Luise Rinser (1911–2002)
Author of Mirjam
About the Author
Series
Works by Luise Rinser
Associated Works
Deutsche Kurzgeschichten : eine Auswahl für mittlere Klassen (1972) — Author, some editions — 5 copies
Im Kerzenschein. Geschichten zum Träumen — Contributor — 2 copies
Moderne Erzähler 17 — Author — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Rinser, Luise
- Legal name
- Rinser, Luise
- Birthdate
- 1911-04-30
- Date of death
- 2002-03-17
- Burial location
- Wessobrun, Oberbayern, Deutschland
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Germany
- Birthplace
- Pitzling/Oberbeiern, Beieren, Duitsland
- Place of death
- Klooster Unterhaching, Beieren, Duitsland
- Places of residence
- Rome, Italy
- Education
- University of Munich
- Occupations
- teacher
freelance journalist
short story writer
novelist
essayist - Relationships
- Orff, Carl (husband)
- Organizations
- Neue Zeitung, Munich, Magazine (Journaliste, critique littéraire, 19 45 | 19 58)
Diverses écoles de la Haute-Bavière (Institutrice, 19 35 | 19 39)
Académie allemande pour la langue et la littérature (Membre)
Archives littéraires allemandes, Marbach (Conservateur des archives)
Accademia Tiberia, Rome (Membre)
Accademia Internazionale Medicea, Florence (Membre) - Awards and honors
- Heinrich-Heine-Preis
Heinrich-Mann-Preis - Short biography
- Luise Rinser was born to a middle-class family in Pitzling in Upper Bavaria, Germany. She studied psychology and teaching at the University of Munich and received a teacher's certificate in 1934. She taught grade school and wrote her first short stories for the journal Herdfeuer. Her first book was Rings of Glass (1941), a coming-of-age novel. In 1939, she gave up teaching and married Horst Günther Schnell, a composer and choir director with whom she had two children. He died on the Russian Front in World War II. After his death, she married Klaus Herrmann, another writer; this marriage was annulled around 1952. Her third husband was composer Carl Orff, whom she divorced in 1960. In 1944, she was accused of treason by the Nazi regime, convicted, and sent to Traunstein women's prison where she survived by stealing food. She later described her experiences in a book based on her diaries, Gefängnistagebuch (A Woman's Prison Journal, 1946), which became a bestseller. After the war, she was a freelance writer for the newspaper Neue Zeitung München. She became one of the most celebrated and politically engaged authors in Germany, publishing about 30 works that included novels, short stories, and political essays. In 1984, she was proposed by the Green Party as a Presidential candidate.
Members
Reviews
Wachsender Mond, 1985 - 1988 consists of the diaries of Luise Rinser of the second half of the 1980s. There are four parts, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988, but within each part entries are not dated; there are few references to general facts, so passages are hard to date. When these diaries were written, Rinser (1911) was well into her seventies. This is reflected by the fact that the diaries, less than previous volumes, focus little on politics, surprisingly, also less on religion. There is more room for contemplation of life, art, literature, and religion (contemplative).
There are various references to perestroika in the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and China, about student rebellion in 1986 (p. 127) and later, in 1988, about Rinser's trip to China. (p. 189 ff).
Rinser offers the interesting thesis that people in North Korea are very happy, but that this fact is twisted and misrepresented in the media. Her views of das real existierendes Sozialismus in these countries cannot be explained away by suggesting she would be a "fellow-traveller". They are hard to combine with her deep-felt religious ideas, although she seems milder in this volume of her diaries. The diaries are very well-written, and the content and reflections are moderately interesting, possibly more to future readers who will be less familiar with the 1980s.
There are also various reflections on the Nazi period. Luise Rinser's own explanations about her position in the Nazi period have always been viewed with scepsis, but she was given the benefit of the doubt. After her death, her last life companion, José Sánchez de Murillo published a her biography Luise Rinser-Ein Leben in Widersprüchen (Transl. Luise Rinser-A Life of Contradictions in which he says "She lied to all of us."
This means that in all her writings after the war, all diaries and all reflections on the war period, Rinser always lied. This makes it very difficult to read the diaries with serious interest.… (more)
There are various references to perestroika in the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and China, about student rebellion in 1986 (p. 127) and later, in 1988, about Rinser's trip to China. (p. 189 ff).
Rinser offers the interesting thesis that people in North Korea are very happy, but that this fact is twisted and misrepresented in the media. Her views of das real existierendes Sozialismus in these countries cannot be explained away by suggesting she would be a "fellow-traveller". They are hard to combine with her deep-felt religious ideas, although she seems milder in this volume of her diaries. The diaries are very well-written, and the content and reflections are moderately interesting, possibly more to future readers who will be less familiar with the 1980s.
There are also various reflections on the Nazi period. Luise Rinser's own explanations about her position in the Nazi period have always been viewed with scepsis, but she was given the benefit of the doubt. After her death, her last life companion, José Sánchez de Murillo published a her biography Luise Rinser-Ein Leben in Widersprüchen (Transl. Luise Rinser-A Life of Contradictions in which he says "She lied to all of us."
This means that in all her writings after the war, all diaries and all reflections on the war period, Rinser always lied. This makes it very difficult to read the diaries with serious interest.… (more)
This is a wonderful book, especially for lovers of Hermann Hesse. As a matter of fact, Hesse read Die gläsernen Ringe. Eine Erzählung by Luise Rinser and liked it. It was published in 1941.
