Siedlinghausen Circle
The Siedlinghausen Circle (German: Siedlinghauser Kreis) was initiated by the country doctor Franz Schranz (1894–1961), who moved to the small village of Siedlinghausen near Winterberg in 1921. The group was a sort of private intellectual circle that had some influence on the sociological discussion throughout Germany. The circle of friends met in Siedlinghausen for the purpose of scientific, political and artistic conversation without fixed rules or appointments.
The majority of this current, which was significantly influenced by the constitutional lawyer Carl Schmitt, welcomed the downfall of the Weimar Republic in 1933 and placed its hopes in an authoritarian Christian state. As the dictatorship progressed, tensions within the circle also increased, with deep rifts opening up on the political terrain between supporters and opponents of the regime. In the period from 1939 to 1945, things were somewhat quieter in the Schranz house. After the end of the war, the circle of friends revived. More illustrious friends met for the first time in Siedlinghausen. It was not until 1961, with the death of Franz Schranz, that the circle disbanded.
In the spring of 1931, Schranz got to know Carl Schmitt, who was teaching in Berlin, through the theology professor Paul Simon, a relative of the Siedlinghausen artist Eugen Senge-Platten. A short time later, Schmitt accepted an invitation to Siedlinghausen for the first time.[1] There began a friendship that lasted a lifetime. Through Schmitt, contact was made with the poet Konrad Weiß.
Franz Schranz's circle of friends included well-known lawyers, painters, musicians, writers, philosophers and local politicians. From 1933 to 1961, Carl Schmitt, Albert Mirgeler, Ernst Jünger, Friedrich Georg Jünger, Josef Pieper, Karl Caspar, Maria Caspar-Filser, Armin Mohler, Fritz Neumeyer, Ernst Niekisch, Jost Trier, August Wenzinger, Friedhelm Kemp, Konrad Weiß and Franz Hengsbach, among others, met in Siedlinghausen at Schranz's property and Senge-Platten's studio.
Schranz, a patron of the arts with an interest in literature and a writer himself, had a close friendship with Konrad Weiß and his neighbor Senge-Platten. He also supported both of them financially. The friends went on several cultural trips together. The experiences of the trips were published in Konrad Weiß' travel book Deutschlands Morgenspiegel.
On September 17, 2011, the Siedlinghausen Circle Memorial was inaugurated at the cemetery in Siedlinghausen.[2]
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Notes
- ↑ Volker Jakob, "Die illustren Freunde des Dr. Schranz". In: Westfalenspiegel (2005).
- ↑ Franz Mickus, "Ein Ort der Erinnerung für den 'Siedlinghauser Kreis'," Sauerland, No. 3 (2011), S. 188–90.
References
- Norbert Dietka, Der Siedlinghauser Kreis. Carl Schmitt, Konrad Weiß, Josef Pieper und Friedrich Georg Jünger treffen auf Gleichgesinnte. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot (2020).
- Ulrich Fröschle, Friedrich Georg Jünger (1898–1977). Kommentiertes Verzeichnis seiner Schriften. Deutsche Schillergesellschaft (1998), p. 27.
- Armin Mohler, Carl Schmitt, Carl Schmitt – Briefwechsel mit einem seiner Schüler. Akademie-Verlag (2001), p. 98.
- Alexander Jaser, Ingeborg Villinger, eds. Briefwechsel Gretha Jünger und Carl Schmitt 1934–1953. Akademie-Verlag (2007), p. 84.
- Egon Peifer, Eugen Senge-Platten (= Veröffentlichungen des Schieferbergbaumuseums im Grossformat. 2). Fredeburg: Grobbel-Verlag (1990), pp. 193–216.
- Josef Pieper, Autobiographische Schriften, 10. Felix Meiner Verlag (2003), p. 182.
- Sauerländer Heimatbund, ed., "Der Arzt Dr. Karl Schranz und der „Siedlinghauser Kreis“." In: Sauerland, No. 2 (2005), p. 76.
