Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871–1943)
Author of Alraune
About the Author
Image credit: Hanns Heinz Ewers, 5 May 1911.
Photo © ÖNB/Wien
Series
Works by Hanns Heinz Ewers
Dama Tyfusowa 3 copies
Moganni Nameh : gesammelte Gedichte 3 copies
Deutsche Kriegslieder 3 copies
The Bible in the Wall 2 copies
Wonders of the Ant World 2 copies
Das Cabaret 2 copies
Vampire’s Prey 1 copy
Hanns Heinz Ewers Volume III 1 copy
Najwyższa Miłość 1 copy
Führer durch die moderne Literatur Würdigungen der hervorragendsten Schriftsteller unserer Zeit 1 copy
Skräckens klor — Contributor — 1 copy
Mamaloi 1 copy
13 Gespenstergeschichten 1 copy
Musik im Bild 1 copy
Delphi : Drama in drei Akten 1 copy
Dzieworództwo : powieść 1 copy
Absonderliche Geschichten 1 copy
Der Student von Prag. 2 DVD 1 copy
Hirmu ja õuduse jutud. XV 1 copy
Prodana baka 1 copy
Associated Works
In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe: Classic Tales of Horror, 1816-1914 (2015) — Contributor — 107 copies, 3 reviews
The Dedalus Book of German Decadence: Voices of the Abyss (Decadence from Dedalus) (1994) — Contributor — 78 copies
The Dead Valley and Others: H. P. Lovecraft's Favorite Horror Stories Vol. 2 (2014) — Contributor — 22 copies
Die Sammlung der Nationalgalerie : 1900-1945 : Moderne Zeiten : die Dokumentation einer Ausstellung (2014) — Contributor — 7 copies
Czarny pająk : opowieści niesamowite z literatury niemieckojęzycznej (1988) — Contributor — 3 copies
Bruin's Midnight Reader: Strange and Engaging Stories for the Curious (2022) — Contributor — 3 copies
Lübbes Auswahlband. Die besten Schauergeschichten der deutschsprachigen Literatur. (1983) — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Ewers, Hanns Heinz
- Legal name
- Ewers, Hans Heinrich
- Other names
- Onkel, Franz
Semler, Resa
Romain, Raoul - Birthdate
- 1871-11-03
- Date of death
- 1943-06-12
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität Berlin, Germany
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, Germany
Universität Leipzig, Germany (Dr. iur.) - Occupations
- film director
- Organizations
- Kaiser-Alexander-Gardegrenadier-Regiment No. 1, Berlin
Corps Normannia Berlin (KSCV)
Corps Guestphalia Bonn (KSCV)
Corps Alemannia Wien (KSCV)
Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP)
Gesellschaft zum Studium des Faschismus - Short biography
- Hanns Heinz Ewers est né à Düsseldorf en 1871. Il est mort en 1943. Il fut un grand voyageur et s'intéressa à l'occultisme et à toutes les formes du fantastique. En 1935, ses œuvres furent interdites en Allemagne. (J'ai lu, 1973)
- Nationality
- Germany
- Birthplace
- Düsseldorf, Germany
- Places of residence
- Düsseldorf, Germany
Berlin, Germany - Place of death
- Berlin, Germany
- Burial location
- Nordfriedhof, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Map Location
- Germany
Members
Discussions
Hanns Heinz Ewers in The Chapel of the Abyss (July 2023)
THE DEEP ONES: "Die Spinne" by Hanns Heinz Ewers in The Weird Tradition (July 2013)
Reviews
"A week has passed without someone in #7 hanging himself. Marvelous."
A hotel room in Paris has had a series of bad luck incidents. Three unconnected men in three successive weeks have hung themselves in the same room. Each on a Friday. Each at 6pm.
The baffling tragedies are now in all the papers and twenty-seven people quickly volunteer to stay alone in that room to help the police in their investigation.
One volunteer, young Robert Bracquemont, a medical student on a tight budget has show more intimated to the inspector that he has a theory, which none of the other volunteers suggested they have. Nor does he! But it makes him the best candidate to stay in the room, free of charge, being provided all life's necessities including meals, tobacco, a gun, a police whistle, and a direct telephone line to the police. He brings a journal to record any activities, and also his medical text ready to buckle down to study in complete comfort for a few days for free.
