Friedrich Torberg

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In 1951 Torberg signed his book The Second Encounter in the US Information Center, Vienna 1., Kärntner Straße 38

Friedrich Torberg (born September 16, 1908 in Vienna as Friedrich Ephraim Kantor-Berg , † November 10, 1979 ibid) was a writer , journalist , publicist , screenwriter and editor who always felt himself to be a Czech Austrian and a Jew .

His most famous works include his first work, the novel The Student Gerber , and then The Team as well as his later works, the anecdotal collections Die Tante Jolesch and The Heirs of Aunt Jolesch .

Torberg was, among other things, a translator of Ephraim Kishon's books , founding editor of FORVM magazine and known as a literary critic.

The author created his pseudonym “Torberg” around 1930 on the occasion of his first publications from the abbreviation of Kan tor -Berg (Berg was his mother's maiden name).

Life

Childhood and youth

Friedrich Torberg's birth house in Porzellangasse 7a.

Torberg came from a German- Jewish family in Prague . His father Alfred Kantor (1874–1931) went to Vienna as a manager of a Prague alcohol factory, where Therese Berg ran a branch of her parents' smoked goods production and where they married at the end of 1900. His older sister Sidonie ("Sidi") (1902–1941) and his mother were deported to the Litzmannstadt ghetto on November 3, 1941 , where they perished. The younger sister Ilse Daus ("Sili") was able to emigrate to Palestine in 1939 , where she was successful as a children's book illustrator and had two daughters with the composer Avraham Daus .

Friedrich was born in Porzellangasse, in Alsergrund . ( Sigmund Freud lived in the same block, accessible from Berggasse .) He attended elementary school in Grünentorgasse and Wasagasse grammar school . In Vienna, Torberg joined the water polo section of the Jewish sports club SC Hakoah Vienna after no more players were accepted into the football team due to the great successes and the resulting large numbers of players.

When the father was promoted to authorized officer of his company in 1921, the family returned to Prague. There Torberg received Czechoslovak citizenship in 1924 , which he held until 1945. Torberg suffered greatly from the school system there, which still came from the fallen monarchy. Torberg had visited schools in Vienna where the school reform of the Reichsrat member Otto Glöckel had already been carried out. Since Torberg also appeared in various vaudeville shows and wrote poems at this time , he did not pass the final examination at the German Realgymnasium in Prague- Smíchov initially, but only the following year.

Journalism and study

From 1927 Torberg worked for the Prager Tagblatt, among other things as a sports reporter and theater critic. He made friends with Egon Erwin Kisch , Alfred Polgar and Joseph Roth . During this time he also met André Malraux , Bertrand Russell and Ernst Toller . In Vienna he was a regular at Café Herrenhof , which also frequented the writers Hermann Broch , Robert Musil and Franz Werfel . He was also to be found in Café Rebhuhn and in Café de l'Europe, at that time the meeting place of the demi-world .

The Hagibor Praha Jewish Sports Club

In 1928 Torberg began to study philosophy and later law at the University of Prague . When the first exam was due after three semesters, he dropped out. In the same year Hagibor Prague became Czechoslovak water polo champion . Torberg had thrown both goals for a 2-0 victory. The author's enthusiasm for sport is also evident in the description of the ski trip in the student Gerber .

The team, a novel of a sporting life , was published in 1935 and deals with the experiences of young Harry and his water polo team. As a regular and enthusiastic visitor to soccer games of the SC Hakoah Vienna, he wrote in 1959 in the essay Why I am proud of it, his memories of this team and their games full of anecdotes.

In 1929 Torberg completed a one-year traineeship at Leipziger Tageblatt . This year he was constantly traveling between Vienna, Leipzig and Prague. Among other things, he wrote in Prague for the weekly magazine Selbstwehr and came into contact with radical Zionists . In 1935 Torberg wrote for a while for Prager Mittag , founded by German-speaking emigrants in Czechoslovakia , who had enticed him with the offer of being able to write sports reports and theater reviews. This employment ended a little later when Torberg, after a world record by the swimmer Peter Fick, carelessly gave his article the heading New Fick Record .

