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Agnes Miegel
Agnes-Miegel-Denkmal in Bad Nenndorf
Born	(1879-03-09)9 March 1879 Königsberg, Germany
Died	26 October 1964(1964-10-26) (aged 85) Bad Salzuflen, Germany
Nationality	German

Agnes Miegel (9 March 1879 in Königsberg, East Prussia – 26 October 1964 in Bad Salzuflen, Germany) was a nationalist German author, journalist, and poet who supported Nazi party.

Biography

Agnes Miegel was born on 9 March 1879 in Königsberg in a Protestant family. Her parents were the merchant Gustav Adolf Miegel and Helene Hofer.

Miegel attended the Girls' High School in Königsberg and then lived between 1894 and 1896 in a guest house in Weimar, where she wrote her first poems. In 1898 she spent three months in Paris. In 1900 she was educated as a nurse in a children's hospital in Berlin. Between 1902 and 1904 she worked as an assistant teacher in a girls' boarding school in Bristol, England. In 1904 she attended a teacher training in Berlin, which she had to break off because of illness. An agricultural college for girls near Munich she could not finish either. In 1906 she had to return to Königsberg to care for her sick parents. Especially her father, who had become blind, needed care. Her mother died in 1913, her father in 1917.

Already around 1900 her first publications had drawn the attention of the writer Börries von Münchhausen. Her first bundle of poems was published thanks to his financial support. Also in later years he was always the untiring promoter of her work.

She kept living in Königsberg almost till its capture in 1945 and wrote poems, short stories and journalistic reports there. In the meantime she made a few trips. During the Third Reich she revealed herself as an ardent supporter of the regime. She signed the Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft, the 1933 declaration in which 88 German authors vowed faithful allegiance to Adolf Hitler. In the same year she joined the NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the Nazi Party. In 1940 she joined the Nazi party itself.In her works she wrote about Germany "divine mission" in the East, alluding to Nazi aggression against Slavic people In August 1944, in the final stages of World War II, she was named by as "outstanding national asset" in the special list of the most important German artists that were freed from all war obligations.

In February 1945 she fled by ship from the approaching Red Army and reached Denmark. After Denmark's liberation on 5 May 1945 she stayed in the Oksbøl Refugee Camp until November 1946. In 1946 she returned to Germany, where she was under a publication ban until 1949. In that year a denazification committee issued a declaration of no objection.

At first she stayed in Apelern with relations of her former patron Börries von Münchhausen, who had committed suicide in 1945. In 1948, being a refugee, she was assigned a house in Bad Nenndorf, where she kept writing until her death.

Agnes Miegel now mainly wrote poems and short stories about East Prussia, the land of her youth. She was considered the voice of the Heimatvertriebene, the Germans who moved to Germany from neighboring countries after Nazi Germany was defeated. Miegel received the honorary title Mutter Ostpreußen (‘Mother East Prussia’).

She died on 26 October 1964 in a hospital in Bad Salzuflen.

Literary career

Miegel’s first bundle of poems appeared in 1901 and was called Gedichte. Until 1945 she published 33 books with poems, short stories and plays. She also regularly wrote for newspapers (especially the Ostpreußische Zeitung) and magazines. During her first years she mainly wrote about universal themes like man’s course of life, nature, life in the countryside, the relationship with God and the past (especially the German past). A minority of these poems and stories was set in East-Prussia. These became her most popular works though. The most famous poem she wrote during her early years was “Die Frauen von Nidden” (‘The Women of Nidden’, 1907), where the village of Nidden (present-day Nida in Lithuania) falls prey to a bubonic plague epidemic. The seven women who have outlived the plague, let themselves be buried alive by the drifting sand dunes near the village.

