Wilhelm Bölsche


Wilhelm Bölsche was a German author, editor and publicist. He was among the early promoters of nature conservation and committed to popularizing science.

Life

Bölsche was born in Cologne on 2 January 1861, son of journalist Carl Bölsche long-time editor of the Kölnische Zeitung.
As a secondary school student, Bölsche wrote essays on natural history for magazines such as "Die Gefiederte Welt" or "Isis". He studied from 1883 to 1885 philosophy, art history and archaeology at the University of Bonn. He did not complete studies of classical philology in Bonn, but in their course he traveled to Rome and Florence, then to Paris.
Deciding that he could make writing his career, he moved to Berlin in the fall of 1886, financially supported by his parents. In Berlin-Friedrichshagen he became a central figure in the "Friedrichshagener Dichterkreis", which was an association of writers of naturalism, holding their first meetings in 1888/89 in the houses of Wilhelm Bölsche and Bruno Wille in Friedrichshagen am Müggelsee. This circle of friends would visit Erkner, where they sought the tranquility of the Brandenburg landscape near the cosmopolitan city of Berlin. The group became known enough for several Scandinavians to join it. The goal of this group of literati and intellectuals who settled around 1890 in Friedrichshagen, like of may other groups of that type sprouting up at that time, was social reform that promoted a bohemian, "natural" way of life as a response to industrialization and urbanization, a world view of life reform basically containing a secularized Gnostic-eschatological salvation doctrine.
Through Rudolf Lenz and Bruno Wille Bölsche came into contact with the literary association "Durch!".
Although most of his work covers natural history topics, Bölsche was not a trained naturalist, but an enthusiastic popularizer of the natural sciences. He was a friend of the biologist Ernst Haeckel and was an early conservationist. His publication of Das Liebesleben in der Natur in 1898 was the key for creating modern fact books in Germany. Boelsche also initiated with Wilhelm Schwaner a prequel of the first German folk high school, the "Freie Hochschule Berlin" in 1902 and was an important instigator for the "Lebensreformbewegung" in Germany. In 1890 he and Bruno Wille founded the "Freie Volksbühne", which was intended as a workers' theater promoting the naturalist plays of the day. He also edited the most important cultural history review of the day, "Freie Bühne" and popularized his free-thinking monism knowledge, based on the thoughts of Charles Darwin and Ernst Haeckel, in dozens of self-edited books and series released by Kosmos-Verlag in Stuttgart collaborating with the Berlin artist Heinrich Harder.
His friendship with the Hauptmann brothers, Gerhart Hauptmann and Carl, brought Bölsche to Schreiberhau in the Giant Mountains, where he would spend the summer regularly, starting in 1901, making his permanent residence there in 1918. He continued to devote himself to his literary work and his extensive correspondence until old age.

Personal life

Wilhelm Bölsche was first married in Berlin in 1892 to Adele Bertelt, but they divorced in 1895. He remarried in 1897 in Cologne to Johanna Walther, a childhood friend. The couple had three children: Ernst Wilhelm Julius, Karl Erich Bruno and Johanna Alwine Elisabeth.
Wilhelm Bölsche died in Schreiberhau on 31 August 1939 and was interred at the evangelical cemetery of Nieder-Schreiberhau in Dept. F 3 next to his wife Johanna.

Honours

As a compliment to his work, Boelsche was the name giver to a mountain ridge in the "Riesengebirge", to a Berlin school, and to many streets in German towns, including the "Bölschestrasse" in his former living district Berlin-Friedrichshagen. Even an asteroid was named after him – "1998 FC127" now bearing the name 17821 Bölsche moving between Mars and Jupiter towards the sun.

