Friedo Lampe

Lampe, Friedo (Bremen, 1899-1945, Berlin), a librarian in Hamburg, then in Stettin, finally became a publisher's reader in Berlin. He was killed on the day of the capitulation of Berlin. His story Am Rande der Nacht (1934) evokes the sensations and impressions of a September evening in Bremen with its charm and tenderness, its squalor and its lust, held together by the thread of the melodies of Bach, which Herr Berg plays upon his flute. The rats on the bank and the swans on the river serve as contrasting symbols and explain the title given to the 1950 edition, Ratten und Schwäne (which includes two other small pieces, Laterna magica and Nach hundert Jahren). Lampe also wrote the short novel Septembergewitter, which is the principal work in the posthumous collection Von Tür zu Tür 1936. The edition of his works, Das Gesamtwerk (1955), ed. J. Pfeiffer, appeared in extended form (including posthumous work), ed. J. Dierking and J.-G. König, in 1986.