"Protagoras - Nietzsche - Stirner. Platz dem Efoismus!". Tysk. Paperback

"Protagoras - Nietzsche - Stirner. Platz dem Efoismus!". Tysk. Paperback

Forfatter: Benedict Lachmann

Benedict Lachmann was born on 8 February 1878 in Culm, West Prussia (now Chełmno, Pomerania). His parents, Wolff Lachmann and Emma (née Meier), had another son, Georg, and three daughters but only two of their names, Martha and Sophie, are known.

Lachmann first declared his profession to be ‘writer’ in 1915. In August 1919 he began editing one of the few German-language anarchist newspapers “Der individualistische Anarchist”, which aimed to disseminate the writings of Young Hegelian Max Stirner (1806-1856) and gain a broader public for individualist anarchism.

At around the same time he founded a ‘union of individualist anarchists’ in Berlin, inspired by the Viennese organization of the same name which had existed since 1910. He published his views on the concept of anarchism in an article in the book “Wir brauchen einen Anarchismus des XX. Jahrhunderts. Anarchie im Alltag. Auf den Spuren anarchistischer Pädagogik: Meinungen, Analysen, Tatsachen und Konsequenzen”. His other works, some of which he wrote under a pseudonym, included “Antibarbarus”, “Was ist Sozialismus?” (1919) and “Two Essays on Egoism”, written together with Herbert Stourzh.

He also edited and published an anthology entitled “Theater. Berlin” (1914) and a book by Paul Bekker, “Wesensformen der Musik” (1925), which was later highly acclaimed by Theodor Adorno. His last book, “Der Bürgerkönig. Frankreich zwischen den Revolutionen 1830-1848”, was published in 1939 by E. Loewe, Berlin.

Adopting increasingly libertarian and anarchist viewpoints, Lachmann had distanced himself from his Jewish background and in 1906 he left the Jewish community. Within Berlin, he led a peripatetic lifestyle, frequently moving house: in 1909, he lived at Passauer Strasse 6-7 in what was then Charlottenburg (now Schöneberg); 1910-1912, Ansbacher Strasse 10, near Wittenbergplatz, also Charlottenburg (now Schöneberg); 1915, Sedan Strasse 17 (now Brigitten Strasse) in Berlin-Steglitz; 1917-1919, Eisenacher Strasse 10, Schöneberg; 1920-1921, Eisenacher Strasse 34.

During the First World War he established a music and bookshop in Salzburger Strasse 10 in Schöneberg. He closed it down in 1924 to concentrate on another bookshop and library he opened in 1919 close by, at the corner of Bayerischer Platz 13-14 and Speyerer Strasse. His reputation as an intellectual and expert on literature and philosophy, as well as his political views, attracted some renowned and great minds to his shop, including Albert Einstein, Gotfried Benn and journalist and author Curt Riess. Lachmann’s bookshop is still legendary among literary and bookselling circles.

Contemporaries described Lachmann as a striking figure – very tall and gaunt, with a slight stoop and a bohemian mane of black hair. He was a regular patron of the Romanisches Café at Kurfürstendamm 238 (now Budapester Strasse 43), a meeting place for artists and intellectuals in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

In the early 1930s, health problems prompted him to hand over management of his business to his senior member of staff, the ‘Aryan’ Paul Behr. In 1936, Lachmann spent some time in London, perhaps to prepare his emigration. Growing pressure from the Nazis, including a ban on employing ‘Aryan’ apprentices, eventually forced him to sell his bookshop on 16 April 1937 to Paul Behr. Claims that Behr did not pay the due sum and that Lachmann became dependent on assistance from other people cannot be verified with any certainty.

On his return from London, he lived at various addresses in Berlin-Schöneberg. In early 1937, he moved from an apartment at Freisinger Strasse 11 to Martin Luther Strasse 90; in 1938 he lived at Heilbronner Strasse 30 before moving under duress to Bayreuther Strasse 26 in 1939.

Obviously considered a serious intellectual threat by the Nazis, Benedict Lachmann was deported aged 63 on the very first transport from Berlin, on 18 October 1941, to Łódź, where he was murdered on 4 December 1941.

Verlag Der Mackay - Gesellschaft, Hamburg, 1978 (3. opplag). Paperback. 72 sider

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