Fritz Steuben
Encyclopedia
Erhard Wittek better known for his pen name
Fritz Steuben, was a German
author
.
, Province of Posen
. He participated in World War I
. After the war he started as a book-seller apprentice and became finally head of production in the publishing house Franckh-Kosmos
in Stuttgart
.
From 1929 until 1952 Steuben wrote stories on American Indians using his pseudonym]. Eight volumes of his Tecumseh
-anthology, follow the Shawnee
-chief Tecumseh
from the childhood to his death. In 1937 Steuben moved to Neustrelitz
where he lived as an independent writer. 1955 he moved again to Pinneberg
where he died.
Stuttgart:Franckh, 1933) and other novels under his birth name. Using also the pen name Fritz Steuben, initially for his native American Indian (Tecumseh) stories, he wrote many of his works under the influence of national socialism, obviously so from 1933/34 onwards. Hope for the reconquest of the eastern parts of the German empire, his birth place included, may have contributed. Tecumseh was depicted as nearly superhuman "Führer" (leader) and the militaristic aspects and the superiority of the white settlers were stressed. However, contrary to the Western novels of Karl May
, famous in Germany, yet temporarily discredited by false claims to authenticity, his fiction was based on real persons and comparatively serious use of sources available to him. In Germany his books had already achieved a circulation of 790,000 copies in the Thirties. After the Second World War
the Tecumseh-anthology reappeared ideologically cleaned (or at least superficially politically corrected) by Nina Schindler and is still on sale in this form.
Steuben edited also renarrated editions of James Fenimore Cooper
. Cooper was together with Kipling his preferred model author.
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Fritz Steuben, was a German
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...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Biography
Steuben was born in WongrowitzWagrowiec
Wągrowiec is a town in northwestern Poland, 50 km from both Poznań and Bydgoszcz. Since the 18th century it has been the a seat of a powiat. It is currently attached to the Greater Poland Voivodeship...
, Province of Posen
Province of Posen
The Province of Posen was a province of Prussia from 1848–1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The area was about 29,000 km2....
. He participated in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. After the war he started as a book-seller apprentice and became finally head of production in the publishing house Franckh-Kosmos
Kosmos (game publisher)
Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. is a media publishing house based in Stuttgart, Germany, founded in 1822 by Johann Friedrich Franckh. In the nineteenth century the company published the fairy tales of Wilhelm Hauff as well as works by Wilhelm Waiblinger and Eduard Mörike.The "Friends of Nature...
in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
.
From 1929 until 1952 Steuben wrote stories on American Indians using his pseudonym]. Eight volumes of his Tecumseh
Tecumseh
Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812...
-anthology, follow the Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
-chief Tecumseh
Tecumseh
Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812...
from the childhood to his death. In 1937 Steuben moved to Neustrelitz
Neustrelitz
Neustrelitz is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 until 1918 it was the capital of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz...
where he lived as an independent writer. 1955 he moved again to Pinneberg
Pinneberg
Pinneberg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, capital of the district Pinneberg in Germany. The town has 42,301 inhabitants. Pinneberg is located 18 km northwest of Hamburg....
where he died.
Works
Steuben wrote war novels based on personal experiences in World War I (especially "Durchbruch anno achtzehn. Ein Fronterlebnis"Karl May
Karl Friedrich May was a popular German writer, noted mainly for adventure novels set in the American Old West, and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East . In addition, he wrote stories set in his native Germany, in China and in South America...
, famous in Germany, yet temporarily discredited by false claims to authenticity, his fiction was based on real persons and comparatively serious use of sources available to him. In Germany his books had already achieved a circulation of 790,000 copies in the Thirties. After the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the Tecumseh-anthology reappeared ideologically cleaned (or at least superficially politically corrected) by Nina Schindler and is still on sale in this form.
Erhard Wittek
- Das Buch als Werbemittel, 1926
- Durchbruch anno achtzehn. Ein Fronterlebnis, Stuttgart 1933
- Männer. Ein Buch des Stolzes, 1936 (Männer, heroische Anekdoten aus dem Krieg, 1944)
- Bewährung der Herzen, Novelle, Dresden 1937
- Traum im Februar, Erzählung, 1939
- Ein Becher Wasser, und andere Begebenheiten aus Polen, Dresden 1940
- Der Marsch nach Lowitsch. Ein Bericht, 1940
- Dem Vaterland zugute ..., Erzählung, Dresden 1943
- Wir, von der Weichsel und Warthe edited with Karlheinz Gehrmann, Hanns von Krannhals), Salzburg 1950
- Der alte Witt und andere Geschichten aus dem Osten, Würzburg 1963
Pseudonym Fritz Steuben
- Tecumseh-Reihe, Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1930-1939
- 0. Schneller Fuß und Pfeilmädchen 1935
- 1. Der fliegende Pfeil1930, Tecumseh - The Flying Arrow
- 2. Der rote Sturm, 1931
- 3. Tecumseh, der Berglöwe, 1932
- 4. Der strahlende Stern, 1934
- 5. Tecumseh, der große Seher
- 6. Der Sohn des Manitu, 1938
- 7. Tecumseh, der große Häuptling, , (T.-Häuptling der Indianer. =Tecumseh, Strahlender Stern + Großer Häuptling Tecumseh).
