Ferdinand Avenarius (20 December 1856, inBerlin – 22 September 1923, inKampen) was a Germanlyric poet, a leading representative of the culture reform movement of his time and the first popularizer ofSylt.[1]
Avenarius was born inBerlin. His father, Eduard Avenarius, a publisher fromLeipzig, founded a joint subsidiary company with the Brockhaus publishing house. His mother, Cäcilie née Geyer, was a daughter of the actor and painterLudwig Geyer. Eduard Avenarius represented the company inParis, where he consorted withHeinrich Heine andRichard Wagner, the latter being the step-uncle of Ferdinand Avenarius and his brother, the philosopherRichard Avenarius.[2] However, there are speculations in science that Ludwig Geyer was not only the stepfather but the biological father of Wagner too.[3]
Ferdinand Avenarius attended schools in Berlin andDresden and studied in Leipzig andZurichmedicine,natural sciences, art and literature history as well asphilosophy. He returned to Dresden in 1882, where he founded the magazineDer Kunstwart, the leading publication channel of the German culture reform movement, which was dedicated to aesthetic education as well as to love to culture and nature. Avenarius married Else Doehn divorced Schumann. His father-in-law,Dr. Rudolf Doehn, was a German writer and an American representative inMissouri. In 1895,Schilling & Graebner built a first villa for Avenarius inBlasewitz, where he lived with his wife and his step-son Wolfgang Schumann.
In 1902, Avenarius founded together, with art historian Paul Schumann, theDürerbund, named afterAlbrecht Dürer, which became the leading culture organization inthe German Empire,Austria andSwitzerland. Avenarius was member ofDeutscher Werkbund and belonged to the directorate of the Germangarden city movement. From 1903, Avenarius spent the summer months onSylt, which he made popular.[4] Kampen made him its firsthonorary citizen and theUniversity of Heidelberg appointed himhonorary doctor.[5]
Avenarius became especially known as editor and publisher. In 1902, he published a very successful anthology of German poetry:Hausbuch Deutscher Lyrik.He supported young authors likeHermann Häfker and painters, but fought heavily against all appearances of "low taste" or "little value", as he ranked e.g. the work byKarl May.[6] This controversy lasted many years.
