Alfred AnderschCritiques

Ich nehme vorweg: "Die Rote" ist kein "zeitkritischer", "neorealistischer" oder "neoveristischer" Unterhaltungsroman. Der Autor benutzt zwar Umgangsdeutsch, voller Fehler, wollte man es am Duden messen. Aber er spricht es unter anderem. Er kann genau so gut mit der Sprache umgehen als in ihr erzählen. Grundsätzliches Stilmerkmal ist das ständige Umschlagen von mitgeteiltem Geschehen in Reflexion über das Geschehen: die Gedanken Franziskas z.B. (Hier wäre kritisch anzumerken, daß der Kursivdruck ein überflüssiges grafisches Hilfsmittel ist, weil die Sprachschichten an sich funktionieren).

Der Roman besteht aus fünf Teilen, zunächst parallel montiertem Geschehen ("Franziska, Nachmittag. Fabio, Spätnachmittag"), Reflexionen Franziskas, einem Hintergrund und den sprachlich bemerkenswerten, kurzen Passagen am Ende jedes Teiles und überleitend zum nächsten: "Der alte Pietro, Ende der Nacht" (wovon noch zu sprechen sein wird). Ähnlich wie schon in "Sansibar oder der letzte Grund" werden auch hier scheinbar nicht aufeinander bezogenes Geschehen und die Figuren zielgerichtet durcheinander geschnitten (Fabio; Franziska). Dabei funktioniert der alte Pietro als eine wirklich kontrapunktische Figur mit seinen Gedankenfetzen, die die vier ersten Teile: "Freitag, Samstag, Sonntag, Montag" abschließen; kontrapunktisch funktioniert auch die Sprache.

Innerhalb einer dergestalt hergestellten Textrealität, die nicht mit Abbild der Wirklichkeit zu verwechseln ist, weil sie zunächst mit Wirklichkeit nichts zu tun hat, wodurch sich ein Großteil der Kritik und ihre Formeln wie "Neoverismus" und "Neorealismus" von selbst erledigen - innerhalb dieser Textrealität treten die Figuren auf, bewegen sich durch die Winterlandschaft Venedigs,(eine Landschaft des Textes), vor der Zeit zerbrochen und stark dort, wo sie zerbrachen. Die einfachen Sätze und Wörter der Gedankenketten des alten Pietro unterlegen als Kontrapunkt die Möglichkeit einer einfachen Freiheit. Und so versteht sich der letzte, kürzeste Teil des Romans, "Das Geheimnis solcher Häuser", gemessen an der bisherigen Vermischung der Sprachschichten, in seiner schlichten Berichtform als Monolog einer freigewordenen Franziska. Wenn das Thema die Flucht aus dem Klischee (der Handlung, der Sprache) ist, dann ist dieser letzte Monolog ein Monolog in Freiheit: "Ich war ganz zufrieden. Von Zeit zu Zeit würde ich Fabio sehen. Mein Kind würde es gut haben, bei Fabios Leuten. Wie die alte Frau Crepaz, begann ich, das Zimmer mit meinen Augen auszumessen". ["Happy end" - fehlt in den aktuellen Auflagen]

Dieser Roman ist so gesehen auch zeitkritisch, eine glückliche Synthese zwischen tendenziös-kritischer und ästhetisch-artistischer Literatur. Rückblickend auf die Andersche Entwickluug nach "Sansibar oder der letzte Grund" ist hier eine Folgerichtigkeit dieser Entwicklung anzumerken, die manchem anderen Autor zu wünschen wäre.

Tenere tra le mani una Medusa in perfette condizioni è sempre una piacevole sensazione, se quello che stai leggendo poi è pure un degnissimo pezzo di letteratura tedesca anni '60 e ti senti in sintonia con l'autore non ti resta che leggere fino alla fine! (ed è proprio così che è andata).
Un ebreo tedesco fa i conti con la Shoa, la perdita dei famigliari, la perdita di ogni fede (nella Storia, nell'Uomo, in Dio), sente l'esigenza di apportare un cambiamento alla propria vita e da giornalista diventa romanziere. La narrazione riguarda proprio la nascita e la stesura del romanzo (quello che il lettore sta leggendo), inframmezzata da riflessioni sul giornalismo e su quelle simpatiche canaglie di giornalisti come il protagonista che si sposta tra Berlino Roma e Londra (facendocele sentire).
Di certo non un capolavoro, di certo una buona lettura.

