View source for Hanns Heinz Ewers

{{Short description|German actor, poet, philosopher and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}
[[File:Hanns Heinz Ewers.JPG|thumb|Hanns Heinz Ewers]]
[[File:Ewers 02.jpg|thumb|upright|Hanns Heinz Ewers at the age of 4]]
'''Hanns Heinz Ewers''' (3 November 1871 – 12 June 1943) was a German actor, poet, philosopher, and writer of short stories and novels. While he wrote on a wide range of subjects, he is now known mainly for his works of horror, particularly his trilogy of novels about the adventures of Frank Braun, a character modeled on himself. The best known of these is ''[[Alraune]]'' (1911).<ref name="oxford">Henry and Mary Garland, ''The Oxford companion to German literature''.Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997. {{ISBN|0198158963}} (pp.221–222).</ref><ref name="mes">Mary Ellen Snodgrass,''Encyclopedia of Gothic Literature''.
New York, Facts on File (2004). {{ISBN|0816055289}} (p.106-7)</ref>

== Career ==

=== Early works ===
Born in [[Düsseldorf]], Ewers started to write poetry when he was 17 years old. His first noticed poem was an obituary tribute to the German Emperor [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Frederick III]].

Ewers earned his [[Abitur]] in March 1891. He then volunteered for the military and joined the ''[[Kaiser-Alexander-Gardegrenadier-Regiment Nr. 1]]'', but was dismissed 44 days later because of [[myopia]].

Ewers' literary career began with a volume of satiric verse, entitled ''A Book of Fables'', published in 1901. That same year, he collaborated with [[Ernst von Wolzogen]] in forming a literary vaudeville theatre before forming his own such company, which toured [[Central Europe|Central]] and Eastern Europe before the operating expenses and constant interference from censors caused him to abandon the enterprise. A world traveler, Ewers was in South America at the beginning of [[World War I]], and relocated to New York City, where he continued to write and publish.

Ewers' reputation as a successful German author and performer made him a natural speaker for the Imperial German cause to keep the United States from joining the war as an ally of Britain. Ewers toured cities with large [[German Americans|ethnic German communities]] and raised funds for the [[German Red Cross]].

During this period, he was involved with the "[[Stegler Affair]]". American shipping companies sympathetic to the fight against Imperial Germany reportedly aided the British in identifying German-descended passengers traveling to Germany to volunteer for the Kaiser's army. Many were arrested and interned in prison camps by the [[Royal Navy|British Navy]]; eventually, German volunteers often required false passports to reach Europe unmolested. Ewers was implicated as a German agent by one of these ethnic Germans, [[Richard Stegler]].

After the United States joined the war, he was arrested in 1918 as an "active propagandist," as the US government, as well as British and French intelligence agencies, asserted that Ewers was a German agent. They evidenced his travels to Spain during 1915 and 1916, both with an alias using a falsified Swiss passport.<ref name="efb">[[E. F. Bleiler]], "Ewers, Hanns Heinz" in [[Jack Sullivan (literary scholar)|Sullivan, Jack]], (ed.) 
''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural''. (pp. 145–6). Viking, New York. 1986. {{ISBN|0670809020}}</ref> Later, a travel report in the archives of the [[German Foreign Office]] was discovered indicating that he may have been traveling to [[Mexico]], perhaps to encourage [[Pancho Villa]] to hamper the U.S. military by an attack on the United States.

Ewers is associated with the pro-German [[George Sylvester Viereck]],<ref name="bs">"Ewers, Hanns Heinz" by [[Brian Stableford]] in [[David Pringle]], 
''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers''. London : St. James Press, 1998, {{ISBN|1558622063}} (pp. 665–66).</ref> son of the German immigrant and reported illegitimate [[Hohenzollern]] offspring [[Louis Sylvester Viereck]] (a [[SPD|Social Democrat]] famous for sharing a prison cell with [[August Bebel]]), who was a member of the same Berlin student corps (fraternity) as Ewers.

Ewers' activities as an "Enemy Alien" in New York were documented by [[J. Christoph Amberger]] in the German historical journal ''Einst & Jetzt'' (1991). Amberger indicates arrival records which demonstrate that Ewers entered the United States in the company of a "Grethe Ewers," who is identified as his wife. [[Enemy Alien Office]] records refer to a recent divorce. The identity of this otherwise undocumented wife has never been established, with reference to her missing from most biographies.

