MAX KADE CENTER FOR GERMAN-AMERICAN STUDIES

NOVEMBER 1997

Author Ruth Klüger to Speak about Holocaust Experiences

Ruth Klüger’s autobiographical Although this book represents au- stadt (the author regrets the inability work weiter leben, an account of her tobiographical holocaust literature, its of people to remember the names of experience in surviving Auschwitz, highly intelligent approach distin- smaller camps just because it is easier has won wide acclaim in Germany. guishes it from most examples of the to recall only the famous concentra- Now also available in paperback, the genre. Its non-sentimental abstrac- tion camps), the strategies and hard- book has sold 200,000 copies. It has tion and psychological impartiality ships of trying to go on with one’s been translated into Dutch, Italian, matches the best in the literature of life (“weiter leben”), the period after French, Spanish, Czech, and Japa- moral philosophy. Like her predeces- the war when being a Jew does not nese. Klüger has received numerous sors, Ruth Klüger is drawn to apho- immediately cease to be a stigma all literary awards, including the rism. Fake pieties surface only to be at once, and the never fully success- Niedersachsen Prize, the Grimmels- dissected and eliminated. None of ful attempt to return to normality. hausen Prize, the Gryphius Prize, them can prevail against the insights Weiter leben is a significant book, a Rauriser Prize of , and, most derived from the extreme trials she piece of sad history, but it is also an recently, the Prize. had to endure. attempt to penetrate into the center of She will read selections from her Klüger’s spiritual and intellectual human emotions of people and, with- book, for the first time in English. document describing personal suffer- out tolerance for any cheap excuses, Ruth Klüger taught at the University ing is balanced by reflection, abstrac- to describe the true motives for ac- of Kansas from 1970 to 1972, and is tion, and synthesis. Beneath her self- tion and thought. currently professor emerita of the analysis, the images of her childhood, It makes sense that Ruth Klüger University of California at Irvine. Her her incorruptible psychology, and her repeatedly addresses female readers; presentation “A Jewish Childhood un- search for truth, lies the inexorable after all, at first she experienced the der the Nazis” will be on Wednesday, nonverbal reality that is not supposed cruel exclusion and then the even December 3 at 3:30 p.m. in 330 to exist. But it does: the Anschluß, more fatal world of the concentration Strong Hall. the exclusion of the Jews from their camp not only as a Jew but also as a hard-working social positions, the de- female. But why does she believe that The following is a review of Klüger’s portations, Theresienstadt, Ausch- only men read things that were writ- weiter leben: Eine Jugend by our re- witz, the “selection,” trying to cheat ten by other men? Has she forgotten cent visiting professor, Egon one’s way out of dying in the gas about her male readers who are en- Schwarz: chamber, the workcamp Christian- thusiastic about the book?

Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures (785) 864-7342; fax (785) 864-4298; e-mail: [email protected] Ruth Klüger asserts ironically that the troublesome details of her autobiography—for example, the fact that toddlers, much younger than she, were deported—should become re- quired common knowledge for Ger- mans. Now, thanks to the success of weiter leben, German-speaking read- ers have indelible images as constant reminders. If and when a translation becomes available, English-speaking readers will be able to view the holo- caust from an entirely new perspec- tive. Weiter leben is one of the finest works about the most disgraceful pe- riod of German history.

