American Guild for German Cultural Freedom

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The American Guild for German Cultural Freedom Inc. (American Federation for Free German Culture) was an aid organization founded by Hubertus Prinz zu Löwenstein in April 1935 for the benefit of the German Academy of Arts and Sciences in exile , which was connected to it until December 1940 The Nazi regime offered intellectuals who had fled to the United States prospects for a physical and professional existence and sometimes saved lives by obtaining guarantees, visas and ship passages. Besides Prince Löwenstein, the most important people were Richard A. Bermann , Thomas Mann and Oswald Garrison Villard, Sr.

Uncensored writing with American sponsorship

In the previous months, Prince Löwenstein had already prepared the establishment of a "Home of German Culture", a project that took shape on April 4, 1935 when he and five American citizens - George N. Shuster , Freda Kirchwey, Samuel R. Wachtell, Horace M. Kallen and Emil Lengyel - signed the official New York certificate of registration of the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom . Oswald G. Villard, the publisher of the liberal weekly The Nation , was not a signatory but an indispensable supporter (later treasurer) . Wilbur L. Cross , the governor of Connecticut , was elected president by the board of directors . One of the goals was to provide German writers, scientists and artists with a medium through which they could express themselves uncensored, to promote the publication of the works of German writers as well as the production of their plays and films and to oppose the racial theory of the NSDAP - Supporters of this party and its members were excluded.

Now it was a matter of reaching a large audience, the best effect was promised by an idea by Willi Münzenberg , who brought Prince Löwenstein to his “adjutant” Otto Katz in Hollywood . His friends organized soirees “For the Victims of Nazism” in the spring of 1936 , at one of which Prince Löwenstein spoke on April 26th and pointed out the eleven hundred professors, scientists, actors and artists who had to leave Germany as well as the five thousand fatalities of three years of Nazi rule. The outcome of this fundraising dinner enabled the American Guild to begin the practical work. Regardless of this, the Anti-Nazi League was born in Hollywood at the same time . In Los Angeles on September 23, 1936, there was a founding concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer , a musical and social success, but a financial failure.

Notice in Europe

After the goals had been written down in a program and published as the “Plan of Action” in New York in April 1936, Peter de Mendelssohn was able to set about explaining them in a “memorandum on the establishment of a German academy in New York”, which was time-consuming to send the printed text to the most famous exiled writers, artists and scientists in a six-week round trip through half of Europe. Among other things, he pointed out the goal of providing scholarships to those in need with which they could continue their work, and in order to secure a permanent audience for their works, to promote the establishment of book clubs. The reward for the effort was winning over Thomas Mann for the idea of ​​the German Academy . He justified the sympathy he showed them on December 12, 1936 in the New York Times . The presidency of the academy was entrusted to Thomas Mann for his discipline, while Sigmund Freud took over the position of scientists . Prince Löwenstein traveled to Europe in the spring of 1937 and gave on the XV. International PEN Congress in Paris in June announced the establishment of the Academy . The first few months of the Guild were marked by financial bottlenecks, until so much money was available through the intensive efforts of Oswald G. Villard that the first twelve scholarships and two printing cost grants could be decided in January 1938. A literary prize totaling $ 4,520 could also be awarded , donated among others by the American publishing house Little, Brown & Co. By October 1, 1938, 136 manuscripts were received that met the formal criteria.

Illusory notions about US visas

The invasion of Austria by the German Wehrmacht on March 12, 1938 triggered another wave of refugees. Richard A. Bermann represented the Guild in Europe in Vienna and was particularly at risk because Das Neue Tage-Buch - an émigré magazine - had announced his address in Paris . With a $ 500 transfer from the Guild , he encouraged the escape of colleagues and most recently narrowly escaped being arrested. In doing so, the Guild had deviated from its principle of only helping authors to help themselves, but the policy was not to provide assistance when entering the USA, but to refer people to organizations specializing in such assistance. Many of those who decided to emigrate had no clear ideas about US immigration practices. They then had to find out from the Guild that the American visa authority had a German quota and that it was exhausted for two years - even people with an “ affidavit ” had to wait.

Since the responsibility between the "General Secretary" and the "Executive Secretary" was not clearly divided, there were tensions between Prince Löwenstein and Sarah F. Brandes in 1938, who finally resigned. But it was also the year in which Sigmund Freud accepted the nominal presidency proposed to him. In 1938, 67 writers and scientists were fellow Guild scholars , receiving an average of $ 31 a month. However, the financial situation was such that from November onwards it would no longer be possible to distribute scholarships - the neglect of fundraising - public relations work - had an impact. On the one hand, the November pogroms with the triggering of a Jewish mass exodus had the effect that donations were preferred to other organizations, on the other hand, new efforts to find sponsors led to the success of being able to award scholarships again in early 1939. Grant recipients were encouraged to include Guild support in their work. Bertolt Brecht was one of the few who adhered to it, so in his Svendborg poems :

"The book is published under the patronage of the Diderot Society and the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom."