As a German national he was sent to the internment camp at [[Fort Oglethorpe (prisoner-of-war camp)|Fort Oglethorpe]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. Ewers was never tried as a German agent in the United States. In 1921, he was released from the internment camp and returned to his native Germany.

=== Frank Braun trilogy ===
Ewers's first novel, ''Der Zauberlehrling'' (''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1910 novel)|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]''), was published in 1910, with an English translation published in America in 1927. It introduces the character of Frank Braun, who, like Ewers, is a writer, historian, philosopher, and world traveler with a decidedly [[Nietzsche]]an morality. The story concerns Braun's attempts to influence a small cult of [[Evangelical Christians]] in a small Italian mountain village for his own financial gain, and the horrific results which ensue.<ref name="efb" />

This was followed in 1911 by ''[[Alraune]]'', a reworking of the [[Frankenstein]] myth, in which Braun collaborates in creating a female [[homunculus]] or [[Android (robot)|android]] by impregnating a prostitute with the semen from an executed murderer. The result is a young woman without morals, who commits numerous monstrous acts. ''Alraune'' was influenced by the ideas of the [[eugenics]] movement, especially the book ''[[Degeneration (Max Nordau)|Degeneration]]'' by [[Max Nordau]].<ref name="bs" /> ''Alraune'' has been generally well received by historians of the horror genre; Mary Ellen Snodgrass describes ''Alraune'' as "Ewers' decadent masterwork",<ref name="mes" /> [[Brian Stableford]] argues ''Alraune'' "deserves recognition as the most extreme of all "femme fatale" stories"<ref name="bs" /> and E. F. Bleiler states the scenes in ''Alraune'' set in the Berlin underworld as among the best parts of the novel.<ref name="efb" /> The novel was filmed several times, most recently in a [[Alraune (1952 film)|German version]] with [[Erich von Stroheim]] in 1952.

Bleiler notes "Both ''Alraune'' and ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' are remarkable for the emotion the author can arouse" and that Ewers' writing is, at its best, "very effective". However, Bleiler also argues Ewers' work is marred by "annoying pretentiousness, vulgarity, and a very obtrusive and unpleasant author's personality".<ref name="efb" />

The third novel of the sequence, ''[[Vampyr (novel)|Vampyr]]'', written in 1921, concerns Braun's own eventual transformation into a [[vampire]], drinking the blood of his Jewish mistress.<ref name="mes" />

=== Later works ===
Another novel, ''[[The Ghost-Seer|Der Geisterseher]]'' (The Ghost-Seer), Ewers' completion of the [[Friedrich Schiller]] novel, was published in 1922; Ewers' version was received badly.<ref name="mes" /><ref name="efb" />

Ewers also wrote the novel ''[[Riders in the German Night|Reiter in deutscher Nacht]]'' (Riders in the German Night) published in 1932.

Ewers wrote numerous short stories, those in ''Nachtmahr'' ("Nightmare") largely concern "pornography, blood sport, torture
and execution".<ref name="mes" /> Stories translated into English include the often anthologised "The Spider" (1915), a tale of [[black magic]] based on the story "The Invisible Eye" by [[Erckmann-Chatrian]]; "Blood", about knife fights to the death; and "The Execution of Damiens", a story about the execution of the 18th-century French criminal [[Robert-François Damiens]] that achieved some notoriety for its violence.<ref name="efb" />

Ewers also published several plays, poems, fairy tales, opera librettos, and critical essays. These included ''Die Ameisen'', translated into English as ''[[The Ant People]]'', ''Indien und ich'', a travelogue of his time in India, and a 1916 critical essay on [[Edgar Allan Poe]], to whom he has often been compared. Indeed, Ewers is still considered by some as a major author in the evolution of the [[Horror fiction|horror literary genre]], cited as an influence by American horror writers such as [[H. P. Lovecraft]] and
[[Guy Endore]].<ref name="bs" /> Students of the occult are also attracted to his works, due to his longtime friendship and correspondence with [[Aleister Crowley]]. Ewers also translated several French writers into German, including [[Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam|Villiers de l'Isle-Adam]].<ref name="bs" />

Ewers also edited the eight-volume ''Galerie der Phantasten'' anthologies of [[horror fiction|horror]] and [[fantasy]] literature,
featuring work by [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe]], [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]], [[Oskar Panizza]], [[Honoré de Balzac]], [[Alfred Kubin]], Ewers'
friend [[Karl Hans Strobl]], [[Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer]] and Ewers himself.<ref>Verna Schuetz, ''The bizarre literature of Hanns Heinz Ewers, Alfred Kubin, Gustav Meyrink, and Karl Hans Strobl''. (p.12) University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1974.</ref>

