MAX KADE CENTER
FOR GERMAN-AMERICAN
STUDIES
MARCH 2004
Egon Breiner: An Austrian in Exile
Peter Breiner State University of New York at Albany
Egon Breiner’s life and book gimes, he continued his political Zetkin) and from there to Sweden collection reflect important ele- activity as a member of the now where he joined a number of Aus- ments of the Austrian exile expe- underground Austrian Socialist trian socialist refugees. He lived in rience. Professor Peter Stockholm and worked as a Breiner, Egon Breiner’s son, machinist from 1939 to 1941. who generously donated the His roommate was Bruno collection to the center, has Kreisky. In 1941, through the summarized the background intervention of Joseph But- and context in which these tinger and Muriel Gardiner, valuable books came together. Eleanor Roosevelt made avail- able a number of visas for Aus- Egon Breiner was born in trian socialists to immigrate to 1910 in the Leopoldstadt sec- the United States. Bruno tion of Vienna to a Hungarian Kreisky received one of these father and a German-speaking visas, but at the last minute for mother from Bohemia. Both personal reasons, he decided to parents were Jewish. He was stay in Stockholm. He offered an avid reader and became in- Egon Breiner in the 1990s his visa to Egon Breiner. Fear- terested in politics at a young ing Sweden could be invaded age. He dropped out of school at Party and was repeatedly jailed for any day, Breiner accepted the visa. the age of 15 and joined the youth illegal resistance activity against He then traveled to Moscow and arm of the Austrian Socialist Party. the regime. After the Anschluss, he from there took the trans-Siberian He proved to be an extremely able continued his activity. However, railway to Vladivostok. From there leader and in his 20s became the one day while Breiner was on his he sailed on the Annie Johnson, the district leader [Bezirksleiter] of the way home, a friend told him that last boat to cross the Pacific before young socialists in Leopoldstadt. the Gestapo had been looking for the German invasion of Russia. He took many courses on litera- him at his parents’ home. Not re- Like the unexpected visa to the ture at the Volkschule and enthu- turning home, he acquired a forged U.S., the trip on the Annie Johnson siastically embraced the cultural passport and fled to Zürich, Swit- proved to be one of several turn- life of Vienna. He attended musi- zerland, where he stayed with a ing points in his life. On the boat cal performances, the theater, and number Swiss socialists. He then he met, among others, Bertolt the Vienna opera. During the traveled to Paris (staying with Brecht, with whom he became Dollfuss and Schuschnigg re- Kostya Zetkin, the son of Clara well-acquainted. Once in Los
Newsletter of the Max Kade Center Editor: Frank Baron; e-mail: [email protected] Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 Telephone: (785) 864-4803; Fax: (785 98; www.ku.edu/~maxkade Angeles, he came to know many knowledge of Austrian and Ger- ersatz family, providing him with of the members of the Brecht circle man literature, and could never re- friends, education, and a sense of including Helly Brecht, Hans sist buying multiple editions of the moral direction. Moreover, this Eisler, Paul Dessau, and Peter same much-loved work, whether party in the postwar period up and Lorre, as well as other refugee it was the collected plays of until the end of the twentieth cen- writers and artists such as Nestroy, the novels of Max Frisch, tury represented to him the em- Alexander Döblin and Franz or The Good Soldier Schweik of bodiment of Austria as a society Werfel. Although he worked as a Hašek. From the 1960s to the end of decency and solidarity. Thus he machinist at Southern Pacific Rail- of his life, Austrian writers and was willing to accept, with a mini- road by day, he spent many eve- sometimes film makers passing mum of criticism, the party’s scan- nings in the Brecht house in Santa through Los Angeles would stop dals, political compromises, and Monica. In 1942 he married a at his house for coffee and cake, slow decay into a leadership of Viennese refugee doctor, party operatives. The turn to the Leopoldine Reinisch. During the right in Austria distressed him war years, despite the hardships, immensely. Similarly, although he and Leopoldine circulated Austria had lost the enormous cul- among the many refugees in Los tural influence it had exercised be- Angeles. The one dark aspect of fore World War II, Breiner fol- this period was that he had left lowed its literary output with en- both his parents and his brother be- thusiasm. On his many trips he hind in Vienna, and he did not collected the latest novels along learn of their fate until after the with a host of books in dialect. In war. His brother and parents died short, from