Dr. Hugo Salus

Portret from Otto Schüller

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Salus

http://www.kohoutikriz.org/priloha/salus.php

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Hugo Salus (3 August 1866 in Česká Lípa; 4 February 1929 in Prague) was a doctor, writer and poet.

Contents [show] Life[edit] Salus studied medicine in Prague and established a practice in gynaecology there from 1895 onwards. Apart from his professional activities as a doctor, he published numerous volumes of poetry and short stories, and was one of the more important exponents of German literature in the Prague of his day. A prolific author, he soon became 'the acknowledged arbiter of Prague literary taste',[1] and 'the most respected Bohemian poet writing in German' at the time.[2] An early friend and mentor of Rainer Maria Rilke, his verse had some influence on Rilke's early lyric style.[3]

To some of his fellow Jewish intellectuals, he was regarded as an unadulterated "assimilationist,"[2] and "a militant protagonist of German liberalism and Jewish assimilation"[4] whose attachment to Zionism was little more than a matter of embracing a fashionable trend (Mode-Zionismus).[5] Lothar Kahn, on the other hand, says that while Salus was described by Max Brod as an unqualified assimilationist, "this may be an exaggeration, Salus did hope, all else failing, for full Jewish absorption into the host society."[2]

Of both him and his rival Friedrich Adler, Kafka biographer Peter Mailloux says, "their Jewishness existed in name only."[1] The philosopher Emil Utitz put it a bit differently, "Both acknowledged Jews, they nevertheless felt themselves to be the authentic representatives of all Germans in Bohemia, as well as further afield. Those Germans wanted little to do with Prague in any case, and least of all with its Jews. But Salus and Adler were liberals of the old stamp."[6] Kahn notes that "Salus made use of Jewish folkways and observances in his poetry, plays, and occasional fiction." [2]

Apart from his professional activities as a doctor, he published numerous volumes of poetry and short stories, and was one of the more important exponents of German-Jewish literature in the Prague of his day, moving in a circle which included younger figures of the stature of Franz Kafka, Max Brod, Franz Werfel, Egon Erwin Kisch, Oskar Baum, Johannes Urzidil, Paul Kornfeld, Ernst Weiss and Kamil Hoffmann.[7] Several of his works were illustrated by Heinrich Vogeler, while Arnold Schönberg set two of his poems to music.

Works (a selection)[edit] Poems[edit] Gedichte. 1898 Neue Gedichte. 1899 Ehefrühling. 1900 Reigen. 1900 Christa. Ein Evangelium der Schönheit. 1902 Ernte. 1903 Neue Garben. 1904 Die Blumenschale. 1908 Glockenklang. 1911 Das neue Buch. 1919 Klarer Klang. 1922 Helle Träume. 1924 Die Harfe Gottes. 1928 Prose[edit] Novellen des Lyrikers. 1903 Das blaue Fenster. 1906 Trostbüchlein für Kinderlose. 1909 Andersen-Kalender 1910 (12 Fairy tales) Schwache Helden. 1910 Die Hochzeitsnacht. Die schwarzen Fahen. 1913 Seelen und Sinne. 1913 Nachdenkliche Geschichten. 1914 Der Heimatstein und andere Erzählungen. 1915 Sommerabend. 1916 Die schöne Barbara. 1919 Freund Kafkus. 1919 Der Beschau. Eine Ghettogeschichte. 1920 Der Jungfernpreis. 1921 Vergangenheit. 1921 Theatre[edit] Susanna im Bade. 1901 Römische Komödie. 1909 Secondary literature[edit] Wertheimer, Paul: Hugo Salus, Prague 1902. Tinkl, Lotte: Neuromantische Elemente bei Hugo Salus und Franz Herold, Diss. Vienna, 1949. Franzel, Emil, 'Hugo Salus. Ein Stück versunkenes Prag,' in Sudetendeutscher Kulturalmanach, 7 (1969). Kletzander, Hermann, Hugo Salus und der Jugendstil, Diss. Salzburg 1977. Abret, Helga, 'Hugo Salus und Jaroslav Vrchlický. Das Verhältnis beider Dichter an Hand einiger unveröffentlichter Salus-Briefe,' in Österreich in Geschichte und Literatur, 24 (1980), pp. 28–34. Theopold, Wilhelm, Doktor und Poet dazu. Dichterärzte aus fünf Jahrhunderten, 2nd impression, Mainz 1987, ISBN 3-87409-032-9. Jeremy Adler & Richard Fardon, 'An Oriental in the West: The Life of Franz Baermann Steiner,’ in Franz Baermann Steiner Selected Writings, vol.1, Taboo, truth, and religion, (eds. Jeremy Adler, Richard Fardon), Berghahn Books, 1999 Lothar Kahn, Donald D. Hook, Between two worlds: a cultural history of German-Jewish writers, Iowa State University Press, 1993 Natalie Berger, Where cultures meet: the story of the Jews of Czechoslovakia, Beth Hatefutsoth, Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, 1990 Marek Nekula, Walter Koschmal, Juden zwischen Deutschen und Tschechen: sprachliche und kulturelle Identitäten in Böhmen 1800–1945, Volume 104 of Veröffentlichungen des Collegium Carolinum, Collegium Carolinum München, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2006 Peter Mailloux, A Hesitation Before Birth:The Life of Franz Kafka, University of Delaware Pres,1989 Livia Rothkirchen, The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia: facing the Holocaust, University of Nebraska Press, 2005