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Peter Hille

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Hille (11 September 1854 – 7 May 1904) was a German poet and writer.

Biography

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Peter Hille was born in to the family of a teacher. He studied at the gymnasiums of Höxter and Münster. While still at school, he joined the secret youth union Satrebil. Its members studied the works of Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, August Bebel and others. In 1874, Hille was expelled from the gymnasium for poor academic performance and then served as a clerk for the prosecutor in Höxter, and later worked as a proofreader in one of the Leipzig printing houses.[1] In 1877, Hille began collaborating with the magazine Deutsche Dichtung, in which his poems were published for the first time. For the magazine Deutsche Monatsblätter, he published articles on literary criticism. For some time Hille worked in Bremen for the socialist newspaper Bremer Tageblatt. In 1880 the writer lived in London in very modest conditions and studied the theories of socialism and anarchism there.[2]

Having received an inheritance, Hille financed the performances of a Dutch theatre troupe, which ruined him financially. The poet lived in squalid conditions, often homeless. In 1888, he fell ill with tuberculosis. However, he did not abandon his literary activities and played an important role in the development of the naturalistic genre in Germany. With the help of Karl Henckel, the poet went to Zurich, and from there he went to southern Europe. In 1891, he lived with his friend Julius Hart.[1] The police pursued Hille, seeing him as a dangerous socialist activist. Hille hid from surveillance throughout Germany until he arrived in Berlin in 1895. In Berlin, Hille received support from famous German naturalist writers of the Neue Gemeinschaft, with their financial help he opened a cabaret in 1902.[3]

Hille eventually died of tuberculosis in 1904. His body was initially buried in the Berlin suburb of Mariendorf. In 1938, his remains were reburied in an honorary grave in the Catholic St. Matthias Cemetery in Berlin-Tempelhof.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Hille, Peter – Lexikon Westfälischer Autorinnen und Autoren" (in German). Retrieved 2024-12-18.
  2. ^ Biographie, Deutsche. "Hille, Peter - Deutsche Biographie". www.deutsche-biographie.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-12-18.
  3. ^ Bernhardt, Rüdiger (2004). "Ich bestimme mich selbst": das traurige Leben des glücklichen Peter Hille (1854-1904). Jenaer Studien. Jena: Bussert & Stadeler. ISBN 978-3-932906-46-6.
  4. ^ Zeno. "Hille, Peter, Biographie". www.zeno.org (in German). Archived from the original on 2016-04-04. Retrieved 2024-12-18.