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Erwin von Busse

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Erwin von Busse also known as Granand or Erwin von Busse-Granand (12 January 1885 – 10 April 1939) was a German writer, painter, theater director, art historian and art critic. His 1920 short story collection Das erotische Komödiengärtlein—literally "Erotic Comedy Garden"—featured stories exploring erotic male relationships, which lead to it being banned by courts in both Berlin and Leipzig; it was republished in German in 1993 and in an English translation in 2022 as Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights.[1][2] As a stage director for several years he worked with some of the most prominent figures of his time and directed the 1919 world premiere of James Joyce's drama Exiles.[3] He devoted himself to painting in his later years, living in exile in Brazil from 1928 onward.

Biography

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Early years

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Erwin Oskar Leopold von Busse was born on 12 January 1885 in Magdeburg.[4] His parents were Lieutenant Hugo Maximilian von Busse (1855–1922) and his wife Marie Louise Elisabeth Helene née Weste (1861–1935). He had a brother Rudolf Maximilian von Busse (1886–1957).[5][6][a]

Erwin von Busse went to school in Magdeburg and Kiel.[7] Beginning in 1898, he attended several military schools, ending with graduation in 1905 from the Prussian military academy in Gross-Lichterfelde. He spent the next two years performing his compulsory military service.[8]

Beginning in 1907, he studied law in Munich, changing to art history in 1909. In 1912, he interrupted his studies for a trip to Brazil and a sojourn in Paris.[8]

Art criticism

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Art piece by von Busse

In 1912, he contributed an essay about Robert Delaunay to the Der Blaue Reiter Almanach. Reproductions of two recent Delaunay works, St. Séverin (1909) and The Window on the City (1911), illustrated the text.[9] This essay has been praised for its "extraordinary insight" into Delaunay, who was soon to prove a critical leader in discovering the principles of expressionist and abstract art.[by whom?] Analyzing a few critical Delaunay canvases, von Busse traced the artist's shift from respect for the physical subject, to fracturing the object into particles formed and colored as "the dynamic needs of the space" require, and finally to excluding all references to the external world so that shape and color become the form and subject of the painting.[10] Delaunay, in von Busse's words, now explores "the problem of space dynamics" without reference to the external world as he searches for the rules of "subjective understanding and representation".[9]

Von Busse returned to his studies before the end of 1912, now at the University of Bern. There he received his doctorate in 1914 with a thesis on Entwicklungsgeschichte des Problems der Massendarstellungen in der italienischen Malerei (The Historical Evolution of the Depiction of the Masses in Italian painting).[7]

Theater

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Von Busse then turned to the theater and before long settled in Berlin, where he edited Die Scene [de], a theater magazine, in 1917.[8] By that year he had also taken up the position of director and dramaturge at the Deutsches Theater under Max Reinhardt, a dominant figure in the German-language theater. He directed several productions there between 1918–19.[8] In 1919 he directed a revival of Walter Hasenclever's expressionist play The Son (1916), achieving greater success than Reinhardt had with the original production in 1918.[11][b]

He moved to Munich and worked for Hermine Körner, who had starred in The Son. There he directed the world premiere of James Joyce's 1918 drama Exiles at the Munich Theater on 7 August 1919.[3][12][c]

Other plays he directed included Candida by George Bernard Shaw and Die Soldaten by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. By 1925, he was no longer associated with a theater.[8]

Fiction

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Von Busse adopted the pseudonym Granand to publish Das erotische Komödiengärtlein (Erotic Comedy Garden) in 1920. Its five stories depict a variety of sexually charged encounters between men, with characters that range from military school cadets and dance-hall regulars to a foreign businessman and a burglar.[15] Granand wrote that his garden "has crooked, convoluted, and uncontrolled paths" but "over it all the great, hot sun shines, the melancholy moon passes by, and the innocent stars twinkle."[16] There were two editions: a private edition of 100 copies with six illustrations by Rudolph Pütz (1896–1986)[d] and a public edition of a few thousand copies with a slightly different text and five illustrations and a cover design by Ludwig Kainer (1885–1967).[7] In an enthusiastic review, Der Eigene, a bi-weekly gay newsletter, called the small printing a "luxury edition" and identified the bookstore that was handling sales.[17][e]

Von Busse wrote with discretion to avoid government censorship.[18][19] Though the Weimar Republic is now celebrated for its "radical remaking of sexual norms",[20] and its 1919 constitution prohibited censorship in principle, it also permitted statutes to regulate films, printed matter, and public presentations.[21] For example, the film Different from the Others, which argued for the decriminalization of homosexuality, was released in May 1919 and banned nationwide in October 1920.[22][f]

