{"id":43631,"date":"2022-02-14T09:09:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T09:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/?page_id=43631"},"modified":"2022-02-14T09:09:14","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T09:09:14","slug":"horst-schroder","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/?page_id=43631","title":{"rendered":"Horst Schr\u00f6der"},"content":{"rendered":"

Horst Schr\u00f6der,\u00a0schroeder@horst-schroeder.com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

CH-492<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Bilthoven, 6\u00a0september\u00a02010<\/p>\n

Dear<\/strong>\u00a0Mr. Horst Schr\u00f6der,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Excuse me for writing in the English language to you. You could respond in German if you wish.<\/p>\n

On\u00a0my\u00a0website\u00a0www.meijenfeldt.nl<\/a><\/span> I pay some attention to Max Meyerfeld. He is not related to me, but perhaps his greatgrandfather was allowed to use the family name of one of my ancestors.<\/p>\n

Recently\u00a0I\u00a0found\u00a0your\u00a0website\u00a0with\u00a0an\u00a0interesting\u00a0start\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0biography\u00a0of\u00a0him. Do\u00a0you\u00a0have\u00a0a\u00a0planning\u00a0to\u00a0finish\u00a0this?\u00a0You\u00a0start\u00a0with\u00a0a\u00a0lot\u00a0of\u00a0family\u00a0information\u00a0that\u00a0corresponds\u00a0with\u00a0my\u00a0information.\u00a0Could\u00a0you\u00a0already\u00a0inform\u00a0me\u00a0if\u00a0his\u00a0death\u00a0in Berlin-Sch\u00f6neberg\u00a03\u00a0October\u00a01940\u00a0is\u00a0right?\u00a0Of\u00a0course\u00a0I am\u00a0interested\u00a0in a\u00a0draft\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0continuation\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0story,\u00a0if\u00a0you\u00a0have.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0would\u00a0like\u00a0to\u00a0thank\u00a0you\u00a0in\u00a0advance\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0trouble\u00a0taken.<\/p>\n

Kind\u00a0regards,
\nHugo von\u00a0Meijenfeldt<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

19\u00a0september\u00a02010<\/p>\n

Dear<\/strong>\u00a0Mr\u00a0von\u00a0Meijenfeldt,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for your interest in Max\u00a0Meyerfeld\u00a0and apologies for this late reply: I have not been able to discover your reference to MM on your website!<\/p>\n

Yes, the date 3 Oct. 1940 is correct with regard to MM\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

I have no definite plans as how to proceed with my work on\u00a0Meyerfeld. I can only give him my undivided attention on and off, between research work on Oscar Wilde.<\/p>\n

A few days ago I completed my bibliography of MM\u2019s theatre reviews for 1922-1925, and a friend has put the thing on my website.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of this year I hope to continue the biography of MM and write a few paragraphs about his two semesters at the\u00a0University\u00a0of\u00a0Strassburg.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile you will perhaps find the attached short bio useful which I published in\u00a0The\u00a0Wildean<\/em>, the journal of the Oscar Wilde Society (London), no. 31 (July 2007).<\/p>\n

Best wishes,
\nHorst Schr\u00f6der<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Max\u00a0Meyerfeld\u00a0was born on 26\u00a0September 1875 in Giessen, a small town north of Frankfurt, where he also went to school. In the summer term of 1894 he matriculated at the university of his home town to study modern languages. Half a year later he left Giessen and continued his studies at the University of Strasbourg. Towards the end of 1895\u00a0Meyerfeld\u00a0changed his\u00a0alma mater<\/em>\u00a0again and went to Berlin where he remained all his life and where he completed his university education in 1898 with a Ph.D. thesis on Robert\u00a0Burns.i<\/sup><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

He then set up as a literary critic, writing essays and book reviews of English literature as well as theatre criticism. In 1900 he became the Berlin theatre correspondent of the\u00a0Neue<\/em>\u00a0Z\u00fcrcher\u00a0Zeitung<\/em>, an office which he held for more than thirty\u00a0years.ii<\/sup><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But Meyerfeld, very quickly, also made his name as a translator: of George Moore, John Millington Synge, John Galsworthy, and, in particular, of Oscar Wilde. For his translations of Wilde, his friendship with Robert Ross, whom he met for the first time in the spring of 1904, was certainly instrumentaliii<\/u><\/sup><\/strong>: almost on the spot Ross authorised Meyerfeld to bring out\u00a0The Duchess of Padua<\/em>\u00a0(1904), though the play had not as yet been properly published in the original. Another two similarly authorised editions followed soon afterwards:\u00a0De Profundis<\/em>\u00a0(1905; enlarged edition 1909) and\u00a0The Florentine Tragedy<\/em>\u00a0(1906\/1907). In 1909 Meyerfeld enlarged his list of Wildeana still further by issuing\u00a0\u00c4sthetisches und Polemisches<\/em>, a collection of short pieces, taken from volumes no.\u00a0XI and XIV of Ross\u2019s Collected Edition of 1908 and comprising \u2018The English Renaissance of Art\u2019, \u2018Lecture to Art Students\u2019, the letters to the press with regard to\u00a0Dorian Gray<\/em>, the two letters to the\u00a0Daily Chronicle<\/em>\u00a0on prison life, and\u00a0La Sainte Courtisane<\/em>. Then there was a long break caused by the First World War and the death of Robert Ross (Oct. 1918). But in 1925 Meyerfeld went into print again by publishing \u2013 authorised by Vyvyan Holland \u2013 the \u2018first unabridged edition\u2019 of\u00a0De Profundis<\/em>, now renamed\u00a0Epistola in Carcere et Vinculis<\/em>.iv<\/u><\/sup>\u00a0<\/strong>The same year also saw Meyerfeld\u2019s last contribution to Wilde studies with the edition of\u00a0Letzte Briefe<\/em>, Wilde\u2019s post-prison letters to Robert Ross, which had first been published under the title\u00a0After Reading<\/em>\u00a0(1921) and\u00a0After Berneval<\/em>\u00a0(1922) and to which were now added, again authorised by Vyvyan Holland, another thirty-three letters as yet unpublished.v<\/u><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

