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Agnes Miegel

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Agnes Miegel
Agnes-Miegel-Denkmal in Bad Nenndorf
Agnes-Miegel-Denkmal in Bad Nenndorf
Born(1879-03-09)9 March 1879
Königsberg,Kingdom of Prussia,German Empire
Died26 October 1964(1964-10-26)(aged 85)
Bad Salzuflen,West Germany
NationalityGerman

Agnes Miegel(9 March 1879 – 26 October 1964) was a German author, journalist andpoet.She is best known for her poems and short stories about East Prussia, but also for the support she gave to theNazi Party.

Biography

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Agnes Miegel was born on 9 March 1879 in Königsberg into a Protestant family. Her parents were the merchant Gustav Adolf Miegel and Helene Hofer.

Miegel attended the Girls' High School in Königsberg and then lived between 1894 and 1896 in a guest house inWeimar,where she wrote her first poems. In 1898 she spent three months inParis.In 1900 she trained as a nurse in a children's hospital inBerlin.Between 1902 and 1904 she worked as an assistant teacher in a girls' boarding school inBristol,England. In 1904 she attended teacher training in Berlin, which she had to break off because of illness. She also did not complete a course at an agricultural college for girls nearMunich.In 1906 she had to return to Königsberg to care for her sick parents, especially her father, who had become blind. Her mother died in 1913, her father in 1917.[1]

As early as 1900 her first publications had drawn the attention of the writerBörries von Münchhausen.Her first bundle of poems was published thanks to his financial support. In later years he was still an untiring promoter of her work.

She lived in Königsberg until just before it was captured in 1945, and wrote poems, short stories and journalistic reports. She also made a few journeys. During theThird Reichshe revealed herself as an ardent supporter of the regime. She signed theGelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft,the 1933 declaration in which 88 German authors vowed faithful allegiance toAdolf Hitler.In the same year she joined theNS-Frauenschaft,thewomen's wingof theNazi Party.In 1940 she joined the Nazi party itself.[2]In August 1944, in the final stages of World War II, she was named byAdolf Hitleras an "outstanding national asset" in the special list of the most important German artists who were freed from all war obligations.[3]

In February 1945 she fled by ship from the approachingRed Armyand reachedDenmark.After Denmark's liberation on 5 May 1945 she stayed in theOksbøl Refugee Campuntil November 1946. In 1946 she returned to Germany, where she was under apublication banuntil 1949. In that year adenazificationcommittee issued a declaration of no objection.

At first she stayed inApelernwith relations of her former patron Börries von Münchhausen, who had committed suicide in 1945. In 1948, being a refugee, she was assigned a house inBad Nenndorf,where she kept writing until her death.

Agnes Miegel now mainly wrote poems and short stories aboutEast Prussia,the land of her youth. She was considered the voice of theHeimatvertriebene,the German-speaking people who had lived before the war in Czechoslovakia and Poland and in parts of Germany annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union after the war, who had to leave when Nazi Germany was defeated. Miegel received the honorary titleMutter Ostpreußen( "Mother East Prussia" ) from her admirers.[4][5]

She died on 26 October 1964 in a hospital inBad Salzuflen.

Literary career

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Miegel's first bundle of poems appeared in 1901 and was calledGedichte.By 1945 she had published 33 books of poems, short stories and plays. She also regularly wrote for newspapers (especially theOstpreußische Zeitung) and magazines. In her early career she mainly wrote about universal themes like man's course of life, nature, life in the countryside, the relationship with God and the past (especially the German past). A minority of these poems and stories were set in East Prussia, and these became her most popular works. Her most famous early poem wasDie Frauen von Nidden( "The Women of Nidden", 1907), in which the village of Nidden (present-dayNidainLithuania) falls victim to abubonic plagueepidemic. The seven women who survive the plague let themselves be buried alive by the drifting sand dunes near the village.[6]

During the Third ReichNational Socialistthemes appear in her work: complaints about the "heavy yoke" borne by cities likeMemelandDanzig,which had been separated from Germany after the First World War;[7]glorification of the war;[8]glorification of the mothers who bear German children.[9]But as early as her 1920 poem "Über der Weichsel drüben" ( "On the other side of the Vistula" ) (republished inOstland)[10]she propagated fear of the Poles, who, she suggested, wanted to overrun East Prussia.[11]She wrote two odes to Adolf Hitler. The first of these,Dem Führer,was published in 1936 and cited inWerden und Werk(1938), a study of Miegel's life and works.[12]The second poem,An den Führer,is, in Tauber's words, an "hysterical adulation" of Hitler,[13]published as a kind of preface inOstland.In theSoviet occupation zonein Germany after the Second World War bothWerden und WerkandOstlandwere forbidden books. To her credit it may be said that her works were free fromantisemitism,although by no means free from the Nazis'Blut und Bodenideology.[14]

