Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer
Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer was a Hungarian-born novelist and playwright, born in Budapest in 1878. He spent much of his early life in Czechoslovakia after the death of his father and began writing at a young age. Kolbenheyer's literary journey included a doctoral thesis on sensory perception and an unsuccessful stint in art school, where he met his wife, Marianne Eitner. His writing gained prominence during the interwar period, particularly with his historical novels, including "Amor Dei," which fictionalized the life of philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Kolbenheyer is often noted for his Paracelsus trilogy, which explores the life of the Renaissance physician and the cultural shifts of the time.
Despite his literary success, Kolbenheyer's legacy is complicated by his involvement with National Socialist politics and support for Hitler, which led to significant controversy surrounding his work. His house was confiscated after World War II, and his writings faced bans for a period. Kolbenheyer continued to write until his death in Munich in 1962, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both his literary ambitions and the tumultuous historical context of his life.
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Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer
Writer
- Born: December 30, 1878
- Birthplace: Budapest, Hungary
- Died: April 12, 1962
- Place of death: Munich, Germany
Biography
Novelist and playwright Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1878, the son of architect Franz Kolbenheyer and his wife, Amalie. His father died when he was two years old, prompting his mother to return to her native Czechoslovakia with her young son and daughter. Residing with maternal relatives in Karlsbad, Kolbenheyer began writing stories. The tragic “Nero” is the ambitious juvenilia of a fourteen-year-old apprentice writer, a prototype of the historical novel that would establish the mature author’s reputation.
A sickly youth, Kolbenheyer was tutored for two years before attending school in the village of Eger. In 1900, he enrolled in classes at the University of Vienna, Austria, where he studied art history, philosophy, and zoology, among other subjects. His 1905 doctoral thesis posited a sensory theory for the optical perception of space. Though he considered pursuing medical studies, Kolbenheyer enrolled in art school. His artistic ambitions proved unfruitful, but he met Marianne Eitner, an artist whom he wed on April 3, 1906. Their union produced two children, Christl and Ulrike.
Though writing was his lifelong occupation, Kolbenheyer enlisted in the German armed forces during World War I. In charge of maintaining documents on Russian prisoners of war at Kleinmünchen, he was promoted to the rank of officer. The period between the wars was successful for the author as his works found a growing readership. During Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930’s, Kolbenheyer actively involved himself in National Socialist politics, even undertaking a European lecture tour on its behalf. A supporter of Hitler’s government, Kolbenheyer refused posts offered him during the reign of the Third Reich, preferring to concentrate on his literary endeavors. Following the war, the U.S. Government confiscated the author’s house and property, and his works were banned for five years by order of a German court. A controversial figure due to his political associations, Kolbenheyer continued to write until his death in Munich in 1962.
In 1903, while a university student, Kolbenheyer published his first play, Giordano Bruno, an exploration of tension between the Christian faith and scientific reason; that play later was renamed Heroische Leidenschaften and produced in 1928. More philosophical dramas followed, but they did not achieve the acclaim of Kolbenheyer’s novels. The publication of Amor Dei: Ein Spinoz-Roman (1908; God-Intoxicated Man, 1933) established Kolbenheyer as a major historical novelist. The work is a fictionalized biography of Baruch Spinoza, a philosopher who sought to define God through calculated reason rather than faith-based emotion. Critics generally regard the Paracelsus trilogy as Kolbenheyer’s masterpiece. Begun in 1913, interrupted by the war, and completed in 1925, the three-part chronicle of the life of Renaissance metaphysician Paracelsus examines not just the man of the title but the changing culture of Germanic countries during the Reformation.
The National Socialist Party awarded Kolbenheyer the Goethe Prize in 1932 and the Eagle’s Shield of the German Reich in 1938.
Kolbenheyer’s historical dramas and novels resurrect Renaissance philosophers to mentor modern man. Some critics maintain Kolbenheyer escaped into the past to avoid confronting the political upheavals of his own age. Undoubtedly, Kolbenheyer’s reputation as an author remains clouded by his association with the Nazi Party.