Wilhelm Herzog

Wilhelm Herzog ( born January 12, 1884 in Berlin, † April 18, 1960 in Munich) was a German literary and cultural historian, dramatist, encyclopedist; Pacifist, now almost forgotten, as well as many personalities he describes.

Life and work

Duke studied in Berlin economics, art history and German. After early works about Lichtenstein ( 1905) and Kleist (1907 ), he was the author of the journal in March, 1910/1911 editor of PAN. 1914/1915 and 1918/1929, he published the fighting for world peace forum. 1918/1919 editor of the newspaper The Republic and joined the USPD in, with their left wing he end of 1920, the KPD joined, which he held until his expulsion from the party ( had Willi coin mountain referred to as " red Hugenberg " he ) in 1928 belonged.

Together with Hans José Rehfisch he was the author of the play The Dreyfus Affair, which was first performed in 1929 under the pseudonym René Kestner at the Berlin Volksbühne and 1931 should come to Paris for the performance. However, the Action Francaise organized riots, so that the play closed after a performance. Between 1929 and 1933 he wrote The Dreyfus affair (together with Rehfisch ) The struggle of a Republic, Panama. After the takeover of the NSDAP in 1933 emigrated to Duke, where he was staying, and in Switzerland, in France, in Trinidad ( where he was interned from 1941 to 1945 ) in the United States. In 1947 he returned to Europe.

His main work, the intellectual heritage of the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot, are four nondescript volumes Large figures of history. Very few of these individuals described are still all the rage and there were already mostly for creative period of this work.

Duke was married from 1915 to 1921 with the film actress Erna Morena and had a daughter with her.

Works (selection)

  • Around the prosecutor (world premiere: the theater of the West, Berlin, May 6, 1928 Director: Heinz Goldberg )
  • The Dreyfus Affair: drama in five acts ( 6 pictures) (1929, with Hans J. Rehfisch )
  • The struggle of a Republic: The Dreyfus Affair. Documents and facts (1933 )
  • Panama (1931, amended 1950)
  • Barthou (1938 )
  • Hymns and pamphlets (1939 )
  • Critical Encyclopedia (1949 )
  • People I met ( autobiography, 1959)

Secondary literature

  • Manfred Dehn: Duke Wilhelm. In: New German Biography ( NDB ). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3, pp. 742 f ( digitized ).
  • Carla Müller- Feyen: Committed journalism: William Duke and The Forum (1914-1929): Current Affairs and contemporaries in the mirror of a non-conformist magazine. Frankfurt am Main et al: Long 1996.
  • Claudia Müller- Stratmann: Wilhelm Herzog and "The Forum ", " literature " policy between 1910 and 1915 A contribution to the journalism of Expressionism.. Frankfurt am Main et al: Long 1997.
  • Duke William. In: Hermann Weber, Andreas Herbst: German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918-1945 2., Revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6.
  • Encyclopedia of German - Jewish authors. Volume 11 Saur, Munich 2002, pp. 235-252
Pan (magazine) Communist Party of Germany Alfred Hugenberg Action Française Neue Deutsche Biographie Integrated Authority File
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