the 1960s to his death in the concentration camps. in 2000, he lived in two worlds, After Brecht and his circle left the world of Los Angeles, with its the United States, Breiner, at least culture of music, theater, and poli- on the surface, settled into the life tics, and the world of Austria (and of a typical member of the post- to a lesser extent, Germany), the World War II generation. He had home of his cultural and political two sons, Peter, born in 1947 and Egon Breiner in the 1930s allegiances. Tom, born in 1952. He bought a The library of Egon Breiner house in the Hollywood Hills and and he would use these visits to represents multiple worlds. It com- continued working as a machinist. tell stories of his experiences be- bines German and Austrian clas- Nonetheless, he and Leopoldine fore and shortly after he came to sics, contemporary German and constituted a circle of Austrian and the United States. Austrian literature, and historical German refugees—this time not Although he was engaged in and political books tracing the renowned—who met regularly in progressive politics in the United radical ups and downs of Central their house to discuss culture, poli- States, his true love was his home Europe. In many ways, the library tics, and life in Europe. Breiner country. Indeed, so strong was his represents his life. That is, he was stayed in contact with his many nostalgia for Austria that he was a product of several cultures, all friends and acquaintances in Aus- willing to overlook some of the now lost: the extraordinary cul- tria. Many of them had entered darker moments of its history. He tural life of fin de siècle Vienna politics in the newly constituted was especially enthusiastic about and its modernist offshoots in the neutral country. He, followed the the governmental success of the late 20s and 30s; the moral and career of Bruno Kreisky with par- party to which he had unstintingly educational world of the Austrian ticular interest. In 1956, Breiner devoted his youth, the Austrian Socialist Party; and the world of visited Austria for the first time Socialist Party, and was full of German and Austrian emigrés in since he had fled. It was one of admiration for both the Chancel- Los Angeles in the post-World War many visits he would make in the lor of Austria, Bruno Kreisky, and II period. He often mourned the course of his life. Though he had the comprehensive Austrian wel- passing of these cultures, and in once entertained the possibility of fare state. Much of this enthusi- an odd way with his death in Oc- returning, he never did so, but he asm stemmed from a fact that is tober of 2000, the world in which watched the political develop- hard to appreciate today, namely a person without an academic de- ments with great interest from the that the pre-World War II Austrian gree could almost single-handedly sidelines. He also pursued one of Socialist Party had been for him absorb and keep alive the culture the great passions of his life, book not just an ordinary political party of Central Europe seemed to have collecting. He had an enormous seeking state power, but almost an disappeared with him.
John Spalek and the Record of the Exile Experience
Historian H. Stuart Hughes asserts that the “mi- of exile studies. For orientation on any exile topic, it gration to the United States of European intellectu- is necessary to consult his Guide to the Archival als fleeing fascist tyranny . . . the most important Materials and the multivolume Deutsche cultural event—or series of events—of the second Exilliteratur seit 1933. His interest in Ernst Toller quarter of the twentieth century. . . . Emigration in and Lion Feuchtwanger has resulted in important bib- the 1930s went beyond any previous cultural expe- liographic publications. rience: in its range of talent and achievement; it was The Max Kade Center has been the beneficiary indeed something new in the modern history of West- of Spalek’s talent for book collecting. The exile col- ern man.” John lection reflects his Spalek has been in- broad knowledge defatigable in his of a field that ex- efforts to recover tends into every and preserve the conceivable disci- legacy of this ex- pline. The most re- traordinary histori- cent transfer of cal phenomenon. books from his li- His achievements brary was the were recognized re- Franz Werfel col- cently in a lengthy Books Published by John Spalek lection, probably article of Aufbau the most compre- (October 30, 2003). He also received special honors hensive collection of its kind. To draw attention to from the Toller Society. the special features of this recent acquisition, the Spalek’s publications represent a network of in- Exile Society Conference of September 4–7, 2003, formation crucial for scholarly research in the field devoted five lectures to Franz Werfel.