- 8. Tecumsehs Tod 1939, Tecumseh's Death (part 1 of this separated as Ruf der Wälder, 1951)
- Die Karawane am Persergolf. Eine abenteuerliche Kriegsfahrt durch die arabische Wüste, 1935
- Der ehrliche Zöllner. Kleine Geschichten aus dem Osten, 1949
- Wolfram fährt nach Südtirol. Die Geschichte einer Kinderfreundschaft, 1949
- Bewährung der Herzen, 1949
- Emir Dynamit. Bilder aus dem Leben des Obersten Lawrence", 1949
- Die Anna, Roman, Stuttgart 1951
- Dort hinter dem gläsernen Berge, 1952
- Zwei Mädel wie Hund und Katze. Ein fröhliches Buch aus glücklichen Tagen (Illustrationen von Ulrik Schramm), 1954
- Müllers ziehen um. Zwei Mädel wie Hund und Katze in der neuen Heimat (Illustrationen von Ulrik Schramm), 1955
- Mississippi Saga, Sieur de la Salle, Entdecker, Eroberer, Edelmann, 1956. (Tragödie am Mississippi, 1957)
- Gunnar vom Eisland, 1957
- Der Weg nach Bethlehem. Zeichn. v. Willy Kretzer, Wien 1957
- Der ewige Hunger nach Gold. Interessantes, Amüsantes und Verwunderliches aus der Geschichte des Handels, Gütersloh 1965
- Abenteuer, Abenteuer!', (Editor) 1957
- Gunnar vom Eisland. Illustr. v. Heiner Rothfuchs, 1957
- Der weite Ritt, Roman, Gütersloh 1960
- Die reinsten Musterkinder (Illustrationen von Heiner Rothfuchs), 1968
- Auf großer Fahrt. Wanderungen zwischen Pregel und Beskiden, Freiburg 1966
- Der Thronfolger. Fürstensohn Ibn Saud gründet das heutige Königreich Saudi-Arabien, 1976
Steuben edited also renarrated editions of James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
. Cooper was together with Kipling his preferred model author.
Translations
- Roland DorgelèsRoland DorgelèsRoland Dorgelès , was a French novelist and a member of the Académie Goncourt.Born Roland Lecavelé , he spent his childhood in Paris....
: Die hölzernen Kreuze (jontly with Tony Kellen) - Richard Morenus: Alaska Slim. Ein Leben in der Wildnis, 1956
- Glenn Tucker: Tecumseh, Bremen 1969 (Tecumseh, Vision of Glory)
Literature (from the German Wikipedia)
Secondary literature concentrates mostly on the ideological function and the corresponding developments after the war.- Barbara Haible: Indianer im Dienste der NS-Ideologie. Untersuchungen zur Funktion von Jugendbüchern über nordamerikanische Indianer im Nationalsozialismus. Hamburg: Kovac 1998. (= Schriftenreihe Poetica; 32) ISBN 3-86064-751-2 ( an analysis of youth fiction on (native American) Indians in the Service of NS-ideology)
- Winfred Kaminski: Heroische Innerlichkeit. Studien zur Jugendliteratur vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt am Main: dipa-Verlag 1987. (= Jugend und Medien; 14) ISBN 3-7638-0127-8
- Thomas Kramer: Tecumseh und Toka-itho: Edle Wilde unter roten Brüdern. Zur Rezeption der Indianerbücher von Fritz Steuben und Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich in der DDR. In: Berliner Blätter. Ethnographische und Ethnologische Beiträge (noch im Druck)
- Günter Waldmann: Die Ideologie der Erzählform. Mit einer Modellanalyse von NS-Literatur. München: Fink 1976. (= Uni-Taschenbücher; 525) ISBN 3-7705-1332-0
External links
- F.Steuben de.wikipedia
- Short biography Erhard Wittek in German, portrait photography
- Thomas Kramer
- Winfred Kaminski