Exile and Survival

Reading about the German playwright Carl Zuckmayer's difficult life in exile from Germany and Austria, which he describes in his splendid memoir - Als wäre es ein Stück von mir - made me curious about the fate of other exile intellectuals. One always hears of the most famous emigres: Thomas Mann and Lion Feuchtwanger living in ocean-side mansions, or the illustrious members of the Frankfurter School teaching at ivy league American universities. But for most of the intellectuals who made their way to America during the 1930s and 1940s exile was a constant struggle and life was harsh.

I found a very good book on the subject: Exile in New York: German and Austrian Writers after 1933 by Helmut F. Pfanner.  Professor Pfanner writes about different aspects of the exile experience: the difficulty in obtaining a visa, the transit by ship across the Atlantic into New York, dealing with the American immigration officials, and then the struggle to make a living in a strange land.  Pfanner's study covers lesser-known writers such as Joseph Wechsberg, Ernst Waldinger, Oskar Jellinek, Alfred Polgar, Julius Bab - all of whom spent most of their exile years in New York City - the port of entry for nearly all German exiles. These writers faced a daunting challenge: in Europe they made a comfortable living writing in their native language; now they were deprived of the means of their livelihood. Unlike today, English was not studied or spoken much in Germany, so these writers were thrust into a new world where they couldn't communicate, much less make a living.  They adapted with varying degrees of success: Zuckmayer tried his hand at writing, but then turned to farming; the novelist Karl Jakob Hirsch made  window frames at a Brooklyn factory, Alfred Farau became a messenger in Manhattan, the physician Richard Berczeller worked at a grocery store, and Walther Victor was as fur packer in a New York department store.  More than one writer would have starved were it not for a resourceful wife; in general, the women adapted more easliy to the new country and were not so humiliated by the decline in professional status.

Pfanner writes about how the exile from the German language drove many writers to despair - with tragic consequences.  The great Expressionist dramatist Ernst Toller committed suicide in a Manhattan hotel room in 1939.  Zuckmayer writes movingly of his friend Stefan Zweig, who, together with his wife, committed suicide in Brazil.  Klaus Mann had mastered English and was able to publish in his acquired language, but even he bore the scars of exile and took his own life after returning to Europe after the war. For the most part, these writers remained loyal to their native language, but their German suffered from the isolation from its source, their language lost its purity. Pfanner notes that "a number of stylistically impoverished works were written by German and Austrian exiles" in America.  Even the master novelist Hermann Broch struggled with writing German, although he managed to complete his masterpiece Der Tod des Vergil while teaching at Princeton University.

I shouldn't paint such a sad picture of German exiles in America: a large number of German musicians, architects, painters, scientists came here and flourished.  Many stayed on in their new country after the war and became US citizens.  But for writers the situation was bleak: America gave them their lives, but Hitler took from them their essence - their language.

Comments

[your fan]

Again you are confused and incoherent David. How could they lose "purity of language" if "Hitler", you meant to say the fascist dictatorship, enforced the idea of "purity" like nothing else.

Would it not be down to lack of intellectual stimulus in their new homes, cultural barriers etc. Basically everybody can pick up a highly simplified and eroded language like English, thats why it is so popular. Well I guess the morale is you don't go to the USA unless you really have to, and it's a really bad terrain for the Arts.

[erphschwester]

ich halte das für eine durchaus realistische einschaetzung der lage der schreibenden exilanten. schliesslich geht es beim professionellen schreiben nicht um simples sich-ausdruecken-koennen, sondern eben um kunst. genau d a s ist der grund, aus dem ich bedaure, nicht englisch zu koennen: ich weiss, dass ich in meiner muttersprache sehr viel groessere moeglichkeiten habe.mit dem, was in aller welt gesprochen wird, hat meine vorstellung von sprache nur wenig zu tun.

[David]

@Fan,
on the assault on the German language in the NS-period, see
Karl-Heinz Brackmann / Renate Birkenauer: "NS-Deutsch". You might learn something.

[your fan]

It's quite stunning David. You tell us that "purity of language" makes a good artist, you tell us that "Hitler" and not a fascist movement and bureaucracy was responsible. There are examples of superb artists like Fischinger who also didn't make it in exile, but not because they lost their purity. Back then like today there is no place for non-commercial, non-coopted art in the US. Plus you know very well that nobody could have legally given these Germans an employment during WW2.

On your recommended book, actually most of the inspiration for Nazi propaganda came from England and its Empire, who were regarded by the Nazis as the very masters of propaganda. Well the book I'm going to recommend you is the classic 1984, try to understand what happens to the English language there, what makes expression of dissent outright impossible.

For current Neo-Nazi language, the best place to study this phenomenon is US-American TV like CNN. It's all right there in its fantastic stupidity. A razed town is collateral damage, a racist war of agression is democratic regime change and winning hearts and minds. Language of the Empire.