During the Third Reich National Socialist themes appear in her work: complaints about the ‘heavy yoke’ cities like Memel and Danzig had to bear, which had been separated from Germany after the First World War; glorification of the war; glorification of the mothers who bear German children. She wrote two odes to Adolf Hitler. The elder poem, "Dem Führer", was published in 1936 and cited in Werden und Werk (1938), a study about Miegel’s life and works. The younger poem, "An den Führer", is an, in Tauber's words, ‘hysterical adulation’ to Hitler, published as a kind of preface in her bundle of poems Ostland (1940). In 1940 she wrote about "divine mission" alluding to German aggression against Slavic people In the Soviet occupation zone in Germany after the Second World War both Werden und Werk and Ostland were forbidden books.</ref> To her credit it may be said that her works were free from antisemitism.

After the Second World War, when in 1949 her publication ban had been lifted, she mainly wrote about East-Prussia as she remembered it. The title of her first bundle of poems after the war is characteristic: Du aber bleibst in mir (‘You however stay within me’). Her best known stories and poems are melancholic reflections on her ‘Heimat’ that had been destroyed and was now forever out of reach. This is certainly true for her most famous poem, “Es war ein Land” (‘It was a country’, 1949). She was not vindictive towards the Russians and Poles who had taken possession of East-Prussia. In a poem from 1951 she urged her readers ‘nichts als den Haß zu hassen’ (‘to hate nothing but the hate’).

She refused to account for her doings during the Nazi era. The only thing she was willing to say, was: ‘Dies habe ich mit meinem Gott alleine abzumachen und mit niemand sonst’ (‘This is what I have to settle with my God and with no one else’).

Publications of her works in Germany after 1945 usually omit the works she wrote in the years 1933-45, propagating the myth of an apolitical author.

Marcel Reich-Ranicki included three of her poems (Die Schwester, Die Nibelungen and Die Frauen von Nidden) in his anthology of exemplary German literature Kanon lesenswerter deutschsprachiger Werke (Part Gedichte, 2005).

Reputation

During her lifetime Agnes Miegel received several marks of honour. In 1916 she received the Kleist Prize for lyric and in 1924 she became an honorary doctor at the University of Königsberg.

During the Nazi era she was overloaded with marks of honour. In 1933 she joined the writers' section of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, together with prominent Nazis as Hanns Johst. They filled the vacancies that had arisen because some members, amongst them Alfred Döblin and Thomas Mann, had to give up their seats for not being loyal to the Nazi regime. In 1935 she received the ‘honorary ring’ of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Sprachverein and in 1936 the Johann-Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis (the predecessor of the Herder Prize). In 1939 she was made honorary citizen of Königsberg; in the same year she received the Golden Decoration of the Hitlerjugend. In 1940 she received the Goethe Prize of the city of Frankfurt. In 1944 Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels put together a ‘Gottbegnadeten-Liste’ with the most important artists of the Third Reich. Agnes Miegel was (with a.o. Gerhart Hauptmann and Hanns Johst) ranked as one of the six greatest German writers.

After the Second World War she received among others the Westfälischer Kulturpreis (1952), the ‘Großer Literaturpreis’ of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste (1959) and the Kulturpreis der Landsmannschaft Westpreußen (1962). In 1954 she became honorary citizen of Bad Nenndorf, her place of residence.

After her death her dwelling house in Bad Nenndorf was rechristened the Agnes-Miegel-Haus. It is now a museum, dedicated to her life and works, and situated at the Agnes-Miegel-Platz (‘Agnes Miegel Square’). In several places in Germany streets received the name ‘Agnes-Miegel-Straße’. A few schools were named ‘Agnes-Miegel-Schule’. In 1979 the Deutsche Bundespost issued a postage stamp in honour of her 100th birthday.

There are monuments dedicated to Agnes Miegel in Bad Nenndorf and Wunstorf. In Filzmoos near Salzburg there is a plaque dedicated to the Hofers, Miegel's family on the maternal side, who had their roots there. On 26 October 1992 a plaque was put on her former dwelling house in Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, with texts in German and Russian.

Miegel's reputation was badly damaged when her poems to Hitler were rediscovered and published on the internet in the 1990s. Much discussion arose about her Nazi past. The result was that all schools and many streets that had been named after her, have been renamed. For instance, the Agnes-Miegel-Schule in Willich was renamed Astrid-Lindgren-Schule in 2008 and the Agnes-Miegel-Straße in St. Arnold in the Steinfurt district was renamed Anne-Frank-Straße in 2010.

