Hans Henny Jahnn


Hans Henny Jahnn was a German playwright, novelist, and organ-builder.

Personal life

Hans Henny Jahn was born in 1894 in Stellingen, one of Hamburg's suburbs, and was the son of a shipwright.
Jahn met Gottlieb Friedrich Harms "Friedel", with whom he was united in a "mystical wedding" in 1913, at a secondary school which they both attended, and they fled from Germany to Norway to avoid enlistment into the army for World War I, where they lived together between 1914 and 1918, and after the war ended they returned to Hamburg. They met Ellinor Philips in 1918. In 1919, Jahnn founded the community of Ugrino with a sculptor, Franz Buse. In 1926, Jahnn married Ellinor, and Harms married Sybille Philips, Ellinor's sister, in 1928. When Harms died in 1931 Jahn designed his gravestone. Once the Nazi period began, he fled Germany once again to Zurich and then Bornholm to escape the hostility of the Nazis towards the gay community.
Jahnn's bisexuality, well-documented in his life, appears as well throughout his literary work, although it did not receive much recognition for some time due to his eccentric lifestyle, unconventional opinions, and homosexual relationship. Hans Henny Jahnn is buried alongside Harms and Ellinor at Nienstedten Cemetery, Hamburg, Germany.

Writing

As a playwright, he wrote: Pastor Ephraim Magnus, which The Cambridge Guide to Theatre describes as a nihilistic, Expressionist play "stuffed with perversities and sado-masochistic motifs"; Coronation of Richard III ; and a version of Medea. Later works include the novel Perrudja, an unfinished trilogy of novels River without Banks, the drama Thomas Chatterton, and the novella The Night of Lead. Erwin Piscator staged Jahnn's The Dusty Rainbow in 1961. His work was awarded the Kleist Prize.
Jahnn was also a music publisher, focusing on 17th-century organ music. He was a contemporary of organ-builder Rudolf von Beckerath.

Selected bibliography

Prose

Perrudja. Trans. Adam Siegel Fluß ohne Ufer. Roman in drei Teilen. Shoreless River or River Without Banks: Novel in Three Parts
  • * Das Holzschiff. The Ship, trans. Catherine Hutter
  • * Die Niederschrift des Gustav Anias Horn
  • * Epilog 13 nicht geheure Geschichten. Thirteen Uncanny Stories, trans. Gerda Jordan. Includes:
  • * Ragna and Nils
  • * The Slave's Story
  • * The Watchmaker
  • * Sassanidian King
  • * The Gardener
  • * The Story of the Twins
  • * A Boy Weeps
  • * Kebad Kenya
  • * The Marmalade Eaters
  • * Mov
  • * A Master Selects His Servant
  • * The Diver
  • * Stolen Horses Die Nacht aus Blei. The Night of Lead, trans. Malcolm Green Ugrino und Ingrabanien. Unfinished early novel
  • Jeden ereilt es. Unfinished novel, partially translated as Bath House by Adam Siegel The Living Are Few, the Dead Many: Selected Works of Hans Henny Jahnn. Translations by Malcolm Green. Includes:
  • * Kebad Kenya
  • * Sassanid King
  • * A Master Selects His Servant
  • * ''The Night of Lead''

Plays

Pastor Ephraim Magnus Die Krönung Richards III Der Arzt / Sein Weib / Sein Sohn Der gestohlene Gott Medea Neuer Lübecker Totentanz Straßenecke Armut, Reichtum, Mensch und Tier Spur des dunklen Engels
  • ''Thomas Chatterton''