After her publication ban had been lifted in 1949, she mainly wrote about East Prussia as she remembered it. The title of her first bundle of poems after the war is characteristic:Du aber bleibst in mir( "You however stay within me" ). Her best known stories and poems are melancholic reflections on herHeimat(homeland) that had been destroyed and was now forever out of reach. This is certainly true of her most famous poem,Es war ein Land( "That was a country", 1949). Blackbourn shows that this was "exactly the idealized image that the expellee organisations cultivated – as if all had been pastoral harmony until the Red Army marched west, as if the mass flight of Germans had fallen out of a clear blue sky."[15]

She was not vindictive towards the Russians and Poles who had taken possession of East Prussia.[16]In a poem from 1951 she urged her readersnichts als den Haß zu hassen( "to hate nothing but hate" ).[17]

She refused to account for her doings during the Nazi era. The only thing she was willing to say was:Dies habe ich mit meinem Gott alleine abzumachen und mit niemand sonst( "I have to settle this with my God and with no one else" ).

Publications of her works in Germany after 1945 usually omit her works between 1933 and 1945, propagating the myth of an apolitical author.[18]

Miegel's poems usually consist of lines of unequal length, some rhyming and some not.

Marcel Reich-Ranickiincluded three of her poems (Die Schwester,Die NibelungenandDie Frauen von Nidden) in his anthology of exemplary German literatureKanon lesenswerter deutschsprachiger Werke(PartGedichte,2005).[citation needed]

Reputation

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The Agnes-Miegel-Haus inBad Nenndorf

During her lifetime Agnes Miegel received several marks of honour. In 1916 she received theKleist Prizefor lyrics and in 1924 was awarded an honorary doctorate by theUniversity of Königsberg.

During the Nazi era she was overloaded with marks of honour. In 1933 she joined the writers' section of theAkademie der Künstein Berlin, together with prominent Nazis such asHanns Johst.They filled the vacancies that had arisen because some members, amongst themAlfred DöblinandThomas Mann,had to give up their seats for not being loyal to the Nazi regime. In 1935 she received the "honorary ring" of theAllgemeiner Deutscher Sprachvereinand in 1936 the Johann-Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis (the predecessor of theHerder Prize). In 1939 she was made an honorary citizen of Königsberg; in the same year she received the Golden Decoration of theHitlerjugend(Hitler Youth). In 1940 she received theGoethe Prizeof the city ofFrankfurt.In 1944 Adolf Hitler andJoseph Goebbelsput together a "Gottbegnadeten-Liste"of the most important artists of the Third Reich. A separate list, theSonderliste der Unersetzlichen Künstler( "special list of irreplaceable artists" ), put together by Hitler himself, mentioned those 25 people whom the Nazi leaders considered as the Third Reich's greatest artists. Agnes Miegel was (withGerhart Hauptmannand Hanns Johst, among others) ranked as one of the six greatest German writers. The artists on the special list were freed from all war obligations.

After the Second World War she received,inter alia,theWestfälischer Kulturpreis(1952), theGroßer Literaturpreisof theBayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste(Bavarian academy of fine arts) (1959) and theKulturpreis der Landsmannschaft Westpreußen(1962). In 1954 she became an honorary citizen ofBad Nenndorf,her place of residence.

After her death her house in Bad Nenndorf was rechristened the Agnes-Miegel-Haus. It is now a museum, dedicated to her life and works, and situated in the Agnes-Miegel-Platz ( "Agnes Miegel Square" ).[19]In several places in Germany, streets received the name Agnes-Miegel-Straße. A few schools were named Agnes-Miegel-Schule. In 1979 theDeutsche Bundespostissued a postage stamp in honour of her 100th birthday.

Commemorative plaque at Agnes Miegel's former dwelling house in Königsberg/Kaliningrad

There is a monument dedicated to Agnes Miegel inWunstorf.A monument in Bad Nenndorf has been removed in 2015. InFilzmoosnearSalzburgthere is a plaque dedicated to the Hofers, Miegel's mother's family, who had their roots there. On 26 October 1992 a plaque was put on her former dwelling house in Königsberg, nowKaliningrad,with texts in German and Russian.

