Alfons Paquet

Alphons Hermann Paquet (26 January 1881 – 8 February 1944) was a German writer, poet and journalist.

Biography Alphons Paquet was born in to the family of a deeply religious Baptist glovemaker and was forced to train in his father's profession. In 1900 he won a prize for a short story and decided to move to Berlin and become a journalist. In 1901 he published his first volume of short stories and the following year a book of poems and songs. Soon after, he became editor of the Düsseldorf-based cultural magazine Die Rheinlande and from 1902 onwards he was able to finance his studies with various jobs, which he completed in 1907 at the University of Jena with a dissertation in economic history.

In 1903, Paquet began traveling, which would determine his entire subsequent life. He traveled through Siberia on the newly opened Trans-Siberian Railway. The following year, he traveled to the US for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. This year also saw the start of his work for the Frankfurter Zeitung.

On October 18, 1910, he married the Frankfurt painter Marie Henriette Steinhausen and moved with her to Dresden- Hellerau, where Paquet now worked for the German Werkbund.

In the years leading up to the First World War, Paquet made several trips to Mongolia and China, a trip on the Baghdad Railway to Syria and various other destinations. He managed to secure his income as a journalist, and in 1934 he made extensive flights through Europe, about which he published a travel book. In 1935 he was briefly arrested in Berlin for because he was considered to be a communist by the Nazis.

As a convinced pacifist, he became a permanent member of the Quakers in 1933. Through this religious community, he maintained intensive contact with England and the US and received visits from foreign believers who wanted to get an idea of the situation in Germany.

In 1943, his youngest son was killed on the Eastern Front. Paquet, who had to witness the deportation of the Jews from Frankfurt - of whose murderous consequences he was aware - as a helpless observer, sank into deep dejection. During a bombing raid in February 1944, Alfons Paquet died of a heart attack in the basement of his house.

Works

Lieder und Gesänge. Mit einer Vorbemerkung von Carl Busse. Grote, Berlin 1902, online – Internet Archive Das Ausstellungsproblem in der Volkswirtschaft. Fischer, Jena 1908 (= Abhandlungen des staatswissenschaftlichen Seminars zu Jena, Band 5, Heft 2) Südsibirien und die Nordwestmongolei. Politisch-geographische Studie und Reisebericht für die Geographische Gesellschaft zu Jena. Fischer, Jena 1909 Kamerad Fleming. Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt am Main 1911; Neuausgabe: Edition AV, Frankfurt am Main 2004, Li oder im neuen Osten. Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt am Main 1912 Erzählungen an Bord. Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt am Main 1914 In Palästina. Diederichs, Jena 1915 Im kommunistischen Russland. Briefe aus Moskau. Diederichs, Jena 1919 Der Geist der russischen Revolution. Wolff, Leipzig 1919; Reprint: BiblioBazaar, Charleston SC 2009, Der Rhein als Schicksal oder Das Problem der Völker. Wolff, München 1920 Der Rhein, eine Reise. Societäts-Druckerei, Frankfurt am Main 1923 Amerika. Hymnen/Gedichte. Die Wölfe, Leipzig 1925 Lusikas Stimme, Novelle. 1925, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt Stuttgart, Berlin und Leipzig Antwort des Rheines. Eine Ideologie. Filser, Augsburg 1928 Der Neckar. Ein Lebensbild, mit Zeichnungen von Joachim Lutz, J.Horning/Heidelberg 1928 Der Rhein. In Fritz Taeuber, Grieben Grenzlandführer für die wandernde Jugend: Rheinische Grenzlande. Von Eupen zur Saar. Grieben-Verlag Albert Goldschmidt, Berlin 1931 Fluggast über Europa. Ein Roman der langen Strecken. Knorr & Hirth, München 1920–1933 Amerika unter dem Regenbogen. Farben – Konturen – Perspektiven. Societät, Frankfurt 1938 Der Rhein. Vision und Wirklichkeit. Fotos von Paul Wolff. Bagel, Düsseldorf 1940 Die Botschaft des Rheins. Erlebnis und Gedicht. Henn, Ratingen 1941 Die Frankfurterin. Kramer, Frankfurt 1947; 2. erw. A. 1970 Gaswelt und vier andere Essays, Köln 1940, 2. Auflage Gedichte. Hrsg. v. Alexander von Bernus. Wallstein, Göttingen 1956,