Among Meyerfeld\u2019s English friends in the 1920s were Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell and Siegfried Sassoon, whose writings Meyerfeld promoted in various literary periodicals.vi<\/u><\/sup>\u00a0<\/strong>On 8\u00a0September 1927, Sassoon\u2019s 41st birthday, the three men, accompanied by Nellie Burton (d.\u00a01935), the legendary housekeeper of 40\u00a0Half Moon Street, visited Meyerfeld in Berlin.vii<\/u><\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0A photograph taken on the occasion is the only picture I know of Meyerfeld.viii<\/u><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

When the Nazis came to power, Meyerfeld stayed on, probably assuming, like so many others, that what happened was only a passing nightmare. For some time he continued to write his theatre reviews for the\u00a0Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung<\/em>, but with less and less frequency. In the\u00a0curriculum vitae<\/em>\u00a0attached to his Ph.D. thesis, Meyerfeld had stated that his denomination was Protestant. Unimpressed by this, the Authors Directory now registered his name as Max Israel. Still, his death on 3\u00a0October 1940 at a Berlin hospital was a natural death.ix<\/u><\/sup>\u00a0<\/strong>His life still needs to be written.x<\/u><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

i<\/u>\u00a0Curriculum vitae<\/em>\u00a0in Max Meyerfeld,\u00a0Quellenstudien zu Robert Burns<\/em>, Ph.D. thesis Berlin 1898, n.p.<\/p>\n

ii<\/u>\u00a0See E.K. (Eduard Korrodi [1885-1955]), \u2018Drei\u00dfig Jahre M.M.\u2019,\u00a0Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung<\/em>, no.\u00a02256, 21\u00a0Nov. 1930, [p.\u00a01].<\/p>\n

iii<\/u>\u00a0See Max Meyerfeld, \u2018Robert Ross\u2019,\u00a0Das literarische Echo<\/em>\u00a021, no.\u00a013 (1\u00a0April 1919), coll. 779-785.<\/p>\n

iv<\/u>\u00a0For the various editions (both in their English and German forms) of\u00a0De Profundis<\/em>, see my article \u2018The Importance of Reading Max\u2019 (The Wildean<\/em>\u00a028 [Jan. 2006], pp.\u00a079-83).<\/p>\n

v<\/u>\u00a0On one occasion, it may be added in passing, his interest in Wilde inspired Meyerfeld to write a one-act play on Oscar, called\u00a0Robert Anstey<\/em>\u00a0(1912).<\/p>\n

vi<\/u>\u00a0See, for example, the January 1925 issue of\u00a0Die Literatur<\/em>, edited and introduced by Max Meyerfeld (vol.\u00a027, no.\u00a04, pp.\u00a0193-194, 201-206, 212-218).<\/p>\n

vii<\/u>\u00a0Meyerfeld included Nellie Burton in his portrait gallery of English people (1924), calling her facetiously \u2018Dame Nellie\u2019, in allusion to the opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (\u2018Englische Menschen\u2019,\u00a0Die Neue Rundschau<\/em>\u00a035, pt.\u00a02, no.\u00a011 [Nov.\u00a01924], pp.\u00a01151-1179). Reference was made to this \u2013 though Meyerfeld\u2019s name was not mentioned \u2013 in Nellie Burton\u2019s obituary: \u2018Miss Burton of Half Moon Street\u2019,\u00a0Manchester Guardian<\/em>, no.\u00a027793, 11\u00a0Oct. 1935, p.\u00a010.<\/p>\n

viii<\/u>\u00a0National Portrait Gallery,\u00a0The Sitwells and the Arts of the 1920s and 1930s<\/em>\u00a0(London 1994), p.\u00a0203.<\/p>\n

ix<\/u>\u00a0Death certificate of the registry office of Berlin-Sch\u00f6neberg, dated 4\u00a0October 1940.<\/p>\n

x<\/u>\u00a0In\u00a0When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit<\/em>\u00a0(1971), Judith Kerr, the daughter of Meyerfeld\u2019s friend and colleague Alfred Kerr (1867-1948), has given us a charming pen-portrait of Meyerfeld in the character of Onkel Julius. In contrast to his model, though, Onkel Julius commits suicide in the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Horst Schr\u00f6der,\u00a0schroeder@horst-schroeder.com CH-492 Bilthoven, 6\u00a0september\u00a02010 Dear\u00a0Mr. Horst Schr\u00f6der, Excuse me for writing in the English language to you. You could respond in German if you wish. On\u00a0my\u00a0website\u00a0www.meijenfeldt.nl I pay some attention to Max Meyerfeld. He is not related to me, but perhaps his greatgrandfather was allowed to use the family name of one of my … Verder lezen Horst Schr\u00f6der<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-43631","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43633,"href":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43631\/revisions\/43633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meijenfeldt.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}