Paul Scheerbart

Paul Karl Wilhelm Scheerbart (born January 8 1863 in Danzig-October 151915 in Berlin) was an author of fantastic literature and drawings. He published also under the pseudonym "Kuno Küfer". He is best known for the book "Glasarchitektur" from 1914.

He was associated with expressionist architecture and Bruno Taut. He composed aphoristic poems about glass for the Glass Pavilion at the Werkbund Exhibition (1914).

Life

Paul Scheerbart began his studies of philosophy and history of art in 1885. In 1887 he worked as a poet in Berlin and tried to invent Perpetual motion machines. In 1892 he was one of the joint founders of the "Verlag deutscher Phantasten" (Publishers of German Fantasists).

At this time he was in financial difficulties. After writing in different publications he produced his first novel 'Die große Revolution' (" The Great Revolution "), which was published by the Insel-Verlag. The young Ernst Rowohlt published Scheerbart's bizarre poem collection "Katerpoesie" and became his friend.

Scheerbart's fantastic essays about glass architecture influenced architects at that time, including the young Bruno Taut. Among his Berlin friends and drinking circle was Erich Mühsam, who dedicated a chapter to Scheerbart in his 'Unpolitical Memories'. Scheerbart, whose own works played on far planets, was also friendly with Richard Dehmel. He had an important influence on Walter Benjamin who quoted his ideas on glass in his Arcades Project.

Work

Very few of Scheerbart's works have been translated into English. Though the following list also gives English translations of the titles, there is usually no English-language edition of the work available.

* 1889 "Das Paradies. Die Heimat der Kunst" (Paradise. Home of the Arts)
* 1893 "Ja... was... möchten wir nicht Alles!", (Yes.....What......We wouldn't all like to have!), A Fable
* 1897 "Ich liebe Dich!", (I love you!), A Novel with 66 Intermezzos
* 1897 "Tarub, Bagdads berühmte Köchin", (Tarub, Baghdad's famous female cook), Arab culture novel
* 1897 "Der Tod der Barmekiden", (The death of the Barmakids), Arab Harem novel
* 1898 "Na prost!", (Well, Cheers!), Fantasy King novel
* 1900 "Die wilde Jagd", (The wild hunt), A development novel in eight stories
* 1901 "Rakkóx der Billionär", (Rakkóx the trillionaire), An ostentatious novel
* 1901 "Die Seeschlange" (The Sea Serpent), A sea novel
* 1902 "Die große Revolution", (The Great Revolution), A moon novel
* 1902 "Immer mutig!", (Always courageously!), A Fantasy novel
* 1902 "Liwûna und Kaidôh", A Soul novel
* 1902 "Weltglanz", (World Shine), a sun fairy tale
* 1903 "Kometentanz", (Comet dance), Astral Pantomime in two acts
* 1903 "Der Aufgang zur Sonne", (The stairway to the sun), house fairy tales
* 1904 "Der Kaiser von Utopia", (The emperor of Utopia), a folktale
* 1904 "Machtspäße", (Jests about power), Arab novellas
* 1904 "Revolutionäre Theater-Bibliothek", (Revolutionary theatre library), collection of plays
* 1906 "Münchhausen und Clarissa", Berlin novel
* 1909 "Die Entwicklung des Luftmilitarismus und die Auflösung der europäischen Land-Heere, Festungen und Seeflotten", (The development of air militarism and the dissolution of the European Land-army, fortresses and sea-fleets)
* 1909 "Kater-Poesie", ("translatable as" Tomcat poetry "or" Hangover poetry), poems
* 1910 "Das Perpetuum mobile", (The perpetual motion machine), the history of an invention
* 1912 "Das große Licht", (The Great Light) A Münchhausen-Breviary
* 1912 "Flora Mohr", A glass flower novella
* 1913 "Lesabéndio", an Asteroid novel
* 1914 "Das graue Tuch und zehn Prozent Weiß", (The grey cloth and ten percent of white), a ladies novel. Translated into English as: "The gray cloth : Paul Scheerbart's novel on glass architecture." Cambridge, Mass. ; London, England : MIT Press, 2001. ISBN 0-262-19460-0
* 1914 "Glasarchitektur" (Glass architecture)
* 1921 "Von Zimmer zu Zimmer", (From room to room), letters to his wife

References

* Mechthild Rausch: "Von Danzig ins Weltall. Paul Scheerbarts Anfangsjahre (1863 - 1895)". München: Ed. Text und Kritik 1997. ISBN 3-88377-549-5
* Uli Kohnle: "Paul Scheerbart. Eine Bibliographie". Bellheim: Edition Phantasia 1994. ISBN 3-924959-92-7
* Paul Kaltefleiter, Berni Lörwald und Michael M. Schardt (Hrsg.): "Über Paul Scheerbart. 100 Jahre Scheerbart-Rezeption". 3 Bände. Paderborn: Igel-Verlag 1998. ISBN 3-927104-23-X (Band 1); ISBN 3-927104-88-4 (Band 2); ISBN 3-89621-055-6 (Band 3).

External links

* PND|118606816
* [http://www.scheerbart.de Paul Scheerbart] (private Homepage)
* [http://www.edition-phantasia.de/scheerbart/index.htm Scheerbart bei Edition Phantasia]
* [http://www.ub.fu-berlin.de/internetquellen/fachinformation/germanistik/autoren/multi_pqrs/scheer.html ub.fu-berlin.de University library of the Universität Berlin]
* [http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/?id=19&autorid=511&autor_vorname=+Paul&autor_nachname=Scheerbart&cHash=b31bbae2c6 Project Gutenberg -- Germany]