Regional courts in Berlin and Leipzig in 1920 and 1921 banned the distribution of von Busse's collection of stories because of "indecency" and ordered all copies confiscated or destroyed.[7][g] The banned 1920 edition was not reprinted until 1993.[25][h] The first English translation was published in 2022 as Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights; consistent with the 1920 edition, it identifies the author as "Granand".[1][i]

A second set of stories, this time featuring heterosexual relationships, appeared in 1921 as Liebesmärchen (Lovers' Fairy Tales).[26] With illustrations by Kainer, its stories were "literary imitations of selections from Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra" (1832). An attempt to ban this volume failed.[7]

Later years

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In 1925, von Busse contributed a slight volume to an art history series. By this time he was using a composite name, having added his pseudonym to his birth name to become "Erwin von Busse-Granand."[27]

Using that name he emigrated to Brazil in 1928.[5][j] In 1931 he took part in the group exhibition Salão Revolucionário (Revolutionary Salon) at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, the first of its annual exhibitions to host modernists.[28]

He became a Catholic in 1933 and in London on 10 April of that year married Simonette Mathilde Kowarick, a wealthy woman and native of Brazil. They had no children.[5][7][k] In Brazil he devoted himself to painting, concentrating on the South American landscape. He taught for a time at the Olinda School in São Paulo.[5]

He died in São Paulo on 10 April 1939.[4] A few months later, Theodor Heuberger [pt] mounted a memorial exhibition of von Busse's paintings at his galleries in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; the catalog included several illustrations of von Busse's paintings, two essays about Brazil by the artist, and a brief biography that did not mention his short story collections.[7][29]