Albert Bloch made preliminary sketches on a copy of the 1936 University of Kansas commencement brochure. He incorporated the caricature of Hitler in his painting The March of Clowns (1941). Rediscovering Albert Bloch at the University of Kansas

Born in 1882 in St. Louis, Albert Bloch was trained in a local art school and from 1900 to 1905 worked as a free-lance draftsman for several newspapers in both St. Louis and New York. Bloch’s cartoons attracted the attention of William Marion Reedy, editor of The Mirror, a St. Louis-based political and literary journal with a national readership. Reedy hired Bloch in 1905 to con- tribute to The Mirror, which over the next four years published almost two hundred of Bloch’s “Kindly Carica- tures” of prominent St. Louisians, each of which was accompanied by a DAWSON WATSON, Albert Bloch’s art teacher in St. Louis text written by Reedy. In 1908, with Reedy’s encouragement and financial In 1911 Kandinsky, along with work in Chicago and St. Louis in support, Bloch went to Europe to con- his friend Franz Marc, visited Bloch’s 1915, and became an important pa- tinue his artistic training. Though he studio and soon thereafter proposed tron of the artist. visited museums in London and Paris, that the American exhibit his works Following his return to the United Bloch settled in Munich, and there with the NKVM. When conservative States in 1921, Bloch held a solo ex- studied independently, eschewing tra- members of that society opposed hibition at the Daniel Gallery in New ditional academic instruction. An Bloch’s participation, Kandinsky and York, but thereafter chose to with- encounter with reproductions of the Marc protested, and invited Bloch to draw from the art market; he never work of Wassily Kandinsky in the join them in their new venture, the showed again at a commercial gallery, catalogue of the 1909 Neue first exhibition of Der Blaue Reiter and exhibited only by invitation. Af- Künstlervereinigung München (The Blue Rider), which opened in ter living briefly in St. Louis, Bloch (NKVM) exhibition encouraged Munich in December 1911. Bloch taught for a year at the Academy of Bloch to seek out progressive mem- showed six canvases in the first Blue Fine Arts in Chicago (1922-23) be- bers of the Munich artists’ commu- Rider exhibition, more than any other fore accepting the position of head of nity and eventually to pursue mod- artist except Gabriele Münter, who the department of painting and draw- ernist experiments in his own paint- also showed six. He also exhibited ing at the University of Kansas in the ings. eight works in the second and final fall of 1923. For the next twenty-four Blue Rider exhibition, devoted to years, Bloch taught art at the Univer- graphics and watercolors, which sity, leaving his imprint on countless opened in March 1912 in Munich. students, several of whom went on to Thereafter Bloch participated in other pursue successful careers as artists major avant-garde shows such as the and teachers. He also initiated and 1912 international Sonderbund exhi- taught the first courses in the history bition in Cologne and the 1913 Erster of art at the University of Kansas. Deutscher Herbstsalon in Berlin. In Bloch retired in 1947, but he con- December 1913, Herwarth Walden tinued to be an active painter, com- gave Bloch a solo exhibition at his pleting numerous canvases in the sub- famous Berlin gallery Der Sturm, and sequent decade. He died in 1961, in 1916 Bloch shared an exhibition survived by his second wife, Anna with Paul Klee at the same gallery. Francis Bloch, whose dedication, Meanwhile, the Chicago collector knowledge, and accessibility have Arthur Jerome Eddy helped to ar- made the rediscovery of Bloch pos- ADOLPHUS BUSCH range for solo exhibitions of Bloch’s sible. Bloch and Literature the history of journalism, his later satirical work (including paintings, prose writings, poetry, and transla- Bloch became an admirer of Karl tions) represents important contribu- Kraus in 1914 and strove to enhance tions to and Ger- the appreciation of the Austrian critic man-American studies. in the United States. He translated Franz Marc’s request of 1915 to significant portions of Kraus’s poetry translate his essay “Das geheime and prose. Europa” into