In 1930 Torberg made his debut as a novelist with the help of his Prague mentor Max Brod . Brod sent the manuscript of The Student Gerber Has Completed (title of the first edition, later only The Student Gerber ) to the Paul Zsolnay publishing house with the stipulation that if Torberg was accepted, he, Brod, should be notified if it was rejected. In this first and economically most successful novel, Torberg addressed his bad school experiences. In it he describes the high school graduate Kurt Gerber, a loner and enthusiast who suffers from the constraints of the school system, but above all from his apparently all-powerful math teacher (“God” Kupfer). The first edition was 5000 pieces. Within a year the work was translated into seven languages. This success meant not only material security, but also inclusion in the “legendary Prague German poet scene”.

Emigration to Switzerland and France

In the “Third Reich” , Torberg's books were banned by the National Socialists from 1933 onwards. In Austria he accepted an offer in 1937 to adapt the popular folk play Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld by Ludwig Anzengruber as a script. The initially planned partners Otto and Egon Eis canceled their work due to hindrance or lack of interest, but agreed to appear as employees to the producer. Torberg finally wrote the script with another scriptwriter under the common pseudonym "Hubert Frohn", a "Styrian local poet from Judenburg ".

The pseudonym was necessary because films with Jewish participation were no longer allowed to be shown in Germany, but Austrian films were dependent on the German market and film production in Austria without Jewish employees was almost unthinkable - important filmmakers in Austria were Jews, including 1933 numerous refugees from Germany were added. Torberg described this anecdote in Aunt Jolesch's heirs as an example of "the way [...] in which films were made back then" .

In March 1938, at the time of the Anschluss , Torberg happened to be in Prague. On June 20, he first emigrated to Zurich , where he felt safe. The writer soon became a regular at the Grand Café Odeon . In the spring of 1939, however, his residence permit was no longer extended. Torberg anticipated the deportation and went to Paris . He spent the summer of 1939 in peace on the Côte d'Azur and, as a Czechoslovak citizen, was not interned when the war broke out.

In October he joined the Czechoslovak army in exile , which was then formed. Even the basic training was too much for Torberg because of his heart problem. Initially assigned to office work, he was dismissed as unfit after seven months. Torberg received valid identification documents. On June 12, 1940, two days before the city of Paris was occupied by German troops, he was able to leave the city with Oskar Karlweis and reached the Spanish border, where he was able to escape 20 hours before the border was closed by German troops. He made his way (often illegally) to Lisbon via Porto . Visas for the USA could only be obtained there, in the capital, but foreigners were not allowed to stay in the overcrowded city.

Through the mediation of friends, Torberg was officially recognized by the PEN Club as one of the ten Outstanding German Anti-Nazi Writers at the time , but the announced visa was a long time coming, “possibly because of that,” Torberg explained in Die Erben der Tante Jolesch , “ because my travel documents did not legitimize me before the consul as either German or Austrian ; presumably you first had to ask Washington whether you could be an anti-Nazi writer with a Czechoslovak passport. ”With the visa of September 11, 1940, Torberg was able to leave the continent on October 9, 1940.

Torberg's correspondence from the time of his exile comprises the volumes

  • Pegasus im Yoch (correspondence with publishers and editors)
  • In this sense ... (letters to friends and contemporaries)
  • Coffee house was everywhere (correspondence with originals and owls).

Further emigration to the USA

After arriving in New York , Torberg soon moved to Hollywood . Half of the ten Outstanding German Anti-Nazi Writers were signed by MGM and Half by Warner Brothers , “for $ 100 a week, which in Portugal seemed like a fantasy sum (and turned out to be tight pocket money on the spot). “Torberg himself came to Warner Brothers together with Leonhard Frank , Alfred Neumann , Heinrich Mann and Wilhelm Speyer . There was a charity event for the International Film Fund , at which all ten authors were “introduced” to an interested public, or in Torberg's opinion, more or less “shown”. Alfred Polgar, one of the ten, said: "... maybe we should have appeared unshaven and in torn clothes to really document that we were rescued refugees." That the ten authors' employment at the two film studios was more about publicity- For the purposes of actual work on scripts, it soon became apparent that those who were often barely able to speak English had to be present in the office for eight hours a day, but were not given work. Torberg also did not receive a contract extension after the end of the year. His script treatment for a film project was dismissed as "long since dropped " by producer Mark Jacobs "after two months of sweaty work" .

Torberg frequented Hollywood emigrant circles, where Lion Feuchtwanger , Heinrich and Thomas Mann , Bertolt Brecht and others had found refuge. He maintained particularly friendly relations with Franz Werfel and his wife Alma (the correspondence with the latter is in book form).