He takes the lodgings in room #7 on Tuesday, Feb 28th. But there is no event on Friday March 4. No event on Friday March 11, no event on Friday March 18. His journal is filling.
His last entry is Friday, March 25.
"The Spider" is a horror mystery packed with symbols, mythology, the occult, and a most strange romance. For those familiar with German author Hanns Heinz Ewers (I was not) none of that is a surprise.
This was one of those stories so masterfully included within the Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic anthology by Alberto Manguel and is currently being read, one story a week by The Short Story Club group.*.
It garnered a range of reactions from the group, with lots of side rabbit-holes so that just reading it played out like a mysterious adventure game: what does this or that signify? what is this author known for? what is unique in the author's biography? could this be symbolic? could that be a reference to another work? and so on.
It's very lively and I just eat it up. It's pleasure to indulgently spend time with one work until you feel satiated. You now "own" this work and it sits in your mind's library.
I've noticed the group's reading trajectory often goes like this: after a first reading we each have a general reaction about whether we liked the story or not. Then, first stop Wikipedia for this work, this author. Next, questions about this or that referenced in the text are pondered and Google is given a workout. Multiple answers might arise for the same reference, different readers pick up on different things that they find worthy of further Googling. The work now begins to unlock its subtle flavors, aromas of rare spices. Other works might be referenced (and read), personal anecdotes might pop up, sometimes images are scraped from the internet and are included too.
Randomly we each push away from the table. We quietly leave to write our own final impressions of the feast, each in his/her own inimitable way. The last bit of fun? Reading each other's dissimilar GR reviews!
*You should join, https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1187035-the-short-story-club.
"As for me, I hope to stay here as long as possible. I may not conquer Paris here, but I live very well and I'm fattening up nicely. I'm also studying hard, and I am making real progress." My feelings exactly. show less
A hotel room in Paris has had a series of bad luck incidents. Three unconnected men in three successive weeks have hung themselves in the same room. Each on a Friday. Each at 6pm.
The baffling tragedies are now in all the papers and twenty-seven people quickly volunteer to stay alone in that room to help the police in their investigation.
One volunteer, young Robert Bracquemont, a medical student on a tight budget has show more intimated to the inspector that he has a theory, which none of the other volunteers suggested they have. Nor does he! But it makes him the best candidate to stay in the room, free of charge, being provided all life's necessities including meals, tobacco, a gun, a police whistle, and a direct telephone line to the police. He brings a journal to record any activities, and also his medical text ready to buckle down to study in complete comfort for a few days for free.
He takes the lodgings in room #7 on Tuesday, Feb 28th. But there is no event on Friday March 4. No event on Friday March 11, no event on Friday March 18. His journal is filling.
His last entry is Friday, March 25.
"The Spider" is a horror mystery packed with symbols, mythology, the occult, and a most strange romance. For those familiar with German author Hanns Heinz Ewers (I was not) none of that is a surprise.
This was one of those stories so masterfully included within the Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic anthology by Alberto Manguel and is currently being read, one story a week by The Short Story Club group.*.
It garnered a range of reactions from the group, with lots of side rabbit-holes so that just reading it played out like a mysterious adventure game: what does this or that signify? what is this author known for? what is unique in the author's biography? could this be symbolic? could that be a reference to another work? and so on.
It's very lively and I just eat it up. It's pleasure to indulgently spend time with one work until you feel satiated. You now "own" this work and it sits in your mind's library.
I've noticed the group's reading trajectory often goes like this: after a first reading we each have a general reaction about whether we liked the story or not. Then, first stop Wikipedia for this work, this author. Next, questions about this or that referenced in the text are pondered and Google is given a workout. Multiple answers might arise for the same reference, different readers pick up on different things that they find worthy of further Googling. The work now begins to unlock its subtle flavors, aromas of rare spices. Other works might be referenced (and read), personal anecdotes might pop up, sometimes images are scraped from the internet and are included too.
Randomly we each push away from the table. We quietly leave to write our own final impressions of the feast, each in his/her own inimitable way. The last bit of fun? Reading each other's dissimilar GR reviews!
*You should join, https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1187035-the-short-story-club.