Lawrence Artist’s Work on Display at the Max Kade Center
To commemorate the Nancy came to the United States to continue her stud- fifteenth anniversary of the ies. She majored in mathematics and later turned to Lawrence-Eutin sister city art. She earned a master of fine arts degree with an exchanges, Nancy Bjorge emphasis in jewelry design and metal working. has been invited to exhibit Bjorge’s childhood fascination provides the ba- her art work in Eutin. The sis and inspiration of her art. She discoverd that a exhibition will open on unique form of art could evolve from the simplicity June 2, during the visit of a of blank paper. Her paper sculptures are not based twenty-member Lawrence on the origami; the inspiration for her art comes from delegation. further back in the past, in the ancient use of paper Bjorge was born in in Asia. Bjorge has taken this art form and created Shanghai and raised in her own, unmistakably individualistic style. She de- Hong Kong. One of the ac- veloped this style by looking into the past and re- shaping a combination of Chinese and Western art. Nancy Bjorge tivities that influenced her art was the ceremony of Professors Keel and Baron will be part of a del- paying respect to the family’s ancestors. The chil- egation that will be present at the opening of the ex- dren had to fold paper. After completing high school, hibition at the Eutin County Library. The Eighth Annual Graduate Students’ Conference
in German Studies
This year the conference of graduate students of Stress Assignment in XP-Scrambling”; Melody Har- German at the University of Kansas addressed the ries, “Germany’s Role in the Expanding European topic “Today’s Image of the German-Speaking Union”; Nora Bruegmann, “Persönlichkeitsent- World.” The two-day event wicklung in Thomas Brussigs took place at the Max Kade Am kürzeren Ende der Center on February 20–21. Sonnenallee”; and Viktória Professor Ludwig M. Bagi, “Zum Vaterbild heran- Eichinger, Institut für wachsender Jungen am Deutsche Sprache, Man- Anfang und Ende des 20. heim, and Max Kade Visit- Jahrhunderts.” Former KU ing Professor, delivered the student Monika Moyrer, who keynote address, “Dialekte is presently pursuing Ph.D. und regionale Substandards: studies at the University of Zum sprachlichen Alltag in Minnesota, returned to der Bundsrepublik Deutsch- Lawrence to deliver a talk on land.” The KU graduate stu- Scott Seeger “‘Parkhauskatzen schleppen dents who contributed were: fünf sechs Pfoten’: Space, Thorsten Huth, “‘Germans Must Be Quite Arrogant, Language, and Diasporic Aesthetics in Herta Müller’s Then?!’—The Cultural Lens in the (German) Lan- College Poetry.” Professor Eichinger, who took ac- guage”; Scott Seeger, “On Being and Speaking tive part in all the discussions, commented that the Frisian: Perception and Identity in the graduate students had succeeded in creating a profes- Wiedingharde”; Michael T. Putnam, “The Connec- sional forum for the public presentation of their tion between Dynamic Antisymmetry and Prosodic research.
Kansas Association of Teachers of German Schülerkongress 2004
Some 300 high school students of German from students from Germany and Switzerland congratu- twenty-three high schools in Kansas descended upon lated the American students on their enthusiasm and Lawrence for the “2004 Schülerkongress” sponsored their willingness to give up a Saturday for the sake of by the Kansas Association of Teachers of German in German language and culture competitions. cooperation with the Department of Germanic Lan- guages and Literatures at the University of Kansas on Saturday, February 28, 2004. Over thirty KU fac- ulty and graduate students in German together with guest professors from Germany and Hungary judged contests in poetry and prose. Contest categories in- cluded poetry and prose recitations, oral proficiency interviews, spelling bees, and a cultural information test. Prize winners received a total of 150 medals during an awards assembly in the afternoon. Each participating school was recognized with a framed certificate. During the awards assembly, exchange
Hungarian Course Being Offered
An Internet-supported course on “Survival Hungarian“ will be offered for the first time this summer at the Edwards campus in Overland Park. Mónika Pacziga, graduate student from the University of Budapest and Hungarian instructor at KU for the past two years, has worked closely with Matt Garrett at the Academic Computer Center and Jonathan Perkins at the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center to develop the course. The new material and course structure will enable students to make rapid progress in acquiring the skills to communicate effectively in Hungarian.
