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Incarnations of Paul Celan's Todesfuge in the Paintings of Anselm Kiefer and Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum, Berlin

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Incarnations of Paul Celan's Todesfuge in the Paintings of Anselm Kiefer and Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum, Berlin Architectoni.ca © [2012], Copyright CCAAS Stephen Alexander Wischer, Architectoni.ca 2012, 2, 95-105 Incarnations of Paul Celan’s Todesfuge in the Paintings of Anselm Kiefer and Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, Berlin Stephen Alexander Wischer Assistant Professor of Architecture, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, 58103, USA. Ph.D., Candidate, History and Theory of Architecture, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T5, Canada. Tel: 701.388.1585, E-mail: [email protected] doi:10.5618/arch.2012.v1.n2.1 || Received: 17-05-2012, Accepted: 27-05-2012, Available online: 7-06-2012 Abstract of these creations transcend formal aesthetic conven- This paper explores connections between poetry, art tions that sought to minimize historical content in and architecture, which emerge across works by the cultural productions after the Second World War. The poet Paul Celan, the German artist Anselm Kiefer works in question not only engage traumatic historical and architect Daniel Libeskind, in order to grounds but reveal how the past is only meaningfully foreground the ways in which our creations may engaged in our present interpretation of it [1]. bridge written language and speech, touch and Following Gadamer’s discussion of the entwined space. Transformations of Celan’s poem Todesfuge relationship between poetry, history and culture, we will into the paintings Nuremburg and Sulamith by explore the way historical quotations emerge across Anselm Kiefer and the architectural spaces of Daniel poetry, artistic creation and architectural space. Under- Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, Berlin, not only ensure standing how the critical positioning, inherent absence, the life of the poem through translation but sophisticated tensions and pressures of Celan’s poetry demonstrate how historical quotations emerge across are transformed into Kiefer’s paintings and Libeskind’s varying material combinations and space. In museum, will demonstrate how these works provide particular, this paper explores how metonymic vital sites of participation amid the fragmentation of fragments and the interplay between presence and traditional cosmological grounds at the heights of absence inherent to Celan’s poetics appear in the modernity. Presenting moments of disorientation, each multivalent imagery and use of paint, straw and ash creation reveals a poetic participation which transcends in Kiefer’s paintings, as well as in the interstitial Cartesian dualities that became cauterized, after the “spatial voids” of Libeskind’s Museum. Understand- atrocities of WWII, into the aesthetics of our modern ing these connections demonstrates the critical world. To understand this participation we begin with potential of our artefacts: art, architecture, written each work in its context, and respond to what is given by and spoken language, to fluctuate between what is the work, from the bottom-up. Here, we find creations spoken and unsaid, what is seen and left unseen, that bridge over the aforementioned separations, between the visible and invisible. revealing an empathetic and ethical overlapping between the outside and inside, the past and present, the Keywords: Art; Architecture; Kiefer, Anselm; Celan, self and the Other [2]. Paul; Libeskind, Daniel; Poetics; Hermeneutics 2. Paul Celan and Todesfuge 1. Introduction The poet Paul Celan, was born Paul Antschel in 1920, to The poem Todesfuge by Paul Celan, the paintings German speaking Jewish parents in Czernowitz, Nuremburg and Sulamith by Anselm Kiefer, and the Bukovina, on the eastern outpost of the Austrian architectural spaces of Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Empire. His early years were steeped in the songs and Museum, Berlin, each cut across conventional art folktales of German culture, which included the poems historical categories by amplifying a deeper sense of of Goethe and Höderlin, the writings of Schiller, and the “corporeal listening,” which relates closely to the music of Bach. From an early age, Celan spent his time discussion of hermeneutics proposed by the German reading the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke as well as philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer. Inciting a participa- translating works of Verlaine and Shakespeare from tion that awakens a “historical self-consciousness,” each French, English, and Romanian, into German. Testi- 95 http://ccaasmag.org/ARCH Architectoni.ca © [2012], Copyright CCAAS Stephen Alexander Wischer, Architectoni.ca 2012, 2, 95-105 mony to the importance of his poetry has been discussed news that his parents had perished. John Felstiner by Nobel laureates and the philosophers Martin emphasizes how these dreadful events influenced the Heidegger, Theodore Adorno, and Hans-Georg “unimaginable loss that grounds all of his writing” [4]. Gadamer. George Steiner places his work at the Never receding, the despair and