English helped Bloch Even before Bloch met Kraus, he discover his talent as a translator. was a severe Austrian critic of his Bloch’s most important contributions times. In more than two hundred cari- to German studies were in this field. catures, to which William Reedy, the The correspondence with Marc shows editor of the Mirror, provided biting that Bloch took his task as translator RUDYARD KIPLING prose texts, Bloch scrutinized the very seriously. He was determined powerful political, business, and cul- to communicate his friend’s analysis tural personalities as well as the so- of the European crisis and his vision cial problems of St. Louis. The per- of peace precisely and persuasively. I did my stint of newspaper drudg- sistent attacks on human folly and its He faced a far more ambitious task ery, magazine illustration and the tragic consequences are constants in when he undertook to translate works like, sandwiched in amongst regular Bloch’s work. In an illustrated essay of in the 1920s. Inspired contributions of political and portrait Bloch surveyed German and Austrian by ideas of Kraus, Bloch developed caricatures to my dear old Bill literature in 1913, just before the out- his own theory of translation. He Reedy’s “Mirror”... I had the great break of the war; he analyzed twenty called his translations “reconstruc- benefit of a good bit of private criti- prominent writers (including tions,” which often involved radical cism from painters whom I respected, , Thomas Theodor departures from literal translation, but in New York, Paris, Munich; and then, Heine, , Arthur which allowed him to remain faith- somehow, I came into contact, dur- Schnitzler, and Karl Kraus). The ar- ful to the impact of the original text ing the Munich days, with Marc and ticle focuses on the promise and in form and content. Kandinsky. weaknesses of these writers. It also Theodor Haecker (later known represents Bloch’s determination to for his opposition to Hitler), whom — Albert Bloch, letter to Edward A. Maser, communicate to the American public Kraus consulted in evaluating Bloch’s 20 June 1955, reprinted in Albert Bloch: A a greater appreciation of German and Retrospective Exhibition of his Work from efforts, wrote effusively about the 1911 Austrian culture. Though Bloch’s high quality of Bloch’s work. On the early work (including some of the ear- basis of Haecker’s recommendation, liest known comic strips) provides Kraus designated Bloch as his autho- important documentary material for rized translator into English. Bloch’s

RICHARD STRAUSS (Munich, 1909) translation of Kraus’s poems Cateforis, Richard Detsch, appeared in 1929. A selec- Robert Lind, and Janice tion of Bloch’s translations of McCullagh. Kraus’s aphorisms, which W. March 1994: The second H. Auden edited, remains un- working meeting on Albert published. Bloch in Münster, Germany, Bloch did not restrict his with Helmut Arntzen, Frank translation activities to Karl Baron, Hans Esselborn, Kraus; he translated the po- Philipp Fehl, Annegret etry of , and in Hoberg, Werner Mohr, doing so he was again en- Maria Schuchter, August gaged in a pioneering effort. Stahl, and Erika Wimmer. He also translated poems of May 1995: A grant of Matthias Claudius, Johann $71,000 from the National Wolfgang Goethe, Eduard Endowment of the Humani- Mörike, Paul Zech, and Else ties awards. Lasker-Schüler. Because of December 1995: Publica- the high quality of these tion of Albert Bloch: Ger- translations that span over man Poetry in War and three centuries of German lit- KARL KRAUS Peace. A Dual-Language erature, the publication of a dual-lan- Anthology. Poems by Karl Kraus and guage anthology became an impor- and she has been able to show how Georg Trakl with Translations, Paint- tant component of our project Albert Nádherny’s relationship with Kraus ings, and Drawings by Albert Bloch. Bloch: German Poetry in War and is a key to understanding the devel- Ed. by Frank Baron. Lawrence, Kan- Peace. Persistent interest in the top- opment and content of Kraus’s poetry. sas: The Max Kade Center for Ger- ics of war and peace provided the vol- man-American Studies, 1995, 303 pp. ume coherence. Bloch’s selection January 1997: Publication of the il- and translations represent a valuable