Like it's a piece of me

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Edition from 1968

Like it's a piece of me Hearing friendship is the title of Carl Zuckmayer's autobiography .

The main title, a line from the poem The Good Comrade by Ludwig Uhland , is also the title of the fourth chapter, which describes the years 1914–1918 and Zuckmayer's participation as a volunteer in the First World War .

“At the end the military band played the song of the good comrade, in slow beat, and we sang along without knowing the meaning of this verse: 'It tore him away - he is at my feet - as if it were a piece of me. '"(Page 196)

The subtitle Hearing of Friendship alludes to Greek mythology , Schiller's magazine , but above all to the seven prayers of the hours of Christianity , to which the book is made clear, as made clear by quotations from Meyer's Konversations-Lexikon , edition of 1896 seven chapters of the book correspond. Listening to friendship is also the title of the fifth chapter, in which Zuckmayer talks about the years 1918–1920, the November Revolution , his studies in Frankfurt and Heidelberg and his friendship with Carlo Mierendorff , Theodor Haubach , Henry Goverts , Wolfgang Petzet, Max Krell and Hans Schiebelhuth writes.

«Why cry ...» (6th chapter)

The sixth chapter describes the years 1920–1933, Zuckmayer's move to Berlin, his breakthrough as a playwright with The Merry Vineyard in 1925/1926 and his encounters with all the important writers, directors and actors of the Weimar Republic . It is overwritten why cry - .

"'Why cry when you part, when
someone else is already on the next corner"
was the name of the most popular hit, you shouted it boastfully in every 'hall' (that was the name for small bars with entertainment that were on every street corner), you shivered with hysteria when the new dollar rate came out, and shot yourself at the first crash put a bullet through his head with his girlfriend.
Nevertheless, the incomparable intensity, the breath of that stormy upswing that made Berlin the most interesting and exciting city in Europe in just a few years, was already felt. "(Page 313)

The quoted hit by Arthur Rebner (music: Hugo Hirsch ) from the operetta The Divorce Travel also fits in with Zuckmayer's marriage, which lasted less than two years and divorced in 1922, to his childhood sweetheart Annemarie Ganz from Mainz and his subsequent brief relationship with Annemarie Seidel ("Mirl") . On the other hand, the chapter also tells of how Zuckmayer married Alice von Herdan in 1925 , with whom he would stay for the rest of his life.

Expulsion (Chapter 2)

The second chapter, expulsion , describes the years 1934–1939, in which Zuckmayer found refuge from the Nazis in Austria until he had to flee from them again with the annexation of Austria . It contains the following passage about the beginning of Nazi rule in Austria on March 12, 1938:

“All hell broke loose that evening. The underworld had opened its gates and let loose its lowest, most hideous, most impure spirits. The city was transformed into a nightmare painting by Hieronymus Bosch : lemurs and half-demons seemed to have crawled out of dirty eggs and climbed out of boggy holes in the ground. The air was filled with an incessant, harsh, hysterical screeching from the throats of men and women, which went on for days and nights. And all people lost their face, like twisted grimaces; some in fear, others in lies, others in wild, hate-filled triumph. [...] What was unleashed here had nothing to do with the ' seizure of power ' in Germany, which outwardly apparently took place legally and was received by part of the population with astonishment, skepticism or an unsuspecting, national idealism more to do. What was unleashed here was the rebellion of envy, resentment, bitterness, of blind malicious vengeance - and all other voices were condemned to silence. […] Nothing was let loose here but the dull mass, the blind rage of destruction, and their hatred was directed against everything that had been ennobled by nature or spirit. It was a witches' Sabbath of the mob and a burial of all human dignity. ”(Page 71 f.)

The other chapters

1896–1914 A view of the Rhine (Chapter 3: Childhood and school days in Mainz)
1926–1934 A moment lived in paradise (Chapter 1: Zuckmayer's house "Wiesmühl" in Henndorf am Wallersee , Henndorfer Kreis )
1939–1954 Farewell and Return (Chapter 7: Exile in the USA and Return to Europe)
1966 Die Hohe Stiege (epilogue: branch in Saas-Fee 1958)
The title of the epilogue alludes to the “Kapellenweg” from Saas-Grund to Saas-Fee and the pilgrimage chapel “Maria zur Hohen Stiege” there .
At the end Zuckmayer quotes from the “Bürgerbrief”, which was granted to him in 1966 with the municipal citizenship of Saas-Fee:
“'Eternal rights and eternal friendship should be confirmed and affirmed in writing, because in the course of time past and perishable things are soon forgotten . ' The meaning of my story lies in this sentence. ”(Page 573)

output

literature

  • Jang-Weon Seo: Carl Zuckmayer: Return to the lost home. In: The representation of the return. Remigration in selected autobiographies of German exiled authors. Epistemata, Literary Studies Series (Volume 470). Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-8260-2598-9 , pp. 11-62 (dissertation University of Mainz). Excerpt from books.google
  • Carl Zuckmayer's Autobiography: An Exploration and Other Contributions to Zuckmayer Research. Wallstein, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8353-1524-2 (= Zuckmayer yearbook , volume 12).

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "A moment lived in paradise, is not atone for too dearly with death." Don Carlos (Schiller) I.5 zeno.org