! "# $ % & % ' % ! " # $%% &$ !' ' (% %) % '#*+ ,- * $- . /0 ! /123%# ' "# ' '% $$(' 33 4%/ / 5 # ! / The Change of the Religious Voices through the Trauma of Exile in the Works of Else Lasker-Schüler, Nelly Sachs, and Barbara Honigmann A dissertation submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies at the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the Department of German Studies of the College of Arts and Sciences 2010 by Renate Kaiser Sturdevant M.A., University of Cincinnati 2003 B.A., University of Cincinnati 2001 Committee: Dr. Todd Herzog (Chair) Dr. Sara Friedrichsmeyer (Member) Dr. Richard Schade (Member) ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the religious voices of three German-Jewish women. The trauma of exile caused by the Holocaust for Else Lasker-Schüler and Nelly Sachs, as well as the trauma of migration for Barbara Honigmann during the Cold War, changed their religious voices to become stronger. Their works bear testimony to the struggle of reconciling their assimilated German-Christian and German-Jewish heritages. Each of the authors’ works have been researched in regards to their religious voices, however, in spite of many commonalities between the three female exiles, no attempt at contrasting the change of their religious voices with each other had been made so far. I approached each of my three chapters by first researching the authors’ familial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. Since this dissertation covers 106 years of German- Jewish publications, there are some main differences in the historical, personal, and professional development of each writer. After having established an understanding of their lives and religious backgrounds, I investigated selected works, starting with the first published work of each author and ending with the last. My research reveals that living in exile changed the religious voices of all three German-Jewish authors. With the loss of their geographical Heimat, the losses of family members and friends, they indeed lost part of their German cultural identity. Nonetheless, the predicament goes deeper. The exiled authors rejected their German identities or they were rejected because of their assimilated German cultural heritage. They were not able to replace this part of their life, unless they concentrated on their ii Jewish identity and built their lives around it. All three authors set out on journeys to discover Judaism right before or soon after their moves into exile. This dissertation concludes that Lasker-Schüler’s and Nelly Sachs’s religious voices became quieter in their last works. Their religious voices changed back to the assimilated German-Christian content. However, there is a chain of development from Lasker-Schüler, to Sachs, and then Honigmann. The “Torah Connection” already existed during Lasker-Schüler’s and Sachs’ lifetimes. The writings of Martin Buber and all three authors’ personal acquaintances with Gershom Sholem, for example, demonstrate continuity. It proves that Jewish roots grow strong in spite of centuries of assimilation. In addition, there is a possibility of reconciling Germanness and Jewishness today, which was not possible for Lasker-Schüler and Sachs during and soon after WWII. German- Jewishness lies in the hands of the individual as does Heimat. Honigmann’s texts suggest that Jewishness today is increasingly becoming more global and diverse. All three authors found their Heimat in their work and their families. Lasker-Schüler and Nelly Sachs hoped to find it in heaven to be reunited with their families, while Honigmann found it with her family and Judaism in Strasbourg. iii Copyright 2010 Sturdevant, Renate iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This dissertation would not have been possible without the kind support of professors, colleagues, friends and family. I would first like to thank my advisor, Todd Herzog, for encouraging my interdisciplinary interests through the European Studies Seminars. I am grateful to committee members Sara Friedrichsmeyer, who sparked my interest in exile literature and Richard Schade who taught me how literature bridges hundreds of years, connecting the past with the present and, therefore, building a future. I would like to thank Susanne Koch and Erick Urbaniak for their encouragement and advice. I am indebted to the Taft Fund at the University of Cincinnati, whose financial support helped fund my research. I would also like to thank Gabriele Stief for being my best friend and for always believing in me. To my family in Germany, my parents Ingrid Kaiser and August Kaiser, as well as my siblings, Beate, August, Barbara, Dorothee, Eva, Ingrid, and Marianne: Ich hab’ euch lieb. Thanks to my American brothers Tom and Tyler Sturdevant. I am grateful to be part of the family. Pam and Larry Sturdevant, I am lucky to have found parents so far away from home, whom I love and trust. My children Christine, Alexander, and Franziska: You are the pride and joy of my life. I would not be writing this if it were not for your steadfast presence, love, and support. Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband Tim. Thank you – you and our children are the Heimat I have been searching for. I love you. v Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter I – Else Lasker-Schüler 15 Historical Background 17 Heimat 19 Jewishness 22 Dichotomy 29 Lasker-Schüler – German-Jewish Identity 33 Works 39 Styx – The Sturm-und-Drang Years 40 Konzert – Homage to a lost world 46 Hebräerland – Exile in Switzerland 51 Mein blaues Klavier – Exile in Palestine 59 Closing Remarks 59 Chapter II – Nelly Sachs 66 The Daughter Poetess 68 Taking Control 70 Suffering 72 Longing 78 Jewishness 84 vi Heimat 88 Works 90 Legende und Erzählungen – works and poems until 1933 90 “Rehe” – and other poems until 1940 99 “Grabschriften in die Luft geschrieben” – Exile works in the 1940s 105 “Flucht und Verwandlung” – The 1950s and the Kabbala 112 “Die Suchende” – Last poem published 115 Closing Remarks 122 Chapter III – Barbara Honigmann 124 Heimat 126 Jewishness 130 Works 134 Autobiographic Writing 135 Works in GDR: 139 Das singende springende Löwenäckerchen – The Beginning 140 Roman von einem Kinde – Work in Transition 143 Works in the 1990s 149 Eine Liebe aus Nichts – German-Jewish Tragic Triangle 150 Soharas Reise – Emancipation 153 Works in the 21st Century: 159 Alles, alles Liebe – Reminiscing life in the GDR 160 Das überirdische Licht – Globalization 171 vii Closing Remarks 181 Conclusion 185 Bibliography 190 viii INTRODUCTION 106 Years of German-Jewish Women’s Exile Writing The purpose of my research is to examine the works of three German-Jewish women writers who all share the experience of exile. At first glance, one may wonder what these three women, Else Lasker-Schüler, Nelly Sachs and Barbara Honigmann, have in common – beyond the obvious connections that they were born and raised in Germany, write in German, and live or lived on foreign soil. In addition, Else Lasker- Schüler was one of the rare Doppeltalente, as was Nelly Sachs. Barbara Honigmann is quite famous for her artwork, also. Lasker-Schüler published many anthologies of poetry, some of which she illustrated herself. Lasker-Schüler was born in Wuppertal in 1869 into an assimilated middle-class family with a long Jewish heritage. The Schüler family celebrated Christmas, as did their non-Jewish friends. The father, though, went occasionally to the synagogue, as well as to the Catholic Church. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, Lasker-Schüler was forced into exile. She died in Jerusalem in 1945. Leonie Sachs, better known as Nelly Sachs, was born in 1891 in Berlin, Germany. Like Else Lasker-Schüler, this author was raised in an assimilated upper middle-class family. In contrast to Lasker-Schüler’s family, the Sachs family lived a very secluded lifestyle. Nelly Sachs and her mother barely escaped the Holocaust. Her non-Jewish friend, Gudrun Harlan, traveled to Sweden on behalf of Sachs and her mother to obtain visas with the help of Prince Eugen, the brother of the King of Sweden. The day they left for Sweden was also they day they received their order of deportation. In 1970, Nelly Sachs died in Stockholm, Sweden, four years after 1 she received the Nobel Prize for literature together with Samuel Josef Agnon. The youngest of the three women exile writers is Barbara Honigmann, born in 1949. Honigmann’s parents returned from exile in England to East Germany after World War II. Her mother was of Jewish Viennese/Hungarian heritage and her father of Jewish German descent. She grew up in Soviet occupied Berlin, studied Theories of Drama and worked as a script-editor and theater producer until she turned freelance writer in 1976. She migrated to Strasbourg, France, in 1984, where she still lives with her husband and two children, actively involved in Jewish culture and religion. These women, whose works span 106 years of German literary history and whose lives bridge three centuries have many intriguing – so far unexamined – similarities. In recent years, scholars have increasingly shown interest in the study of exile literature with an emphasis on ethnicity. However, my research reveals that very few scholars have given thought to the role of religion. Jerry Glenn made a related observation in Paul Celan: Die Zweite Biografie. He noted that “Many critics tend to ignore the fact that Jews have their own religious and literary traditions” (Glenn and Todd 241). I agree with the assessment that scholars in exile studies concentrate rather on culture and ethnicity than on religion. Guy Stern, a leading expert and founder of German-Jewish Exile Studies, argues convincingly in his second anthology Literature and Culture in Exile that the “Hebrew Bible – together with the Classics – has supplied scores of writers with the material for their poetry, dramas, and narratives” (G. Stern 787-973). Again, this observation has not formed the basis for a close historical and literary examination in exile literature.