Works

Poems, short stories, plays

• 1901: Gedichte, Cotta, Stuttgart.
• 1907: Balladen und Lieder, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1920: Gedichte und Spiele, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1925: Heimat: Lieder und Balladen, Eichblatt, Leipzig.
• 1926: Geschichten aus Alt-Preußen, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1926: Die schöne Malone: Erzählungen, Eichblatt, Leipzig.
• 1927: Spiele, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1928: Die Auferstehung des Cyriakus: Erzählungen, Eichblatt, Leipzig.
• 1930: Kinderland: Erzählungen, Eichblatt, Leipzig.
• 1931: Dorothee: Erzählungen, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1932: Der Vater: Erzählungen, Eckhart, Berlin.
• 1932: Herbstgesang: Gedichte, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1933: Weihnachtsspiel, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1933: Kirchen im Ordensland: Gedichte, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1934: Gang in die Dämmerung: Erzählungen, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1935: Das alte und das neue Königsberg, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1935: Deutsche Balladen, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1936: Unter hellem Himmel: Erzählungen, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1936: Kathrinchen kommt nach Hause: Erzählungen, Eichblatt, Leipzig.
• 1936: Noras Schicksal: Erzählungen, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1937: Das Bernsteinherz: Erzählungen, Reclam, Leipzig.
• 1937: Audhumla: Erzählungen, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1937: Herden der Heimat: Erzählungen mit Zeichnungen von Hans Peters, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1938: Und die geduldige Demut der treuesten Freunde: Versdichtung, Bücher der Rose, Langewiesche-Brandt, Schäftlarn.
• 1938: Viktoria: Gedicht und Erzählung, Gesellschaft der Freunde der deutschen Bücherei, Ebenhausen.
• 1939: Frühe Gedichte (reissue of the 1901 collection), Cotta, Stuttgart.
• 1939: Herbstgesang, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1939: Die Schlacht von Rudau: Spiel, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1939: Herbstabend: Erzählung, published by herself in Eisenach.
• 1940: Ostland: Gedichte, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1940: Im Ostwind: Erzählungen, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1940: Wunderliches Weben: Erzählungen, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1940: Ordensdome, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1944: Mein Bernsteinland und meine Stadt, Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg in Preußen.
• 1949: Du aber bleibst in mir: Gedichte, Seifert, Hameln.
• 1949: Die Blume der Götter: Erzählungen, Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
• 1951: Der Federball: Erzählungen, Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
• 1951: Die Meinen: Erzählungen, Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
• 1958: Truso: Erzählungen, Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
• 1959: Mein Weihnachtsbuch: Gedichte und Erzählungen, Eugen Diederichs, Köln (a new, extended edition appeared in 1984).
• 1962: Heimkehr: Erzählungen, Eugen Diederichs, Köln.

Selections and collected works

• 1927: Gesammelte Gedichte, Eugen Diederichs, Jena.
• 1952: Ausgewählte Gedichte, Eugen Diederichs, Köln.
• 1952-1955: Gesammelte Werke, Eugen Diederichs, Köln (six volumes).
• 1983: Es war ein Land: Gedichte und Geschichten aus Ostpreußen, Eugen Diederichs, München (reprinted by Rautenberg, Leer in 2002).
• 1994: Spaziergänge einer Ostpreußin, Rautenberg, Leer (journalism 1923-1924).
• 2000: Wie ich zu meiner Heimat stehe, Verlag S. Bublies, Schnellbach (journalism 1926-1932).
• 2002: Die Frauen von Nidden: Gesammelte Gedichte von unserer ‘Mutter Ostpreußen’, Rautenberg, Leer.
• 2002: Wie Bernstein leuchtend auf der Lebenswaage: Gesammelte Balladen, Rautenberg, Leer.

