Oskar Baum
Oskar Baum ( born January 21, 1883 in Pilsen, † March 1, 1941 in Prague ) was a German writer of Czech origin.
Life
Tree was the son of a Jewish cloth goods merchant in Prague, suffering from birth with vision problems. At eight, he lost the sight in one eye and the age of eleven in a fight his eyesight completely. Since he could no longer participate in high school therefore to the class teacher, he was sent to Vienna to the Israelite Institute for the Blind Hohewarte. There he trained as a music speakers and learned this the organ and piano. In 1902 he passed the teaching examination and returned to Prague. Earned his living as an organist and cantor tree of a synagogue; later he became a piano teacher.
1904 made known Max Brod tree with Franz Kafka and Felix Weltsch. The three became friends and after Baum's marriage to Margaret beak the apartment the couple became the meeting place of the Prague Circle. Here, the friends were reading each other 's literary texts before, but you also enthusiastic about foreign texts and the house music. During this time also a lively correspondence between Kafka and tree began.
1908 could debut tree with his novel "Shore existence ", which is created and autobiographical him - almost overnight - made famous. From 1922, the writer and politician Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk won him to collaborate for his newspaper Prager Presse. One focus in tree journalistic work were music and theater reviews; but also essays and commentaries on social issues were written by him. Gradually, other newspapers and magazines interested in the work tree; among other things, here are the world stage (of Siegfried Jacobsohn ) to call the action ( by Franz Pfemfert ) or The Tempest ( Herwarth Walden ) and " the apparent exile in Prague Magazine > New German press <".
1929 could harness his story "Night is about " publish, had written an epilogue to the Stefan Zweig. 1934 took over the chairmanship of the tree " Association for the Protection of German writers " in Czechoslovakia and held this office until 1938 held. Shortly before the occupation by the Nazis, he was relieved of this office together with his journalistic work. After the German invasion in Prague, his writings were banned.
A emigrate to Palestine failed because of the bureaucracy. End of February 1941 Tree of bowel underwent operation at the Jewish Hospital, the consequences of which he later died. His wife was shortly thereafter deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and died there. The only son of the couple, Leo Tree (1909-1946), was born on July 22, 1946 at the Jewish attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem killed.
Works
- Shore life. Adventures and stories from the lives of blind today. Juncker, Berlin [ et al ] 1908 digitized
- Life in the dark 1909 ( autobiographical )
- The evil innocence: a Jewish small town novel 1913
- The transformed world in 1919
- The door into the impossible 1919 ( novel)
- The Miracle: drama in three acts 1920
- New Reality 1921
- Night is around 1929
- The way of the blind Bruno. In: New German narrator. Vol 1 ( Max Brod and others) Paul Franke, Berlin undated ( 1930)
- The script, which did not lie 1931
- Two German. La Bibliothèque, Antwerp 1934
- The people of deep sleep. Löwit, Vienna 1937
- Tales from the blind life