Richard Huelsenbeck
Born |
April 23, 1892 Frankenau, Germany |
---|---|
Died |
April 20, 1974 Minusio, Switzerland | (aged 81)
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Carl Wilhelm Richard Hülsenbeck (1892–1974) was a German writer, poet, and psychoanalyst.
Life and work[edit]
Richard Huelsenbeck grew up in Dortmund, Westphalia, where his father was a chemist. He aspired to become a writer and was greatly influenced by the poetry and prose of the German romantic poet Heinrich Heine, whose irony and mocking satire of society he wanted to emulate. At the age of nineteen, he went to Munich, where he pursued medicine for a year before beginning his study of German literature and art history. In Munich Huelsenbeck met Hugo Ball, who would become a decisive influence on his intellectual development. He began to frequent the cafés in the bohemian district of Munich where artists and writers associated with expressionism gathered, and through Ball began to publish some of his writings. When Huelsenbeck went to study philosophy at the Sorbonne for the winter semester of 1912-1913, he contributed as a "Paris correspondent" to Revolution, an "excessively modern and polemical" periodical begun by Ball and his friend Hans Leybold. Ball's critique of Germany and its bourgeois social system reinforced Huelsenbeck's own beliefs and inspired him toward more radical means of expression.
Huelsenbeck followed Ball to Berlin in 1914, where he continued to study German literature and began to publish poems, essays, and book reviews in Die Aktion, an art and literature journal associated with radical politics, published by Franz Pfemfert. Huelsenbeck volunteered for military service in August 1914, just after the war began. He served several months in a field artillery unit but did not see the front and was released from service because of neuralgia, a condition characterized by intense nerve pain. Huelsenbeck and Ball became increasingly opposed to the war and to the intensity of German nationalist sentiment. In the spring of 1915, they organized several gatherings to protest the war effort and to commemorate fallen poets. However, the audience who arrived expecting a solemn memorial was shocked when Huelsenbeck began reciting "Negro" poems. Huelsenbeck's aggressive literature recitals at these "expressionist evenings" were deliberately intended to provoke his listeners, and it was this insolent attitude that most characterized his contribution to Zurich Dada's Cabaret Voltaire events.
Huelsenbeck went to Zurich at Ball's request, arriving at the Cabaret Voltaire in mid-to-late February of 1916. Ball recorded his arrival in his diary and wrote: "He pleads for stronger rhythm (Negro rhythm). He would prefer to drum literature into the ground." When Huelsenbeck performed, he adopted an arrogant and offensive posture, brandishing his cane at the audience and reciting his poems, according to Marcel Janco, "as if they were insults." His poetry attacked the church, the fatherland, and the canon of German literature (Friedrich von Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), and was accompanied by big drums, roars, whistles, and laughter. Huelsenbeck's use of a military drum alluded to the proximity of the war, demanding an immediate and uninhibited bodily response from the audience.
After Ball left Zurich in July 1916, Huelsenbeck developed stomach complaints and constantly talked about returning to Germany. His father's ill health precipitated his return in December 1916; by early 1917 he was in Berlin, where he introduced Dada ideas from Zurich and subsequently became the organizer, promoter, and historian of Dada. In January 1918 he delivered the "Dada-Rede in Deutschland" [First Dada Speech in Germany], and in April read a Dada manifesto. By the end of 1920, Huelsenbeck had already begun to chronicle the history of Dada. After the First International Dada Fair closed, he edited and published Dada Almanach, the first Dada anthology. En avant Dada, also published in 1920 and subtitled "The History of Dadaism," indicates the extent to which Huelsenbeck considered the movement to be at an end.