History of the Project lustrated essay volume Albert Bloch: resource for understanding the intel- Artistic and Literary Perspectives, lectual and spiritual coordinates of his edited by Frank Baron, Helmut Spring semester 1987: Professor art work. Arntzen, and David Cateforis. Helmut Arntzen (University of Two recent dissertations have Munich: Prestel and the Lawrence: Münster) as a Max Kade Visiting Pro- been part of the effort to rediscover Max Kade Center for German- fessor of German urged colleagues at Bloch. Werner Mohr completed his American Studies, 1997. the University of Kansas to take ad- study of Albert Bloch’s pioneering 1997: Albert Bloch retrospective ex- vantage of these valuable untapped role in introducing the writings of hibition at three locations: resources to bring to light Bloch’s im- Karl Kraus in America in 1995. Elke portance in modern art and literary Champion focus on Bloch’s correse- 1) January 26-March 16, 1997: The history. pondence with Sidonie Nádherny, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Kansas June 1992: The German foundation City Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung 2) April 16-July 6, 1997: Munich provided a matching grant of $15,000 Museum of the Blue Rider for the Bloch project. (Lenbachhaus) April-May 1992: First scholarly con- 3) October 3-December 7, 1997: ference about Albert Bloch in con- Delaware Museum of Art, Wil- junction with the symposium for Ger- mington, Delaware man-American Studies. Speakers: Helmut Arntzen, Hans Esselborn, At the same time, a documentation Janice McCullagh, Werner Mohr, was prepared by Frank Baron and Marla Prather, and Robert Sudlow. James Helyar and was shown at the October 1993: The first working Watson Library. Subsequently, the meeting on Albert Bloch at the Uni- show traveled to Munich and Eutin, versity of Kansas. Participants: Germany. Henry Adams, Frank Baron, Anna GUSTAV MAHLER Bloch, Richard Green, David Reviews of the Lawrence Journal World, February With this show, the Nelson has given Retrospective Exhibitions 6: The early work was more sponta- us an alternative, personal view— neous with a tendency toward the dra- though not regional one, in spite of matic, a tad of sensational use of bril- Bloch’s KU professorship. Kansas City Star, January 26: liant color. They sort of go with Kandinsky was a major influence on youth,” Mrs. Bloch said. “As he grew University Daily Kansan, February the early Bloch. . . . Where the Rus- older, he reconsidered what his ob- 19: The exhibit at Watson Library sian and the American diverged was jective really was.” contains Bloch’s lively caricatures, on the value of pure abstraction. “For “Once in Lawrence, his works magazine covers he created for the St. Bloch, abstract art was too sterile. He become more personal and more ma- Louis Mirror, his English translations needed to hold on to the physical ture as one would hope the art of an of German poetry, and a chronologi- world,” Conrads observed. Some of older man would be,” said David cal history of his life. It is sponsored the best paintings of his Blue Rider Cateforis, a KU assistant professor of by the Max Kade Center for German- period—the color-block city- American Studies and the scapes, the portrait of a be- University of Kansas Librar- deviled cabaret performer ies. titled “The Green Domino,” do just that, while borrowing New Times (Kansas City), from the evolving vocabulary March 6-12: Viewing the of abstraction. range of Bloch’s work at the Nelson, it’s not hard to un- American Art Review, Janu- derstand why he attracted ary-February: Although his the avant-garde European name is unfamiliar to most artists’ attention. Bloch’s contemporary art historians, images are consistently Albert Bloch (1882-1961) subtle, hypnotic, and pro- was one of the most signifi- vocative. He was himself a cant American modernist deeply spiritual man who painters active in Europe dur- throughout his life shied ing the 1910s. . . . While his RODIN away from any aspect of paintings of the 1910s may be art history. “It was more profound, self-promotion. . . . His work is understood within the context of in- more difficult, not as immediately marked by innovation, generosity, ternational modernist trends, his later