Stefan Andres
Stefan Andres was a German writer born in 1906, the sixth of nine children in a family that experienced significant challenges and changes due to historical events. His early life in the village of Schweich on the Moselle River was marked by a strong pacifist influence, particularly from his father and figures like Pope Benedict XV. After studying under various religious orders and later at several universities, he married Dorothee Freudiger, who encouraged him to pursue a writing career. Their family was touched by tragedy, including the death of their daughter Mechthild, which deeply influenced Andres's literary work.
Fleeing Nazi Germany due to his wife's Jewish heritage, Andres settled in Italy, where he produced a substantial body of work that often critiqued totalitarian regimes. His notable publications include the novella "El Greco malt den Gro�inquisitor," which is recognized for its subtle opposition to National Socialism. After World War II, he returned to Germany and continued to write plays that grappled with themes of existentialism and freedom. Despite facing initial resistance from audiences, his works eventually gained recognition, leading to several prestigious awards. Andres's legacy is characterized by his exploration of profound human experiences and his commitment to cultural and literary discourse until his death in 1970.
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Subject Terms
Stefan Andres
Writer, poet and playwright
- Born: June 26, 1906
- Birthplace: Dhron Valley, near Trittenheim, Germany
- Died: June 29, 1970
Biography
Stefan Paul Andres was the sixth of nine children born to the miller Stefan Andres (1861-1916) and his wife Susanne Andres, née Rausch. In 1910, the family moved to the village of Schweich on the Moselle River just north of Trier. Andres’s 1953 novel Der Knabe im Brunnen (the boy in the well) contains scenes drawn from his childhood there, and Schweich has commemorated him with a Stefan Andres Fountain. Stefan’s father was opposed to World War I, as was Pope Benedict XV. Their pacifism was a formative influence on the boy.
After attending school in Schweich from 1912 to 1918, Stefan studied with Redemptorist, Franciscan, and Capuchin monks before returning to secular life. From 1929 to 1932, he studied German language and literature, art history, and philosophy at the universities of Cologne, Jena, and Berlin. On September 28, 1932, Stefan Andres married the medical student Dorothee Freudiger, who encouraged him to become a writer. They had three daughters: Mechthild (1933-1942), Beatrice, and Irene Maria. Andres remembers Mechthild in poetry in Requiem für ein Kind (requiem for a child). She died of typhus.
Since Andres’s wife was half Jewish, they left Nazi Germany in 1933 and moved to Positano, Italy, on the Mediterranean. They returned briefly to Germany, but left again after Andres was no longer permitted to work for Cologne Radio in 1935. After short stays in Lomnitz and in Munich, they settled again in Positano in 1937.
In Italy, Andres wrote prolifically and was able to publish in Germany until 1944. His 1936 novella El Greco malt den Gro�inquisitor (El Greco paints the grand inquisitor) was even distributed to Germany’s armed forces. Today it is read as criticism of a totalitarian regime, indeed as thinly veiled criticism of National Socialism.
After World War II, Andres was not able return to Germany with his family until 1950. They settled in Unkel am Rhein. Andres became a member of PEN (the International Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists), and of the Darmstadt Academy for Language and Literature.
His best drama, Gottes Utopia (god’s utopia), premiered in Düsseldorf in September of 1950 directed by Gustav Gründgens, and was awarded the Jochen Klepper Medal in Berlin in 1953. However, the Germans were not ready for his drama Sperrzonen: Eine deutsche Tragödie (prohibited zones: a German tragedy) in 1958, which deals with National Socialism and the persecution of the Jews. Andres moved back to Italy in 1961, this time to Rome, where his home became a gathering place for writers and theologians. In 1968, Andres traveled to Asia. He died of a pulmonary embolism after a minor operation and is buried in the Camposanto Teutonico in Rome.
Andres received an Abraham Lincoln Foundation Scholarship in 1932, the Rhine Region Prize for Literature in 1949, the Rhineland-Palatinate Prize for Literature in 1952, the North Rhine-Westfalia Grand Prize for the Arts in 1954, the Commander’s Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy in 1956, the City of Oldenburg Dramatist Prize in 1957, the Grand Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1959, and First Prize in the International Drama Competition of Assisi in 1963.
Andres’s works convey a form of Christian existentialism that emphasizes individual freedom. He dealt with timeless topics in traditional style.