Ehm Welk
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
and founder of Volkshochschulen (adult education centres). He became known for his work Die Heiden von Kummerow (The Heathens of Kummerow) and used Thomas Trimm as a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
.
Life
Welk was born as the son of a farmer in Biesenbrow (now part of AngermündeAngermünde
Angermünde is a town in the district of Uckermark in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is located on the Mündesee, 43 miles northeast of Berlin on the Berlin–Szczecin railway...
), Brandenburg
Province of Brandenburg
The Province of Brandenburg was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:The first people who are known to have inhabited Brandenburg were the Suevi. They were succeeded by the Slavonians, whom Henry II conquered and converted to Christianity in...
. After frequenting the village school, the 16 year old moved away from home, completed a commercial education, worked on the sea and as a journalist for several papers, e.g. in Brunswick
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
for the Braunschweiger Allgemeiner Anzeiger, whose editor-in-chief he was from 1910 on to 1919. Afterwards, he worked for the Braunschweiger Morgenzeitung.
During these times, Welk experienced the German Revolution
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
in Brunswick. His experiences later built the background for the novel Im Morgennebel, that describes true Brunswick events and people of these times in a not much encrypted way. This novel's manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
, that employed Welk for a long time, was already finished in 1940 but not published until 1953 in East Germany
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
In 1922 Welk traveled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. One year later, he went back to Weimar Germany
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
and worked as a writer and journalist, mainly in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and neighbourhood. Two revolutionary dramas, Gewitter über Gotland (1926) and Kreuzabnahme (1927), caused scandals and had to be taken out of the theatres’ repertoires — despite their popular success.
In 1934, one year after Hitler’s Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
, Welk, under the pseudonym Thomas Trimm, wrote an open letter in the Grüne Post
Green Post
The Green Post was a German newspaper from the Ullstein publishing house. Operations began on 10 April 1927, the paper enjoying a quick rise in popularity in all social classes, reaching a circulation of over one million during its first year. Its founder was future travel writer and journalist...
titled Auf ein Wort, Herr Minister, in which he criticised Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
press censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
under Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
. The writer was then arrested and imprisoned in KZ Oranienburg for a short while. After his discharge (that was mainly due to protests by foreign journalists), he was banned from his profession.
In 1935, Welk settled in the Spreewald
Spreewald
The Spreewald is situated about 100 km south-east of Berlin. It was designated a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1991. It is known for its traditional irrigation system which consists of more than 200 small channels within the area. The landscape was shaped during the ice-age...
with his wife Agathe Lindner, who was also a writer;
she is known for her novel Juliane Wied and was together with Welk from 1924 until his death.
Despite the ban, Welk began writing again, but only wrote — seemingly — "unpolitical books". In this era, his successful novels Die Heiden von Kummerow (1937), Die Lebensuhr des Gottlieb Grambauer (1938), and Die Gerechten von Kummerow (1943) were born. These novels described life in northern Germany
Northern Germany
- Geography :The key terrain features of North Germany are the marshes along the coastline of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and the geest and heaths inland. Also prominent are the low hills of the Baltic Uplands, the ground moraines, end moraines, sandur, glacial valleys, bogs, and Luch...
's villages in a humorous way. It is supposed today that the character Martin Grambauer wears autobiographical traces of his author, while Gottlieb Grambauer is a tribute to the author's father.
After 1945, Welk ceased his literary work for a few years. He stayed in East Germany
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
and founded six Volkshochschulen (adult education centres) in Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
. In 1946, he became director of a Volkshochschule in Schwerin
Schwerin
Schwerin is the capital and second-largest city of the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The population, as of end of 2009, was 95,041.-History:...
.
In 1950, Welk moved to Bad Doberan
Bad Doberan
Bad Doberan is a town in the district of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It was the capital of the former district of Bad Doberan. As of 2010 its population was 11,325.-Geography:...
and began with writing again. He received several awards of the GDR (e.g. the Nationalpreis
National Prize of East Germany
The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic was an award of the German Democratic Republic given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, and other meritorious achievement...
in 1954), and became an honorary citizen of the towns Bad Doberan and Angermünde
Angermünde
Angermünde is a town in the district of Uckermark in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is located on the Mündesee, 43 miles northeast of Berlin on the Berlin–Szczecin railway...
