Fritz von Unruh

German playwright, novelist, poet, nonfiction writer, and first non-Swiss winner of Switzerland’s Bodmer Prize.

  • Born: May 10, 1885
  • Birthplace: Koblenz, Germany
  • Died: November 28, 1970
  • Place of death: Diez an der Lahn, Germany

Biography

Between the end of World War II and the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Germany, the clarion voice of Fritz von Unruh warned Germans of impending doom. Like many prophets throughout history, Unruh was largely unheeded. He ended up a martyr. Along with Ernst Toller, Walter Hasenclever, Reinhard Sorge, Georg Kaiser, and a few others playwrights, Unruh was among the most influential German Expressionist playwrights in Europe.

Fritz Wilhelm Ernst von Unruh was born in Koblenz, Germany. His father, Karl, a colonel in the Prussian Army, was a Protestant; his mother, Mathilde Klehe von Unruh, was Catholic. Unruh’s writing reflects the strict religious training of his youth. As expected, Fritz joined a cadet corps that emphasized discipline and total obedience to authority. Rankling from this unbending environment, Unruh attempted suicide.89873584-75742.jpg

At this time, Unruh wrote his first play, Jurgen Wullenweber, about a young man conflicted over the contrasting values of military gallantry and humanism. In his next two plays, Unruh dealt with similar conflicts, but he unceasingly glorified Prussian rule. Despite this, because he had the temerity to express doubts about militarism, he was forced to resign from the military.

Unruh, joining the cavalry during World War I, soon witnessed the horrors of battle, which turned him into the a dedicated pacifist. While in the cavalry, his poem, "Vor der Entscheidung" (before the decision) was circulated clandestinely among the troops, leading to a court martial. He was acquitted. The poem received Switzerland’s Bodmer Prize; Unruh was the first non-Swiss poet to win it.

Unruh’s Ein Geschlecht (a race) focused on how war robs people of their humanity. The play was banned by German censors, but a splinter group performed it privately. It brought Unruh the Young Germany prize in 1922 and Austria’s Grillparzer Prize. In 1924, Unruh, active in founding the Republican Party in Germany, was elected to the Reichstag. Two of his plays, Stürme (storms) and Rosengarten (rose garden), had driven home his conviction that harmony among people is possible worldwide, and this possibility attracted many voters.

With the rise of Hitler, however, Unruh’s star was descending. Zero, his last play performed as Nazism gripped Germany, was greeted by a nationalistic hysteria that brought Unruh to the stage to warn of the dangers ahead. The following year, the Nazis burned his writing. In 1935, he fled to Italy, but with the rise of the Fascists, he was persecuted there. He moved to France, but when World War II erupted, the French held him as an enemy alien.

Finally, in 1940, Unruh and his wife came to the United States, where Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann supported their application for residency status. Unruh lived intermittently in the United States and Europe after the war, settling on the French Riviera and returning to Germany in 1962. His most productive days were behind him, although he continued to write novels and plays almost until his death in 1970.

Author Works

Drama:

Jurgen Wullenweber, pr. 1909

Offiziere, pr., pb. 1911

Louis Ferdinand, Prinz von Preussen, pb. 1913, pr. 1921

Ein Geschlecht, pb. 1917, pr. 1918

Platz, pr., pb. 1920

Stürme, pr., pb. 1922

Rosengarten, pr. 1922

Hienrich von Andernach, 1925

Bonaparte, pr., pb. 1927

Phaea, pr., pb. 1930

Berlin in Monte Carlo, 1931

Zero, pr., pb. 1932

Gandha, pb. 1935

Charlotte Corday, pb. 1936

Miss Rollschuh, pb. 1941

Der Berfreiungsminister, pb. 1948

Wihelmus, Prinz von Oranien, pr. 1952, pb. 1953

Duell an der Havel, pb. 1954

Bismarck: Oder, Warum steht der Soldat da?, pb. 1955

Odysseus auf Ogygia, pb. 1968

Long Fiction:

Der Opfergang, 1919 (Way of Sacrifice, 1927)

Der nie verlor, 1948

Die Heilige, 1952

Fürchtet nichts, 1952

Der Sohn des Generals, 1957

Nonfiction:

Vaterland und Freiheit: Eine Ansprache an die deutsche Jugend, 1923

Flügel der Nike: Buch einer Reise, 1925

Seid wachsam! Eine Goethe-Rede, 1948

Rede an die Deutschen, 1948

Mächtig seid ihr nicht in Waffen, 1957

Meine Begegnungen mit Trotzki, 1963

Friede in USA?, 1967

Poetry:

"Vor der Entscheidung", 1914

Bibliography

"Fritz von Unruh Papers." Syracuse University Libraries Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University, library.syr.edu/digital/guides/u/unruh‗fv.htm. Accessed 27 June 2017. Provides a biographical overview on Unruh, along with details on his papers held by Syracuse University.

Humble, Malcolm. "The Unknown Soldier and the Return of the Fallen: The Political Dimension of Mourning in German Texts from the First World War to the Present." Modern Language Review, vol. 93, no. 4, Oct. 1998, pp. 1034–44. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=1337888&site=eds-live. Accessed 27 June 2017. This essay includes Unruh's play Heinrich aus andernach as a key example in its critical examination of German literature dealing with the theme of the unknown soldier.

Jelavich, Peter. "Unruh, Fritz von." McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, edited by Stanley Hochman, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, 1984, pp. 70–71. Provides a brief biography of Unruh along with discussion of his major works.

Meister, Robert. Fritz von Unruh. Ebering, 1967. A standard biography of Unruh.

"Unruh, Fritz Von (1885–1970)." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, vol. 2, Oxford University Press, Inc, 2003. Presents a basic outline of Unruh's life and career, including mention of his more prominent works and his role in German Expressionism.