appealing. It’s not so buoyant or and ethereal beauty. work defies easy categorization. Dur- bouncing in composition.” ing his American years Bloch under- His later paintings took on an The Christian Science Monitor, took a highly personal creative jour- eerie, spiritual quality, but also ema- February 27: We are accustomed to ney, carried on without regard for the nated hope. thinking that all the major American changing fashions of the art world and “The major story of Bloch’s life artists are known at this point,” says with no expectation of public was not his association with The Blue Henry Adams, cocurator of the exhi- acknowledgement. “On the whole,” Rider,” Cateforis said, “but the con- bition, who thinks this is a rare ex- the painter wrote, “I am an impossible tinuation of his own vision.” ample of a major artist resurfacing. creature, quite willing to remain an We haven’t had a chance to look at obscure, rough-hewn square peg, if Pitch Weekly (Kansas City), Febru- Bloch’s work as a whole. This is re- only I may keep my inward freedom.” ary 6: The first two rooms of the large ally the first truly serious show of his Bloch understood and accepted the Albert Bloch retrospective at the work. I think that Bloch ranks with obscurity that his independence in- Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art are just about any of the major Ameri- sured him, and contented himself in most impressive. In them one can modernists.” the pursuit of his own vision. More glimpses a true horizon of modern- than three and a half decades after his ism. . . . Much of his later work re- Welt am Sonntag (Munich), April death, the remarkable result of that flected imagery of a broken world ex- 13: Er gehörte als einziger pursuit are at last receiving the rec- amined in the light of Christian sym- Amerikaner zur kleinen Gruppe ognition that Bloch himself refused bolism, not the sort of thing a twice radikaler Neuerer, die München vor to seek. victorious America in general, or a dem Ersten Weltkkrieg unter dem post-war heroic abstract expression- Signum des “Blauen Reiters” den Ruf ist art world found (finds?) valuable. einer revolutionären Kunststadt einbrachten. Er schuf vergessenen “Blauen ein beachtliches male- Reiter” gewidmet sind, risches und graph- aber auch die frühen isches Werk. Er Karikaturen und sein dichtete und wollte Spätwerk in Auszügen durch seine Übersetz- dokumentieren, ist vor ungen Dichter und allem der Katalog nicht Schriftsteller wie nur durch seine Goethe, Trakl oder Aufsätze, sondern vor Karl Kraus in den USA allem durch die bekanntmachen. erstmals veröffent- lichte Korrespondenz Süddeutsche Zeitung eine Fundgrube. Ein (Munich), April 18: begleitender Essayband Die Wiederentdeckung würdigt das künstle- lohnt. Sie bietet ein rische und literarische überraschend starkes Gesamtwerk Blochs. Frühwerk, das Ele- mente Kandinskys und The Philadelphia In- Marcs, später Campen- quirer, October 17, donks und Klees 1997: Now [Bloch’s] aufnimmt, ohne daß work has been resur- diese Einflüsse einen rected through an exhi- peinlich epigo-nalen bition organized by the Eindruck hinterlassen. . Nelson-Atkins Museum . . Immer wieder of Art in Kansas City tauchen in seinen Bild- and the Städtische ern aktive Harlekin- Galerie im Lenbach- und in sich versunkene MUNICH SKETCHES haus in Munich. The Pierrotfiguren auf. Und show of 30 paintings zunehmend beschäftigt ihn das Spi- Kulturkritik war Bloch von Karl and 30 works on paper has come to rituelle. Seine Suche nach einer Kraus gebracht worden, der zur the Delaware Art Museum in höheren Realität, verkörpert die Identifikationsfigur seiner zweiten Wilmington, its final venue. . . . The kühle, gleichsam ins Sphärische Lebenshälfte wurde. Er verehrte ihn exhibition does reveal that in his erhobenen “Sommernacht” von 1913 wie einen Heiligen, kaufte alle Munich phase Bloch readily absorbed mit ihren geisterhaft bleichen Ge- Nummern der Zeitschrift “Die the ideas of the Munich avant-garde, stalten.” Fackel” zusammen, er korrespon- especially those of Marc and dierte mit Kraus-Freunden und -Fans Kandinsky. Their influence is mani- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, und übersetzte ihn—darunter lange fest in paintings called Mountain and May 13: Der Maler Albaert Bloch, Passagen aus den “Letzten Tagen der Winter (Marc) and Night II aus einer Familie deutsch- Menschheit”—ins Englische. (Kandinsky). . . . In the American half böhmischer Juden stammend, die im überhaupt gehört die Beschäftigung of his career, Bloch’s immersion in neunzehnten Jahrhundert in die mit Literatur zu den wesentlichen this theme becomes more lugubrious Vereinigten Staaten ausgewandert Tätigkeiten Blochs in Amerika. Er and more obviously spiritual. . . . waren, ist in Amerika kaum, in war ein glänzender Übersetzer Bloch’s late style is characterized by Deutschland wenig bekannt; ob man deutscher Lyrik, von Goethe bis a somber palette, especially his use ihn in Tschechien wahrnimmt, bleibt Trakl, und schrieb selbst Gedichte of white to evoke an otherworldly dahingestellt. Dabei zählte er zu den und Essays. . . . Alles im allem ist ambience. Gründungsmitgliedern des “Blauen dieser hochtalentierte Mann mehr als Reiters”, nahm an allen wichtigen ein skurriler Nischenkünstler die Other reviews about the Bloch Aktivitäten der Gruppe teil, war an Beschäftigung mit ihm verspricht exhibition in Munich appeared also 17 Ausstellungen von Herwarth noch manche Überraschungen. in Dresden, Berlin, Nürnberg, Passau, Waldens “Sturm”-Gallerie zu Berlin , and Konstanz. beteilig, wurde gesammelt—und Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 2: vergessen. . . . Auf dem Weg der Neben den Bildern, die vor allem dem In spring 1998 the Max Kade Kade visiting professor during the this region, William Ballew recently Center expects to obtain copies of spring semester 1998. He will give a completed his dissertation on “The Albert Bloch’s writings and corre- public lecture on a topic yet to be an- Low German Dialect of Concordia, spondence. In this way the center nounced. Professor Sautermeister Missouri.” Concordia and neighbor- will become an important resource in has published numerous books on au- ing Cole Camp in western Missouri the United States for research on this thors and works from the classical have attempted in recent years to re- enigmatic artist, author, and transla- period of German literature to the vive their Low use tor. present. He will be offering a course through annual “theatre” perfor- ! on exile literature and a seminar on mances in the dialect. Ballew’s study Ariadne Press in California has . focuses on the factors leading to the accepted Werner Mohr’s book on ! death of Low German in Concordia. Albert Bloch and Karl Kraus for pub- KU’s Second Annual Graduate ! lication. This book is based on Mohr’s Student Colloquium for German With funding from the Bukowina- KU dissertation of 1995: “Albert will take place on February 20-21 in Institute in Ausburg, Germany, and the Bloch as Caricaturist, Social Critic, the Max Kade Center. The talks will Bukovina Society of the Americas in and Authorized Translator of Karl include topics such as “Wilde Ellis, Kansas, the Max Kade Center Kraus in America.” Frauen,” “Exile Studies and Litera- recently published a collection of es- ! ture,” “Resisting the Nature Cliché,” says entitled German Emigration The Alexander von Humboldt- and “Dysfunctionalism and Mad- from Bukovina to the Americas, ed- Stiftung has agreed to support the ness.” ited by William Keel (KU) and efforts of the Max Kade Center to ! Kurt Rein (University of Munich), extend its scope to exile studies by Dr. Jochen Stollberg (Frankfurt 1994 Max Kade visiting professor at purchasing books needed. The foun- Library) will speak about the holdings KU. The book examines the emigra- dation has responded to our request on exile literature and research pos- tion, settlement history in Kansas and by ordering a set of basic reference sibilities. The date of his lecture has other states, Canada and Brazil, as works, and it has agreed to help with been set tentatively for April 22. well as the culture and dialects of future needs. ! German-speaking immigrants from ! Working in the context of the the Austrian imperial crownland Gert Sautermeister of the Uni- Center’s research program on Ger- known as Bukovina (now divided be- versity of Bremen will be our Max man-American settlement dialects in tween Rumania and Ukraine).

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