The focus is on language skills, vocabulary, and Mónika Pacziga expressions in everyday situations. The units bypass complex grammar explanations. Words, phrases, and idiomatic expressions are introduced immediately in combination with pronunciation. Students can simply click on any text and hear a native speaker articulate correct sounds. Practice exercises also reinforce words or phrases with immediate sound. The Internet materials provide user-friendly support for steady progress. The development of this course has been made possible with the generous support the European Studies Program, the KU Graduate School, and the Center for International Business. The KU Edwards campus will offer HNGR 453, Survival Hungarian, in the summer session, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 10 p.m. Special arrangements can be made for students from the Lawrence campus. For enrollment information, contact Dan Mueller at [email protected]. For course information consult the instructor, Andrea Némedi ([email protected]).
Némedi received M.A. degrees in Comparative Literature (2001),
English (2002), and German (2003) from the University of Szeged. Since
2001, Némedi has been enrolled in the Comparative Literature
Department’s Ph.D. program of the University of Szeged, where she has been working in the field of literary theory. With the support of DAAD scholarships, she studied in Germany twice. In the fall of 1998, she attended the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, and during the academic year 2002–2003 she studied at the University of Cologne. She enrolled in the Andrea Némedi program of the German Department at KU in the fall of 2003 to work toward a Ph.D. degree in German literature. Her research interest is digital literature, including hyperfiction, multimedia, and Internet literature. She is especially interested in how the computer influences the way literary texts are written and read. She has taught German courses at several different levels.
See www.ku.edu/ces/ns/index
Die Orthographiereform—keine leichte Aufgabe
Ludwig M. Eichinger nicht leicht zu sagen, wann zwei anscheinend selbständige Wörter zu einem zusammen geschrieben werden und wann nicht. Mit der Entscheidung zwischen diesen Möglichkeiten waren in der alten Rechtschreibung inhaltliche Unter- schiede verbunden. Die Neuregelung legt dagegen starken Wert auf formal nachvollziehbare Entscheidungen. Das soll das Lernen der Recht- schreibung erleichtern. Letztlich führen die neuen Regelungen dazu, dass man mehr getrennt schreibt. Um
Ludwig Eichinger with Graduate Students at the Max Kade Center das zu erreichen, wurden Unter-
schiede in der Schreibung auf-
The orthographic norm for Modern German has been gegeben, die entsprechende Information muss nun dem the subject of some controversy since the adoption Kontext entnommen werden. So schreibt man jetzt of “spelling reforms” in 1998. As Director of the kennen lernen (‘get to know’) wie schreiben lernen Institut für Deutsche Sprache in Mannheim, Max (‘learn to write’) getrennt, weil es sich jeweils um zwei Kade Professor Ludwig Eichinger finds himself in Infinitive handelt, obwohl man im ersten Fall nicht the center of the storm. Here he discusses two of the etwas lernt (‘learn to know’). Diese Neuerungen reforms, the rules governing the spelling of com- werden heftig diskutiert, man wird, um die Reform pound verbs and the spelling of the voiceless “s” vernünftig fortzuschreiben, beobachten müssen, wie after long and short vowels. The changes become die Schreiber längerfristig mit solchen Fällen umgehen permanent in 2005. werden. Der zweite Fall ist weitaus weniger umstritten, er Man kennt Konrad Duden in Deutschland. Mit betrifft die Verwendung der Buchstaben