A "literary competition" turns into an "affair"

In the spring of 1939, Löwenstein founded the Guild as a parallel organization The Arden Society for Artists and Writers Exiled in England . It was successful in rescuing intellectuals from the now fully occupied Czechoslovakia . The activities of the Arden Society were short-lived, however, until the outbreak of the Second World War , and from September onwards the Guild stopped paying out scholarships. In the meantime, unexpected problems had arisen with the “literary competition”: Since the jurors lived in the USA and various European countries, the manuscripts could not be passed on from one to the other. It was now up to Richard A. Bermann to make a preselection. Finally, 31 titles were presented to all five judges, six of them with the classification "First Category" (first choice). The prize was won by Arnold Bender's novel It's Later, Because You Know (or Winter in Sweden ) , but the Guild had neglected to examine the book for its market opportunities in the USA before making the decision, for Little, Brown & Co. such were not recognizable, so the competition failed. Since the participating authors were not allowed to offer the submitted work elsewhere while the “competition” was running, there was great irritation, and the process went through the press as the “American Guild Affair”. In the end, Bender received half of the $ 2,500 originally intended for the winner, and the British publisher involved, Collins , printed his book in 1943, entitled The Farm by the Lake .

Cod liver oil and literature - Löwenstein's slip

An article by Löwenstein in the New York state newspaper and Herold of March 17, 1940, in which he criticized plans by the Western Allies to divide Germany into individual states , hit the waves next . He also opposed any form of food blockade, since even after 1918 he was dependent on "Quaker breakfasts" in order to survive. There was now criticism. Klaus Mann asked how one could write for a "three-quarter Nazi paper", Julius Epstein represented in the Neue Tage-Buch the opinion that "one cannot fight the war means of the blockade without effectively becoming an agent of Hitler" . Leopold Schwarzschild polemicized that “a few weeks after the Stalin-Hitler Pact ” in the literary competition “the arrangers suddenly became interested - why? - had been lost ”, and wanted to see only“ Stalians ” in the“ pseudo-association ” American Guild, who“ were nested among the anti-Hitlerists by autumn 1939 ”. Thomas Mann resigned from the Guild and had his daughter Erika Mann explain this step to the Board of Directors. The latter asked the Nobel Prize winner to stay and wished to end the collaboration with Löwenstein. Löwenstein declared his resignation from the offices of general secretary and director of the Guild , his secretary Volkmar von Zühlsdorff remained in his position of "acting secretary".

From the end in New York to a new beginning in Germany

After the defeat of France , the Guild began to rethink. The main task now was to get endangered intellectuals out of the French internment camps (e.g. Le Vernet ) and to prevent extradition, as specified for individuals in the armistice agreement of June 27, 1940. Again in cooperation with Löwenstein, hundreds of endangered people could be saved.

With Europe at war, the publication of German books was out of the question. Since funds for a helping hand could no longer be raised, the American Guild was properly liquidated in December 1940. In retrospect, Hubertus Prinz zu Löwenstein saw the value of the Guild in having contributed to the progress of intellectual and political life in exile, which enabled "the rebirth of cultural and, not least, democratic life after 1945" to take place so quickly. The archive of the Academy and the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom - it contains 968 personal files and 13946 letters, among other things - is in the possession of the German National Library .

literature

Web links

References and comments

Individual evidence
  1. ↑ Hubertus Prince zu Löwenstein: Ambassador without an order. Düsseldorf 1972, p. 132.
  2. ↑ Thomas Mann: Seeking to Preserve German Cultural Freedom . In: The New York Times . December 12, 1936, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com ).
  3. ^ Volkmar von Zühlsdorff: From the endangerment of literary life. In: The time. October 23, 1959 ( zeit.de ).
  4. ↑ Hubertus Prince zu Löwenstein: Ambassador without an order. Düsseldorf 1972, p. 30.
  5. ↑ Klaus-Dieter Lehmann (Ed.): German intellectuals in exile. Munich et al. 1993, p. 417.
  6. ↑ Klaus-Dieter Lehmann (Ed.): German intellectuals in exile. Munich 1993, p. 422.
  7. ↑ Hubertus Prince zu Löwenstein: Ambassador without an order. Düsseldorf 1972, p. 136.
Remarks
  1. ↑ Translation and spelling (with "for") as on the forms of the "Guild".