An Anna Blume’ Cole Collins

‘Anna Blume hat ein Vogel’: Madness and Identity Politics in ‘An Anna Blume’ Cole Collins For Schwitters, identity was never absolute but contextually determined: it could always be reconfigured, and, indeed, it became the task of his work to make this “law” manifest. Megan Luke Manifestations of Anna Blume The elusive figure of Anna Blume has remained mystifying to artists and critics alike as they wrestle with the complicated and obscure figuration of Schwitters’ most famous character. Many have made attempts to understand her, to contextualise her, to give her historical significance, and have made multiple offerings with varying de- grees of plausibility. This essay seeks to consider the literary, artistic and critical perspectives which focus on Anna Blume, and then to consider how we might take studies of Anna Blume further. “An Anna Blume” was first published in 1919 in Der Sturm (Volume 10, Issue 5, 10 August). It was later picked up by Paul Steegemann Verlag, Hannover, and produced in Anna Blume. Dichtungen.1 As well as these literary forms, Anna’s name appeared in this first year as a collage (Das Kreuz des Erlösers), a Stempelbild [a stamp picture] and a watercolour. In the same year, she appeared in the dedication of a drawing that was reproduced in the December issue of Der Zweeman as An Anna Blume, die Berühmte [To Anna Blume, the Famous].2 In 1920, the poem was printed as a poster [Plakat] in the style of a public information announcement. Wrapped in a red border, evoking the red dress she wears, ‘An Anna Blume’ was printed in Frak- tur font, and plastered around Hannover for all to read. The Plakat can be interpret- ed simultaneously as a political symbol, appropriating city materials to announce the birth of Schwitters’ most famous creation, and also as publicity for his collection of poems—below the border reads: ‘This is a sample of the beautiful book “Anna Blume” by Kurt Schwitters. It is available in all bookshops. All educated people should own it.’3 Next to this short text, in a larger font size, “Mk. 4,80” (4.80 Ger- man marks) can be read. Furthermore, Schwitters, ever seeking the opportunity to capitalise on the publicity this could garner him, produced stickers with Anna Blume’s name on them: in white writing, against a red background, atop her name an exclamation mark, and below it a question mark, suggesting the contradictions in 14 her character and the vexation she caused. In one anecdote, the author unknown, the reader is told that while on a tram in Dresden, Schwitters produced from his pocket Anna Blume stickers and stuck them over the tram, much to the displeasure and con- fusion of the conductor.4 The poem was published again in 1922, in a new edition of Anna Blume. Dichtungen, again by Paul Steegemann. This time, alongside the original German version, it was reproduced in French by Roland Schacht as ‘A Eve Mafleur’;5 in English as ‘Ann Blossom has Wheels’ by Myrtle Klein;6 and as ‘An- navirágnak / “Anna Blume” Kötetéböl’ in Hungarian (Magyar) by Kahána Mózes.7 Theo van Doesburg produced a Dutch translation, printed in 1923, for Schwitters’ and van Doesburg’s collaboration on Merz 1: Holland Dada.8 Subsequently, Anna featured in twenty-six of Schwitters’ artworks and was referenced explicitly in twenty- three of his poems, short stories, plays and critical writings. In 1927, Myrtle Klein’s translation was printed in the Franco-American journal transition, edited by Eugene Jolas and Elliot Paul, this time as ‘Anna Blossom has Wheels’.9 In 1935, among other works by the artist, ‘An Anna Blume’ was singled out as an example of Entartete Kunst and was defamed in the first touring exhibition of De- generate Art, 1933-1936. After 1945, when Schwitters was in exile in Ambleside, a “new” English translation appeared. This time ‘Anna’ had changed her name and taken on her French persona, Eve. The title was changed to ‘To Eve Blossom,’ and although it was never published in Schwitters’ lifetime, it is uncertain who complet- ed the translation. Despite my investigation into who the author was, the uncertain- ty is compounded by unconvincing evidence of a handwritten entry in a green hard- bound book (in Schwitters’ characteristically scrappy Sütterlin handwriting) which reads ‘To Eve Blossom,’ but does not offer a concrete answer as to who was the translator (or indeed the date of translation).10 Further contributing to the confu- sion is a loose sheet of paper which is dated (possibly by Ernst) to the 1940s. This is in Ernst Schwitters’ handwriting, but, the translation is credited to Kurt Schwit- ters.11 The iterations of this poem differ slightly: one offers politically charged lines where Eve’s name, when spelled out, comes to stand for the Allies’ triumph. The lines read, ‘E – Easy / V – Victory / E – Easy’, and suggest that it may have been written between September of 1945 and Kurt Schwitters’ death in January of 1948. The latter version of ‘To Eve Blossom’ omits the lines regarding an “easy victory”; and this is the version which Ernst Schwitters used in 1956 when he, along with Ur- sula and Philip Granville, produced a gramophone recording of ‘An Anna Blume’ and other poems by his father. This translation, with the exception of Anna’s name change, is almost verbatim of Myrtle Klein’s 1922 version. In 1946, the art historian Carola Giedion-Welcker produced an anthology of poems, Poètes a L’Écart – An- thologie der Abseitigen [Poets between the Gaps – An Anthology of Marginal Poets] fea- turing thirteen of Schwitters’ poems, two of which were versions of ‘An Anna Blume’: in German (p. 181) and in French (p. 182).12 Other odd variations of the 15 poem occur, on one type sheet of the English translation, which can be found in the Kurt Schwitters Archive, Hannover, “Anna” has been scored out, and “is nuts” erased, and the title changed to ‘eve Blossom has Wheels’.13 The original title, which can barely be seen on the typesheet, is a crude translation of the figurative phrase ‘Anna Blume hat ein Vogel.’ Anna Blume’s life extends beyond the span of her creator’s. In 1965, Ernst Schwit- ters compiled all the variations of Anna Blume in a single volume entitled Anna Blume und ich [Anna Blume and I], in which the three volumes of Anna Blume poems are collected.14 However, the editor seems to have taken some liberties, and in the reproduction of the 1922 volume of Anna Blume. Dichtungen, he has removed Myrtle Klein’s ‘Anna Blossom has Wheels’ and replaced it with ‘To Eve Blossom.’15 The impetus for doing so is unclear, and as I regard it, an unfortunate omission. I have suggested, in other essays, the potential for a proto-feminist perspective in Schwitters’ representations of women, and believe that Klein’s translation is a key factor in exploring this aesthetic. Klein’s translation (notably the only woman to translate ‘An Anna Blume’) is responsible for removing the image of the madwoman and replacing this image with a mechanised woman, and thus represents Anna Blume as a radical woman.16 Despite this retelling of Anna’s history, she lives on: almost forty years after Schwitters’ death, she is given new life by the poet Colin Mor- ton, who recreates his own version of ‘An Anna Blume’. ‘Anna Bloom’ was published in The Merzbook: Kurt Schwitters Poems and is an amalgamation of Anna in all of her forms and tongues.17 She was further re-imagined in 2000 in a collection of translations, entitled: A—N—N—A!: Kurt Schwitters’ Poem “An Anna Blume” in 154 Poetic Translations from 137 Countries.18 ‘Who on earth is this Anna Blume?’: Identity, Form, and Reception Anna has undergone many transformations and appeared in multiple permutations; the above only details her in poetic form, and is not exhaustive of many later and contemporary interpretations. The poem also gained Schwitters notoriety. Its form, difficult to define or compartmentalise as any singular style, contributed to percep- tions of critics and the general public, as well as being brought to the attention of the political powers. The poem fluctuates between saccharine ode, proclaiming an undying love, and plainly insulting. In one line, she is the tantalising subject of his ‘twenty-seven senses’ [siebenundzwanzig Sinne]. In another he questions her (or his own) mental stability in the grammatically incorrect line, ‘Anna Blume hat ein Vo- gel’.19 The idiom suggesting that a person owns [hat] a bird is a euphemism for madness, and one that is specific to women. It is unclear whether this is Schwitters’ interpretation of Anna Blume, or someone else’s view which has been repurposed by Schwitters in Merz fashion. It seems in previous readings the dominant trend has been to take the former reading—most notably in Dorothea Dietrich’s essays, and 16 Elizabeth Burns Gamard’s short section on Anna Blume in her book.20 This slippage in grammar is not a misprint, or simple error on the author’s part, but it functions in two interesting ways. Firstly, by using “ein” the reader could be forgiven for mixing the masculine article of Vogel with the neuter article (the word is masculine, but might be read as neuter here, on account of both genders sharing the same article form in nominative de- clension) and therefore could be read as a removal of gender in favour of a neutral classification.21 Secondly, it shifts focus from the madness of Anna to the seeming incompetence of the poet—we may even think of this non-grammatical phrase as rambling, nonsensical, incorrect, and jarring to the ear (particularly the sensitive one of a native German speaker).

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