During the time Ewers was writing his major horror stories, he was also giving lectures (between 1910 and 1925) on the topic ''Die Religion des Satan'' (''The Religion of Satan''), inspired by [[Stanisław Przybyszewski]]'s 1897 German book ''Die Synagoge des Satan'' (''The [[Synagogue of Satan]]'').<ref>Per Faxneld, ''Witches, Anarchism, and Evolutionism'', in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=QQJlf729qUMC The Devil's Party, Chapter 3]'', Oxford University Press, 2013: ''...from the 1910s and onwards (until at least 1925), horror author and poet Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871–1943) held wildly popular lectures with the title "Die Religion des Satan", based almost verbatim on "Die Synagoge des Satan".''</ref>

He died on June 12, 1943, in his [[Berlin]] apartment. His ashes were buried on October 15 of the same year in the Düsseldorf North Cemetery (Nordfriedhof, Field Nr. 78, 55235-WE).

== Movie work ==
Ewers was one of the first critics to recognize cinema as a legitimate art form, and wrote the scripts for numerous early examples of the medium, most notably ''[[The Student of Prague (1913 film)|The Student of Prague]]'' (1913), a reworking of the [[Faust]] legend which also included the first portrayal of a [[double role]] by an actor on the screen.

Nazi martyr [[Horst Wessel]], then a member of the same corps (student fraternity) of which Ewers had been a member, acts as an extra in [[The Student of Prague (1926 film)|a 1926 version of the movie]], also written by Ewers. Ewers was later commissioned by Adolf Hitler to write a biography of Wessel ("Horst Wessel- ein deutsches Schicksal"), which also was made into a movie.

== Nazi involvement ==
During the last years of the [[Weimar Republic]], Ewers became involved with the burgeoning [[Nazi Party]], attracted by its nationalism, its [[Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzschean]] moral philosophy, and its cult of [[Teutons|Teutonic]] culture, and joined the [[NSDAP]] in 1931. He did not agree with the party's [[anti-Semitism]] (his character Frank Braun has a Jewish mistress, Lotte Levi, who is also a patriotic German) and this and his homosexual tendencies soon ended his welcome with party leaders. In 1934 most of his works were banned in Germany, and his assets and property seized.<ref name="oxford" /> [[Alfred Rosenberg]] was his main adversary in the party, but after submitting many petitions Ewers eventually secured the rescission of the ban. His last book ''Die schönsten Hände der Welt'' ("The most beautiful hands in the world") was published by the Zinnen Verlag (Munich, Vienna, Leipzig) in 1943. Ewers died from [[tuberculosis]] in the same year.

Despite his great influence on 20th century [[fantasy]] and horror literature, Ewers remains out of favor in bourgeois literary circles (especially in the English-speaking world and Germany)<ref name="bs" /> because of his association with the Nazis.<ref name="efb" /> As a result, post-[[World War II]] editions of his works are often difficult to find, and earlier editions can command a premium price from collectors.

== Twenty-first-century translations ==
<nowiki>''</nowiki>Blood<nowiki>''</nowiki> is a chapbook collection published in 1977 by Valcour and Krueger (San Diego, CA). It contains three stories: "The Mamaloi," "The White Maiden," and "Tomato Sauce."

In March 2009, Side Real Press issued an English language collection of short stories including some newly translated material. This was followed by a new uncensored translation of ''Alraune'' translated by Joe Bandel which sold out after one year. The Alraune Centennial Edition by Bandel Books Online was released in March 2011. The centennial edition translated by Joe Bandel contains an essay by Dr. Wilfried Kugel, noted Ewers biographer.

"Sorcerer's Apprentice", The First Volume in the Frank Braun trilogy was translated by Joe Bandel and published by Bandel Books Online in September 2012. This is the first uncensored English translation of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". It includes an Introduction by Dr. Wilfried Kugel; the poems, "Prometheus" by Goethe, and "Hymn to Satan" by Carducci; "The Satanism of Hanns Heinz Ewers", "Duality-The Male", "Duality-The Female", and "Duality-Sexual Alchemy" by Joe Bandel and the complete text of "Synagogue of Satan" by [[Stanisław Przybyszewski]] also translated by Joe Bandel.

