Maximilian Kronberger

Maximilian Kronberger, actually Max Konrad August Kronberger ( born April 14, 1888 in Berlin, † April 15, 1904 in Munich) was a major figure of the George circle.

Acquaintance with Stefan George

Kronberger was the son of Würzburg businessman Alfred Kronberger. He grew up in Munich- Schwabing, where he attended high school. The poet Stefan George met him in 1902 in Munich on the road and talked to him a little later for the first time on. George drew Kronberger, who found only after the meeting that he was dealing with a well-known poet. In January 1903, the two met again on the road, and now they met more frequently. Know Kronberger learned friends Georges, partly already known as a poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Karl Friedrich Gundolf or Wolfskehl. George took him to social events with the Schwabing Bohème, such as to a costume party at Henry of Heiseler. George also tried to get on good terms with their parents Kronberger, he even visited the confirmation Maximilian. Kronberger had already begun to write poetry and hoped that the acquaintance of the poet a perfection of his poems.

Early as 1904 but it came to be the first tensions. George was out of tune, because it Kronberger had repeatedly displaced. Kronberger was quoted at the next meeting in his diary:

" [ George ] let [ ... ] me waiting an unusually long time, even though he was in the next room. At last he came, gave me his hand and looked at me a long time ... That I would have had no time on Sunday, was a mere excuse, he knew that from his youth etc. It is also for the next Sunday a stupid excuse. I told him that I had in fact no time, he was doing me wrong. Then he turned to me, his forehead wrinkles and threatened me with a finger. Then he sat down at the desk and began when I resp no time. not the will have to come when he had time, he also did not desire to receive time me when I come. [ ...] I said coldly goodbye and shook hands with him, but he looked not at her ... I need me but do not let him scold together like a schoolboy there? "

Kronberger already wanted to break off contact, but George could prevent this. Shortly after, Maximilian Kronberger fell on a girl, with whom he now spent a lot of time and to which he devoted almost all of his poems. In April 1904 he traveled to Vienna to a cousin. There he met again Stefan George. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Munich, still in Vienna he had shown the first symptoms of a disease. He was ill with meningitis and died soon after, on April 15, 1904, at his 16th birthday. In the death register entry No. 719 of 15 April is recorded also that he was a Protestant religion and of professional school student. He lived with his parents in St. Nicholas Street 9 in Munich.

Artistic work

Maximilian Kronberger wrote 241 poems. Here is his first and his last poem ( after the release of Georg Peter Landmann ):

GOD

Is there a God? Your mulling back and forth

And come but only to a destination:

Go back to the raging sea

Look at the change of nature.

Oh see to the growing gender.

Imagine represents the course of history

Remember the exchange of good and bad.

Go in the spring forth into the forest -

From each deliverance from distress

From each of misery on earth

Sounds 's out loud: There is a God!

(21 November 1901)

The dense ( rises )

Your flutes, complains! Your cymbals, rushes out!

My boys swinging the rod grünumwundnen!

Yet their words sound in my ear.

Your flute player, it passes into the grave!

But not with earth covereth their members

With blossoms she wraps until the morning draws near

Then see the beloved yes I again.

Then I woke up to live.

( written two weeks before his death )

Maximin - Myth

The boy's death met George hard to Sabine Lepsius example, he wrote: " I ​​grieve over a incomprehensible and early death of even wanted me to lead the lezten cracks". From the time immediately after death Kronbergers few sources are usually handed down that shed light on Georges might give thought. He soon began preparations for a memorial dedicated to Maximilian band, the finished already existed in April 1905. He had besides a preface contributed several poems, more lyrical contributions came from Friedrich Gundolf, Karl Wolf Kehl and Lothar Treuge, the artful presentation of the band took Melchior Lechter. Also, some poems from the estate Kronbergers were eventually end 1906 in the band Maximin. A commemorative book published. In George's preface states:

" We rushed down into the dull despair of the abandoned community, we overcame in senseless pain that we will never again touch these hands that never again should kiss those lips us. Since penetrated its vibrant voice in us and taught us concerning our folly which still tried to force him ... We can now greedy consecrate spaces for passionate worship in our men 's erect pillar us prostrate before him and pay homage to what the human shy prevented us he had when he was still was among us. "

Under the name " maximin" stylized George Kronberger from now on to an incarnate deity. 1907 was followed by the seventh ring, which is also centrally concerned with Georges Maximin myth. The myth was especially in the next few years a central identification and integration feature of the George circle.

Works

• Maximin. A commemorative book. Edited by Stefan George. Berlin, 1907 ( Digitized edition at: urn: nbn: de: S2W - 5456; poems contained in this volume Maximilian Kronberger )
• Discount. Privately printed in 1937 ( " To be purchased by Adolf Bürdeke, Zurich "). ( Digitized edition at: urn: nbn: de: S2W - 5822 )
• Poems. Diaries. Letters. Edited by Georg Peter Landmann. Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-608-95535-6