Buddensieg, Hermann

Buddensieg, Hermann Image 1

Hermann Buddensieg © Piotr Barącz
Born in Eisenach in 1893, Buddensieg died in Heidelberg in 1976. He became known especially for his adaptations of Polish and Lithuanian classical works, as Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (edited in 1955) and Metai by Kristijonas Donelaitis (edited in 1966). From 1956 to 1976 he edited the German Mickiewicz-Blätter, important for the cultural exchange between Poland and Germany.
Buddensieg was the son of a pharmacist from Eisenach and supporter of the Wandervogel movement in his youth. He began studying the law and political science in Jena, Germany. WWI interrupted his studies and took him to Russia and Lithuania. In the spring of 1918, he was on the Western front, when he was severely wounded by a shot in the head which he suffered from the rest of his life. During the Nazi era he was banned from working as a publicist. In WW II he turned to poetry and from 1946 onwards published several hymnic poems and an autobiography titled Morbus Sacer.
Buddensieg was awarded an honorary doctorate of the University of Poznań in 1969 and by the Polish Academy of Science and received as well the highest German orders.