Ernst Kreuder
Ernst Kreuder was a German writer born in Zeitz in 1903, who became known for his poetry, essays, and short stories during the early 20th century. After studying at Frankfurt University and contributing to publications like the Frankfurter Zeitung, he joined a literary group called The Animalists and later became part of the satirical magazine Simplizissimus, which was ultimately shut down by the Nazis. Kreuder's experiences during World War II, including his service as an antiaircraft gunner and subsequent imprisonment in an American POW camp, significantly influenced his writing.
His post-war work, particularly the novel *Die Gesellschaft vom Dachboden*, marked a pivotal shift in his literary style, focusing on themes of escapism and the inner life of characters. He gained recognition in the literary community, winning awards such as the Buchner Prize, yet he did not achieve widespread commercial success. Kreuder's later works, including *Die Unauffindbaren*, explore nonconformity and the intersection of art and crisis. Despite his literary contributions and acclaim, Kreuder's reputation waned in the 1960s and 1970s. He passed away in 1972, leaving behind a legacy that emphasized pacifism and a retreat into the inner self, paralleling the complex transition of German literature in the aftermath of Nazi rule.
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Ernst Kreuder
Author
- Born: August 28, 1903
- Birthplace: Zeitz, Thüringen, Germany
- Died: December 24, 1972
- Place of death: Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany
Biography
Ernest Kreuder was born in Zeitz, Germany, in 1903. He worked as a bank clerk and then studied at Frankfurt University. During the 1920’s, he began to publish poems, essays, and stories, including feuilletons for the Frankfurter Zeitung. During this time, Kreuder joined a literary circle called The Animalists and in 1932, he joined the staff of a satiric magazine Simplizissimus, based in Munich. However, the magazine was forced to close when the Nazis destroyed its publishing house. Kreuder married Irene Matthias in 1932, and the couple moved to an abandoned water mill near Frankfort, where Kreuder lived until his death in 1972, It was here that he wrote short detective stories and began work on his novel Die Unauffindbaren. Before he could complete it, however, he was conscripted into the army in 1940, serving as an antiaircraft gunner until 1945, when he was imprisoned for three months in an American prisoner of war camp.
After his return home, his novel Die Gesellschaft vom Dachboden (1946; The Attic Pretenders, 1948), announced a dramatic change in his writing and was greeted as the most important work of fiction to appear in Germany after World War II. The book emphasized the necessity of escaping into a world of romantic outsiders and reflected Kreuder’s own withdrawal into his inner life. His next two stories, published in one book in 1947, are also magical tales that were so unusual for their time that his publisher at first believed they were products of insanity. In Schwebender Weg, Kreuder tells his own story, that of a soldier returning to civilian life after the war who develops a mystical rapport with nature. Die Geschichte durchs Fenster celebrates the role of art in helping people through times of crisis.
In 1948, Kreuder completed Die Unauffindbaren, in which the major character joins a secret club of nonconformists and has magical adventures that lead him to a spiritual perspective on life. In the 1950’s, Kreuder toured Germany and other countries, moving in literary circles and enjoying substantial literary fame. He became a member of the Mainz Academy of Letters, the Darmstadt Academy for Language and Literature, and the German PEN Club, and in 1953 received the prestigious Buchner Prize. He was not, however, invited to join the seminal Gruppe 47, a group of prominent postwar German writers such as Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass, and his reputation declined in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Kreuder’s final novel, Der Mann im Bahnwärterhaus, was finished the day before he died, and is concerned with contact with the dead.
Because of his ability to portray the mysteries of nature, Kreuder was hailed as a modern Novalis but despite literary accolades, his works were never best-sellers, nor did they make him a wealthy man. Kreuder eschewed writing for either financial gain or political approval and instead advocated an “inner exile” that implied pacifistic and free-spirited values. As such, Kreuder joined other writers who, from the 1930’s on, opposed the militaristic and totalitarian society of Nazi Germany. His writing after the “zero hour” of 1945 worked towards a redefinition of the German writer in the face of a Nazi regime that had been entirely discredited.