- Else Lasker-Schüler
Infobox Writer
name = Else Lasker-Schüler
caption = Else Lasker-Schüler Stele in Wuppertal
birthdate = birth date|1869|2|11|mf=y
birthplace =Elberfeld (todayWuppertal ),Germany
deathdate = death date and age|1945|1|22|1869|2|11|mf=y
deathplace =Jerusalem
occupation = Poet
notableworks =
website =Else Lasker-Schüler (
February 11 ,1869 –January 22 ,1945 ) was aJew ish Germanpoet and playwright (1869-1945) famous for her bohemian lifestyle inBerlin . She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist movement. Lasker-Schüler fledNazi Germany and lived out the rest of her life inJerusalem . [ [http://nupress.northwestern.edu/title.cfm?ISBN=0-8101-2198-0 Three Plays, Else Lasker-Schuler ] ]Biography
Schüler was born in
Elberfeld , now a district ofWuppertal . Her mother, Jeannette Schüler (nee Kissing) was a central figure in her poetry, and the main character of her play "Die Wupper" was inspired by her father, Aaron Schüler, a Jewish banker.In 1894, Else married the
physician Jonathan Berthold Lasker (the older brother ofEmanuel Lasker , a World Chess Champion) and moved with him toBerlin , where she trained as an artist. OnAugust 24 ,1899 her son Paul was born and her first poems were published. She published her first full volume ofpoetry , "Styx", three years later, in 1902. OnApril 11 ,1903 , she and Berthold Lasker divorced and onNovember 30 , she married Georg Lewin. His pseudonym,Herwarth Walden , was her invention.Lasker-Schüler's first
prose work, "Das Peter-Hille-Buch", was published in 1906, after the death of Hille, one of her closest friends. In 1907, she published the prose collection "Die Nächte der Tino von Bagdad," followed by the play "Die Wupper" in 1909, which was not performed until later. A volume of poetry called the "Meine Wunder," published in 1911, established Lasker-Schüler as the leading female representative of Germanexpressionism .After separating from Herwarth Walden in 1910 and divorcing him in 1912, she found herself penniless and dependent on the financial support of her friends, in particular
Karl Kraus . That year, she metGottfried Benn . An intense friendship developed between them which found its literary outlet in a large number of love poems dedicated to him. The death of her son in 1927, however, sent her into a deep depression.Despite winning the Kleist Prize in 1932, as a Jew she was physically harassed and threatened by the Nazis. She emigrated to
Zürich but there, too, she could not work. She traveled toPalestine in 1934 and finally settled inJerusalem in 1937. In 1938 she was stripped of her German citizenship and the outbreak ofWorld War II prevented any return toEurope .In 1944 Lasker-Schüler's health deteriorated. She suffered a heart attack on
January 16 , and died in Jerusalem onJanuary 22 ,1945 . She was buried on theMount of Olives .Memorials
There is a memorial plaque to Else Lasker-Schüler at
Motzstraße 7, Berlin-Schöneberg, where she lived from 1924 to 1933. Part of this street was renamed Else-Lasker-Schüler-Straße in 1996. In Elberfeld in Wuppertal there is now a school named after her (The "School without Racism"), and a memorialstele was erected on Herzogstrasse, Wuppertal.In Jerusalem, there is a small street named for Else Lasker-Schuler in the neighborhood of Nayot - Rehov Else. Perched on a ridge in the Jerusalem Forest, very close to the Kennedy Memorial (
Yad Kennedy ), is a sculpture in her honor resembling a slender tree trunk with wings.In 2007, her final days in Jerusalem were commemorated in the BBC radio play MY BLUE PIANO by the Scottish playwright Marty Ross (Radio 4 2007) which combined the facts of her dying days with the fantasies of her inner life. This can be heard at [http://www.bluesmouse.multiply.com/item/1/Marty_Ross_BBC_plays_available_here]
Works
Lasker-Schüler left behind several volumes of poetry and three plays, as well as many short stories, essays and letters. During her lifetime, her poems were published in various magazines, among them the journal "Der Sturm" edited by her second husband, and Karl Kraus' "'Fackel." She also published many anthologies of poetry, some of which she illustrated herself. Examples are:
*" [http://www.lyrik.ch/lyrik/spur3/lasker/lasker-2.htm Styx] " (first published volume of poetry, 1902)
*" [http://www.lyrik.ch/lyrik/spur3/lasker/lasker-3.htm Der siebente Tag] " (second volume of poetry, 1905)
*" [http://www.lyrik.ch/lyrik/spur3/lasker/lasker-4.htm Meine Wunder] " (first edition, 1911)
*"Gesammelte Gedichte" (1917)
*" [http://www.lyrik.ch/lyrik/spur3/lasker/lasker-5.htm Mein blaues Klavier] " (1943)Lasker-Schüler wrote her first and most important play, "Die Wupper", in 1908. It was published in 1909 and the first performance took place on
April 27 ,1919 at the Deutsche Theater inBerlin .A large part of her work is composed of love poetry, but there are also deeply religious poems and prayers. Transitions between the two are often quite fluid. Her later work is particularly rich in biblical and oriental motifs. Lasker-Schüler was very free with regard to the external rules of poetic form, however her works thereby achieve a greater inner concentration. She was also not averse to linguistic neologisms.
A good example of her poetic art is "Ein alter Tibetteppich" ("An old Tibetan rug"), a poem which was reprinted many times after its first publication in "Sturm", the first of these being in "Fackel".
Another translation of the Tibetan Carpet:
An Old Tibetan Carpet
Your soul that's sewn in love and mineThreads in Carpet-Tibet-Land entwine.
Colours in love, ray within ray,Stars courting each other across the sky.
Our feet rest on such weaving rareThousands-on-thousands-of stitches-far.
Om musc-plant-throne, sweet Lama's son,How long do my lips kiss your lipsAnd cheek the cheek as brightly-buttoned seasons run?
by Felix de Villiers (copyright)
Influences
The 20th century Scottish poet
Hugh MacDiarmid included a translation of an extract from Lasker-Schüler's work in his long poemA Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle , 1926. (Lines 401-410.)References
*This article is based on a translation of the corresponding article from the German Wikipedia, retrieved on May 6, 2005.
1. http://nupress.northwestern.edu/title.cfm?ISBN=0-8101-2198-0
External links
* [http://www.else-lasker-schueler.de ELS Gesellschaft]
* [http://els-bib.southalabama.edu/ Online list of publications]
* [http://www.els.gesellschaft.wtal.de/gedichtdesmonats/gedicht_9905.html "Ein alter Tibetteppich" - poem of the month (in German)]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.