Works

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  • E. von Busse (1912). "Die Kompositionsmittel bei Robert Delaunay" [Robert Delaunay's Methods of Composition]. Der Blaue Reiter (in German). Munich: Piper.
  • Granand (1920). Das erotische Komödiengärtlein [Erotic Comedy Garden] (in German). Berlin: Almanach-Verlag.
  • Granand (1921). Liebesmärchen [Lovers' Fairy Tales] (in German). Berlin: Almanach-Verlag.
  • Erwin von Busse-Granand (1925). Francesco Guardi und die Kleinmeister des venezianischen Rokoko [Francesco Guardi and the Minor Masters of Venetian Rococo]. Bibliothek der Kunstgeschichte (in German). Vol. 83. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Erwin was named for his paternal grandfather and his brother was named for their great-grandfather Rudolf Maximilian von Busse (1783–1864), better known as Maximilian von Busse [de].[6]
  2. ^ Hasenclever took the role of Fürst Scheitel.[11]
  3. ^ The Munich production proved to be the world premiere after Joyce failed to find a theater in the UK or US to produce it. His overtures to theaters in Bern and Turin were also rejected. It was published in English on 25 May 1918[3] and in German on 4 April 1919.[13][14]
  4. ^ The illustrations in the private edition were hand colored by Pütz or Granand.[7]
  5. ^ This review gave no indication that a less expensive edition was forthcoming.[17]
  6. ^ Screenings were permitted for "private audiences and medical professionals".[22]
  7. ^ A 1922 bibliophile catalog nevertheless listed the public edition of the stories.[23] And a copy that survived was prized enough for artist Marcus Behmer to have bound "in red and gilt morocco" only to have it stolen by someone who could not find a copy for sale.[24]
  8. ^ One of the stories appeared in a gay Swiss magazine in 1938, and other selections have been printed in "various gay magazines".[7]
  9. ^ This English translation is based on the text of the private edition of 1920.[7]
  10. ^ An essay he wrote titled "Rio de Janeiro, May 1928" was printed after his death.[7]
  11. ^ Von Busse's niece believes that he and his wife emigrated after marrying, likely because she was Jewish.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b Granand (2022). Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights. Translated by Michael Gillespie. Warbler Press. ISBN 978-1-957240-24-4.
  2. ^ Levit, Donny (December 2022). "Tales of Vibrant Gay Life, No Longer Lost in Translation". Matters Magazine. pp. 32–4. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b c MacNicholas, John (1 January 1981). "The Stage History of "Exiles"". James Joyce Quarterly. 19 (1): 9–26. JSTOR 25476401.
  4. ^ a b "Busse-Granand, Erwin von". Library of Congress. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d Hergemöller, Bernd-Ulrich, ed. (2010). Mann für Mann: Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte von Freundesliebe und mannmännlicher Sexualität im deutschen Sprachraum (in German). Lit Verlag. pp. 228–9. ISBN 978-3-643-10693-3.
  6. ^ a b "Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der briefadeligen Häuser" (in German). 1907. pp. 90–1.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Manfred Herzer [in German] (2022). Afterword. Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights. By Granand. Warbler Press. pp. 79–84.
  8. ^ a b c d e Michael Gillespie (2022). "Granand Life and Works". Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights. By Granand. Warbler Press. pp. 85–87.
  9. ^ a b E. von Busse. "Robert Delaunay's Methods of Composition". In Kandinsky, Wassily; Marc, Franz (eds.). The Blaue Reiter Almanac. New York: Viking Press. pp. 119–23.
  10. ^ Selz, Peter (1985). Art in a Turbulent Era. UMI Research Press. pp. 103–4.
  11. ^ a b Shearier, Stephen James (1988). Das Junge Deutschland, 1917-1920: Expressionist Theater in Berlin. Peter Lang. p. 137.
  12. ^ Kritisches Erbe. Dokumente zur Rezeption von James Joyce im deutschen Sprachbereich zu Lebzeiten des Autors: ein Lesebuch (in German). Rodopi. 2000. pp. 66–87. ISBN 9042007699. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  13. ^ Fischer, Andreas (2021). James Joyce in Zurich: A Guide. Springer International Publishing. p. 198. ISBN 9783030512835.
  14. ^ Joyce, James (1919). Verbannte (in German). Translated by Hannah von Mettal. Zurich: Rascher and Cie.
  15. ^ Michael Gillespie (2022). Introduction. Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights. By Granand. Warbler Press. pp. ix–xv.
  16. ^ Granand (2022). "Prologue". Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights. Warbler Press. p. xvi.
  17. ^ a b "Bücher und Menschen" [Books and Men]. Der Eigene (in German). VII (6?): 7. 1919–1920. Retrieved 21 June 2022 – via Universitäts Bibliothek, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin. Review of Granand, Das erotische Komödien-Gärtlein.
  18. ^ Wolf, Benedikt (2018). Penetrierte Männlichkeit Sexualität und Poetik in deutschsprachigen Erzähltexten der literarischen Moderne (1905-1969) (in German). Cologne: Publisher: Böhlau Verlag. p. 101. ISBN 9783412504403. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  19. ^ Queer Gender Historiographie: Aktuelle Tendenzen und Projekte (in German). Lit Verlag. 2016. p. 180. ISBN 9783643132192. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  20. ^ Marhoefer, Laurie (2011). "Degeneration, Sexual Freedom, and the Politics of the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933". German Studies Review. 34 (3): 529–49. JSTOR 41303797.
  21. ^ Petersen, Klaus (1992). "The Harmful Publications (Young Persons) Act of 1926. Literary Censorship and the Politics of Morality in the Weimar Republic". German Studies Review. 15 (3): 505–23. doi:10.2307/1430365. JSTOR 1430365.
  22. ^ a b Beachy, Robert (2014). Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 164–6. ISBN 978-0-307-47313-4.
  23. ^ Jahrbuch Deutscher Bibliophilen für 1921/1922 (in German). Vienna and Leipzig: Verlag von Moritz Perles. 1922. p. 116.
  24. ^ "NA". The Print-Collector's Quarterly. 19. Frederick Keppel & Company: 172. 1932.
  25. ^ Granand (1993). Das erotische Komödiengärtlein [Erotic Comedy Garden]. Berlin: Männerschwarm, Salzgeber Buchverlage GmbH. ISBN 978-3-921495-45-2. Reprint of the Almanach Verlag 1920 private edition with the original drawings by Rudolf Pütz. With an afterword about the author and his work by Manfred Herzer and James W. Jones.
  26. ^ Liebesmärchen [Lovers' Fairy Tales] (in German). Berlin: Almanach-Verlag. 1921.
  27. ^ Erwin von Busse-Granand (1925). Francesco Guardi und die Kleinmeister des venezianischen Rokoko [Francesco Guardi and the Minor Masters of Venetian Rococo]. Bibliothek der Kunstgeschichte (in German). Vol. 83. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann.
  28. ^ "Salão Revolucionário". Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural (in Brazilian Portuguese). Instituto Itaú Cultural. 23 May 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  29. ^ Gedächtnisausstellung Dr. E. von Busse-Granand, Galeria Heuberger [Memorial exhibition, Dr. E. von Busse-Granand, Galeria Heuberger] (in German). Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo. 1939.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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