Im Herbst 1937 treffen in Rerik mehrere Personen aufeinander, die eins gemeinsam haben: Sie wollen weg aus Deutschland. Da wären eine Jüdin, ein Pfarrer, ein Parteifunktionär (alle drei auf der Flucht vor den Nationalsozialisten, hier nur „die Anderen“ genannt), ein Fischer, sein Schiffsjunge und eine Skulptur, die von den Anderen aus dem Verkehr gezogen werden soll.
Das kleine Büchlein ist schnell gelesen. Die Geschichte wird abwechselnd aus der Perspektive der verschiedenen Protagonisten erzählt, wobei ihre Ängste und Hoffnungen sehr nachfühlbar werden. Eine nicht unbedeutende Rolle bei der Enstehung des Buches dürften die persönlichen Erlebnisse des Autors gespielt haben, denn er war Mitglied der KPD und wurde von den Nationalsozialisten verhaftet und verhört, diente im Zweiten Weltkrieg, desertierte 1944 und war Kriegsgefangener in den USA, bevor er 1945 nach Deutschland zurückkehrte.

Mein Verschwinden in Providence. Erzählungen (Engl. My Disappearance in Providence & Other Stories) is a collection of nine short stories by Alfred Andersch, published in 1971. All stories were written between the Spring of 1968 and the Spring of 1971. The stories are published in the order in which they were written, which hinders the reader to construe a meaning or signficance of the stories.

Some of the stories contain autobiographical elements. Alfred Andersch, who was born 100 years ago, in 1914, was drawn into the army during the Second World War. A decade before the war, he had been imprisoned in a concentration camp for his sympathies with Communism.

Three of the stories, "Brüder", "Festschrift für Captain Fleischer" and "Die Inseln unter dem Winde" deal with the Second World War. In each of these stories there is a character by the name of Franz Kien, who seems to be an alter ego of Alfred Andersch. "Brüder" is about two brothers who are musing about being drawn into the army. "Festschrift für Captain Fleischer" deals with a group of German Prisoners of War in an intern camp in the United States and the process of de-Nazification, as they need to come to terms with their new status and the fact that Germany has lost the war. The story deals with interesting aspects about the soldiers capacity to remain sane, absorb the many impressions of their new environment (the story is set in the United States), and matters of honour and respect, shown by a Jewish officer. "Die Inseln unter dem Winde" deals with a foreign visitor to Germany, who is shown around by Franz Kien. The story describes how Kien at first suspects, and gradually realizes that the foreign visitor sympathizes with the ascending Nazi powers. The story is set in the final years before the war.

Some stories seem to deal with developments in Germany after the war, and the changes in people's ideas and attitudes towards Americans. Thus, in the story "Tochter" some of the characters German is studded with English expressions, and other English language influences, even to the extent that they cause mistakes to be made in German grammar. Other stories are clearly set during the students protests and "second" rise of communism in Germany during the 1960s. The title story "Mein Verschwinden in Providence" consists of a series of 110 vignettes which represent suggested chapters or scenes for a novel to be written.

It seems the "war stories" are the strongest felt stories. They are apparently most close to the core themes of Alfred Andersch. Most other stories are only somewhat interesting, as they trace contemporary developments in Germany, but there is no clear thematic development. The repeated appearance of the character Franz Kien, suggests that the stories describe a personal development, but other stories seem unrelated.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Alfred Andersch emerged as one of the most important post-war authors, but in recent years, doubt has been cast on his sincerety, and the truthfulness of his autobiographical writing related to the war experience. However, it seems many German authors seem tainted by this type of behavior. It will probably take another generation to re-evaluate this "menschliches-alzu-menschliches" behavior of denial are distortion. Once all biographical facts have been explored and studied, it will most likely be possible in the future to appreciate parts of these writers oevre as opposed to insisting on 100% ideological purity. Surely, a large part of the work must be original and sincere. It would really be throwing the baby out with the bath water, to fully discard an author such as Alfred Andersch.

