Johannes R. Becher
Encyclopedia
Johannes Robert Becher was a German
politician
, novelist, and poet
.
Heinrich Becher. In 1910 he tried to commit suicide with a friend; only Becher survived. From 1911 he studied medicine
and philosophy
in Munich
and Jena
. He left his studies and became an expressionist writer, his first works appearing in 1913. An injury from his suicide attempt made him unfit for military service.
He was also engaged in many communist organisations, joining the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
in 1917, then went over to the Spartacist League
in 1918 from which emerged the Communist Party of Germany
(KPD). In 1920 he left the KPD, disappointed with the failure of the German Revolution
and embraced religion. However he again joined the KPD in 1923 and very actively worked within the party. His art entered an expressionist period, from which he would later dissociate himself. He was part of die Kugel, an artistic group based in Magdeburg
. During this time he published in the magazines Verfall und Triumph, Die Aktion and Die neue Kunst.
In 1925 his anti-war novel (CHCI=CH)3As (Levisite) oder Der einzig gerechte Krieg saw him indicted for "literarischen Hochverrats" or "literary high treason". It was only in 1928 that this law was finally amended. In that same year he became a founding member of the KPD-aligned Association of Proletarian-Revolutionary Authors
(Bund proletarisch-revolutionärer Schriftstellers) becoming its first chairman and co-editor of its magazine Die Linkskurve. From 1932 he was publisher of the newspaper Die Rote Fahne. In the same year he began to serve as a candidate of the KPD in the Reichstag elections.
he was placed on the Nazi blacklist
, but he was able to escape from a large raid
in the Berlin artist colony near Breitenbachplatz in Wilmersdorf
.
By March 15, 1933 he, with the support of the secretary of the
Bund proletarisch-revolutionärer Schriftsteller, traveled Willy Harzheim home, after staying at Brünn
from there he moved over to Prague
after some weeks, then to Zurich
, Paris
and finally in 1935 to the USSR. In Moscow
he became editor-in-chief of the German emigre magazine Internationale Literatur-Deutsche Blätter and a member of the Central Committee of the KPD.
Soon he was caught in the midst of the Great Purge
. In 1935 he was already accused of links with Leon Trotsky
. He also took part, “informing” on other writers' alleged political misdemeanours. From 1936 he was forbidden to leave the USSR. In 1941 he was resettled to Tashkent
, where he tried several times to commit suicide. In 1943 he became one of the founders of the Soviet sponsored National Committee for a Free Germany
. During the exile he befriended the philosopher and literature theoretician Georg Lukács
. They intensively studied 18th and 19th century literature, and he turned away from modernism to Socialist Realism
.
, structure the Aufbau-Verlag publishing house and the literature magazine Sinn und Form. In 1946 he joined the Party Executive Committee and the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party
. After the establishment of the GDR on 7 October 1949 he became a member of the Volkskammer
. In 1949 he wrote the lyrics to Hanns Eisler
's melody Auferstanden aus Ruinen
, which became the national anthem of the GDR. In the same year he took part in the establishment of the Akademie der Künste
, becoming its president from 1953 to 1956, succeeding Arnold Zweig
. In January 1953 he received the Stalin Peace Prize (later remamed the Lenin Peace Prize
) in Moscow.
In Leipzig
in 1955, the Institut für Literatur Johannes R. Becher was founded and named in Becher's honor. The Institute's purpose was to train socialist writers. Institute graduates include Erich Loest
, Volker Braun
, Sarah Kirsch
and Rainer Kirsch.
From 1954 to 1958 he was a Minister of culture of the GDR
. During the Khrushchev Thaw
he was sharply criticized by the party leadership, and was politically demoted in 1957. For health reasons he had to give up all offices and functions in September 1958. He died on 11 October 1958 in the East Berlin
government hospital of cancer
. He was buried at the Dorotheenstadt cemetery in the Berlin center. The burial place belongs to the honour graves of Berlin. Becher lived in Majakowskiring
34 street, Pankow
, East Berlin
.
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...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, novelist, and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
Early life
Johannes R. Becher was the son of JudgeJudge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
Heinrich Becher. In 1910 he tried to commit suicide with a friend; only Becher survived. From 1911 he studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and Jena
Jena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
. He left his studies and became an expressionist writer, his first works appearing in 1913. An injury from his suicide attempt made him unfit for military service.
Political activity in Germany
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany...
in 1917, then went over to the Spartacist League
Spartacist League
The Spartacus League was a left-wing Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic...
in 1918 from which emerged the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD). In 1920 he left the KPD, disappointed with the failure of 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...
and embraced religion. However he again joined the KPD in 1923 and very actively worked within the party. His art entered an expressionist period, from which he would later dissociate himself. He was part of die Kugel, an artistic group based in Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
. During this time he published in the magazines Verfall und Triumph, Die Aktion and Die neue Kunst.
In 1925 his anti-war novel (CHCI=CH)3As (Levisite) oder Der einzig gerechte Krieg saw him indicted for "literarischen Hochverrats" or "literary high treason". It was only in 1928 that this law was finally amended. In that same year he became a founding member of the KPD-aligned Association of Proletarian-Revolutionary Authors
Association of Proletarian-Revolutionary Authors
The Association of Proletarian-Revolutionary Authors was a German cultural organisation established in 1928, at the time of the Weimar Republic...
(Bund proletarisch-revolutionärer Schriftstellers) becoming its first chairman and co-editor of its magazine Die Linkskurve. From 1932 he was publisher of the newspaper Die Rote Fahne. In the same year he began to serve as a candidate of the KPD in the Reichstag elections.
