Rainis

Rainis ( Jānis actually Pliekšāns, often falsely Jānis Rainis, born 30 Augustjul / September 11 1865greg on Good Varslavani at Jēkabpils, .. † September 12, 1929 in majori ( Jurmala ) ) was a Latvian poet, playwright, translator and politician, generally considered the most important writers of his country.

Works

Rainis ' oeuvre includes next twelve volumes of poetry twenty dramas like Uguns un nakts ( Fire and Night, 1905), Zelta Zirgs (1909, German The Golden Ross, 1922), Indulis un Arija ( Indulis and Arija, 1911), PUT, Vējiņi! (1914, German Dünawind, 1927), Jazeps un Vina Brali (1919, German Joseph and His Brothers, 1921). His oeuvre practiced - from a material impact on the Latvian language - especially through his groundbreaking translation of Goethe 's Faust. The folkloric symbolism that he used in his other important works, influenced the development of the national identity of Latvians.

His dramatic ballad Daugava (1916 ) contained the explicit demand for Latvian sovereignty: "Land, land, according to which country requires our song? / Country, it is a state. " Censorship removed this line, as the work was first published in Moscow. After the defeat of the German - Russian Bermondt Army in November 1919, this ballad was performed at the National Theatre to honor the first anniversary of Latvia's declaration of independence; many soldiers wore this text in the fight with them.

Policy

In addition to his literary activities Rainis had also socially and was a prominent politician. He was one of the intellectual leaders of the revolution of 1905 and the "new flow " that preceded this. After the failure of the revolution had Rainis and his wife leave Latvia, they went to Castagnola near Lugano in Switzerland. They lived there until her triumphant return to the newly independent homeland on April 4, 1920.

Rainis was a member of the Central Committee of the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party, sat in the Constituent Assembly and the Saeima and was from December 1926 to January 1928 Minister of Education. Rainis aspired to be Latvian President and lost political influence, as he did not succeed. He founded the progressive theater Dailes and its first director was before to 1925 became director of the National Theatre from 1921.

Private

He was married to Aspazija (actually Elza Pliekšāne, born Rozenberga ), they too. Latvian poet and playwright His sister was the wife of Peteris plasterers.

Memory

• The monument to Rainis on the Esplanade in Riga has become a place of assembly, of clearly makes the contradictions that arise from his multi-faceted life and work. It is both a center for the annual, always held on his birthday, national poet festival as well as for left-wing parties of the Social Democrats, to the radical opponents of the Latvian education reform ( for his involvement in the establishment of schools for national minorities).
• In 2006, to commemorate Rainis and Aspazija who lived in Zurich in exile in 1912, a memorial plaque at Usteristrasse 14 revealed.

Criticism

The criticism of his work was equally often strongly influenced politically; although the Soviets stressed his socialist convictions ( his image even appeared on a ruble note), Daugava and other patriotic texts were omitted in the published editions of her work before independence.