Books about Agnes Miegel

• Walther Hubatsch, Ostpreussens Geschichte und Landschaft im dichterischen Werk von Agnes Miegel, Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Minden, 1978.
• Harold Jensen, Agnes Miegel und die bildende Kunst, Rautenberg, Leer, 1982.
• Marianne Kopp, Agnes Miegel: Leben und Werk, Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2004.
• Agnes Miegel, Werden und Werk, mit Beiträgen von Professor Dr. Karl Plenzat, Hermann Eichblatt Verlag, Leipzig, 1938. (This is what the title page says. In fact this is a study by Plenzat about Miegel's work, with a foreword by Miegel herself and many citations from her work.)
• Anni Piorreck: Agnes Miegel. Ihr Leben und ihre Dichtung. Eugen Diederichs, München, 1967 (a corrected edition appeared in 1990).
• Alfred Podlech (editor), Agnes-Miegel-Bibliographie, Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Minden, 1973.
• Annelise Raub, Nahezu wie Schwestern: Agnes Miegel und Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Grundzüge eines Vergleichs, Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Bad Nenndorf, 1991.
• Ursula Starbatty, Begegnungen mit Agnes Miegel, Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft, Bad Nenndorf, 1989.

References

1. Werden und Werk, page 209.
2. Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945, Edition Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 2009, pages 369-370.
3. Localism, Landscape, and the Ambiguities of Place: German-speaking Central Europe, 1860-1930 (German & European Studies) by David Blackbourn page 158
4. Oliver Rathkolb: Führertreu und gottbegnadet. Künstlereliten im Dritten Reich. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Wien 1991, ISBN 3-215-07490-7, S. 173, Namen S. 176.
5. About Miegel and “Die Frauen von Nidden”
6. In her poems ”Nachtgespräch” (1935) and “Sonnenwendreigen” (1939) respectively, both published in her book Ostland (1940).
7. In her poem "An Deutschlands Jugend" (1939), published in her book Ostland (1940).
8. In her poem "An die Reichsfrauenführerin Scholtz-Klink" (1939).
9. pages 79/80. "Dem Führer" was reprinted under the title "Dem Schirmer des Volkes" in Dem Führer: Gedichte für Adolf Hitler, a bundle of poems by several authors on occasion of Hitler's 50th birthday on 20 April 1939.
10. Kurt P. Tauber, Beyond Eagle and Swastika: German Nationalism Since 1945, Volume 2, 1967, Page 1255: ‘For Agnes Miegel's hysterical adulation of Hitler, see her poem, "To the Fuhrer", on Hitler's birthday, April 20, 1940.’
11. Localism, Landscape, and the Ambiguities of Place: German-speaking Central Europe, 1860-1930 (German & European Studies) by David Blackbourn page 158
12. She wrote this poem, ‘Spruch’, at the occasion of the opening of the ‘Gedenkstätte des Deutschen Ostens und der Vertreibung’ (Memorial for Deportation and the Memorial of the German Eastern Provinces) in Burg Castle in Solingen.
13. Peter Davies: Myth, Matriarchy and Modernity: Johann Jakob Bachofen in German Culture 1860–1945, Walter de Gruyter, 2010, page 364.
14. Contents of the Kanon.
15. The Agnes-Miegel-Haus at the website of the city of Bad Nenndorf.
16. ‘Lindgren statt Miegel?’, January 2008.
17. ‘Schilderwechsel in St. Arnold: Anne Frank statt Agnes Miegel’, December 2010.
18. One of the four short stories in this collection, Die Fahrt der sieben Ordensbrüder, has been published as a separate book in 1933 and reprinted many times,most recently in 2002.

External links (all in German)

• Literature about Agnes Miegel in the Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
• Website of the Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft
• Agnes Miegel in the ‘Literaturatlas Niedersachsen’
• About Agnes Miegel's Nazi sympathies
• The Agnes-Miegel-Gesellschaft about Agnes Miegel's Nazi sympathies
• Detlev Beyer-Peters about Agnes Miegel

Template:Persondata

• 1879 births
• 1964 deaths
• German writers
• German journalists
• German poets
• People from Königsberg
• Kleist Prize winners
• Nazis