"As for me, I hope to stay here as long as possible. I may not conquer Paris here, but I live very well and I'm fattening up nicely. I'm also studying hard, and I am making real progress." My feelings exactly. show less
The first sentence mentions a puzzling suicide in a small Paris hotel - and two others in the same room, by the same method, at 6pm on the two subsequent Fridays. If spiders and suicide are not major triggers for you, it’s a well-written, compelling, and unsettling psychological story.
Most of it comprises diary entries of Bracquemont, a medical student, who stays in the room, with regular check-ins to and from the police commissioner. He’s hoping to solve the mystery and make money by show more doing so.
It’s all very ordinary, but gradually, the reader’s unease grows. After more than a week, with no inclination to death, he mentions a bewitching woman, spinning fine thread, in a room across the street. He dubs her Clarimonde, which is not a good omen (it’s the title of a story by Théophile Gautier that you can read HERE). He waves. She waves back. He wipes his brow. She echoes the gesture. Sweet. At first.
Image: “Maman”, huge spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois at jardin des Tuileries, Paris in 2008 (Source)
Thereafter, it’s a descent through obsession into madness. The reader infers far more than the medical student seems to, which creates an interesting dynamic.
Spiders
A supernatural tale of a spider makes one think of Arachne, but in many ways, Ewers turns Ovid’s story on its head.
More fundamentally, why is arachnophobia so deeply ingrained, across time and around the globe, when in many countries, spiders are harmless?
Image: Gustave Doré's drawing of Arachne for an 1868 edition of Dante's Purgatorio (Source)
Separating a creator from their work
I’m glad I read this before I knew anything about the author. Manguel’s introduction added problematic layers to unpack:
Wikipedia says he was “attracted by its nationalism, its Nietzschean moral philosophy, and its cult of Teutonic culture” but that he rejected anti-Semitism, was gay, and soon fell out with the Nazis, dying before the war ended.
Ewers doesn’t profit from anyone reading this, and I don’t see any hateful views within. However, should you prefer a different version, his story is heavily inspired by Erckmann-Chatrian’s 1857 story, The Invisible Eye, although there are significant differences too, and Erckmann-Chatrian’s story has different issues, principally ingrained misogyny. You can read it HERE.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 24 March 2025.
You can read this story HERE.
You can join the group here. show less
Most of it comprises diary entries of Bracquemont, a medical student, who stays in the room, with regular check-ins to and from the police commissioner. He’s hoping to solve the mystery and make money by show more doing so.
It’s all very ordinary, but gradually, the reader’s unease grows. After more than a week, with no inclination to death, he mentions a bewitching woman, spinning fine thread, in a room across the street. He dubs her Clarimonde, which is not a good omen (it’s the title of a story by Théophile Gautier that you can read HERE). He waves. She waves back. He wipes his brow. She echoes the gesture. Sweet. At first.
Image: “Maman”, huge spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois at jardin des Tuileries, Paris in 2008 (Source)
Thereafter, it’s a descent through obsession into madness. The reader infers far more than the medical student seems to, which creates an interesting dynamic.
Spiders
A supernatural tale of a spider makes one think of Arachne, but in many ways, Ewers turns Ovid’s story on its head.
More fundamentally, why is arachnophobia so deeply ingrained, across time and around the globe, when in many countries, spiders are harmless?
Image: Gustave Doré's drawing of Arachne for an 1868 edition of Dante's Purgatorio (Source)
Separating a creator from their work
I’m glad I read this before I knew anything about the author. Manguel’s introduction added problematic layers to unpack:
For Hanns Heinz Ewers, the spider became a symbol of the sadistic powers of the Third Reich, which he admired. He believed that the artist's mind needed to be 'poisoned in order to produce works of art’...
The triumph of primitive destructive forces is a theme of Ewers' fiction, which was praised by the Nazis. However, after the publication of a fictionalized biography of the Nazi 'martyr' Horst Wessel, he fell out of favour, was accused of choosing a 'Jewish aesthetic', and was placed on the Nazis' 'List of Harmful and Undesirable Authors'. Whatever Ewers' allegiances, his fiction describes but refuses to defend the powers of evil. It is as if, by obeying secret laws, Ewers' writing reaches beyond his obscene politics and denounces its own creator.
Wikipedia says he was “attracted by its nationalism, its Nietzschean moral philosophy, and its cult of Teutonic culture” but that he rejected anti-Semitism, was gay, and soon fell out with the Nazis, dying before the war ended.
