The spark of life
The spark of life is a concentration camp novel by the writer Erich Maria Remarque from 1952.
content
The novel has 25 chapters and tells the story of inmates and guards of the “small camp” of the fictional Mellern concentration camp, a few months before the end of the Second World War. The small camp is part of the concentration camp to which the incapacitated prisoners are sent. In the recurring bombardments of the nearby city, a group of long-term prisoners who are housed there saw signs of a possible liberation and began to organize for this case and to offer initially passive and finally active resistance. This begins with disobeying orders, hiding other inmates in order to remove them from the guards' access, procuring weapons and finally leading to armed struggle to liberate the camp. Both the inhuman conditions of the camp, such as humiliation, shootings, unsanitary conditions and hunger, as well as the perpetrators from petty-bourgeois surroundings are depicted and portrayed. An additional element is dealing with the communist part of the resistance group and their goals.
Emergence
Shortly after Remarque learned in June 1946 of the death of Elfriede Scholz , his youngest sister, who was beheaded after a trial before the People's Court in 1943, he began work on this novel, which he dedicated to her. The novel is based on books and conversations with survivors, such as Edgar Kupfer and Toto Koopman . Among the books were Willi Bredel's report The Examination from 1934, the novel The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers from 1942, and the analysis Der SS-Staat by Buchenwald prisoner Eugen Kogon from 1946, which Remarque only read in 1950. In addition, he was motivated by the lack of denazification and processing of history in the post-war period in Germany and Austria. Conception and elaboration dragged on until November 1950 because he lacked the material and was dependent on information from third parties. He started the novel from scratch three times; the contracts with the publishers had to be rewritten because of the delay. Against his inner conviction as an authentic author, Remarque was even forced to explain his project in various forewords and drafts.
reception
After its publication, the novel was largely positively received in reviews around the world, but Remarque stated for the German book market that the reactions were "for the most part extremely hostile, reserved and outraged". The Donaukurier criticized the advance notice in the New York magazine Collier’s because of its sensational presentation. Paul Hühnerfeld in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit wrote a severe review. Der Spiegel highlighted the author's exile: “Concentration camp painting of someone who was not there for those who were not there. Clichés from the retort. "
The drawing of the figures also led to negative criticism, but sometimes also to praise. While the novel became a success in the US, it wasn't in Germany, which Remarque himself explained with the suppression of the war and Nazi crimes in Germany in the 1950s.
expenditure
The book was first published in the US in February 1952 in an English translation, and from January 1952 as a preprint in Collier’s magazine . The largest Swiss publisher, Scherz, had signed a contract for the German original, but after the manuscript had been submitted, the publisher refused because it feared a boycott of the publishing house in the Federal Republic of Germany due to the political content. Joseph Caspar Witsch published the book in Cologne in August 1952 “regardless of the taste of the crowd, without asking whether this act 'pays off' in terms of publishing”. However, the book was published without the dedication “To the memory of my Sister Elfriede” in front of the American, French and Italian editions, the reason is unknown.
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The spark of life . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1952.
- Spark of Life . Translation of James Stern . Appleton, New York 1952
- L'ultima scintilla . Translation of Ervino Pocar . Mondadori, Milan 1952
- L'Étincelle de vie . Translation Michel Tournier . Plon, Paris 1953
literature
- Tilman Westphalen: Human dignity is inviolable. Epilogue to Der Funke Leben , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne, 1998, pp. 375–401
- Thomas F. Schneider; Tilman Westphalen (Hrsg.): “Reue is un-German”: Erich Maria Remarques The spark of life and the Buchenwald concentration camp . Exhibition catalog. Rasch, Bramsche 1992, ISBN 3-922469-73-6 .
- Thomas F. Schneider: Murderers who are sensitive. On the creation of “The Spark of Life” , pp. 14–20
- Claudia Glunz: “A hard thing”. On the reception of Erich Maria Remarques “Der Funke Leben” , pp. 21–27
- Heinrich Placke: Natural Law and Human Dignity. Notes on the potential for meaning in the novel “A Harsh Thing” by Erich Maria Remarque , pp. 28–40
- Thomas Taterka: Dante German. Studies on camp literature . Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-503-04911-8 .
- Christoph Wolfgang Steiner. This time I am sure that I will be attacked from all sides. The ambivalent reception of Erich Maria Remarque's ›Der Funke Leben‹ by literary criticism. Graz: Karl-Franzens-University, 2011 (MA thesis)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Claudia Gunz: Summary of contents , in: Thomas F. Schneider; Tilman Westphalen (Ed.): Reue is un-German . Exhibition catalog, 1992, pp. 10-13
- ↑ Thomas F. Schneider: Murderers who are sensitive. On the creation of Der Funke Leben. In: Reue is not German. Erich Maria Remarques The spark of life and the Buchenwald concentration camp . Exhibition catalog. Edited by Thomas F. Schneider and Tilman Westphalen. Bramsche: Rasch, 1992.
- ^ Tilman Westphalen: The dignity of people , 1998, p. 391 f.
- ↑ New in Germany - Erich Maria Remarque: Der Funke Leben . In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 1952 ( online ).
- ↑ Volker Hage : Forget it, as soon as possible. In: Spiegel Special. Issue 9, 1998. Retrieved October 20, 2017.
- ^ Rudolf Krämer-Badoni , in: Die Neue Zeitung , Munich, September 27, 1952. Printed by Tilman Westphalen: Die Würde des Menschen , 1998, pp. 391f.
- ^ Tilman Westphalen: Die Würd des Menschen , 1998, p. 375