Vegesack, Siegfried von (Gut Blumbergshof nr. Valmiera, formerly Wolmar, Livonia, 1888-1974, Burg Weißenstein, Bavaria), a Baltic German, lived after the 1914-18 War as a writer and farmed in the Bavarian Forest, making Weißenstein nr. Regen his home. In 1933 he emigrated to Sweden, and in 1936 moved to South America, returning to Germany in 1938; after the 1939-45 War he settled again in Weißenstein. A translator of Russian works, he is best known as the author of novels set in his native country, notably the trilogy Baltische Tragödie, the components of which are Blumberghof. Geschichte einer Kindheit (1933, revised as Versunkene Welt, 1949), Herren ohne Heer. Roman des baltischen Deutschtums (1934), and Totentanz in Livland (1935). The trilogy depicts the life and decline of the German nobility in Livonia between 1890 and 1919. His other fiction includes the novels Meerfeuer (1936, reissued 1970), Der letzte Akt (1957), and Überfahrt (1967), and the stories Zwischen Staub und Sternen (1947), Der Pastoratshase (1958), and Tanja (1959). An early volume of poetry is entitled Die kleine Welt vom Turm gesehen (1925); it was followed by Der Lebensstrom (1943), Das Unverlierbare (1947), and In dem Lande der Pygmäen (1953); Kleine Hausapotheke (1944) is a collection of poems and stories. Südamerikanisches Mosaik (1962) is a record of his travels; family material is contained in Vorfahren und Nachkommen, Aufzeichnungen aus einer altlivländi-schen Brieflade, 1689-1887 (1960). Vegesack, who during the war (1942-3) worked as an interpreter in Russia where he witnessed the plight of the people (Als Dolmetscher im Osten, 1965), was the recipient of a number of East German awards. Die roten Atlasschuhe. Aus dem Leben meiner Urgroßeltern appeared in 1973;
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