Alice Schmidt

Alice Schmidt , née Murawski (born June 24, 1916 in Greiffenberg ; † August 1, 1983 in Bargfeld ), had been the wife of the German writer Arno Schmidt (1914–1979), author of several historically valuable diaries and together since August 21, 1937 with Jan Philipp Reemtsma founder of the Arno Schmidt Foundation .

Life

Alice Murawski met Arno Schmidt, who was two years her senior, at her workplace in the Greiff factory , where both were employed. After the wedding on August 21, 1937, the couple, who deliberately remained childless, initially lived with Arno Schmidt's mother in Lauban and in 1938 they moved to the Greiff-Werke estate in Greiffenberg (Silesia). After the war, the couple lived in Cordingen (1946), Gau-Bickelheim (Rheinhessen) (1950), Kastel an der Saar (1951), Darmstadt (1955) and finally from 1958 in Bargfeld (Celle district).

Arno Schmidt asked his wife to give up her professional activity after the marriage, although she would have liked to continue it: “Since their wedding in August 1937, Alice Schmidt [...] had put her own life so largely in the service of her husband, that she was almost completely absorbed in his shadow. She emerged from it posthumously with her diaries, but her notes also show that, as Jan Philipp Reemtsma once stated, «there are easier ways of life in the world than being the wife of Arno Schmidt». "

Susanne Fischer , the editor of Alice Schmidt's diaries, sums up Alice Schmidt's special significance for Arno Schmidt's life, work and impact as follows:

“Alice Schmidt kept in contact with the outside world and literary life when Arno Schmidt no longer wanted to do that. In addition, she worked for her husband as a first reader, translation assistant, chronicler, assistant in publishing shops, secretary and ultimately as a housewife. Anyone who complains how it could be that the male genius was accompanied through life by such a down-to-earth, poorly educated wife has not understood that a team was at work here: Certainly not during the creative process, but in everything others, what belonged to work and life. "

- Susanne Fischer: Genius Assistant. Something about Alice Schmidt and her work.

After Arno Schmidt's death, Alice Schmidt founded the Arno Schmidt Foundation together with Jan Philipp Reemtsma in 1981, of which they were the founding board members. From 1975 until her death, she kept in touch by letter and telephone with Hans Wollschläger , whose letters and visits Arno Schmidt had ignored since autumn 1972. Alice Schmidt died on August 1, 1983 in Bargfeld.

Works

• Diaries from 1948/49 . Edited by Susanne Fischer. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-518-80420-9 .
• Diary from 1954 . Edited by Susanne Fischer. With a foreword by Jan Philipp Reemtsma and an editorial afterword by Susanne Fischer. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 978-3-518-80220-5 .
• Diary from 1955 . Edited by Susanne Fischer. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-80230-4 .
• Diary from 1956 . Edited by Susanne Fischer. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-80330-1 .
• Black and white recording. Photographs by Arno and Alice Schmidt from three decades . Edited and with an afterword by Janos Frecot. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2009. ISBN 978-3-518-80250-2 .

literature

• Jan Philipp Reemtsma : The strangers. In: Alice Schmidt: Diary from 1954. Edited by Susanne Fischer . Frankfurt: Suhrkamp 2004. pp. 303-323. ISBN 978-3-518-80220-5 .
• Susanne Fischer: Genius Assistant. Something about Alice Schmidt and her work. In: » Bargfelder Bote «, volume 400, May 2016. pp. 7–31. ISBN 978-3-921402-50-4 .
• Andreas Weigel : Changing turns. Arno Schmidt's Goethe Prize speech in Hans Wollschläger's correspondence with Alice Schmidt. In: »Bargfelder Bote«, volume 400, May 2016. pp. 32–35. ISBN 978-3-921402-50-4 .
• Andreas Weigel: Lost his pupil. Hans Wollschläger's investigations into Arno Schmidt's wordless rejection. On the correspondence between Alice Schmidt and Hans Wollschläger (January 1975 - July 1983). In: »Bargfelder Bote«, Lfg. 401-403, August 2016. pp. 3–35.

Web links

• Literature by and about Alice Schmidt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Monika Burghard and Gabi Wuttke: “Lilli buys petticoat; I Langenscheidt Italian-German. “About Alice's life with Arno Schmidt. A feature by Monika Burghard and Gabi Wuttke. In: NDR “Kulturfragen”, April 29, 2002.
• Wolfram Schütte : A Year in Alice's Wonderland ( Memento from September 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (January 13, 2005).
• Susanne Fischer: Alice Schmidt in Greiffenberg around 1944. (First published in: » Bargfelder Bote «, Lfg. 309-310, August 2008).
• Sven Hanuschek: Diaries Alice Schmidt . Up to the color of the chicken soup: Alice Schmidt's diaries from 1955 are enthusiastic about life with Arno. Schmidt, his work, shines through in almost every entry. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . April 14, 2009.
• Dirk Knipphals: Living next door to Alice Schmidt. The “Bargfelder Bote” is dedicating its 400th edition to Arno Schmidt's wife. In: taz of June 11, 2016. p. 14.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johannes Schmidt: "... those dark Greiffenberg years" . In: Jan Philipp Reemtsma and Bernd Rauschenbach (eds.): “Wu Hi?”. Arno Schmidt in Görlitz Lauban Greiffenberg . Edition of the Arno Schmidt Foundation published by Haffmans Verlag, Zurich 1986, p. 140.
2. ↑ Ulrich Baron: "Arno kinks my wings again" . In: Cicero . June 3, 2009.
3. ↑ Susanne Fischer: Genius Assistant. Something about Alice Schmidt and her work. In: Bargfelder Bote, Lfg. 400, May 2016. pp. 7–31. P. 7.