Throughout his Dada years, Huelsenbeck had been continually advancing his study of medicine and began to practice in 1920. He also enthusiastically pursued a career in journalism, becoming a permanent correspondent for several Berlin newspapers and a popular author of travel diaries compiled during his stints around the world as a ship's surgeon. Beginning in 1933, Huelsenbeck was repeatedly investigated by the Nazi authorities. Forbidden to write and in constant fear of imminent arrest, he finally obtained passage for himself to the United States in 1936. By 1939 he was practicing medicine and psychiatry in Long Island, New York, under the name Charles R. Hulbeck. His Memoirs of a Dada Drummer, written in 1969, offers lively reminiscences of his Dada experiences. (Source)
Publications[edit]
- with Hugo Ball, "Ein literarisches Manifest" [12 Feb 1915], in Gerhard Schaub, "Dada avant la lettre. Ein unbekanntes 'Literarisches Manifest' von Hugo Ball und Richard Huelsenbeck", Hugo Ball Almanach 9/10 (1985/86), pp 63-180. (German)
- "Erklärung" [Spring 1916]. Typescript. Read at the Cabaret Voltaire. (German)
- Schalaben Schalabai Schalamezomai. Verse, ills. Hans Arp, Zürich: Collection Dada, Aug 1916, [8] pp, KHZ, IDA. (German)
- Phantastische Gebete, ills. Hans Arp, Zurich: Colection Dada, Sep 1916, [16] pp, KHZ; 2nd ed., exp., ills. George Grosz, Berlin: Malik, 1920, 31 pp, KHZ, IDA; repr., afterw. Herbert Kapfer, Giessen: Anabas, 1993, 87 pp. [1] (German)
- Phantastiese gebeden, trans. Hans van Weely, Alkmaar: Fizz-Subvers Press, 1975, [24] pp. (Dutch)
- Fantastiska böner, trans. & afterw. Mattias Forshage, Lund: Ellerström, 2000, 37 pp. (Swedish)
- Fantastische gebeden, Amsterdam: De dolle hond, 2001. (Dutch)
- Berlijnse gebeden, trans. Jan H. Mysjkin, Bleiswijk: Vleugels, 2016, 15 pp. (Dutch)
- Azteken oder die Knallbude: eine militärische Novelle, Berlin: Reuß und Pollak, 1918. (German)
- "Erste Dadarede in Deutschland" [18 Feb 1918], in Dada Almanach, Berlin, 1920, pp 104-108. Read in the Saal der Neuen Sezession, Berlin. (German)
- Verwandlungen: Novelle, Munich: Roland-Verlag Dr. Albert Mundt, 1918, 54 pp, IDA. (German)
- Dada siegt: eine Bilanz des Dadaismus, Berlin: Malik, Apr 1920, 40 pp, KHZ, IDA; repr. as Dada siegt! Bilanz und Erinnerung, Hamburg: Nautilus/Nemo Press, 1985, 61 pp, OL. (German)
- editor, Dada Almanach, Berlin: Erich Reiss, 1920, 159+[8] pp, PDF (hi-res), KHZ, IDL, IDA; repr., New York: Something Else Press, 1966, 159 pp. [2] (German),(French)
- Almanach Dada, trans. Sabine Wolf, notes Sabine Wolf and Michel Giroud, Paris: Champ Libre, 1980, 404+[8] pp; repr., Dijon: Presses du réel, 2005, 404+[8] pp. (French)/(German)
- Almanaque Dadá, intro. Simón Marchán Fiz, trans. Anton Dieterich, Madrid: Tecnos, 1992, xvi+132 pp; repr., 2015, 124 pp. (Spanish)
- The Dada Almanac, ed. Malcolm Green, trans. Malcolm Green et al., London: Atlas Press, 1993, xv+174 pp; 2nd ed., 1998, xv+174 pp. (English)
- Almanakh dada, Moscow: Gileya, 2000, 205 pp. (Russian)
- Dada taizen [ダダ大全], trans. Yoshiko Suzuki, Tokyo: Michitani, 2002, 283 pp. (Japanese)
- En avant Dada: eine Geschichte des Dadaismus, Hannover: Paul Steegemann, Aug 1920, 44 pp, KHZ, IDA, IA. (German)