Miegel's reputation was badly damaged when her poems to Hitler were rediscovered and published on the internet in the 1990s. Much discussion arose about her Nazi past. As a result, all the schools and many streets that had been named after her have been renamed. For instance, Agnes-Miegel-Schule inWillichwas renamed Astrid-Lindgren-Schule in 2008[20]and the Agnes-Miegel-Straße in St. Arnold in theSteinfurt districtwas renamed Anne-Frank-Straße in 2010.[21]After a lengthy dispute about whether the Miegel monument in Bad Nenndorf should be kept or removed, it was removed in February 2015.[22]

Works

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Poems, short stories, plays

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  • 1901:Gedichte,Cotta, Stuttgart.
  • 1907:Balladen und Lieder,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1920:Gedichte und Spiele,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1925:Heimat: Lieder und Balladen,Eichblatt, Leipzig.
  • 1926:Geschichten aus Alt-Preußen,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.[23]
  • 1926:Die schöne Malone: Erzählungen,Eichblatt, Leipzig.
  • 1927:Spiele,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1928:Die Auferstehung des Cyriakus: Erzählungen,Eichblatt, Leipzig.
  • 1930:Kinderland: Erzählungen,Eichblatt, Leipzig.
  • 1931:Dorothee: Erzählungen,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1932:Der Vater: Erzählungen,Eckhart, Berlin.
  • 1932:Herbstgesang: Gedichte,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1933:Weihnachtsspiel,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1933:Kirchen im Ordensland: Gedichte,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1934:Gang in die Dämmerung: Erzählungen,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1935:Das alte und das neue Königsberg,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1935:Deutsche Balladen,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1936:Unter hellem Himmel: Erzählungen,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1936:Kathrinchen kommt nach Hause: Erzählungen,Eichblatt, Leipzig.
  • 1936:Noras Schicksal: Erzählungen,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1937:Das Bernsteinherz: Erzählungen,Reclam, Leipzig.
  • 1937:Audhumla: Erzählungen,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1937:Herden der Heimat: Erzählungen mit Zeichnungen von Hans Peters,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1938:Und die geduldige Demut der treuesten Freunde: Versdichtung,Bücher der Rose, Langewiesche-Brandt, Schäftlarn.
  • 1938:Viktoria: Gedicht und Erzählung,Gesellschaft der Freunde der deutschen Bücherei, Ebenhausen.
  • 1939:Frühe Gedichte(reissue of the 1901 collection), Cotta, Stuttgart.
  • 1939:Herbstgesang,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1939:Die Schlacht von Rudau: Spiel,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1939:Herbstabend: Erzählung,published by herself in Eisenach.
  • 1940:Ostland: Gedichte,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1940:Im Ostwind: Erzählungen,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1940:Wunderliches Weben: Erzählungen,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1940:Ordensdome,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1944:Mein Bernsteinland und meine Stadt,Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
  • 1949:Du aber bleibst in mir: Gedichte,Seifert, Hameln.
  • 1949:Die Blume der Götter: Erzählungen,Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
  • 1951:Der Federball: Erzählungen,Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
  • 1951:Die Meinen: Erzählungen,Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
  • 1958:Truso: Erzählungen,Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
  • 1959:Mein Weihnachtsbuch: Gedichte und Erzählungen,Eugen Diederichs, Köln (a new, extended edition appeared in 1984).
  • 1962:Heimkehr: Erzählungen,Eugen Diederichs, Köln.

Selections and collected works

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  • 1927:Gesammelte Gedichte,Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
  • 1952:Ausgewählte Gedichte,Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
  • 1952-1955:Gesammelte Werke,Eugen Diederichs, Köln (six volumes).
  • 1983:Es war ein Land: Gedichte und Geschichten aus Ostpreußen,Eugen Diederichs, München (reprinted by Rautenberg, Leer in 2002).
  • 1994:Spaziergänge einer Ostpreußin,Rautenberg, Leer (journalism 1923–1924).
  • 2000:Wie ich zu meiner Heimat stehe,Verlag S. Bublies, Schnellbach (journalism 1926–1932).
  • 2002:Die Frauen von Nidden: Gesammelte Gedichte von unserer ‘Mutter Ostpreußen’,Rautenberg, Leer.
  • 2002:Wie Bernstein leuchtend auf der Lebenswaage: Gesammelte Balladen,Rautenberg, Leer.