Work (selective)

Paulus. Roman aus der Zeit des Kaisers Marcus Aurelius, 2 Bde., 1885Der Zauber des Königs Arpus, Roman, 1887Die naturwissenschaftlichen Grundlagen der Poesie. Prolegomena einer realistischen Ästhetik, 1887Heinrich Heine. Versuch einer ästhetisch-kritischen Analyse seiner Werke und seiner Weltanschauung, 1888
  • , 1890Die Mittagsgöttin, 3 Bde., Roman, 1891Freireligiöse Neujahrsgedanken. Festvortrag, gehalten am 1. Januar 1893 in der Freireligiösen Gemeinde zu Berlin, 1893Entwicklungsgeschichte der Natur, 2 Bde., 1894-1896Das Liebesleben in der Natur, 1898 - 1902Ernst Haeckel. Ein Lebensbild, 1900Die Entwicklungslehre , 1900Vom Bazillus zum Affenmenschen. Naturwissenschaftliche Plaudereien, 1900Goethe im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert. Ein Vortrag, 1900Hinter der Weltstadt. Friedrichshagener Gedanken zur ästhetischen Kultur, 1901Die Eroberung des Menschen, 1901Die Entwicklungslehre im 19. Jahrhundert, 1901Von Sonnen und Sonnenstäubchen. Kosmische Wanderungen, 1903Aus der Schneegrube. Gedanken zur Naturforschung, 1903Het Menschenraadsel, 1904 Die Abstammung des Menschen 1904Weltblick. Gedanken zu Natur und Kunst, 1904Naturgeheimnis, 1905Der Sieg des Lebens, 1905Die Schöpfungstage. Umrisse zu einer Entwicklungsgeschichte der Natur, 1906Im Steinkohlenwald, 1906Was ist die Natur?, 1907 Auf den Spuren der tropischen Eiszeit, 1907Tierbuch
  • * Bd. 1: 1908
  • * Bd. 2: Das Pferd und seine Geschichte, 1909
  • * Bd. 3: Der Hirsch und seine Geschichte, 1911Darwin, seine Bedeutung im Ringen um Weltanschauung und Lebenswert. 6 Aufsätze, 1909Der Mensch in der Tertiärzeit und im Diluvium, 1909Auf dem Menschenstern. Gedanken zu Natur und Kunst, 1909Tiere der Urwelt, 1910 Komet und Weltuntergang, 1910Stunden im All, 1910Festländer und Meere im Wechsel der Zeiten, 1913Stirb und Werde! Naturwissenschaftliche und kulturelle Plaudereien, 1913Tierwanderungen in der Urwelt, 1914 Von Wundern und Tieren. Neue naturwiss. Plaudereien, 1915Der Stammbaum der Insekten, 1916Schutz- und Trutzbündnisse in der Natur, 1917Eiszeit und Klimawechsel, 1919Naturphilosophische Plaudereien, 1920Tierseele und Menschenseele, 1924Erwanderte deutsche Geologie. Die Sächsische Schweiz, 1925Von Drachen und Zauberküsten. Abenteuer aus dem Kampf mit dem Unbekannten in der Natur, 1925Die Abstammung der Kunst, 1926Im Bernsteinwald, 1927Drachen. Sage und Naturwissenschaft. Eine volkstümliche Darstellung, 1929Der Termitenstaat. Schilderung eines geheimnisvollen Volkes, 1931
  • Das Leben der Urwelt: Aus den Tagen der großen Saurier, 1932Was muß der neue deutsche Mensch von Naturwissenschaft und Religion fordern. Vortrag, 1934

Editor

Christoph Martin Wielands ausgewählte Werke, 4 Bde., 1902Novalis. Ausgewählte Werke, 3 Bde., 1903Des Angelus Silesius Cherubinischer Wandersmann, 1905

Literature

  • Antoon Berentsen: Vom Urnebel zum Zukunftsstaat. Zum Problem der Popularisierung der Naturwissenschaften in der deutschen Literatur. Berlin: Oberhofer. 1986.
  • Andreas W. Daum, Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998,.
  • Wolfram Hamacher: Wissenschaft, Literatur und Sinnfindung im 19. Jahrhundert. Studien zu Wilhelm Bölsche. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann. 1993.
  • Rolf Lang: Wilhelm Bölsche und Friedrichshagen. Auf dem „Mußweg der Liebhaberei". Frankfurt an der Oder: Kleist-Gedenk- u. Forschungsstätte. 1992.
  • Rudolf Magnus: Wilhelm Bölsche – ein biographisch-kritischer Beitrag zur modernen Weltanschauung. Berlin. 1909.Ernst Haeckel – Wilhelm Bölsche Briefwechsel 1887–1919. Ed. by Rosemarie Nöthlich.