Alfred Andersch was born in 1914 and died in 1980.½

As much philosophy and personal review as it is memoir or history, this short "report" by Andersch has some truly great moments. As he moves through his experiences living in the years of the Third Reich, and then finally fighting (or at least traveling with) and then deserting Hitler's forces, Andersch' pre-occupations are philosophical, revolving around personal freedom, justice, and art. The introduction notes that readers will be doing Andersch a disservice to read him as a hero, and that the power of the work comes only when one overlooks his presentation of self. Yet, truly, Andersch doesn't make any attempt to present himself as any sort of a hero. In fact, he speaks instead of what it might mean for him to be heroic, or act heroicly, where instead he constantly carried both cowardice and courage with him at all times, and veered toward cowardice...because cowardice could mean freedom (in life).

This is a short read, and one which is impossible to describe. It speaks honestly of the justice and injustice accompanying non-volunteer armies, citizenship, and even politics, but does so in such a poetic and commonplace language that the words are artful and lasting. Whether it should be considered memoir, philosophy, or history is for each individual reader to decide. It should, however, be read.

Recommended.½

Quite a number of German authors who started their career at the time of the Nazi German Third Reich, and became celebrated authors of the postwar period, are now forgotten or in disrepute. Especially those writers who did not go into exile are under fire as their integrity is questioned. For many authors whose career was built during the late 1940s to circa mid 1980s no substantial evidence existed except for personal testimonies by eye witnesses or close relations with whom they may have shared the most intimate details of their personal histories. These personal testimonies are only recently appearing or made known to the public. In some cases, as with Alfred Andersch speculation has proved to be without foundation. Still, any dispute of an author's moral integrity must negatively influence readers' ideas, even though the value of the authors' works are not reevaluated.

The essay by W.G. Sebald in "On the Natural History of Destruction" basically started the controversy around Alfred Andersch. That essay, "Between the devil and the deep blue sea. Alfred Andersch. Das Verschwinden in der Vorsehung" was first published in 1993. It was then included in the German first edition of Luftkrieg und Literatur: Mit einem Essay zu Alfred Andersch, This book was later published in a slightly different form and expanded to include two more essays as On the natural History of Destruction: With Essays on Alfred Andersch, Jean Améry and Peter Weiss (English trans. Anthea Bell (2003).

Sebald's essay marks the beginning of a 20-year controversy around the moral integrity of the German author Alfred Andersch, among others. This controversy has not been concluded.

Anyone interested to read postwar German literature, written by authors who were basically aged 18 before 1944, and may or may not have been active as writers during the period of the Third Reich, while not living in exile, should be aware of possible controversy around their authorship and moral integrity. Similar debates regularly flare up over other German authors belonging to that generation, and many of these controversies started or were refueled by new, recent discoveries in the 1990s or even through to the present, as I showed in my reviews of autobiographical work of Luise Rinser in various reviews last year. These controversies and attacks have bothered the Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass as well as several other members of the socalled Gruppe 47 (Engl. "Group 47", originally founded by Alfred Andersch, and others such as Wolfgang Koeppen, Christa Wolf, Peter Huchel, Günter Eich and Martin Walser.

The controversy around Alfred Andersch relates in particular to his representation of the facts around his marriage, and the suggested strategic use of that marriage to his own advantages. Die Kirschen der Freiheit (Cherries of Freedom) takes a key position in that debate, with Rolf Seubert claiming that, after detailed analysis of the manuscript and external documents "in „Kirschen der Freiheit“ kaum ein Detail mit den Quellen und Berichten übereinstimme." (hardly any detail corresponds with the sources). These details relate to Andersch position in the Communist youth organization, the duration of his imprisonment in concentration camp Dachau, factual observations in Dachau, his release from the German army, his marriage and anullment thereof and his status as a POW in 1944.

