Ludwig Finckh

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Sketch of Finckh, by Adolf Hildenbrand

Ludwig Finckh (21 March 1876 – 8 March 1964) was a German writer and physician. In addition to his own literary successes, he is known for his friendship with Hermann Hesse, of which an extensive correspondence has survived.

Biography

Ludwig Finckh was born in Reutlingen, the son of a pharmacist. He graduated from high school in home town. Finckh initially studied law in Munich and Tübingen, but dropped out shortly before taking his exams. Instead, he began studying medicine at the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg. As a student in 1897, he became friends with Hermann Hesse, who at the time was doing an apprenticeship as a bookseller in Tübingen. These two, plus a few other friends, formed the group of young intellectuals called the Small Cenacle, "a brilliant circle of capricious romantic spirits."[1] In 1904, Finckh was awarded a doctorate in medicine in Freiburg im Breisgau. After a brief period as an assistant physician in Aachen, he moved to Gaienhofen in 1905, where Hesse had already been living since 1904. Finckh settled there as a freelance writer and started a family.

During his student years, Finckh joined a group of friends who called themselves the "Petit Cénacle." The Small Cenacle, left to right: Otto Erich Faber, Finckh, Hermann Hesse, Carlo Hamelehle and Oskar Rupp.

Finckh's literary successes began in 1906 with his novel Der Rosendoktor (The Rose Doctor), written in popular language. Basel graphic artist Max Bucherer designed the Art Nouveau-influenced book cover, as he had done for the other two books published in 1906 — Rosen (poems) and Biskra (travel literature); he also designed the first Finckh bookplate in the same style. This was followed in 1909 by the novel Rapunzel, which sold 100,000 copies in a special edition. Reise nach Tripstrill (Journey to Tripstrill) also became a success in 1911. His literary works demonstrate the "evolution from regional poet to völkisch Blood and soil poet."

As a result of his great commitment to the Germans abroad, to whom he wanted to remind them of their "Germanness" and whom he wanted to inspire for his genealogy, he was called "father of the Germans abroad". To them he dedicated the novel Der Vogel Rock (The Bird Rock), published in 1924, in which he "already formulates thoughts on the planned breeding of humans and on euthanasia": "Making breeding in one direction [...]. Eliminate little, there would be a bad strain. And one must know where one wants to go."

Ludwig Finckh as a doctor liable to military service. Portrait by Karl Einhardt (1915)

After the National Socialists' ascension, Finckh was one of the 88 writers who signed the pledge of loyal allegiance to Chancellor Adolf Hitler in October 1933. Finckh joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 and was an active party member (cultural office manager and propaganda leader in Gaienhofen). He gave regular lectures on genealogy and hereditary biology, the central theme of several of his books already published since 1920, at the Gaienhofen regional school of the National Socialist Teachers League from 1935. "Weltanschauliche" (worldview) lectures were also given by Finckh to the Hitler Youth and members of the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV), the latter at the NSV regional school, Gau office at Württemberg-Hohenzollern, in the Kapfenburg Castle under the direction of NSV Gauhauptstellenleiter (district main office leader) Ernst Benno Mutschler. Finckh also gave such lectures to graduates of the Waffen-SS-Unterführerschule in Radolfzell after 1941 on "life-legal" and "genealogical" topics.

In addition to his novels, Ludwig Finckh tried to open up his poetic homeland, the Hegau and its volcanic mountains, to his community of readers. As advocates of nature conservation, Finckh and the "Stoffler" movement he initiated were regarded as the "saviors of the Hohenstoffeln", who — even before 1933 — had long campaigned for a halt to basalt mining on this mountain. The Hohenstoffeln was initially placed under nature conservation in 1935 and basalt mining was finally banned by decree of Hermann Göring in 1939. Finckh's "Homeland Security Movement" to "save the Hohenstoffeln" had received significant support from the German Ancestral Heritage Research Association and Heinrich Himmler, who were active in the background.

Finckh's residence in Gaienhofen

In 1938, Finckh was appointed honorary member of the Swabian Jura Association, and since 1939 he was a member of the main committee of the Association under the chairmanship of Georg Fahrbach, who had already joined the "Stofflern" around 1935. A hiking trail in Hegau, which in turn the Schwarzwaldverein had named after its honorary member Finckh, and several memorial stones or plaques at Hohenstoffeln bear witness to Finckh's involvement in the hiking and nature conservation movement to this day.