In 1944 Friedrich Torberg moved to New York to work with his friend William S. Schlamm on the Umlaut project , the German edition of Time Magazine . He failed with this project for emigrants in December of the same year and then earned his living as a translator, freelance journalist and theater critic. In November 1945 he married Marietta Bellak. In the same year he received US citizenship.

Return to Vienna

In 1951 Torberg returned to Vienna, but retained US citizenship. He wrote for the Viennese newspaper Die Presse and for the radio station Rot-Weiß-Rot, established by the USA . He also wrote for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and in 1954 founded a cultural magazine called FORVM with the support of the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), an organization funded by the CIA .

The fact that the CCF received funds from the CIA was only discovered by US journalists in the second half of the 1960s and documented after the end of the Cold War. Co-editors of the FORVM were Friedrich Hansen-Loeve , Felix Hubalek and Alexander Lernet-Holenia . Later came Guenther Nenning and Franz Willnauer added as editors.

In the discussion triggered by the Austrian dictionary that arose in 1951 as to whether Austrian German had the right to be independent, Torberg took a clearly pro-Austrian position and advocated the self-confident use of the national language variety. In 1960 he even posed the polemical question "How prussian are we?"

During these years Torberg edited the work of Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlandos , which in this way became accessible to the public for the first time, translated Ephraim Kishon and tried his own edition. Torberg was massively committed against communism and its supporters and sympathizers. He became legendary in particular through his polemics, personal campaigns against people whom he accused of communist sympathies and called “ fellow travelers ”. These include Thomas Mann , Günther Anders , Robert Jungk , Karl Paryla and Hilde Spiel . He had a particular opposition to Bertolt Brecht . In Vienna during the post-war years and the Cold War , together with Hans Weigel, he succeeded in enforcing a boycott of the performance of Brecht's works on Austrian theaters, which lasted until 1963 ( Wiener Brecht boycott ).

The author gave another reason for the violent argument with Salcia Landmann , namely his conviction that Landmann had grossly misunderstood the Jewish joke in her book and sometimes even distorted it in an anti-Semitic way.

In 1962 Torberg's marriage to Marietta was divorced; After a short liaison with Johanna von Koczian and several short affairs, he began a relationship with the castle actress Paola Löw , which lasted until his death. Friendly relationships with his ex-wife Marietta, who also became his first administrator, continued. The sole administrator of the Torberg estate was David Axmann .

Torberg was "not infrequently" invited to discussions by radio and television, as it were as a "Jew on duty", as he once remarked self-ironically.

Torberg also campaigned for young literary talents, for example Peter Handke and Brigitte Schwaiger .

In 1966 he handed over the management of FORVM to Günther Nenning (who continued it as NEW FORVM until Torberg's death , then again as FORVM ). Torberg retired to his house in Breitenfurt near Vienna . This is also where the work by Peter Hammerschlag was created .

Torberg's grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery

In 1975 he published the anecdote collection Die Tante Jolesch or the fall of the West in anecdotes , in which he set a monument to Jewish life between Vienna, Prague and Bad Ischl around 1900. In it Torberg conjures up the colorful flair of the fallen Danube Monarchy with the aftermath in the successor states and emigration with all its comical owls, coffee house visitors and bohemians, which could only flourish embedded in the centuries-old Habsburg principle of "Live and let life!" Shortly before Torberg's death, the sequel, The Heirs of Aunt Jolesch , appeared in 1978 .

Friedrich Torberg died on November 10, 1979 in Vienna. He was buried in a grave of honor at the Vienna Central Cemetery, at his own request in the Old Israelite Department (Gate 1, Group 6, Row 0, No. 3) next to Arthur Schnitzler .

Posthumously in 1984 the novel Also that Was Vienna was published , an examination of Vienna written during the emigration at the time of the “Anschluss” , Torberg's last work. As before, Der Schüler Gerber (1981), this work was also successfully filmed a little later under the title 38 - That Was Vienna (1987) by director Wolfgang Glück . The film was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film .

Georg Markus wrote a kind of continuation of Aunt Jolesch in 2001 under the title The Grandchildren of Aunt Jolesch .