detaillierter und umfangreicher geworden, so kam der Silbe. Bei zweisilbigen Wörtern sieht man den auch immer einmal wieder die Idee auf, den Grund für diese Veränderung genauer, hier gehört das Regelapparat grundlegend zu reformieren. In den <ß> zur folgenden Silbe (Fü-ße), bei der Schreibung 1970er Jahren verstärkte sich der Eindruck, dass es (Näs-se). Da solche Zeit wäre, die leitenden Prinzipien der deutschen Formen in allen Texten recht häufig sind—so ist ja Schreibung klarer herauszustellen, an besonders unter anderem die Konjunktion dass (‘that’) betroffen, schwierigen Stellen eindeutigere Entscheidung- die man früher mit <ß> schrieb—erkennt man an ihr shilfen zu geben und so das Schreiben zu erleichtern. Texte, die in neuer Rechtschreibung geschrieben sind, Als Folge davon wurde von den Bildungspolitikern am klarsten. Alle anderen Dinge sind weitaus seltener. der deutschsprachigen Länder eine Kommission Warum kennt man Konrad Duden noch immer?— eingesetzt, die diese Fragen klären sollte. Sie fand Weil die Rechtschreibung ein sichtbarer Teil der ihren Platz am Institut für Deutsche Sprache und sie Sprachkultur ist, in den man nicht ohne Mühe erarbeitete eine neue Regelung, die 1998 in den hineingewachsen ist. Veränderungen werden daher öffentlichen Institutionen eingeführt wurde, und ab auch kritisch betrachtet. Aber auch die Schreibung 2005 endgültig in Kraft tritt. kennt eine Entwicklung und die Rechtschreibreform An zwei Beispielen soll gezeigt werden, von ist nicht ihr Ende, sondern eher etwas wie ein amtlicher welcher Art die Dinge sind, die neu geregelt wurden. Wegweiser in diesem Prozess. Zum einen ist es im Deutschen in bestimmten Fällen German Language Varieties Worldwide:
Internal and External Perspectives
Edited by William D. Keel and Klaus J. Mattheier
William D. Keel and Klaus J. Mattheier (eds.), of Mannheim and Max Kade Professor at KU in German Language Varieties Worldwide: Internal and 2004) considered the near impossibility of develop- External Perspectives (2003) resulted from a con- ing an adequate methodology for sociolinguistic re- ference held in 2001, at the Max Kade Center. At search in such complex speech communities. The that conference, researchers of German settlement linguist using the traditional method of direct inter- dialect varieties found in the United States, Brazil, view was faced with the dilemma of having to ob- Mexico, Hungary, Romania, and the former Soviet serve and record without partaking in the life of the Union discussed and debated current issues. One of community. And, even the researcher who devoted the central issues discussed was speech island death. the time to, in effect, become part of the community Despite the prospect of the ultimate demise of the remained limited by the roles taken by each indi- large array of German linguistic enclaves around the vidual in the community. A central concern is the world, Mattheier (University of Heidelberg and Max differentiation between transfer processes in lan- Kade Professor at KU in 2000) argued that this situ- guage contact situations and the phenomenon of lan- ation presented an opportunity for linguists and guage attrition, simplification or decay in the last sociolinguists to gain significant insights for the phases. The phenomenon of language decay in lin- theory of linguistic change. He also placed speech guistic isolation includes a number of consequences, island research within the larger context of interna- such as the breakdown of grammatical categories (for tional minority studies. For Mattheier, the point in example, the loss of case distinctions in the noun the life of a speech island at which stability turns to phrase, the loss of tense or aspectual distinctions in instability is the key to understanding the life cycle the verb). The focus of the sixteen essays is the in- of such linguistic enclaves. One of the longest sur- vestigation of the sociolinguistic phenomena of Ger- viving German dialect communities in the New man linguistic enclaves. The multifaceted develop- World is that of the Pennsylvania Germans. Ludwig ments converge in the final analysis in the juxtapo- Eichinger (Institute für Deutsche Sprache/University sition of language maintenance and language loss.
