122nd Hanoverian bibliophile evening in the city library
Hanover city library Hildesheimer Strasse 12, invites you to the 122nd Hannover Bibliophile Evening on Tuesday, November 29, 7:30 p.m. dr Peter Struck Sr. speaks on “OTTO ERICH HARTLEBEN or what one has to imagine by halcyon satyrs” and presents the life and work of the writer. Admission is free, we ask that you register by phone at 0511/168-42169.
Otto Erich Hartleben (1864 – 1905) grew up in Hanover. While studying law in Berlin, he joined the literary circles around the brothers Heinrich and Julius Hart. He broke off his legal clerkship in Stolberg/Harz in order to live in Berlin as a freelance writer. Criticism of the existing social order and its double standards became the subject of his successful and controversial prose and dramas, such as the story “Vom hospitable Pastor” (1893) or the dramas “Angele” (1891) and the much-performed comedy “Hanna Jagert” (1892 ).
His pleasing style and accurate analysis of the moral sensitivities of his time ensured him widespread success with readers and theater audiences and earned him the reputation of a German Maupassant. Fired up by numerous anecdotes in newspapers and magazines, Hartleben was discovered in public as a sociable bohemian who loved to drink
In 1902 he was awarded the Grillparzer Prize by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna for the officers’ tragedy “Rosenmontag” (Berlin 1900). His transcription of Pierrot Lunaire (1893) from the pen of the Belgian poet Albert Giraud was the basis for Arnold Schönberg’s setting to music.
Financially secured by his success, he moved to a villa in Salò on Lake Garda in 1902. In an allusion to Nietzsche, he named his domicile “Villa Halkyone” and founded the circle of friends “Halkyonic Academy for Unapplied Sciences in Salò”. The group of “Halkyoniers” included Franz von Lenbach, Caesar Flaischlen, Egon Fridell, Gerhard Hauptmann and the publisher Samuel Fischer.
Part of Hartleben’s estate is in the Hanover City Library.
dr Peter Struck senior (b. 1943), master’s and doctorate in philosophy, is a freelance writer and organizer of literary and musical programs. In addition to his scientific work on Forberg, Kleist, Kant, Spinoza and others, he gives lectures on philosophical, literary and art historical topics. Peter Struck Sr. is co-editor of the jubilee volume “Multiversum 21” to be published by Wehrhahn-Verlag in 2021 to mark the 75th anniversary of the German Authors’ Association
Image Sources:
- Hanover City Library: www.hannover-discoveren.de