That year of publication, 1941, is of course very significant. It was published two years before Hesse published his opus magnum Das Glasperlenspiel (1943) in English known as The Glass Bead Game. What is interesting is that the title of the book by Rinser, Die gläsernen Ringe also refers to the water of the fountain in the courtyard of a monastery / convent in terms of "glass" and a certain playful element, which led to some deeper insight.
In the early 1940s Hermann Hesse was a writer in the late days of his career, while Luise Rinser just stood at the beginning of hers. Die gläsernen Ringe was her first book publication. From the middle of the 1930s many German writers turned to writing about pastoral themes, to avoid any trouble with Nazi censorship.
Die gläsernen Ringe tells the story of a girl's youth, the happy time she spent in a countryside village, after her mother takes her there away from the big city. The second part of the book tells about the agony of being a pupil at a Catholic convent all girls school, and her loneliness there, and the happiness and maturation, both physically and spiritually, on visits to the village during school holidays. There are gorgeous and rich descriptions of botany and the kind of pastoral village life, which is now a really bygone era. The book is strongly reminiscent of Hermann Hesse's early work, such as Unterm Rad, in English published as Beneath the Wheel.
After the war, Luise Rinser developed into an important author in Germany, who published many works of fiction and autobiographical non-fiction between 1946 and 1999. However, in most recent criticism, following the publication of her biography in early 2011, she has been accused of being a much greater supporter of the Nazi movement and politics than she admitted or even lied about. Opportunism is the least of accusations.
As with so many authors in different countries, the art of writing cannot be seen separate from the substrate it grows on. Not all writers were able to move to Switzerland. The period from 1933 leading up to 1941 must have been a grim period, with dark clouds blocking the sun, throwing long shadows ahead. Young writers of that period grew up reading Hermann Hesse whose early works dating from the period between 1903 to 1930 were considered to belong to the greatest and most influential of his time. Demian, published in 1919 reached cult status, and like many of his other books inspired young people of that time.
If read out of that political context, Die gläsernen Ringe is a wonderful and serene tale, not as light as the work by Hesse, but with the same grace and attention for detail, Hesse writing about the monastery school of Maulbronn and the rustic village of Calw, and Rinser in Landsberg am Lech in southwest Bavaria.… (more)
That year of publication, 1941, is of course very significant. It was published two years before Hesse published his opus magnum Das Glasperlenspiel (1943) in English known as The Glass Bead Game. What is interesting is that the title of the book by Rinser, Die gläsernen Ringe also refers to the water of the fountain in the courtyard of a monastery / convent in terms of "glass" and a certain playful element, which led to some deeper insight.
In the early 1940s Hermann Hesse was a writer in the late days of his career, while Luise Rinser just stood at the beginning of hers. Die gläsernen Ringe was her first book publication. From the middle of the 1930s many German writers turned to writing about pastoral themes, to avoid any trouble with Nazi censorship.
Die gläsernen Ringe tells the story of a girl's youth, the happy time she spent in a countryside village, after her mother takes her there away from the big city. The second part of the book tells about the agony of being a pupil at a Catholic convent all girls school, and her loneliness there, and the happiness and maturation, both physically and spiritually, on visits to the village during school holidays. There are gorgeous and rich descriptions of botany and the kind of pastoral village life, which is now a really bygone era. The book is strongly reminiscent of Hermann Hesse's early work, such as Unterm Rad, in English published as Beneath the Wheel.
After the war, Luise Rinser developed into an important author in Germany, who published many works of fiction and autobiographical non-fiction between 1946 and 1999. However, in most recent criticism, following the publication of her biography in early 2011, she has been accused of being a much greater supporter of the Nazi movement and politics than she admitted or even lied about. Opportunism is the least of accusations.
As with so many authors in different countries, the art of writing cannot be seen separate from the substrate it grows on. Not all writers were able to move to Switzerland. The period from 1933 leading up to 1941 must have been a grim period, with dark clouds blocking the sun, throwing long shadows ahead. Young writers of that period grew up reading Hermann Hesse whose early works dating from the period between 1903 to 1930 were considered to belong to the greatest and most influential of his time. Demian, published in 1919 reached cult status, and like many of his other books inspired young people of that time.
If read out of that political context, Die gläsernen Ringe is a wonderful and serene tale, not as light as the work by Hesse, but with the same grace and attention for detail, Hesse writing about the monastery school of Maulbronn and the rustic village of Calw, and Rinser in Landsberg am Lech in southwest Bavaria.… (more)
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 92
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 843
- Popularity
- #30,327
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 17
- ISBNs
- 157
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 1
Probably the most amusing episode is her visit to a peace conference in India, which turns out to be organized by the Moon sect.
There are also various reflections on the Nazi period. Luise Rinser's own explanations about her position in the Nazi period have always been viewed with scepsis, but she was given the benefit of the doubt. After her death, her last life companion, José Sánchez de Murillo published a her biography Luise Rinser-Ein Leben in Widersprüchen (Transl. Luise Rinser-A Life of Contradictions in which he says "She lied to all of us."
This means that in all her writings after the war, all diaries and all reflections on the war period, Rinser always lied. This makes it very difficult to read the diaries with serious interest.… (more)