Ewers doesn’t profit from anyone reading this, and I don’t see any hateful views within. However, should you prefer a different version, his story is heavily inspired by Erckmann-Chatrian’s 1857 story, The Invisible Eye, although there are significant differences too, and Erckmann-Chatrian’s story has different issues, principally ingrained misogyny. You can read it HERE.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 24 March 2025.
You can read this story HERE.
You can join the group here. show less
Sort of a Decadent version of the Frankenstein story. Somewhat ignored or even despised because of Ewers Nazi affiliation (the Nazi's later proscribed it).
Where Frankenstein's monster is a thing of ugliness Alraune is a thing of delicate beauty but who because of her Genesis ends up as sort of the ultimate femme fatale. She's the product of a hanged murderer's seed at the crossroads and a prostitute. It all has to do with folklore surrounding mandrake roots, something that crops up in other show more fairytales and folklore.
In a sense she doesn't deserve her reputation, it's kind of her fate, but she is still largely a negative/evil character that Ewers manages to effectively bathe in tragic sympathy. Her decadence as an adult actually merely reflects the pernicious nature of those around her; she's like a mirror for everyone else's sins. As a child she is simply a demon, but a somewhat helpless one. She never does anything per se but most people feel eerily compelled to do what she "suggests" with the same results. She's just bad news if she doesn't take a liking to you, and sometimes even if she does.
Her torrid love affair with her "cousin" Frank Braun, who actually came up with the "idea" of Alraune, is the climax of the narrative and their more than passionate love/hate relationship sets the stage for the endgame. She unwittingly becomes literally the blood sucking vampire of her nature even as she sleepwalks to her own fate.
Pretty good stuff. I really got into it and couldn't put it down eventually. Ewers was, on top of everything else, trying to be shocking for his time, there is nudity, fornication (although tame by today's standards), incest, necrophilia, murder, and all other sorts of Decadent fun. It comes off as pretty tame today, but in context would have been quite nasty. A brown paper wrapper sort of thing.
This edition has some fantastic historical illustrations that add nicely to that fin de siecle feel. show less
Where Frankenstein's monster is a thing of ugliness Alraune is a thing of delicate beauty but who because of her Genesis ends up as sort of the ultimate femme fatale. She's the product of a hanged murderer's seed at the crossroads and a prostitute. It all has to do with folklore surrounding mandrake roots, something that crops up in other show more fairytales and folklore.
In a sense she doesn't deserve her reputation, it's kind of her fate, but she is still largely a negative/evil character that Ewers manages to effectively bathe in tragic sympathy. Her decadence as an adult actually merely reflects the pernicious nature of those around her; she's like a mirror for everyone else's sins. As a child she is simply a demon, but a somewhat helpless one. She never does anything per se but most people feel eerily compelled to do what she "suggests" with the same results. She's just bad news if she doesn't take a liking to you, and sometimes even if she does.
Her torrid love affair with her "cousin" Frank Braun, who actually came up with the "idea" of Alraune, is the climax of the narrative and their more than passionate love/hate relationship sets the stage for the endgame. She unwittingly becomes literally the blood sucking vampire of her nature even as she sleepwalks to her own fate.
Pretty good stuff. I really got into it and couldn't put it down eventually. Ewers was, on top of everything else, trying to be shocking for his time, there is nudity, fornication (although tame by today's standards), incest, necrophilia, murder, and all other sorts of Decadent fun. It comes off as pretty tame today, but in context would have been quite nasty. A brown paper wrapper sort of thing.
This edition has some fantastic historical illustrations that add nicely to that fin de siecle feel. show less
Hanns Heinz Ewers is a bit of a German Aleister Crowley with a fixation on artificial insemination and cuckoo's-egg shit instead of Great Old Ones or sex magick or whatever (actually, there's a bit of sex magick). I like how this fills a gap between the Brothers Grimm and Fritz Lang (who knew that was a gap that even needed to be filled?), but the deep patina of misogyny and sweaty not-really-post-Christian squeamishness about women is more 1611 than 1911.
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
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Statistics
- Works
- 93
- Also by
- 29
- Members
- 827
- Popularity
- #30,853
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 42
- ISBNs
- 106
- Languages
- 10
- Favorited
- 9
