Hermann Merten

Hermann Kasack

Hermann Robert Richard Eugen Kasack (24 July 1896 – 10 January 1966) was a German writer. He is best known for his novel Die Stadt hinter dem Strom (The city beyond the river). Kasack was a pioneer of using the medium broadcast for literature. He published radio plays also under the pen names Hermann Wilhelm and Hermann Merten.

Biography

Kasack was born in Potsdam as the only child of a doctor, he studied from 1914 to 1920 national economics and history of literature at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

In 1915, he published his first poem in the magazine Die Aktion. Two years later, a life-long friendship began with both the painter Walter Gramatté, the model for the painter Catell in Die Stadt hinter dem Strom, and the poet . In 1918, he released a volume of poems, entitled Der Mensch. Verse, which was his first published book.

He started working as a literary editor in 1920 in the publishing house Gustav-Kiepenheuer-Verlag in Potsdam, where he edited the complete works of Friedrich Hölderlin. From 1925, he worked for the Funk-Stunde Berlin. His drama Die Schwester was premiered in 1926. He was director at the S. Fischer Verlag until 1927. On 28 March 1933, he was prohibited to work for any broadcast. Nonetheless he signed on 26. Oktober 1933 the Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft for Adolf Hitler.

In 1941, he succeeded Oskar Loerke as literary editor in the S. Fischer Verlag, and took consequently over the direction of the publishing house while Peter Suhrkamp was arrested from 1944.

His most famous novel, Die Stadt hinter dem Strom (The city beyond the river) appeared in 1947, for which he was awarded the Fontane Prize of the city of Berlin two years later. A 1957 review stated:

In 1948, Kasack was a founding member of the German PEN center. He was from 1953 to 1963 the president of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. He wrote a libretto for an opera Die Stadt hinter dem Strom, which was composed by Hans Vogt and premiered at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden in 1955 as part of the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden.

Kasack died on 10 January 1966 in his home in Stuttgart.

Selected works

Drama

Radio plays

Novels

Literature

References

External links

• Literature by and about Hermann Kasack in the German National Library catalogue
• Hermann Kasack / 1896 - 1966 / Eine Bibliographie Universität Potsdam 1996 (German)
• Hermann Robert Richard Eugen Kasack Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach (German)
• Hermann Kasack und der Rundfunk, Audio-CD No. wo01, Frankfurt/M. und Potsdam 2004, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, containing the radio plays Eine Stimme von Tausend and Der Ruf, also a contribution about Bertolt Brecht (German)
• Was Kinder gerne hör(t)en, Audio-CD No. mu03, Frankfurt/M. und Potsdam 2003, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, containing a collectiong of children's songs and children's radio plays from the 1930s and 1950s, including Tull's Kinderolympiade (German)

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