Martin Andersen Nexø

If you are born poor, you die poor. This truism, which hovered like a black cloud over Christianshavn, an oppressive working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen, may have applied to most of its inhabitants, but not to Martin Andersen Nexø. He was born into this environment 145 years ago, on 26 June 1869, and no one there could have guessed what an eventful life fate had in store for him. It was not only to take him through various countries and lead him to Radebeul for a few months along the way.

As a scion of the poor in the slums, the young Martin's chances of advancement were rather poor, so the question arises as to how he was able to get to know the world of words and celebrate such success as a (popular) poet. The following is intended to shed some light on this.

His father was a stonemason by trade and was defiant, unrelenting and rigorous in character. He squandered his wages and beat the children. At the age of 8, father Andersen moved with his family to Neksø, Bornholm's second largest settlement, where he built a house which today houses the Martin Andersen Nexø Museum. His school performance and confirmation studies showed that Martin had not fallen on his head, and his pastor even encouraged him to pursue an academic career. His interest in language, literature and religion as well as the urge to provide people with pastoral and moral counselling - everything was sown here. Nevertheless, his father forced him to work in agriculture in accordance with the rural way of life, where he spent bleak years as an unfree man surrounded by dung, mud and vermin. The way out of this misery lay in an apprenticeship as a craftsman. His shoes had got stuck in the mud so many times, so he completed an apprenticeship as a journeyman cobbler.

Jumping over a wall, fleeing from a love-struck girl - as he wanted it to be understood biographically - turned out to be an almost prophetic sentence for Martin, as he landed in the middle of the garden of the adult education centre association, which had just celebrated a festival - and thus in another world. He discovered this world for himself with great enthusiasm, it had an extremely diverse range of programmes, courses, lectures and concerts to offer, and thanks to the financial support of various patrons, the adult education centre finally accepted him as a student (similar to a boarding school). Here, "the living word" was cultivated and he quickly took a liking to the teaching profession. He flourished during his studies, his achievements convinced a number of patrons and so he was able to transfer to the largest adult education centre in Askov. While he had apparently been terrified of female company until then, he finally moved into the house of the poet's widow Mathilde Molbech - a female figure who would have a decisive influence on his fate. In the absence of his own, she replaced his mother figure, honed his manners, refined his mind and groomed him into a respectable young man. Her house will serve as a long-lasting refuge for him and even after he apparently impregnated her daughter and she had to be quickly married off and deported, the Molbech never tires of consistently advancing the career of her "roommate". In addition to his first teaching post in Odense, he ventured into poetry in the form of lyrical poems and romantic prose, which he signed Martin Andersen-Nexø (the hyphen was later dropped) to distinguish himself from his famous compatriot.

A short time later, in Mellerup, where he was a guest lecturer at an adult education centre, he fell in love with his pupil Margarethe Thomsen, who would become his first wife.

And finally his authorial debut is published, peppered with literary fusions of Bornholm days and impressions of his European journey through Germany, Italy and Spain. This collection of stories marked the beginning of his career as a poet; from then on, the words just gushed out of him. Night-long writing marathons produced one book after another, mostly dealing with interpersonal, psychological or socio-critical themes. With "Pelle the Conqueror", he finally established himself as an internationally recognised writer (he now saw himself as a "poet of the underclass") and left posterity a significant piece of contemporary literary history. The 1987 film adaptation won numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Oscar.

In1951, he and his family moved from Denmark to Brühlstraße 20 (now Prof-Wilhelm-Ring) in Radebeul, and shortly afterwards to Dresden, where he died 60 years ago on 1 June 1954 at the age of 85. Although he was only a member of Radebeul's citizenry for a few months, the Niederlößnitz primary school remembered Martin Andersen Nexø by his name for a long time; poverty and misery supposedly predetermined, his rich career as a poet began by simply jumping over a wall.

Maren Gündel, City Archive

Source: Aldo Keel: Martin Andersen Nexø. The defiant Dane. A Biography, Berlin 2004

Published in: Official Gazette June 2014