Hermann Lenz was a German novelist. He wrote poetry, fiction stories, and novels.
Background
Hermann Karl Lenz was born on February 26, 1913, in Stuttgart, Germany. He was the son of Hermann Friedrich Lenz, a school teacher and officer, and Elise Lenz.
Lenz was born in a working-class family. Most of his relatives had regular jobs as shopkeepers and teachers. His father, a conservative high school teacher, undoubtedly expressed the importance of education early on.
Education
Lenz studied theology in Tübingen, then, in 1933, he began to study Art history, philosophy, Archaeology and Germanic studies in Heidelberg and to study from 1937 in Munich.
Career
After early dramatic reading impressions (Eduard Mörike, Adalbert Stifter, Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and others) Lenz wrote his first poems and prose pieces.
From 1940 Lenz was a soldier. Lenz participated in the Western campaign and the war against the Soviet Union and was until 1946 prisoners of war in the United States. His experiences as a student and a soldier shaped his entire literary work. After returning from captivity, Lenz devoted himself entirely to writing, aside from secretarial activities in cultural institutions.
Lenz was paid little attention for many years until recognition and fame came along. Peter Handke helped him to breakthrough in 1973. One of his fantastic stories found the applause of Thomas Mann.
Lenz published his works between 1936 and 1997 more than 30 books. Hermann Lenz read in October 1951 in front of Group 47 in the Laufenmühle in the Welzheimer Wald from an earlier version of the novel Afternoon of a Lady, the first part of The inner district. His distanced attitude to the group coincides with that of Paul Celans, who read aloud to Group 47 a year later. That experiences went into his novel Ein Fremdling.
Understanding himself from the beginning as an opponent of National Socialism, Lenz retreated into inner worlds - the Biedermeier or the Viennese Fin de siècle - which became the scene of many narrative texts and the object of reflection of countless figurative monologues.
Personality
German novelist Hermann Lenz grew up during tumultuous times in his country’s history. Born just one year before World War I, Lenz witnessed incredible strife during both world wars, in addition to the constricting political climate under Nazi control. Despite the chaos surrounding him, Lenz possessed an ability to withdraw from outside influence, drawing upon his own thoughts, feelings, and experiences for much of his writing.
Lenz was an artist from birth, and felt the need to find his own way. That desire led him to drift aimlessly through school, dropping out before he completed any serious career training. By the age of twenty-four, he had come to consider himself a failure in all his practical endeavors, and was also uncertain about his future as a poet.
While Lenz’s work addresses important issues pertaining to Germany’s history, as a literary force, he never achieved a great deal of success. None of his work was ever translated outside of his native tongue, and critics have been quick to point out his literary flaws. It should also be noted, however, that Lenz remains true to his ideals throughout his work. And while he does not necessarily appeal to a broad audience, he has always found a literary following.
Quotes from others about the person
“Lenz has traditionally been criticized for concentrating on too narrow a slice of German life, for painting too moderate a picture of the fascist mentality and of the elements that brought the Nazis to power, for suggesting too helpless and alternative, and for refusing to admit that there is anything positive in the modem world.”
“Lenz has always enjoyed the support of a small but steadily increasing group of admirers who sustained him during the many years before his work found general critical recognition. His position in postwar German fiction is now secure and is based on the totality of his creative output rather than on a single great success.”
Connections
In 1946, Lenz married the art historian Johanna Trautwein, the daughter of microbiologist Kurt Trautwein, whom he had met in 1937. Until 1975, both lived in Lenz 'Stuttgart parents' home; inheritance disputes forced him to move to the Munich house of his wife.