The letters of the returnee
The Letters of the Returned One is a novella by Hugo von Hofmannsthal that appeared in the summer of 1907 in “Morgen” in Berlin.
content
In April / May 1901 an Austrian who had returned to Europe wrote five letters to an anonymous old friend in London. He does not consider himself a visionary, nor does he allow himself hallucinations as a businessman. He has not yet dealt with art. He does not consider himself pious, but he believes in “a piety of life”.
The letter writer stayed overseas for eighteen years. In the last four of these years he worked for a Dutch company far away from Europe. Actually on the way home, he has been traveling all over Germany on business for four months. On these train journeys on behalf of the Dutch, he was confronted with German conditions and felt a sense of unease. Yet his father had said at home in Gebhartsstetten over twenty years ago: “We are Austrians, but we are also Germans.” His discomfort turns out to be indescribable - despite the many words in the letters - because around him “there is no breath of death, but of non-life ”. He dreads. He would like to "get away from Europe and back to the good distant countries". He was happy to visit his pen pal at his old overseas post. But the friend is now in London, where the letter writer does not want to go. These travel plans are pipe dreams. Duty calls. Before the letter writer travels to Upper Austria , he has to represent the interests of the Dutch at a conference in Germany. The point is to unite an Anglo-German society with the Dutch. The letter writer would like to stay away from this conference. He seeks excuses. On a quiet side street, he enters a decent-looking shop. In it he visits an exhibition with works by van Gogh . The passer-by does not yet know this painter, but he has an unheard-of inner experience when looking at the pictures. Van Gogh lifted individual objects, which gradually made him feel uncomfortable in hotel rooms and on train journeys in Germany, in a way, as it were, "out of the terrible chaos of non-life" that "their innermost life begins in color". The letter writer can get to the conference just in time. Taken into euphoria by van Gogh's pictures, he achieved more during the negotiation than the Dutch had expected from him.
The letter writer does not want to isolate himself from people. He really wants to go to Austria. He doesn't want to stay there. At the end of the fifth letter, the scribe becomes unsure. Will he meet with understanding from the addressee if he reduces the quintessence to the colors of van Gogh? Although he writes: “Color. Colour. The word is too poor for me ”, but then he hopes“ why shouldn't the colors be brothers of pain, since these like those draw us into eternity? ”
reception
- In 1922, Willy Haas discusses the “unresolvedness” of the “difficult person” in the “crisis” work.
- The letter writer is afraid of the European reality and takes refuge in the colors of Van Gogh. He amazes at the art. Thus his inner conversion becomes possible.
- Disoriented by the conditions in Wilhelmine Germany, those who returned find support after a chance “awakening experience” - the unexpected encounter with painting.
- Hofmannsthal moves “at the limits of language” when dealing with Goethe's theory of colors . The author investigates whether the language of colors (see above: van Gogh) can be translated into poetry.
literature
- Gotthart Wunberg (Ed.): Hofmannsthal in the judgment of his critics . Athenaeum, Frankfurt am Main 1972 (without ISBN, 612 pages)
- Jacques Le Rider : Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Historicism and Modernism in Turn-of-the-Century Literature. Translated from the French by Leopold Federmair . Row neighborhoods. Human science studies. Vol. 6 (Georg Schmid (Ed.), Sigrid Schmid-Bortenschlager (Ed.)) 312 pages. Böhlau Verlag Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98501-X
- Ursula Renner: "The magic script of pictures". Fine arts in Hofmannsthal's texts. 582 pages. Rombach Verlag, Freiburg 2000, ISBN 3-7930-9191-0
- Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1900–1918. From the turn of the century to the end of the First World War. 924 pages. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52178-9
- Sabine Schneider: “Color. Colour. The word is pathetic to me now ”. A medial figure of reflection at Hofmannsthal . S. 213–230 in: Elsbeth Dangel-Pelloquin (Ed.): Hugo von Hofmannsthal. New ways of research . 240 pages. Scientific Book Society Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 978-3-534-19032-4
First book edition
- Hugo von Hofmannsthal: The prosaic writings. Third volume (The Colors). 195 pages. S. Fischer, Berlin 1907
Quoted text edition
- Hugo von Hofmannsthal: The letters of those who returned . S. 544–571 in: Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Collected Works in Ten Individual Volumes, ed. by Bernd Schoeller in consultation with Rudolf Hirsch , S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1949 (edition from 1986), volume stories. Made up conversations and letters. Travel . 694 pages, ISBN 3-10-031547-2
Web links
- The text at Gutenberg.de
Remarks
- ^ From 1907 Hofmannsthal was editor of the lyric section of the magazine "Morgen. Weekly for German Culture ”.
- ↑ The letter writer names Montevideo , Surabaja , Buenos Aires , the USA, Asia and Indonesia as stops on his travels around the world.
Individual evidence
Source means the quoted text edition
- ^ Schneider, p. 223, 4. Zvo
- ↑ Source, p. 676, first entry
- ↑ Source, p. 557, 11. Zvu
- ↑ Source, p. 562, 10. Zvo
- ↑ Source, p. 571, 2nd Zvu
- ↑ Willy Haas in Wunberg (Ed.), P. 289 above and p. 295 below
- ↑ Le Rider, p. 210, 11. Zvu
- ^ Le Rider, p. 206, 8. Zvu and p. 209, 2. Zvu
- ↑ Sprengel, p. 246, 17. Zvo and p. 80, 19. Zvo
- ^ Schneider, p. 215, 8th Zvu
- ^ Schneider, p. 218, 11. Zvu
- ^ Schneider, p. 219, 4th Zvu