Books about Agnes Miegel

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  • Walther Hubatsch,Ostpreussens Geschichte und Landschaft im dichterischen Werk von Agnes Miegel,Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Minden, 1978.
  • Harold Jensen,Agnes Miegel und die bildende Kunst,Rautenberg, Leer, 1982.
  • Marianne Kopp,Agnes Miegel: Leben und Werk,Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2004.
  • Agnes Miegel,Werden und Werk, mit Beiträgen von Professor Dr. Karl Plenzat,Hermann Eichblatt Verlag, Leipzig, 1938. (This is what the title page says. In fact this is a study by Plenzat about Miegel's work, with a foreword by Miegel herself and many citations from her work.)
  • Anni Piorreck:Agnes Miegel. Ihr Leben und ihre Dichtung.Eugen Diederichs, München, 1967 (a corrected edition appeared in 1990).
  • Alfred Podlech (editor),Agnes-Miegel-Bibliographie,Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Minden, 1973.
  • Annelise Raub,Nahezu wie Schwestern: Agnes Miegel und Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Grundzüge eines Vergleichs,Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Bad Nenndorf, 1991.
  • Ursula Starbatty,Begegnungen mit Agnes Miegel,Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Bad Nenndorf, 1989.

References

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  1. ^Werden und Werk,page 209.
  2. ^Ernst Klee:Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945,Edition Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 2009, pages 369-370.
  3. ^Oliver Rathkolb:Führertreu und gottbegnadet. Künstlereliten im Dritten Reich,Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Wien 1991,ISBN3-215-07490-7,page 176.
  4. ^The Agnes Miegel Gesellschaft about the honorary title Mutter Ostpreußen.
  5. ^Mutter Ostpreußen now controversialArchivedDecember 19, 2013, at theWayback Machine.
  6. ^About Miegel and "Die Frauen von Nidden".
  7. ^In her poemsNachtgespräch( "Night talk", 1935) andSonnenwendreigen( "Solstice dance", 1939), both published in her bookOstland(1940).
  8. ^In her poemAn Deutschlands Jugend( "To Germany's youth", 1939), also published inOstland.
  9. ^In her poemAn die Reichsfrauenführerin Scholtz-Klink(1939).
  10. ^Pages 22-24.
  11. ^Über der Weichsel drübenhas been analysed by Frank Bodesohn inOstexpansion und deutsche Literatur: Verbreitung der Blut-und-Boden-Ideologie aus Hitlers "Mein Kampf" in der NS-Literatur,GRIN Verlag, Munich, 2012, pages 46-48.
  12. ^Pages 79/80.Dem Führerwas reprinted under the titleDem Schirmer des VolkesinDem Führer: Gedichte für Adolf Hitler,a bundle of poems by several authors on the occasion of Hitler's 50th birthday on 20 April 1939.
  13. ^Kurt P. Tauber,Beyond Eagle and Swastika: German Nationalism Since 1945,Volume 2, 1967, Page 1255: 'For Agnes Miegel's hysterical adulation of Hitler, see her poem, "To the Fuhrer", on Hitler's birthday, April 20, 1940.'
  14. ^Horst Matzerath about Agnes Miegel's role in Nazi Germany.
  15. ^David Blackbourn,The Conquest Of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany,W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2007, pages 302-303.
  16. ^Miegel's thoughts about the reconstruction of the Kaliningrad region.
  17. ^She wrote this poem,Spruch,on the occasion of the opening of theGedenkstätte des Deutschen Ostens und der Vertreibung(Memorial for Deportation and the Memorial of the German Eastern Provinces) inBurg CastleinSolingen.
  18. ^Peter Davies:Myth, Matriarchy and Modernity: Johann Jakob Bachofen in German Culture 1860–1945,Walter de Gruyter, 2010, page 364.
  19. ^The Agnes-Miegel-Haus on the website of the city of Bad NenndorfArchivedDecember 13, 2013, at theWayback Machine.
  20. ^‘Lindgren statt Miegel?’, January 2008.
  21. ^‘Schilderwechsel in St. Arnold: Anne Frank statt Agnes Miegel’, December 2010ArchivedDecember 13, 2013, at theWayback Machine.
  22. ^‘Miegel-Tage im Zeichen des Abschieds’, March 2015Archived2015-09-24 at theWayback Machine.
  23. ^One of the four short stories in this collection,Die Fahrt der sieben Ordensbrüder,has been published as a separate book in 1933 and reprinted many times, most recently in 2002.
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