The main discussion, and the issue or moral integrity, raised by W.G. Sebald is about his marriage. In 1935, Alfred Andersch married Angelika Albert, who was half-Jewish. Conscripted into the German army (Wehrmacht) in 1940, Andersch met and fell in love with Gisela Groneuer while he was on leave in the autumn of 1940. In March 1941, Andersch was released from the army. Andersch claims that his request for release was based on his imprisonment in Dachau, but such imprisonment could not form a ground for release. In fact, reference to that imprisonment would have made his situation worse. In 2008, it was proved that Andersch requested release on the ground of being married with his half-Jewish wife. This release was enabled through the Nürnberger Gesetze (Nürnberg Laws) which forbade conscription of soldiers into the Wehrmacht who were married to partners who were not Arian (Angelika was classified as mixed blood of the first degree). Although his mother-in-law was deported, Angelika and their daughter was apparently and eventually not exposed to any danger. German citizens of mixed ancestry were never persecuted or deported, and were not treated in the way Jewish citizens were.

In the course of 1941, Andersch started an affair with Gisela, with whom he had a baby, and lived separately from his wife from 1942 onwards. Encouraged in his career as an author by Gisela, Andersch applied for the right to publish his work in Germany in 1943. To obtain this right he had to divorce Angelika. In his application he told the commission that he had already divorced from Angelika, which was factaully not true. The actual divorce came through later in 1943. This is supposedly the second case in which Andersch made strategic use of his marriage to Angelika to his own advantage.

As a result of the divorce, Andersch was again conscripted into the German army (Wehrmacht). Following his desertion from the army, described in Die Kirschen der Freiheit (Cherries of Freedom) was captured and locked up as a POW by the Americans in Italy in 1944. During this imprisonment, Andersch claimed to be married to Angelika. This claim constitutes the third time he made strategic use of the marriage to Angelika Albert, as marriage to a "Jewish mongrel" helped him secure his earlier release and the release of his manuscripts which had been confiscated. After the war, Andersch married Gisela.

Throughout the controversy about Alfred Andersch moral integrity, the moral integrity of W.G. Sebald was equally disputed, as Sebald's claims in 1993 were based on very scanty and inconclusive evidence. Sebald's accusations were later strengthened by new discoveries in 2008. However, Alfred Andersch biographer Stephan Reinhardt, in Alfred Andersch. Eine Biographie had already suggested that Andersch marriage to Angelika had floundered. To many, Sebald's position resembles more that of a troublemaker, who did not do sufficient research, and would possibly benefit from the exposure.

The Alfred Andersch controversy is not a small matter. The debate has raged for more than 20 years, since the publication of Reinhardt's biography in 1990 and Sebald's essay in 1993. Several books have been published about it, notably following a conference on the issue in 2010 and Alfred Andersch 'revisited'. Werkbiographische Studien im Zeichen der Sebald-Debatte (2011) by Jörg Döring and Markus Joch (Eds).

The controversy is no longer merely about "proof". In matters of moral integrity over Andersch marriage, it seems the reader must decide which version to believe (with Andersch biographer, who believes the marriage was at an end). In Die Kirschen der Freiheit (Cherries of Freedom), Alfred Andersch has already convincingly argued that fear limits freedom and makes people make choices and do things they would or might not otherwise.

With regard to Die Kirschen der Freiheit (Cherries of Freedom), it needs to be seen to what extent this work is autobiographical.

Die Kirschen der Freiheit is a beautifully written personal account of pre-war Germany and the Nazi period from about 1919 to 1945. It should definitely be considered on a par with for instance Ernst Toller's Eine Jugend in Deutschland.

