Erich Muehsam Collection 1896-1977

This collection documents the life of anarchist writer Erich Muehsam and his wife Kreszentia (Zenzl) Muehsam. It consists primarily of correspondence: from Erich to family and friends (including from prison); from Zenzl to family and friends; and between others about Erich and Zenzl. Topics include politics, society, war, and literature; Erich's writing specifically; the circumstances of his death in Oranienburg; Zenzl's emigration to Russia, with the help of Internationale Rote Hilfe (International Red Aid); and her subsequent imprisonment in Siberia.The collection also contains family correspondence and a small selection of Muehsam's writings and poems, including a typescript of his short prose piece about Ascona, Switzerland; a few personal items, including an identification card; photographs; and printed materials about Muehsam.Hans Landau, 1976, 1977.Gad Landau 1987Erich Muehsam was born in Berlin on April 6, 1878. While his brother Hans became a physician and his sister Charlotte married Leo Landau, a lawyer, Erich chose a different path and became an anarchist author, poet, and publisher. He was imprisoned from 1917-1918 for refusing military service, and from 1919-1924 for his role in the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic. Muehsam published many anarchist books, plays, and periodicals. He was also successful as a writer and performer in cabarets. An early critic of the Nazi regime, in 1934 he was arrested and sent to the Oranienburg concentration camp, where he was murdered on July 10, 1934.After the death of her husband, Kreszentia (Zenzl) Muehsam fled first to Prague and later to Moscow, on the invitation of the Internationale Rote Hilfe (International Red Aid). Imprisoned in 1938, she was eventually sent to Siberia and released in 1955. She then settled in East Berlin, where she died in 1962.12-page inventory.See also MS 11: Lawrence Baron: Erich Muehsam's Jewish Identity. (Biographical essay considering the attitude toward Judaism of Muehsam, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, 1978, 21pp. (published in YB, 25).Photographs removed to Photograph CollectionProcesseddigitize