Kurt Arnold Findeisen

With winter just around the corner, Christmas is getting closer and closer, while the days are getting shorter and the evenings longer. So people like to cosy up with a book in their hands and a cup of tea. One extremely popular and widely read author was Kurt Arnold Findeisen, who was born 130 years ago in Zwickau and died 50 years ago in Dresden.

Wendelin Dudelsack, his pseudonym, loved his homeland. He could not fail to notice how the haggard faces of the local people reflected the hard life they were living at the time, which required them to work hard every day. He wanted to give something back to these people. Dedicated to education, he trained as a teacher in Schneeberg and found a job in Plauen. He then moved to a school in Dresden, only to find happiness and a livelihood a short time later as a freelance writer. With the novel "Sohn der Wälder", which tells the adventures of the gamekeeper Karl Stülpner, and the poetry collection "Mutterland", he gave celebrated literary expression to his attachment to the Saxon mountain region. Even as a child, he had listened with great devotion to the music of Robert Schumann, a son of his native town who was famous beyond the borders of the country. This early inclination towards the atmospheric world of sound was to accompany him throughout his life. With his biographies of musicians, e.g. the Schumanns, Brahms, Bach and Handel ("The Davidsbündler"/"Herzen und Masken"/"Lied des Schicksals" and others), he gained an impressive and enthusiastic readership. In 1929, this success bore fruit in the form of the Lessing Prize, which he was the first Saxon to be awarded. The Saxon landscape, history, dialect and customs were closely interwoven in Findeisen's work, as evidenced not least by his commitment to his monthly journal "Sächsische Heimat" and numerous contributions to various magazines.

In addition to his work as a writer, he worked for the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk radio station from 1925 to 1933, until the National Socialists sacked him without notice in 1934, although they continued to use his texts. Nevertheless, Findeisen remained true to his authorial soul and not only gave his native world another great success: "The Golden Horseman and his doom". With this Dresden novel about "The splendour and misery of an immortal city. Eine Roman-Chronik aus den Tagen des Barock", illustrated by the Leipzig painter and graphic artist Max Schwimmer, was his greatest success to date. The fictional memoir is set in the era of Augustus the Strong and spans two generations. Baroque period colour, historical knowledge and veiled allusions to the time when it was written make the book a special feature that is well worth rediscovering. The thematic follow-up novels "Wings of Dawn" and "Icebird" were also eagerly read.

Growing up in the Saxon highlands, where the pre-Christmas magic traditionally reaches its climax in the snow-covered, cosily lit Christmas festivities, this fabric occupied an immovable place in Findeisen's heart. Several publications dedicated to the Christmas season earned Findeisen the nickname of Christmas poet, including "The Golden Christmas Book" or "How Our Christmas Carols Were Created". The latter begins with the words: "Without these venerable carols, Christmas is unthinkable for most people." With the setting of his most beautiful poems to music by Kreuzkantor Rudolf Mauersberger, the Christmas poet himself had contributed to the growth of this cultural treasure trove of carols with his poetry.

In the "Golden Christmas Book" we find, among other things, this gem: "Wenn's Weihnacht ist, wenn's Weihnacht ist, da kommt zu uns der Heil'ge Christ, da bringt er eine Muh, da bringt er eine Mäh und eine schöne Tschingteretätä." We look forward to it and wish you a reflective Advent and a Merry Christmas!

Maren Gündel, City Archive

Published in: Official Gazette Radebeul in December 2013