The Humboldt Digital Library
This digital library of the works of Alexander the present stage, work is limited to English transla- von Humboldt entails a comprehensive re-creation tions. With the aid of a Transcoop grant, scholars from of the explorer’s five-year journey to the Americas the University of Kansas, (the Max Kade Center, the (1799–1804). In its final form, the library network Museum of Natural History, and the Department of will show the twenty-nine volumes that Humboldt Anthropology), the Berlin Humboldt Research Cen- published, along with direct links to relevant infor- ter, the Eutin State Library, and the Technical Uni- mation from current databases. In the books, versity of Offenburg have formulated the content and Humboldt records his observations of Venezuela, Co- structure of the digital library. Contributors to the lombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and Cuba. Disci- project plan to create a user-friendly environment and plines covered include botany, zoology, geology, an- network that can tap information from rare books, thropology, archeology, and history. Although the many of which have been accessible only to a few project team has its sights on a library in four lan- readers. Although the digital library can show guages (French, German, Spanish, and English), at Humboldt’s pivotal role for various disciplines (Humboldt) influenced such scientists as Darwin, years ago, upon the conclusion of his American trav- Wallace, and Agassiz, as well as the naturalist Muir els. A Web site designed to become linked later to and the landscape artist Church), it will also reveal the digital library reveals historical connections to the relevance of his observations for the modern the expedition of Lewis and Clark. See www.ku.edu/ world. ~maxkade/humboldt/main.htm. It has been linked to As a vivid example of Humboldt’s extraordinary several sites, including that of the Smithsonian In- personality and achievements, we can point to the stitution in Washington. images of his Washington visit, which occurred 200
Authority, Culture, and Communication:
The Sociology of Ernest Manheim
Edited by Frank Baron, David N. Smith, and Charles Reitz
Like other exiles of his gen- brought the insights of phenom- eration—Max Horkheimer, enology, existentialism, Marx- Theodor Adorno, Thomas ism, and critical theory from the Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Erik margins to the heart of intellec- Erikson, Herbert Marcuse, and tual life in this country. Erich Fromm—Ernest Man- Manheim’s work communicated heim contributed subtly, yet sig- the vibrancy of both its classical nificantly, to the deprovinciali- and contemporary German intel- zation of culture in his adopted lectual sources, and, in a human- home. Born in Budapest, he istic and enlightened manner, began his graduate studies in stressed the essential connection Vienna, Kiel, and Leipzig be- of education to the attainment of fore the Hitler regime forced the social potential of the human him to flee. He settled first in race. Manheim developed a London and later in Chicago transformative social logic of the and Kansas City. His writing public sphere thirty years before and teaching assisted a genera- Jürgen Habermas did. In the tion of younger scholars to be- Ernest Manheim early 1950s, while other aca- come keenly conscious of the demics feared jeopardizing their conflicts and contradictions at careers for the relatively un- the heart of American political, moral, and academic popular cause of racial equality, Manheim demon- culture. The essays in this collection, both by and strated rare courage and high integrity in agreeing to about Ernest Manheim, attest to the depth and detail testify as an expert witness in the major civil rights of his social theory on subjects of continuing and lawsuit of the century, Brown vs. the Board of Edu- growing relevance: the sociology of communication cation of Topeka, Kansas. Likewise, his multicultural and public opinion, the sociology of authority, the cosmopolitanism, his opposition to any kind of sociology of anomie and alienation, and the sociol- monoculturalism, and his critique of the patriarchal ogy of social science and education. In quiet contrast family remain at the cutting edge of social and cul- to the logical positivism that had attained a near-mo- tural theory today. nopoly in U.S. graduate schools of philosophy and This book of essays by and about Manheim will sociology, Manheim, along with a few others, offered appear in Munich with Synchron Publishers in March a critical distillate of European approaches, which 2004. Recent Events at the Max Kade Center