Fleeing from Nazis
After the Reichstag fireReichstag fire
The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany....
he was placed on the Nazi blacklist
Blacklist
A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
, but he was able to escape from a large raid
Raid (military)
Raid, also known as depredation, is a military tactic or operational warfare mission which has a specific purpose and is not normally intended to capture and hold terrain, but instead finish with the raiding force quickly retreating to a previous defended position prior to the enemy forces being...
in the Berlin artist colony near Breitenbachplatz in Wilmersdorf
Wilmersdorf
Wilmersdorf is an inner city locality of Berlin, formerly a borough by itself but since Berlin's 2001 administrative reform a part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf.-History:...
.
By March 15, 1933 he, with the support of the secretary of the
Bund proletarisch-revolutionärer Schriftsteller, traveled Willy Harzheim home, after staying at Brünn
Brunn
Brunn or Brünn may refer to:Places* Brünn, the German form of the Czech city Brno* Brunn, Upper Palatinate, a town in Bavaria, Germany* Brunn, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a municipality in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany...
from there he moved over to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
after some weeks, then to Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and finally in 1935 to the USSR. In Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
he became editor-in-chief of the German emigre magazine Internationale Literatur-Deutsche Blätter and a member of the Central Committee of the KPD.
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
. In 1935 he was already accused of links with Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
. He also took part, “informing” on other writers' alleged political misdemeanours. From 1936 he was forbidden to leave the USSR. In 1941 he was resettled to Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
, where he tried several times to commit suicide. In 1943 he became one of the founders of the Soviet sponsored National Committee for a Free Germany
National Committee for a Free Germany
The National Committee for a Free Germany was a German anti-Nazi organization that operated in the Soviet Union during World War II.- History :...
. During the exile he befriended the philosopher and literature theoretician Georg Lukács
Georg Lukács
György Lukács was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic. He is a founder of the tradition of Western Marxism. He contributed the concept of reification to Marxist philosophy and theory and expanded Karl Marx's theory of class consciousness. Lukács' was also an influential literary...
. They intensively studied 18th and 19th century literature, and he turned away from modernism to Socialist Realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
.
Return to East Germany
After the Second World War he returned to Germany and lived in the Soviet zone of occupation. There he would hold different cultural-political positions. He took part in the establishment of the Cultural Association of the DDRCultural Association of the DDR
The Cultural Association of the GDR was a federation of local clubs in the German Democratic Republic . It formed part of the Socialist Unity Party-led National Front, and sent representatives to the Volkskammer. The association had numerous writers as its member, including Willi Bredel, Fritz...
, structure the Aufbau-Verlag publishing house and the literature magazine Sinn und Form. In 1946 he joined the Party Executive Committee and the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
. After the establishment of the GDR on 7 October 1949 he became a member of the Volkskammer
Volkskammer
The People's Chamber was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic . From its founding in 1949 until the first free elections on 18 March 1990, all members of the Volkskammer were elected on a slate controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , called the National Front...
. In 1949 he wrote the lyrics to Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
's melody Auferstanden aus Ruinen
Auferstanden aus Ruinen
' was the national anthem of East Germany during its existence from 1949 to 1990.-History:...
, which became the national anthem of the GDR. In the same year he took part in the establishment of the Akademie der Künste
Akademie der Künste
The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
, becoming its president from 1953 to 1956, succeeding Arnold Zweig
Arnold Zweig
Arnold Zweig was a German writer and anti-war activist.He is best known for his World War I tetralogy.-Life and work:Zweig was born in Glogau, Silesia son of a Jewish saddler...
. In January 1953 he received the Stalin Peace Prize (later remamed the Lenin Peace Prize
Lenin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize was the Soviet Union's equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize, named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had "strengthened peace among peoples"...
) in Moscow.
In Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
in 1955, the Institut für Literatur Johannes R. Becher was founded and named in Becher's honor. The Institute's purpose was to train socialist writers. Institute graduates include Erich Loest
Erich Loest
Erich Loest German writer who was born in Mittweida, Saxony. He also writes under following pseudonyms Hans Walldorf, Bernd Diksen and Waldemar Naß.- Works :* Jungen, die übrig blieben, Leipzig 1950...
, Volker Braun
Volker Braun
Volker Braun is a German writer. His works include Provokation für mich -- a collection of poems written between 1959 and 1964 and published in 1965, a play, Die Kipper , and Das ungezwungne Leben Kasts .-Life:Volker Braun, who worked in...
, Sarah Kirsch
Sarah Kirsch
Sarah Kirsch is a German poet.She was born Ingrid Bernstein in Limlingerode, Prussian Saxony. She changed her first name to Sarah in order to protest against her father's anti-semitism. She studied biology in Halle and literature at the Johannes R. Becher Institute for Literature in Leipzig. In...
and Rainer Kirsch.
From 1954 to 1958 he was a Minister of culture of the GDR
Ministerrat
The Council of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic was the chief executive body of East Germany from November 1950 until the GDR was unified with the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990...
. During the Khrushchev Thaw
Khrushchev Thaw
The Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and...
he was sharply criticized by the party leadership, and was politically demoted in 1957. For health reasons he had to give up all offices and functions in September 1958. He died on 11 October 1958 in the East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
government hospital of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
. He was buried at the Dorotheenstadt cemetery in the Berlin center. The burial place belongs to the honour graves of Berlin. Becher lived in Majakowskiring
Majakowskiring
The Majakowskiring is an ellipse-shaped street in the Pankow district of Berlin, Germany, in the Niederschönhausen locality...
34 street, Pankow
Pankow
Pankow is the third borough of Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weißensee; the resulting borough retained the name Pankow.- Overview :...
, East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
.
External links
- Johannes R. Becher 1891–1958 Published in Encyclopedia of German Literature (2000)