In 2016 [[The Ajna Offensive|Ajna Offensive]] published [[Markus Wolff]]'s English translation of Ewers' 1922 novel ''Die Herzen der Könige'' (The Hearts of Kings).<ref>Ewers, H. H., [http://www.theajnaoffensive.com/collections/ajna/products/the-hearts-of-kings ''The Hearts of Kings''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603134154/http://www.theajnaoffensive.com/collections/ajna/products/the-hearts-of-kings |date=3 June 2016 }} ([[Jacksonville, Oregon]]: Ajna Offensive, 2016).</ref>

==In popular culture==
Ewers appears in [[Kim Newman]]'s novel ''[[The Bloody Red Baron]]'', as a predatory [[vampire]] who travels briefly with [[Edgar Allan Poe]].

== Filmography ==
* 1913: [[:de:Der Student von Prag (1913)]]
* 1913: [[:de:Der Verführte]]
* 1913: [[:de:Die Augen des Ole Brandis]]
* 1913: [[:de:Die Eisbraut]]
* 1913: [[:de:Die ideale Gattin (Film)|Die ideale Gattin]]
* 1913: [[:de:Ein Sommernachtstraum in unserer Zeit]]
* 1914: [[:de:Evinrude (1914)|Evinrude]]
* 1914: [[:de:Die Launen einer Weltdame]]
* 1918: [[:de:Alraune (1918)|Alraune]] by [[:de:Mihály Kertész]] und Ödön Fritz
* 1918: [[:de:Alraune, die Henkerstochter, genannt die rote Hanne]] by [[:de:Eugen Illés]]
* 1919: [[:de:Alraune und der Golem]] by [[:de:Nils Chrisander]]
* 1926: [[:de:Der Student von Prag (1926)]] (Remake)
* 1928: [[:de:Alraune (1928)|Alraune]] by [[:de:Henrik Galeen]], with [[:de:Brigitte Helm]]
* 1930: [[:de:Fundvogel]]
* 1930: [[:de:Alraune (1930)|Alraune]] by [[:de:Richard Oswald]], with Brigitte Helm
* 1952: [[:de:Alraune (1952)|Alraune]] by [[:de:Arthur Maria Rabenalt]], with [[:de:Hildegard Knef]]

==Notes==
{{Portal|Biography|Germany|LGBTQ|Poetry}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Gutenberg author | id=9408| name=Hanns Heinz Ewers}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Hanns Heinz Ewers}}
*{{Librivox author|id=8332}}
*[http://www.librarything.com/author/ewershannsheinz Hanns Heinz Ewers] listing [[librarything.com]]
*[http://ewersalraune.wordpress.com/ Alraune] [[Blog]] 
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090305114155/http://anarchistbanjo.wordpress.com/ Vampire] [[Blog]] 
*[http://hannsheinzewers.wordpress.com/ Hanns Heinz Ewers] [[Blog]] 
*[http://www.hanns-heinz-ewers.com/ Hanns Heinz Ewers .com]
*{{IMDb name|263912|Hanns Heinz Ewers}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040909210128/http://homepages.pavilion.co.uk/users/tartarus/e9.htm Supernatural Fiction Database ]
*[http://hdl.handle.net/1802/2944 Die toten Augen] an opera with: 
:music by [[Eugen d'Albert]]  
:poetry by Ewers
:Vocal Score from [[Sibley Music Library]] Digital Scores Collection
*[https://tapas.io/episode/497400 "The Spider"] [[Comic]]
*[https://www.steve-calvert.co.uk/the-spider-hans-heinz-ewers-online-text/ "The Spider"] Online Text
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ewers, Hanns Heinz}}
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:1943 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century German novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century German short story writers]]
[[Category:German gay writers]]
[[Category:German erotica writers]]
[[Category:German fantasy writers]]
[[Category:German horror writers]]
[[Category:German male novelists]]
[[Category:German male poets]]
[[Category:German male short story writers]]
[[Category:German short story writers]]
[[Category:German male stage actors]]
[[Category:German National People's Party politicians]]
[[Category:German nationalists]]
[[Category:German poets]]
[[Category:LGBTQ people in the Nazi Party]]
[[Category:German LGBTQ poets]]
[[Category:Writers from Düsseldorf]]
[[Category:Writers from the Rhine Province]]
[[Category:Actors from the Rhine Province]]
[[Category:20th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Germany]]
[[Category:19th-century German military personnel]]