Stefan Andres

Andres, Stefan (Breitwies nr. Trier, 1906-70, Rome), was brought up in a Roman Catholic village in the Mosel valley. He became a candidate for the priesthood but abandoned that, subsequently studying Germanistik in Cologne, Jena, and Berlin. In 1937 he settled in Positano (southern Italy) in order to protect his wife from racial persecution. From 1950 he lived at Unkel near Königswinter on the right bank of the Rhine (Zeugnisse des Weinfreundes: Die großen Weine Deutschlands, 1960) before moving to Rome in 1961. Mainly an author of fiction who wrote with assurance and a consciousness of traditional form, he was a master at creating tension; he combined a convivial temperament with a subtly perceptive mind and deep spiritual awareness which he brought to bear on the critical issues of his time by means of symbolical representation. His most concise pre-war work is the Novelle El Greco malt den Großinquisitor (1936), a concealed indictment of the doctrines of National Socialism and a commitment to unprejudiced individual integrity. The existence of evil, the diversity of human motivation, and the problems of guilt and expiation are the special concerns of his later works, which appealed to a wide readership, especially in the 1950s. They are exemplified in his Novelle Wir sind Utopia (1943) probing the dilemma of war and the true meaning of priesthood. Set during the Spanish Civil War, it centres on the confrontation between Paco Hernandez, a former priest, now a prisoner, and his captor, the communist officer Pedro Gutierrez, who both suffer a crisis of conscience in Paco's monastery, abandoned by him 20 years previously and now in the hands of the enemy; it results in their return to their common belief and to Paco's recognition of his calling, the realization of Utopia in this world, which requires the uncompromising abandonment of force. This extensive novella, of which 200, 000 copies had appeared by the late 1950s, was also successful as a play (Gottes Utopia, 1950) and radio play (see Hörspiel). Andres published his shorter fiction in a number of editions, including Moselländische Novellen (1937), Das Grab des Neides (1940), Das Wirtshaus zur weiten Welt (1943), Das goldene Gitter (1943 and 1964), Novellen und Erzählungen (1962), and Noah und seine Kinder (1968); Sehnsucht nach Italien, a posthumous collection, appeared in 1988; Meistererzählungen in 1980; and Die schönsten Novellen und Erzählungen (3 vols.) in 1982.

Andres wrote more than a dozen novels, including his parabolic trilogy on the history of his time from the emergence of National Socialism to the post-war world which augurs ill for the future: Die Sintflut consists of the novels Das Tier aus der Tiefe (1949), Die Arche (1951), and Der graue Regenbogen (1959). The political and social issues raised in the trilogy are treated in different contexts in Ritter der Gerechtigkeit (1948), which deals with the collapse of fascism in southern Italy in 1943, Der Mann im Fisch (1963), exposing the worship of Mammon, Der Taubenturm (1966), his most straightforward denunciation of fascism. In its autobiographical significance, this last-named novel complements the fictional representation of his childhood in Der Knabe im Brunnen (1953).

As the author of plays, Andres expressed his view on political crimes in the tragedy Sperrzonen (1958), a protest against their concealment. Der Reporter Gottes (1952) was conceived as a series of radio plays. Among his lyric poetry he particularly valued the poem ‘Der Skorpion’, contained in the collection Der Granatapfel (1950). A selection, Gedichte, appeared in 1966; Der Dichter in dieser Zeit, speeches and essays, in 1974, and correspondence, Lieber Freund - lieber Denunziant, in 1977.

Geburtshaus Stefan Andres

Brunnen beim Geburtshaus Stefan Andres

Stefan Paul Andres (Dhrönchen (a part of Trittenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate), 26 June 1906 - Rome, 29 June 1970) was a German novelist.

He was a widely-read German writer in the post-World War II period.

Works

• Bruder Lucifer (1932)
• Eberhard im Kontrapunkt (1933)
• Die Löwenkanzel (1933)
• Die unsichtbare Mauer (1934)
• Vom heiligen Pfäfflein Domenico (1936)
• Utz, der Nachfahr (1936)
• El Greco malt den Großinquisitor* (1936)
• Moselländische Novellen (1937)
• Der Mann von Asteri (1939)
• Das Grab des Neides (1940)
• Der gefrorene Dionysos (1942)
• Wir sind Utopia* (1942)
• Wirtshaus zur weiten Welt (1943)
• Ein Herz wie man braucht (1946)
• Die Söhne Platons (1946)
• Die Hochzeit der Feinde (1947)
• An Freund und Feind (1947)
• Ritter der Gerechtigkeit (1948)
• Tanz durchs Labyrinth (1948)
• Das Tier aus der Tiefe (1949)
• Der Granatapfel (1950)
• Die Arche (1952)
• Der Knabe im Brunnen (1953)
• Die Rache der Schmetterlinge (1953)
• Die Reise nach Portiuncula (1954)
• Positana, Geschichten aus einer Stadt am Meer (1957)
• Der graue Regenbogen (1959)
• Die großen Weine Deutschlands (1961)
• Der Mann im Fisch (1963)
• Die biblische Geschichte* (1965)
• Der Taubenturm (1966)
• Ägyptisches Tagebuch (1967)
• Noah und seine Kinder (1968)
• Die Dumme (1969)
• Die Versuchung des Synesios (1970)

*indicates a work that has been translated into English

References

• Furness, Raymond and Malcolm Humble (1991). A Companion to Twentieth Century German Literature. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-01987-7.

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