. At the University of Greifswald, he became an honorary doctor in 1956 and professor of the philosophy faculty in 1964.
Welk died in 1966 in Bad Doberan.
Censorship
Before World War II Welk was often compared with the "hunger priest" Wilhelm RaabeWilhelm Raabe
Wilhelm Raabe , German novelist, whose early works were published under the pseudonym of Jakob Corvinus, was born in Eschershausen ....
and with Gustav Freytag
Gustav Freytag
Gustav Freytag was a German novelist and playwright.-Life:Freytag was born in Kreuzburg in Silesia...
. In the GDR Die Heiden von Kummerow and Die Gerechten von Kummerow were his most popular works; they were seen as a German pendant to Guareschi's narrations about Don Camillo and Peppone. The film Die Heiden von Kummerow und ihre lustigen Streiche
Die Heiden von Kummerow und ihre lustigen Streiche
Die Heiden von Kummerow und ihre lustigen Streiche is an East German film. It was released in 1967.-External links:...
was, in 1967, one of the rare co-productions of the GDR and West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. DEFA made another movie of the book in 1982. The rest of Welk's works were republished by the GDR after his death, but some of them were modified deeply. It is not clear whether Welk wanted to remove Nazi-adopted text or censored himself because of being influenced by upcoming new dictatorship or GDR editors made modifications. Compared to the first edition of Die Heiden von Kummerow, for instance, later releases were anti-military in nature. Several words ("König
König
König is the German word for king. In German and other languages that use the umlaut the spellings König and Koenig are interchangeable. As a surname in English-language use Koenig is usual, or occasionally the umlaut is simply dropped, giving the form Konig...
" instead of "General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
", "hottentot
Khoikhoi
The Khoikhoi or Khoi, in standardised Khoekhoe/Nama orthography spelled Khoekhoe, are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen . They had lived in southern Africa since the 5th century AD...
isch" instead of "polnisch
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
") were changed, as were contents and motives. Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
elements were replaced by belief in revolution and class conflict
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
. For instance, Krischan's humbleness when he is banished from the village is not Christian anymore, but self-accusing- he accuses himself of not having supported the revolt of the seamen.
Selected works
- Gewitter über Gotland (drama, 1927)
- Kreuzabnahme (drama, 1927)
- Michael Knobbe oder Das Loch im Gesicht (comedy, 1931)
- Die schwarze Sonne (biography of Emin Pascha, 1933)
- Die Heiden von Kummerow (novel about a youth spent in a village, 1937)
- Die Lebensuhr des Gottlieb Grambauer (historic novel: „Ein Jahrhundert preußisch-deutscher Geschichte von einem fernen Dorfwinkel aus beobachtet" (according to the foreword), 1938)
- Der hohe Befehl (historic novel about WWI and German POWs in Russia, 1939)
- Die wundersame Freundschaft (about people and animals, 1940)
- Die Gerechten von Kummerow (novel - sequel to Die Heiden von Kummerow, 1943)
- Die stillen Gefährten (about living with animals, 1943)
- Der Nachtmann - Geschichte einer Fahrt zwischen hüben und drüben (1949)
- Mein Land, das ferne leuchtet (novel, 1952)
- Im Morgennebel (novel about November Revolution in Brunswick, 1953)
- Kein Hüsung (movie script, 1954)
- Mutafo (grotesque seamen’s stories, 1955)
- Der Hammer will gehandhabt sein (narrations, 1958)
- Der wackere Kühnemann aus Puttelfingen (satirical novel, 1959)
Literature and Films about him
- Ingeborg Gerlach: Ehm Welk: „Im Morgennebel“. Entstehung und Rezeption des Romans. In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch, volume 75, Brunswick 1994
- Konrad Reich: Ehm Welk - Stationen eines Lebens. Rostock: Hinstorff, 1976
- Matthias Friske: Kummerow im Bruch hinterm Berge.
- Christian Lehmann: "Im Bruch hinterm Berge - Ehm Welk und Biesenbrow", Dokumentary film, DEFA, 1978