- "En Avant Dada: A History of Dadaism", trans. Ralph Manheim, in The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology, ed. Robert Motherwell, Boston, MA: G.K. Hall, 1981, pp 21-48. (English)
- En avant dada: l'histoire du dadaïsme, trans. Sabine Wolf, Paris: Allia, 1983, 81 pp; repr., Dijon: Les Presses du réel, 2000, 78 pp. (French)
- En avant dada: storia del dadaismo, Torino: Nautilus, 1989, 69 pp. (Italian)
- En avant Dada: el Club Dadá de Berlín, intro., trans. & notes Horst Rosenberger, Barcelona: Alikornio, 2000, 135 pp. (Spanish)
- En avant Dada: de geschiedenis van het Dadai͏̈sme, trans. & afterw. Jan H. Mysjkin, Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2001, 78 pp. (Dutch)
- Deutschland muss untergehen. Erinnerungen eines alten dadaistischen Revolutionärs, ills. George Grosz, Berlin: Malik, 1920, 13 pp, KHZ, IDA. (German)
- Doctor Billig am Ende: ein Roman, ills. George Grosz, Munich: Kurt Wolff, 1921, 128 pp, IDA. Novel. (German)
- Doctor Billig: un roman, trans. Jean-Luc Moreau, Paris: Fourbis, 1994, 130 pp. (French)
- De ondergang van Dr. Billig, trans. Angela Adriaansz, afterw. Ton Naaijkens, Utrecht: IJzer, 1996, 126 pp. (Dutch)
- Birihhi hakase no saigo [ビリッヒ博士の最期], trans. Suehiro Tanemura, Tokyo: Michitani, 2003, 217 pp. (Japanese)
- Afrika in Sicht. Ein Reisebericht über fremde Länder und abenteuerliche Menschen, Dresden: Jess, 1928. (German)
- Der Sprung nach Osten. Bericht einer Frachtdampferfahrt nach Japan, China und Indien, Dresden: Jess, 1928. (German)
- China frißt Menschen, Zürich/Leipzig: Orell Füssli, 1930. (German)
- with Günter Weisenborn, Warum lacht Frau Balsam?, Berlin: S. Fischer, 1932. (German)
- Der Traum vom großen Glück, Berlin: S. Fischer, 1933. (German)
- Die Newyorker Kantaten. Cantates New-Yorkaises, Paris/New York: Berggruen, 1952. (German)
- Die Antwort der Tiefe, Wiesbaden: Limes, 1954. (German)
- Mit Witz, Licht und Grütze: auf den Spuren des Dadaismus, Wiesbaden: Limes, 1957, 152 pp; repr., ed. Reinhard Nenzel, Hamburg : Nautilus, 1991, 160 pp. (German)
- with Hans Arp and Tristan Tzara, Dada. Die Geburt des Dada. Dichtung und Chronik der Gründer, Zürich: Arche, 1957. (German)
- Sexualität und Persönlichkeit. Entwicklung und Bedeutung mentaler Heilmethoden, Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein, 1959. (German)
- editor, Dada. Eine literarische Dokumentation, Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1964. (German)
- Memoirs of a Dada Drummer, ed., intro. & notes Hans J. Kleinschmidt, trans. Joachim Neugroschel, New York: Viking Press, 1974, 202+[6] pp, OL; repr., University of California Press, 1991, 202 pp. (English)
- Reise bis ans Ende der Freiheit: autobiographische Fragmente, eds. Ulrich Karthaus and Horst Krüger, Heidelberg: Schneider, 1984, 403 pp, OL. (German)
- Die Sonne von Black-Point: ein Liebesroman aus den Tropen, eds. Herbert Kapfer and Lisbeth Exner, Munich: Belleville, 1996. (German)
- Weltdada Huelsenbeck: eine Biografie in Briefen und Bildern, eds. Herbert Kapfer and Lisbeth Exner, Innsbruck: Haymon, 1996, 286 pp. (German)
- Richard-Huelsenbeck-Lesebuch, ed. Karl Riha, Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2008. (German)
- Dada-Logik: 1913-1972, ed. & comm. Herbert Kapfer, Munich: Belleville, 2012, 649 pp. (German)