September 4–7, 2003. Conference, The Alchemy Griseldisnovelle im Deutschland des 15. of Exile: Creative Responses to Expulsion from Nazi- Jahrhunderts,” Anne Allen-Winston (Carbondale), Dominated Europe, jointly sponsored by the North “Fifteenth-Century Women as Simultaneous Tran- American Society for Exile Studies and the Max Kade scribers and Editors of Sermons,” Charles Nauert Center. Participants from the United States, Germany, (Columbia), “Jakob Wimpheling as a Pioneer of Austria, Hungary, and Turkey took part. Included in Christian Humanism,” Michael Keefer (Guelph, the program was a concert of Canada), “Damnation by music by Kurt Weill, Paul Displacement: Contribu- Hindemith, and Michael tions to the Legend of Cohen. Joyce Castle, mezzo Faustus by Luther, soprano; Elaine Brewer, harp; Melanchthon, and Johan- Edward Laut, cello, and John nes Wier,” Ernst Dick Boulton, flute, performed (Lawrence, KS), “Löw- Cohen’s “I Remember,” hardus, Son of Siegfried: based on the Diary of Anne The Invention of a Hero in Frank. Professor Helga a Rediscovered 17th-Cen- Schreckenberger (University tury Chapbook,” and of Vermont), former KU Marianneli Sorvakko- graduate student and presi- Spratte (Kirchheimbolan- dent of the North American den, Germany), “The Faust Society for Exile Studies re- Legend and Its Transfor- ported in her newsletter that mations in Finland.” the conference was a “great success.” She added: “The October 25, 2003. A excellent concert, in particu- program of violin music, lar, was a wonderful and performed by Aleksandr György Szönyi moving experience.” Jörg Snytkin, Noemi Milorado-
Thunecke’s detailed description about each of the vic, Francesca Manheim, Kathy Haid-Berry, and twenty-six presentations is in the journal of the Jeannine Elasewich, featured compositions by Béla
Gesellschaft für Exilforschung, published in Decem- Bartók and Ernest Manheim. ber 2003. March 6, 2004. With the imminent expansion September 19–20, 2003. Conference: The Max of the European Union, interest has increased in Kade Center participated in this year’s Central Renais- countries linked to the former Austro-Hungarian sance Conference by sponsoring four sessions. Former Empire. A prominent new member of the European KU graduate students Anne Winston-Allen and Paul Union will be Hungary. Visiting Fulbright Professor Gebhardt were on the program, which focused on the György Szönyi (University of Szeged) is teaching a period 1400–1700. The program consisted of: Will- course this semester in order to provide the histori- iam Hopkins (Rochester), “Johannes Tauler as a Pre- cal background for new developments. In a cultural decessor?” Hartmut Rudolph (Potsdam), “The Apostle variation of this political theme, Professor Szönyi Peter as a Key to the Lay Theology of Paracelsus,” delivered a public lecture: “Under the Influence: Joseph B. Dallett (Ithaca, NY), “Deviant Constructs: Hungarian Gypsy Music and the Classical Tradition.” Inherent Images in the Labyrinthus Medicorum Tracing developments in Hungary from the medi- Errantium and Wider Traditions,” Andrew Weeks eval period into the twentieth century, he gave re- (Normal), “Image and Image Magic in the Works of corded samples of a nation’s cultural heritage, and Paracelsus,” Frank Baron (Lawrence), “The Mystery he showed that this legacy made a dramatic imprint and Magic of Renaissance Names: The Case of on classical music throughout Europe. Paracelsus,” Paul Gebhardt (Mount Vernon), “Die
In Memoriam
Michael Scherer
Bill Keel
We were saddened to learn of the death of Dr. Michael “Mike” Scherer in Munich, Germany, on Febru- ary 3 at the age of 81. With Toni Burzle, Dr. Scherer had been instrumental in establishing the first KU Summer Language Institute in Germany near Holzkirchen, when he held an appointment as visiting assis- tant professor in German at KU (1960–1961). He returned to KU for two years as visiting associate profes- sor in German (1962–1964) and directed the 1964 Summer Language Institute in Holzkirchen before re- turning to his duties in the Bavarian educational system. He eventually became a higher official in the Bavarian Ministry for Education in Munich. He and his wife, Elisabeth, taught many years in the SLI in Holzkirchen, especially during the decade of the 1980s, when both were semiretired. They organized many trips to museums, concerts, theater and opera performances in Munich for KU students. Michael Scherer expressed it best in his letter of resignation to Deans Waggoner and Heller in the spring of 1964: “In my new position in Germany, it will be my avowed aim to continue to work for close understanding between my home country and the United States of America. Above all, I will always be available for any service I can render in connection with future programs of the University of Kansas to be carried through in Ger- many.” He kept that promise, and hundreds of our students benefited from his lifelong dedication to our summer institutes. He loved to meet with students and faculty from our SLI in Holzkirchen in a Munich beer garden and discuss politics or current cultural trends in Germany and the U.S.—he was still doing that last summer in his ninth decade. He is survived by his wife in Munich and his daughter in New York.
The University of Kansas Max Kade Center for German-American Studies Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Sudler House PAID Lawrence, KS Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Permit No. 65 Lawrence, KS 66045-2127