After the end of the war, Finckh was arrested in Radolfzell and held in the French internment camp in Hüfingen. Due to an eye disease, however, he was soon released. In 1949, he was classified as a "minor incriminated" in the Spruchkammer trials[2] — and all parole conditions were lifted on November 1950.

In the years after 1945, Finckh depicted his friendship with Hesse in various writings such as the essay Schwäbische Vettern (1948), the story Verzauberung (1950), Gaienhofener Idylle, and especially in his autobiography Himmel und Erde (1961). Hesse, whom Finckh had asked for support in his Spruchkammer trial after 1945, objected to the dedication of the poetry volume Rosengarten because it gave readers the impression that he and Finckh were "united and unified in thought and innermost conscience." Hesse ultimately described the autobiography as "the book of an old nailed-up Nazi who has shouted 'Heil Hitler' for 12 years and would love to do it again."

Commemorative plaque at the birthplace of Ludwig Finckh in Reutlingen

Several of Finckh's works were placed on the list of literature to be censored and eliminated in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the German Democratic Republic.

In 1960, the biography Konrad Widerholt was published, in which Finckh describes, among other things, the time of the Thirty Years' War at Lake Constance.

Ludwig Finckh died on March 8, 1964 at the age of 87 and was buried in May 1964 at the Achalm near Reutlingen. The city archive of Reutlingen preserves a large part of Finckh's estate. It represents an important source of Hesse research due to the extensive correspondence with mutual friends and acquaintances.

Works

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  • Fraue du, du Süße (1900; poetry)
  • Über die Palliativ-Operation, besonders die Trepanation bei Stauungspapille (1904; dissertation)
  • Der Rosendoktor (1906)
  • Rosen (1906; poetry)
  • Biskra (1906)
  • Rapunzel (1909)
  • Die Reise nach Tripstrill (1911)
  • Der Bodenseher (1914)
  • Inselfrühling (1916; short stories)
  • Hindurch mit Freuden! (1919)
  • Wiederaufbau (1919)
  • Die Jakobsleiter (1920; re-issued as Der Wolkenreiter. Deutscher Volksverlag, 1940)
  • Sonne, Mond und Sterne (1920; short stories)
  • Ahnenbüchlein (1921)
  • Seekönig und Graspfeifer (1922)
  • Der Ahnengarten (1923)
  • Der Ahnenhorst (1923)
  • Der Vogel Rock (1923)
  • Sudetendeutsche Streife (1924)
  • Bruder Deutscher. Ein Auslandsbüchlein (1925)
  • Heilige Ahnenschaft (=Deutsche Ahnenbücherei 1) (1926)
  • Bricklebritt (1926; novel)
  • Das Vogelnest im Ahnenbaum. Geschichten aus der Ahnenschau (1928)
  • Sonne am Bodensee. Ein Skizzenbuch (1928)
  • Urlaub von Gott (1930)
  • Die Reise an den Bodensee (1931)
  • Stern und Schicksal. Johann Keplers Lebensroman (1931)
  • Der göttliche Ruf. Leben und Werk von Robert Mayer (1932; novel)
  • Schmuggler, Schelme, Schabernack (1933)
  • Der unbekannte Hegau (1935)
  • Trommler durch die Welt (1936; poetry; awarded the Schwäbischer Dichterpreis in 1936[3])
  • Ein starkes Leben. Das Schicksal zwingt, die Treue entscheidet (1936; novel)
  • Die Kaiserin, der König und ihr Offizier. Das abenteuerliche Leben des Johann Jakob Wunsch (1939)
  • Herzog und Vogt (1940; novel)
  • Die kleine Stadt am Bodensee (1942)
  • Das goldene Erbe (1943; novel)
  • Ausgewählte Werke (1956; edited by the Ludwig Finckh Circle of Friends on the occasion of his 80th birthday)
  • Himmel und Erde. Acht Jahrzehnte meines Lebens und neue Gedichte: Die goldene Spur (1961)

Translated into English

Notes

  1. ↑ Mileck, Joseph (1956). "A Visit with Hermann Hesse and a Journey from Montagnola to Calw," Modern Language Forum, Vol. XLI, No. 1, p. 6.
  2. ↑ The Spruchkammerverfahren were judicial hearings administered in the American, British, and French occupation zones as part of the "denazification" process.
  3. ↑ Founded in Stuttgart, this prize of initially 2,000 and later 3,000 marks honored Swabian writers for literary work in any genre. It was customarily presented every year on November 10, the birthday of Friedrich von Schiller.

