EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE Department of History and Civilization Ernst Toller: An Intellectual Youth Biography, 1893-1918 Frederik Steven Louis Schouten Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Florence, July 2007 2 Schouten, Frederik Steven Louis (2008), Ernst Toller: An Intellectual Youth Biography, 1893-1918 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/14249 EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE Department of History and Civilization Ernst Toller: An Intellectual Youth Biography, 1893-1918 Frederik Steven Louis Schouten Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Jury Members: Prof. Arfon Rees, European University Institute, Florence (Co-Supervisor) Prof. Monika Richarz, Institute for the History of the German Jews, Hamburg Prof. Mark Roseman, Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) Prof. Regina Schulte, European University Institute, Florence (Supervisor) © Florence, 2007 No part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of the author 3 Schouten, Frederik Steven Louis (2008), Ernst Toller: An Intellectual Youth Biography, 1893-1918 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/14249 4 Schouten, Frederik Steven Louis (2008), Ernst Toller: An Intellectual Youth Biography, 1893-1918 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/14249 Table of Content Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………….7 Introduction: aim of, and approach to, an intellectual youth biography………………9 PART I: RESTLESS WANDERINGS, 1893-1914 CHAPTER 1. The World of the Young Toller, 1893-1918: Wilhelmine Society and Cultural Revolt (1890-1914)…………………………….23 World War I and Generational Conflict (1914-1918)……………………………..36 CHAPTER 2. Toller’s Family Background and Early Life up to World War I, 1893-1914: Toller’s Family Background and Parental Home……………………………….43 Childhood in Samotschin (1893-1906)……………………………………………54 Adolescence in Bromberg (1906-1914)…………………………………………...60 Early Student Life in Grenoble (1914)…………………………………………….69 PART II: THE LONELINESS OF WAR, 1914-1916 CHAPTER 3. Volunteer for War: Sacrifice for the Fatherland, Rebirth through the Motherland, 1914-1915: Apocalypse 1914………………………………………………………………….....79 German Soldier, German Hero (1914-1915)...................................................85 CHAPTER 4. The Front Experience – Or: The Loneliness of War, 1915-1916: Front Soldier at Pont-à-Mousson (March-June 1915).....................................92 Slaughter in the Priest’s Wood (June 1915-April 1916)………………………...101 Physical and Mental Collapse (April-November 1916)……………………….108 5 Schouten, Frederik Steven Louis (2008), Ernst Toller: An Intellectual Youth Biography, 1893-1918 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/14249 PART III: THE STRUGGLE FOR REBIRTH, 1916-1917 CHAPTER 5. In the Shadow of the War: The Struggle with the “Inner Enemy”, 1916-1917: “I want to forget the War” (1916-1917)………………………………………...117 Civil Rights in No Man’s Land (1916-1917)……………………………………123 CHAPTER 6. Community and Geist-Revolution, 1917: Arthur Kutscher’s Seminar (Summer 1917)...................................................130 The Conference at Lauenstein (Fall 1917)……………………………………...143 PART IV: YOUTH SOCIALISM, 1917-1918 CHAPTER 7. “Den Weg, Du Dichter Weise …”, Fall 1917: Student Actions in Heidelberg (Fall 1917).....................................................153 ‘Persecution’ and Escape (December 1917)……………………………………...169 CHAPTER 8. Youth Socialism and the Working Class, 1918: In Defence of the Bund (January 1918)………………………………………….173 The January Strike and Imprisonment [Jan.-April 1918]……………………….179 A World Upside Down: Apocalypse 1918…………………………………………189 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………..........195 Bibliography: Archives and literature…………………………………………………….201 6 Schouten, Frederik Steven Louis (2008), Ernst Toller: An Intellectual Youth Biography, 1893-1918 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/14249 Acknowledgements This study owes to the advice and support of various persons, including colleagues, friends and family. First of all, I thank Regina Schulte, my supervisor, who was always open and willing to support this study. I also thank Arfon Rees (EUI), my co-supervisor, whose interest in the project, open-mindedness and knowledge I greatly valued during the last years; our meetings and exchange of ideas have directly and indirectly influenced my formulations of ideas. Gratitude also goes to the two other members of the jury, Monika Richarz (Hamburg) and Mark Roseman (Indiana) for their valuable comments and interest in the project. Richarz, moreover, was willing to read a large part of the manuscript in an earlier stage, giving insightful comments