Hans Egon Holthusen
Hans Egon Holthusen was a notable German poet and essayist, born in 1913 in Rendsburg, Schleswig-Holstein. He initially studied history, philosophy, and philology at the University of Tübingen and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Munich, where he published a respected dissertation on poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Holthusen's early political affiliations included a stint with the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel (S.S.), which he later renounced, and he became involved in the anti-Nazi resistance during World War II. Following the war, he revitalized his literary career, gaining recognition for his poems "Tabula rasa" and "Heimkehr."
He fostered connections with prominent English-language poets such as W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot, which enriched his work's cross-cultural appeal. Holthusen held various academic positions, including professorships at Northwestern University, and was active in literary institutions like the Berlin Academy of Arts. He received multiple awards for his contributions to literature, including the Bavarian Prize for Literature. In addition to his literary pursuits, he had a deep interest in archaeology, traveling extensively in Greece and Turkey. Holthusen passed away in 1997 in Munich, leaving behind a legacy as an important figure in promoting German literature internationally.
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Hans Egon Holthusen
Writer
- Born: April 15, 1913
- Birthplace: Rendsburg, Germany
- Died: January 1, 1997
- Place of death: Munich, Germany
Biography
Poet and essayist Hans Egon Holthusen, one of German literature’s most effective emissaries to the English-speaking world, was born in northwestern Germany, in Rendsburg in Schlewsig-Holstein, in 1913. His father was a Protestant minister and young Holthusen was the oldest of five children. He attended school at the Andreanum Gymnasium in Hildesheim and considered himself a Marxist. However, in 1933, he abandoned these leftist leanings and voluntarily joined the Schutzstaffel (S.S.), the security and military organization of the Nazi Party. Holthusen attended the University at Tübingen, studying history, philosophy, and philology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Munich in 1937 and published his doctoral dissertation on poet Rainer Maria Rilke, for which he would earn wide respect. In 1937, he also ended his association with the S.S.
Between 1937 and 1939, Holthusen published articles in Neue Rundschau, Hochland, and Eckart and worked as an editor with the Goethe Institute in Munich. When World War II began, he served as a soldier in the army’s signal corps. His brother was killed in 1942, and Holthusen spent the next three years in Russia, returning to Munich in 1945 to work in a translator unit. He joined the anti-Nazi resistance movement known as Freiheitsaktion Bayern, and after the war was cleared in the denazification process without detention.
Holthusen immediately resumed his literary career, publishing two of his best-known poems, “Tabula rasa” and “Heimkehr,” in the journal Merkur in 1945 and 1947, respectively. He met poets W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot around this time, establishing a connection with the world of English letters and beginning the cross-cultural exchange which would characterize much of his later career. In 1951, Holthusen toured England and the Netherlands on the lecture circuit and spent 1953 in the United States at Harvard University’s International Summer Seminar. In 1954, he received the Prize for Literature from the Confederation of German Industry.
He married twice in quick succession, first to Lore Schaeder in 1950 and then to Inge Havemeier in 1952. He had one child, Stefan, with his first wife, and a stepdaughter with his second. He was the director of the literary section of the Berlin Academy of Arts from 1956 until 1963, and in 1968 he began his term as president of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. He was awarded the Kulturpreis from the state of Kiel in 1956.
Holthusen came to New York City in 1961 to serve a one-year term as the director of the Goethe-Institut. He returned to Munich but was back in the United States in 1965 as a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh, returning again in 1967as a visiting professor at Indiana University. In 1968, he was a tenured professor at Northwestern University near Chicago, where he had been a visiting scholar in 1959. He held a professorship in Northwestern’s department of German until he retired in 1981.
After his retirement, he spent a year as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin before moving to Munich to devote himself full-time to writing. He received three major prizes in the years immediately after his return to Germany: the Bavarian Prize for Literature in 1983 and both the Bavarian Order of Merit and the Schleswig-Holstein Art Prize in 1984.
Holstein was fascinated by archaeology and traveled frequently to Greece and Turkey. He died in January, 1997, at his home in Munich.