Ossip Kalenter
1957 wurde er der Präsident des PEN-Zentrums der deutschsprachigen Schriftsteller im Ausland, und da er ein Individualist ist und ein Moralist, voll freundlicher Härte und unerbittlicher Liebenswürdigkeit, und da er ein echter Poet ist und ein Meister der deutschen Prosa (im Inland und im Ausland), ist er wie ausgewählt und gemacht, um Präsident von uns deutschen Schriftstellern im Ausland zu sein, von jenen, die um der Freiheit willen aus Deutschland fortgegangen sind oder um der guten Sitten willen oder um unzensuriert zu träumen und zu lieben oder um anderer Don-Quichotterien willen.
[In 1957, he became the President of the PEN Centre of German-Speaking Authors Abroad, and since he is an individualist and a moralist, full of friendly firmness and unrelenting kindness, since he is a true poet and a master of German prose (in Germany and abroad), it is as if he was made and ordained to become the President of us German writers abroad, of those of us who left Germany for freedom, for the sake of good morals, for the liberty to love and dream without censorship, or for other quixotic reasons. (trans. ed.)]
Hermann Kesten talking about Ossip Kalenter in a review of Olivenland, 1961
| Born | on 15 November 1900 in Dresden, Germany |
|---|---|
| Died | on 14 January 1976 in Zurich, Switzerland |
| Exile | Czechoslovakia, Switzerland |
| Profession | Writer |
Dresden-born writer Ossip Kalenter, whose real name –according to his German passport of 1939 – was actually Johannes Burckhardt, first came to public attention in 1920 with his poetry anthology Der seriöse Spaziergang (“The Sedate Stroll”). However, after moving to Italy in 1924, he mainly made a name for himself as a newspaper author and features writer for publications such as the Frankfurter Zeitung, Weltbühne, the Berliner Tagblatt and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In 1934, political developments in Fascist Italy caused Kalenter to move to Prague, where he became the permanent editor of the Prager Tagblatt newspaper. The Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia forced him to flee to Zurich, Switzerland, in 1939. Like most of his colleagues, Kalenter was banned from working in Switzerland for many years; however, he successfully circumvented this ban by using various pseudonyms. In 1945, with the blessing of the Aliens Police, he began writing for the prestigious New York-based Jewish exile magazine Aufbau; he also became the Secretary of the Association for the Protection of German Authors in Switzerland (SDS) that same year. Finally, from 1957 to 1967, Kalenter served as the President of PEN in Exile and the PEN Centre for German-Speaking Authors Abroad. Ossip Kalenter died in Zurich in 1970..
Selected works:
Der seriöse Spaziergang (Gedichte, 1920)
Die Abetiner oder Glück und Glanz einer kleinen Mittelmeerstadt (Prosa, 1950)
Die Liebschaften der Colombina. 5 Kapitel aus dem Leben der berühmten süßen Dame nebst den Scherzen Arlecchinos und den Hörnern Pantalones (Prosa, 1957).
Olivenland. Italien Miniaturen (Prosa, 1960).
Further reading:
Weiß, Norbert (Hrsg.): Ossip Kalenter zum 100. Geburtstag. Der seriöse Spaziergänger. Arabesken. Dresden: Verlag Die Scheune 2000 (Signum. Sonderheft 2).
Gallery
![Manuscript notes: Jakob Haringer, Das Fenster [The Window]](/KIE/Content/EN/Images/objects/haringer-jakob-das-fenster-gedichttyposkripte-en.jpg?__blob=thumbnail&v=4 "Manuscript notes: Jakob Haringer, Das Fenster [The Window]")