on the project at large and its social Jewish dimension. I also thank Wichert ten Have (Amsterdam) and Frits Boterman (Amsterdam), who gave valuable advice in the initial stage of the thesis. The same counts for Robert Wokler (Yale), who stimulated me to pursue many of my approaches. Toralf Kleinsorge was willing to repeatedly discuss the nature of traditional Jewish culture in Posen, playing a crucial role in the background of the thesis. Tony Mohlo (EUI) was open to discuss the problem of Jewish identity. Arthur Mitzman (Amsterdam) and Jan Aarts (Amsterdam) were open to discuss the project with me during a later stage, which was very insightful, especially on the ‘use and abuse’ of psycho-analytical theory in history and biography. Though this is not a psycho-analytical undertaking, I learned much from both Freudian and post-Freudian theory, even though knowledge of psycho-analysis paradoxically undermined many of its assumptions over the course of this study. For their help and guidance I also thank all those people from the archives and libraries I consulted, including those from the European University Institute in Florence (Serge Noiret and Ruth Gbikpi), the International Institute for Social History and the Rosenthalia Library in Amsterdam, the Leo Baeck Institute in New York and Berlin, the Polish State archives in Bydgoszcz, Poznan and Pila, the German War archives in Karlsruhe (Mannfred Hennhöfer) and Munich (Dr Fuchs), the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) and the State Library (and especially its map division) in Berlin, the Herder Institute in Marburg, the German Literature-Archive in the Schiller 7 Schouten, Frederik Steven Louis (2008), Ernst Toller: An Intellectual Youth Biography, 1893-1918 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/14249 National Museum in Marbach am Necker, as well as the Documentary Center of Contemporary Jews (CDEC) and the State University (Università Statale degli Studi) in Milan. For other reasons, I thank Anna Jędraszczak, Toralf, Hanna and Marta Kleinsorge, Hans Verbeek and Just Schimmelpenninck, Davide Ghezzi, Arnout Mertens, Roch Hannecart, Paolo Merante, Rengenier and Nelienke Rittersma, Alessandro Chieffi, Dianne van der Spoel, Marijke Ophorst, Roberto Perissin, Arnoud Verhage, Irene van Arum, Wouter Kromkamp, Liesbeth van de Bosch, Francesca Parenti, Rita Peero, Kathy Fabiani-Wolf, and Sergio Amadei. I also thank my family, including Theo and Ellen Terlouw, who showed great commitment and understanding these last years, as well as my aunt, Marianne Schouten, and my late uncle, Guiseppe Catalini. But most of all I thank my wife, Anouk Terlouw, for her immense support and patience during the last years. It is to her, and with immense gratitude, that I dedicate this study. Finally, I thank Sara and Matteo, our two children, for being there, especially at this moment when years of research, for the present, find an end by presentating this thesis. 8 Schouten, Frederik Steven Louis (2008), Ernst Toller: An Intellectual Youth Biography, 1893-1918 European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/14249 Introduction – Aim of, and Approach to, an Intellectual Youth Biography Träumen wir nicht von einer Gemeinschaft, die sich nicht mehr in den minderwertigen kämpfen der Politik zerreibt, ja, die vom Berufspolitiker als gesellschaftlichem Typus befreit ist? Von einer Gemeinschaft, die ohne Hunger und ohne Angst, dem edlen Glück, dem edlen Leid lebt? - ERNST TOLLER, Der Deutsche Hinkemann. Why write another Study of Ernst Toller? Today few people have heard of the German playwright of Jewish descent, Ernst Toller (1893-1939). Yet he was well-known as a playwright and a public figure in Germany and beyond, especially during the 1920s. As a writer, his success equalled, if not surpassed that of many contemporary writers, whose names nowadays are often better known, including Georg Kaiser (1878-1945) and Bertold Brecht (1898-1956). In 1939 the literary critic and expert on Expressionist literature, Kurt Pinthus (1886- 1975), spoke of Toller as being the “most successful dramatist of the Expressionist generation in Germany”. In fact, his work was translated during his lifetime in twenty- seven languages and staged in a variety of countries, ranging from Germany to Russia, and from Japan to the United States. His autobiography, Eine Jugend in Deutschland (1933), somewhat misleadingly translated in English as I was a German (instead of “A Youth in Germany”), appeared in Italian, Dutch and Chinese.1 Perhaps 1 On the number of languages, see: Kurt Pinthus, “Life and Death of Ernst Toller” in: Books Abroad, XIV (1939) 3; on the fact that his success surpassed that of Carl Sternheim (), Kaiser and Brecht, see also: John M. Spalek, “Ernst