References

  • Ludwig Finckh: zum 100. Geburtstag am 21.3.1976. Ulm: Hess, 1976.
  • Manfred Bosch, Bohème am Bodensee. Literarisches Leben am See von 1900 bis 1950. Libelle Verlag, Lengwil 1997, hier: „Ich war aus anderem Holz geschnitzt“. Ludwig Finckh in Gaienhofen, S. 45–51.
  • Manfred Bosch, Finckh, Ludwig Eduard. Dichter, Arzt, Naturschützer. In: Bernd Ottnad (Hrsg.): Baden-Württembergische Biographien. Band II. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1999, S. 132–136.
  • Werner Dürr, Ludwig Finckh Brevier. Stuttgart: Silberburg-Verlag , 1958.
  • Gertrud Fink, Ludwig Finckh, Leben und Werk. Heine, Tübingen 1936.
  • Friedrich Hofmann, Meine Kranken betrachten mich als Privatseelsorger. In: Ärzte Zeitung. 21. März 2001.
  • Julia Jäger, Ludwig Finckh. Ein Leben als Arzt und Dichter (1876–1964) (= Studien zur Medizin-, Kunst- und Literaturgeschichte. Bd. 56).
  • Murken-Altrogge, Herzogenrath 2006, ISBN 978-3-935791-22-9.
  • Gerald Kronberger, Hesse und Ludwig Finckh. Der fremde „Freund“ aus Gaienhofen. In: Reutlinger General-Anzeiger. 2. Juli 2002 (PDF).
  • Michael Limberg, „Es ist kalt in der Welt, wenn man kein Vaterland hat.“ Hermann Hesse und Ludwig Finckh – der Außenseiter und der Mitläufer. Veröffentlicht auf HHP, 2016. PDF
  • Michael Limberg, Hermann Hesse und Ludwig Finckh. In: Friedrich Bran und Martin Pfeifer (Hrsg.): Hermann Hesse und seine literarischen Zeitgenossen. Gengenbach, Bad Liebenzell 1982, ISBN 3-921841-09-7, S. 39–57.
  • Volker Ludwig, Die Entstehung des Naturschutzgebietes «Hohenstoffeln». In: Hegau – Zeitschrift für Geschichte, Volkskunde und Naturgeschichte des Gebietes zwischen Rhein, Donau und Bodensee. Band 54/55 (1997/98). Selbstverlag des Hegau-Geschichtsvereins Singen e. V., Singen (Hohentwiel) Januar 1999.
  • Kurt Oesterle, Doktor Faust besiegt Shylock. Wie Ludwig Finckh den Hohenstoffeln rettete und wie der Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler als sein Mephisto ihm dabei half. In: Hegau. Bd. 54/55 (1997/98), S. 191–208.
  • Martin Pfeifer, Julie Hellmann, Hermann Hesses Lulu. Verzaubert – ein Leben lang. Schöllkopf, Kirchheim 1991. ISBN 3-927189-03-0.
  • Jana Rogge, Ludwig Finckh – der rassistische Ahnenforscher. In: Rolf Düsterberg (Hrsg.): Dichter und das „Dritte Reich“. Biografische Studien zum Verhältnis von Literatur und Ideologie. Band 3: 9 Autorenporträts und eine Skizze über das Deutsche Kulturwerk Europäischen Geistes. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2015, S. 79–103.
  • Eugen Wendler, Ludwig Finckh. Ein Leben als Heimatdichter und Naturfreund (= Reutlinger Lebensbilder. Bd. 2). Knödler, Reutlingen 1985, ISBN 3-87421-989-5.
  • Markus Wolter, Dr. Ludwig Finckh: „Blutsbewusstsein“. Der Höri-Schriftsteller und die SS. In: Wolfgang Proske (Hrsg.): Täter, Helfer, Trittbrettfahrer. Band 5: NS-Belastete aus dem Bodenseeraum. Kugelberg, Gerstetten 2016, ISBN 978-3-945893-04-3, S. 78–102.
  • Gotthold Wurster, Der deutsche Finckh. Leben und Werk. Deutscher Volksverlag, München 1941; 2. Auflage 1943.

External links

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