Joachim Ringelnatz

Joachim Ringelnatz is the pen name of the German author and painter Hans Bötticher(7 August, 1883 - 17 November, 1934). His pen name "Ringelnatz" is usually explained as a dialect expression for an animal, possibly a variant of "Ringelnatter", German for Grass Snake. He was a sailor in his youth and spent the First World War in the Navy on a minesweeper. In the 1920s and 1930s, he worked as a "Kabarettist", i.e., a kind of satirical stand-up comedian. He is best known for his wry poems, often using wordplay and sometimes bordering on nonsense poetry. Some of these are similar to Christian Morgenstern's, but often more satirical in tone and occasionally subversive. His most popular creation is the anarchic sailor "Kuddel Daddeldu" with his drunken antics and disdain for authority.

In his final thirteen years Ringelnatz was also a dedicated and prolific visual artist; the bulk of his art seems to have gone amiss during World War II, but over 200 paintings and drawings survived. In the 1920s some of his work was exhibited at the Akademie der Künste along with that of his contemporaries Otto Dix and George Grosz. Ringelnatz also illustrated his own novel called "...liner Roma..." (1923), the title of which is a doubly truncated "Berliner Roman" (Berlin novel), for "Berlin novels usually have no decent beginning and no proper ending." ("Berliner Romane haben meist keinen ordentlichen Anfang und kein rechtes Ende." [ [http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/ringelnz/liner/liner08.htm Projekt Gutenberg-DE - Kultur - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten ] at gutenberg.spiegel.de] )

In 1933, he was banned by the Nazi government as a "degenerate artist".

Works

*1910 "Gedichte"
*1911 "Was ein Schiffsjungen-Tagebuch erzählt"
*1912 "Die Schnupftabakdose. Stumpfsinn in Versen und Bildern von Hans Bötticher und Richard Seewald"
*1913 "Ein jeder lebt's. Novellen" (digital reconstruction: [http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/2006/boetticher_novellen/ UB Bielefeld] )
*1920/1923 "Turngedichte"
*1920 "Kuttel Daddeldu oder das schlüpfrige Leid"
*1921 "Die gebatikte Schusterpastete"
*1922 "Die Woge. Marine-Kriegsgeschichten"
*1923 "Kuttel Daddeldu" (digital reconstruction: "Kuttel Daddeldu. Neue Gedichte der erweiterten Ausgabe", [http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/2005/ringeln_kuttel/ scans of a 1924 edition at the library of the university of Bielefeld] )
*1924 "...liner Roma..." With 10 pictures by himself.
*1924 "Nervosipopel. Elf Angelegenheiten"
*1927 "Reisebriefe eines Artisten"
*1928 "Allerdings" (digital reconstruction: [http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/2005/ringeln_allerd/ UB Bielefeld] )
*1928 "Als Mariner im Krieg" (under the pen name Gustav Hester)
*1928 "Matrosen. Erinnerungen, ein Skizzenbuch, handelt von Wasser und blauem Tuch"
*1929 "Flugzeuggedanken"
*1931 "Mein Leben bis zum Kriege" (Autobiography)
*1931 "Kinder-Verwirrbuch" with many pictures
*1932 "Die Flasche und mit ihr auf Reisen"
*1932 "Gedichte dreier Jahre" (digital reconstruction: [http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/2006/ringeln_dreierjahre/ UB Bielefeld] )
*1933 "103 Gedichte" (digital reconstruction: [http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/2005/ringeln_103gedichte/ UB Bielefeld] )
*1934 "Gedichte. Gedichte von einstmals und heute"

Posthumously
*1935 "Der Nachlaß"
*1939 "Kasperle-Verse"

Most of Ringelnatz's paintings were lost during the Second World War; one of them at the "Kunsthaus Zürich" is not on display.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Ringelnatz,%20Joachim Ten of Ringelnatz' best-known works (in German)]
* [http://www.ringelnatz.net/ Joachim Ringelnatz - Biografie - Gedichte - Hörbuch - Links ] at www.ringelnatz.net
* [http://www.ringelnatzstiftung.de/ Ringelnatz-Stiftung ] at www.ringelnatzstiftung.de
* [http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/ringelnz/liner/liner.htm Projekt Gutenberg-DE - Kultur - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten ] at gutenberg.spiegel.de
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