt vault created in 1852 on the Rechtenflether cemetery under a heaped tree-lined hills.

Honors

• On his 80th birthday, the University of Heidelberg Hermann Allmers awarded an honorary Doctor of Philosophy.
• A picture is from Franz Spranger.
• Harro Magnussen created a bust for the Bremen Kunsthalle.
• Several streets like in Barenburg, Bremen - Schwachhausen, Cuxhaven Hamburg - Wilstorf Emden and Rechtenfleth were named after him.
• The Hermann Allmers schools in Delmenhorst and Hagen in Bremen bear his name.
• The Hermann- Allmers Prize to promote specific services in regional home research is two per year sponsored by the cities of Bremerhaven, Cuxhaven and the circle Hadeln and the district of Cuxhaven since 1882.
• The Hermann Allmers Society in Rechtenfleth takes care of the memory, the estate and the museum utilization of Allmers - house.

Work

Prose and poetry

Allmers was a well-known writer in the late 19th century through his poetry and prose. Today he is largely forgotten outside of North West Germany. The literature is struggling with the generation of writers who Hermann Allmers valued and to which he counted himself. Like her contemporary colleagues in the field of visual arts as also Emanuel Geibel, Friedrich Bodenstedtstraße, Julius and Big Paul Heyse not add to the scientific progress and paradigm as their works are now often dismissed as formalistic or already obsolete in their time.

The most important prose works of Hermann Allmers the march Book ( 1858) and the Rome Strolling days ( 1869) the most widely Italy German language book ( published in twelve editions ) shall, after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Italian journey.

Allmers is the poet of the famous student song There Saaleck, here Rudelsburg (1846 ). When he was with students from Jena and Halle ( Saale) wandering the charming setting of the ruins inspired him on a cliff above the Saale, which attracted many students and made the castle a popular hiking destination. The song later became the signature song of the Corp students whose annual meeting was Rudelsburg.

Two poems were set to music by Johannes Brahms Allmers: Feldeinsamkeit (Op. 86 No. 2) and late autumn (Op. 92 No. 2).

Poem example

Works

• March book. Country and folk images from the marshes of the Weser and Elbe.. Schulze, Oldenburg 1858 ( reprint: Bernd Ulrich Hucker (ed.): facsimile edition, supplemented by the sections later editions and a foreword Wenner, Osnabrück 1979, ISBN 3-87898-145-7. )
• Roman Schlender days. Schulze, Oldenburg 1868.
• Hermann Allmers (ed.): Roman Wall Calendar German nation. From 1884 to 1895.
• Fromm and free. , 1889.