Andersch biography Die Kirschen der Freiheit starts with the demise of the Munich Soviet Republic (Münchner Räterepublik) in 1919. In subsequent years, with a father who is a fanatic Hitler fan, Alfred became a leader the a Communist youth organization, for which he was arrested and locked up in the concentration camp Dachau in 1933. This instills so much fear in the young Alfred Andersch that after his release he abandons he political activities and turns to the relatively innocent occupation or art and writing. He describes how circumstances force him to cheer and welcome Hitler as the new Reichskanzler a few months later, waving a little flag as Hitler's motorcade passes through the streets.

Next, the autobiography describes how Andersch, who was conscripted into the German army (Wehrmacht) since 1940, deserted from his unit while fighting on the last front in Italy in June 1944. While his desertion seems frightfully simple, the reader is persuaded to feel the fear of doing so, as recapture would inevitably have meant immediate execution.

Apart from a (personal) history, Die Kirschen der Freiheit explores the question to what extent personal human freedom can be said to exist. Obviously, none of Andersch actions and life since his arrest in 1933 were motivated by even the merest semblance of free will, but more likely the result of a lifelong fear. In addition, Andersch explores the question to what extent an oath is binding in creating loyalty to a loathed master. Andersch conclusion is that people are never really free, and that freedom only exists in rare moments, which may possibly even only occur once in a lifetime. For who is ever truly free from fear or duty?

An uninspired report of the author's holiday with his family in Sweden.

The collected correspondence between the German author Alfred Andersch and his mother. Throughout his life, Andersch wrote letters to his mother, about 3 or 4 per year. Letters prior to 1943 were lost in a bombardment during the war. The content of most letters is rather banal, and of little interest to the general reader.

Alfred Andersch is one of the most important post-war German authors. Some of his works have appeared in English translation, e.g. Flight to afar (Sansibar oder der letzte Grund).½

"Der Vater eines Mörders" eröffnet einem einen neuen Blickwinkel auf eine Person, die wohl jedermann ein Begriff ist: Heinrich Himmler, Spitze der SS. Interessante Lektüre für solche die sich oft die "Wie konnte es dazu kommen?" Frage stellen.½

Roman, der gegen Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges spielt. Der Ort Winterspelt liegt irgendwo in der Eifel und ist fiktiv.Ein deutscher General will seine Armee übergeben.

14 Erzählungen, 2 Romane, 1 Reisebericht, Reise nach Rom im Winter

Het werk van de Duitse auteur (1914-1980) is nauwelijks in het Nederlands vertaald. Het is daarom verheugend dat van deze voormalige communist, gevangene in Dachau en lid van de 'Gruppe 47' nu een van de belangrijkste romans van het naoorlogse Duitsland vertaald is. Tegen de achtergrond van de totalitaire nazi-staat ontmoeten elkaar in 1937 in een kleine havenstad aan de Oostzee toevallig 6 personages. Ieder lid van de kleine 'Schicksalsgemeinschaft-voor-een-dag' is op geheel eigen wijze op zoek naar de vrijheid: de jongen, die droomt van het eiland Zanzibar, de visser, de jonge communist, het joodse meisje en de zwaar aan zijn God, de tijd en zijn lichaam lijdende dominee, die poogt het houten beeldje 'Der lesende Klosterschüler' voor 'de anderen' te redden. Andersch weet op de meesterlijke wijze van een groot schrijver de uitzichtloosheid en angst in een totalitair regime met de moed en de vrijheid van de enkeling te verbinden. Deze indringend, sobere en blijvend actuele roman uit 1957 (verfilmd in 1987) heeft recht op ruime aandacht.

This is all about Himmler's father and therefore about Himmler too.

Kurzbeschreibung
T. hat Gardner House am Samstag, dem 17. Oktober 1970, vormittags um halb neun verlassen. Seitdem fehlt von ihm jede Spur, wenn man von der Registrierkarte der Avis-Autovermietung auf der Kennedy Plaza absieht, aus der hervorgeht, dass er den an diesem Tag geliehenen Wagen, einen Dodge, nachmittags um vier Uhr zurückgegeben hat ...