tragedy of this period “summit of German poetry” and he has been described likely aggravated severe bouts of mental instability, as “one of the few modern poets in whom life and the which eventually led Celan to his suicide when he work cleave so closely” [3]. lowered himself into the Seine River in April of 1970. The tragic event which most inspired the creation of Originally written in Romanian in 1944 and put in its Todesfuge, occurred in late June, 1942. On a rare final form in 1945, Todesfuge was translated into evening he had spent away from home, Celan’s parents German in 1948. It is a stirring artistic piece and one of were picked up in an overnight raid by the Nazis. the most translated poems of the twentieth century. The Shortly thereafter, Celan was forced into a Romanian poem reads: labour camp where he learned bit by bit the horrifying Todesfuge Death Fugue SCHWARZE Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends BLACK milk of daybreak we drink it at evening wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie we drink it midday and morning we drink it at nachts night wir trinken und trinken we drink and we drink wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht we shovel a grave in the air where you won’t lie too eng cramped Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen A man lives in the house he plays with his vipers he der schriebt writes der schriebt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland dein he writes when it grows dark to Deutschland your goldenes Haar Margarete golden hair Margarete er schreibt es und tritt vor das Haus und es blitzen die he writes it and steps out of doors and the stars are all Sterne er pfeit seine Rüden herbei sparkling he whistles his hounds to stay close er pfeift seine Juden hervor lӓsst schaufeln ein Grab in he whistles his Jews into rows has them shovel a grave der Erde in the ground er befiehlt uns spielt auf nun zum Tanz he commands us play up for the dance Schwarze Milch ser Frühe wir trinken dich nachts Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night wir tinken dich morgens und mittags wir trinken dich we drink you at morning and midday we drink you at abends evening wir trinken und trinken we drink and we drink Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen A man lives in the house he plays with his der schreibt vipers he writes der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland dein he writes when it grows dark to Deutschland your goldenes Haar Margarete golden hair Margarete Dien aschenes Haar Sulamith wir schaufeln ein Grab in Your ashen hair Sulamith we shovel a grave in the air den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng where you won’t lie too cramped Er ruft stecht tiefer Erdreich ihr einen ihr andern singet He shouts dig this earth deeper you lot there you others und spielt sing up and play er greift nach dem Eisen im Gurt er schwingts seine he grabs for the rod in his belt he swings it his Augen sind blau eyes are so blue stecht tiefer die Spaten ihr einen ihr andern spielt weiter stick your spades deeper you lot there you others zum Tanz auf play up for the dance Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken dich nachts Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night Wir tirinken dich mittags und morgen wir trinken dich we drink you at midday and morning we drink you abends at evening wir trinken und trinken we drink and we drink ein Mann wohnt im Haus dien goldenes Haar Margarete a man lives in the house your goldenes Haar Margarete 96 http://ccaasmag.org/ARCH Architectoni.ca © [2012], Copyright CCAAS Stephen Alexander Wischer, Architectoni.ca 2012, 2, 95-105 dein aschenes Haar Sulamith er spielt mit den your ashenes hair Sulamith he plays with his Schlangen vipers Er ruft spielt süsser den Tod ist ein Meister aus He shouts play more sweetly this Death is a Master from Deutschland Deutschland er ruft streicht dunkler die Geigen dann steigt ihr als he shouts scrape your strings darker you’ll rise up as Rauch in die Luft smoke to the sky dann habt ihr ein Grab in den Wolken da liegt you’ll then have a grave in the clouds where you won’t man nicht eng lie too cramped Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir tinken dich nachts Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night wir trinken dich mittags der Tod is ein Meister aus We drink you at midday Death is a master aus Deutschland Deutschland wir trinken dich abends und morgens wir trinken und we drink you at evening and morning we drink and trinken we drink der Tod is ein Meister aus Deutschland sein Auge ist this Death is ein Meister aus Deutschland his eye it is blau blue er trifft dich mit bleierner Kugel er trifft he shoots you with shot made of lead shoots you level dich genau and true ein Mann woht im Haus dein goldenes Haar a man lives in the house your goldenes Haar Margarete Margarete er hetzt seine Rüden auf uns er schenkt uns ein Grab he looses his hounds on us grant us a grave in der Luft in the air er spielt mit den Schlangen und trӓumet der Tod ist ein he plays with his vipers and daydreams der Tod ist Meister aus Deutschland ein Meister aus Deutschland dien goldenes Haar Margarete dein goldenes Haar Margarete dien aschenes Haar Sulamith dein aschenes Haar Sulamith 2.1.
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