Udo Rukser

Udo Rukser (19 August 1892 – 6 June 1971) was a German jurist, farmer, co-founder and co-editor of the exile journal Deutsche Blätter in Santiago de Chile (1943–1946).

Biography

Udo Rukser was born in Posen. After graduating from high school in 1910, Rukser studied law under pressure from his father, without giving up his strong literary and artistic interests. After World War I, his specialization in international and Eastern law (Ostrecht) allowed him to successfully defend clients who had lost their possessions as a result of the war's outcome. He invested the fees of his successful Berlin law firm in a high-profile collection of modern art. Rukser also sought acquaintance with artists such as Richard Janthur, Ludwig Meidner, Walter Trier, and Ewald Mataré, and collaborated on magazines (Der Einzige, Feuer, and others). Through his brother-in-law, the film pioneer Hans Richter, he was close to Dadaism. In 1932 he acquired the Villa Schade van Westrum on Griebnitzsee in Potsdam.

After 1933, he resigned from his post as editor of the Zeitschrift für Ostrecht, which he had co-founded, because he refused the demanded dismissal of his Jewish employees. Illusionless about his possibilities as a lawyer in National Socialist Germany, he gave up his law practice and retired to Lake Constance together with his partner Otto Blumenthal. On the Schienerberg near Radolfzell, Udo and Dora Rukser (née Richter-Rothschild) acquired the Oberbühlhof, a large agricultural estate, which was successfully converted to fruit growing. The house at Griebnitzsee was rented by the racing driver Hans Stuck. The advance of the new political atmosphere even into this remote corner of the Empire ended the "inner emigration" that Rukser had initially thought possible due to the proximity to the Swiss border.

In 1939 he emigrated with his wife Dora to Chile, where he ran a farm. From 1943 to 1946, together with his compatriot Albert Theile, he published the Deutsche Blätter (subtitle: For a European Germany. Against a German Europe), one of the most important German exile magazines, which Rukser financed largely through the sale of his art collection. Many important exiled writers collaborated on it. Beginning in the 1950s, Rukser researched the influence of German intellectual life on Hispanic culture, using Goethe, Nietzsche, and Heine as examples.

In 1969, Udo and Dora Rukser applied for re-naturalization. In 1970, the naturalization certificates were handed over to them at the Consulate General in Valparaiso.

Udo Rukser died on June 6, 1971 in Quillota as a result of a stroke. Dora Rukser died on October 10, 1972 in Providencia, Santiago de Chile. The resting place of Udo and Dora Rukser is in the Guzmán-Bondiek family tomb in Santiago.

Works

• Der Diebstahl nach der Lex Ribuaria (1913; dissertation)
• Staatsangehörigkeit und Minoritätenschutz in Oberschlesien. Ein Leitfaden (1922)
• Deutsche Blätter (1943–1946; reprinted in 1970)
• Goethe in der hispanischen Welt (1958)
• Nietzsche in der Hispania (1962)
• Über den Denker Rudolf Pannwitz (1970)
• Bibliografia de Ortega (1971)

References

• Otto Blumenthal: Die Verhaftung. In: Gerhard Schoenberner, ed., Wir haben es gesehen. Augenzeugenberichte über Terror und Judenverfolgung im Dritten Reich. 1962.
• Lotte Maass: Deutsche Exilpresse in Lateinamerika. 1978.
• Irmtrud Wojak: Exil in Chile. 1994.
• Ralph Peter Vander Heide: Deutsche Blätter. 1975.
• Angela Huß-Michel: Literarische und politische Zeitschriften des Exils 1933–1945. 1987.
• Manfred Bosch: Für eine Vergeistigung der Politik. Zum 100. Geburtstag Udo Ruksers. In: Hegau. Band 49/50.
• Manfred Bosch: Udo Rukser und die „Deutschen Blätter“. In: Manfred Bosch, ed., Bohème am Bodensee. 1997.
• Manfred Bosch: „...das Land, das uns soviel Kummer gemacht hat“. Der Oberbühlhof von Udo und Dora Rukser in Schienen. In: Manfred Bosch, Oswald Burger: „Es war noch einmal ein Traum von einem Leben.“ Schicksale jüdischer Landwirte am Bodensee 1930–1960. UVK Verlagsgesellschaft Konstanz 2015, pp. 17–35.
• Rukser, Udo, in: Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss, eds., Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933. Band 1: Politik, Wirtschaft, Öffentliches Leben. München : Saur, 1980,

External links

• Works by Udo Rukser at German National Library