Mein Herz gib wieder her

Hermann Löns: Revered as a nature poet and pioneer of environmental protection, he is also criticized as a kitsch author and an intellectual precursor to the National Socialists. More than 600 German streets are named after the poet of the heath, and his works reached millions in circulation. However, little is known about the woman Hermann Löns was married to in his second marriage: Lisa Hausmann-Löns, a self-assured women's rights activist and pacifist, who managed his estate after his death. Based on previously overlooked letters, documents, and literary texts, Heinrich Thies sensitively portrays the unequal partners for the first time in a dual biography against the backdrop of historical upheavals and tremors. It shows how Hermann Löns lost his balance after literary and journalistic successes, psychological crises, and alcohol excesses, ultimately going off to war. It also illustrates how Lisa Löns asserted herself in relation to her famous husband—as a translator, as an author, and as the mother of their mentally and physically disabled son. An appendix includes the forgotten novella "Largo" by Lisa Hausmann-Löns.