Anecdotes

In Torberg's late works, the anecdote collections Die Welt der Tante Jolesch and Die Erben der Aante Jolesch, the prolific writer also reports about himself again and again. Among other things, this resulted in anecdotes whose punch line is at the expense of the narrator:

Torberg to Ernst Polak , the literary agent of a Swiss publisher, with whom Torberg published in 1937:

“My novel 'Abschied' was published in 1937 by Humanitas-Verlag Zurich […] and Ernst Polak got the usual deposit copy from me. [...] I looked at his judgment with fear, because even the 'student Gerber' had found only limited favor in front of his strict, monocle-rimmed critic's eyes (and at that time he could still credit me that it was the first work of a twenty-one year old).
On one of the following afternoons, Ernst Polak was waiting for me, the 'farewell' on the table in front of him, in the Herrenhof café. In anxious anticipation, I sat across from him, saw him pinch his monocle and open the book, which was completely called 'Farewell, novel of a first love', the motto of which was a quote from a poem by Holderlin and was dedicated to my fatherly friend Max Brod.
'The title,' said Ernst Polak, 'is not bad.' He turned the pages and pointed to the quote from Holderlin. 'This is actually excellent. Here '- he had come to the dedication to Max Brod -' it's getting a little weaker. And the rest is no good at all. '
With that he closed the book again. The criticism was done. Me too."

- Friedrich Torberg, Aunt Jolesch's heirs

In Die Tante Jolesch , Torberg quotes Egon Erwin Kisch , who is said to have said to Torberg in exile in Paris, “shortly before the outbreak of war”, “about the daily growing insecurity [of his] emigre existence”:

“ You know […] nothing can happen to me. I am a German. I'm a czech I am a Jew. I come from a good family. I'm a communist ... Some of this always helps me. "

Torberg countered this quote, referring to himself:

“ I am a Jew. I live in Austria. I was in emigration. I have something against Brecht ... Some of it always hurts me. "

- Friedrich Torberg, Aunt Jolesch's world

Awards and honors

Works

  • The Eternal Refrain (1929) - collection of poems.
  • The student Gerber graduated (title of the first edition 1930, later only Der Schüler Gerber ). Vienna, Zsolnay.
  • ... and believe it is love. Novel. (1932). Vienna, Zsolnay.
  • The crew . Novel of a Sports Life. (1935). Vienna, Molden. 560 pp.
  • Farewell. Novel. (1937). Zurich, Humanitas.
  • For the death of a football player. Poem (1945, dedicated to the soccer player Matthias Sindelar , reprinted in Lebenslied ; deals with Sindelar's death shortly after the "Anschluss").
  • The Last Ride of Jockey Matteo - Novelle from the estate, (written in the 1940s, first published in 1985), 117 pp.
  • Revenge is Mine (1942), Los Angeles Pacific Press, 1942; Munich: Dt. Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-423-13686-0 .
  • Here I am, my father (1948).
  • The Second Meeting (1950); see picture at the top.
  • Nothing easier than that (1956).
  • Song of life. [45] Poems from 25 years [40 of them between 1933–1945]. Munich 1958, Langen-Müller; Vienna 1983, Medusa, 80 pp.

Collected Works

Collected works in individual editions , edited by David Axmann , Langen Müller, Munich 1962–1998:

  • 1. Here I am, my father. Novel. (1962), 340 pp.
  • 2. The second encounter. Novel. (1963), 355 pp.
  • 3. PPP - pamphlets, parodies, Post Scripta. (1964), 416 pp.
  • 4. The fifth wheel on the Thespiskarren 1. Theater reviews. (1966), 445 pp.
  • 5. The fifth wheel on the Thespiskarren 2. Theater reviews. (1967), 528 pp.
  • 6. Golem's Return and Other Tales. (1968), 188 pp. Contains Mein ist die Rache (1942); Nothing easier than that (1954); The man who never wrote about Kafka (EA 1968); Golem's Return (EA 1968).
  • 7. Süsskind from Trimberg. Novel. (1972), 320 pp.
  • 8. Aunt Jolesch or the fall of the West in anecdotes. (1975), 336 pp., New edition DTV, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-423-01266-8
  • 9. Aunt Jolesch's heirs. (1978), 320 pp., Langen-Müller, Munich, ISBN 3-7844-1693-4
  • 10. And believe it is love. Novel among young people. (1978), 506 pp.
  • 11. Speaking of which. What is left behind, what is critical, what remains. (1981), 416 pp.
  • 12. With that in mind. Letters to friends and contemporaries. (1981), 464 pp.
  • 13. Coffee house was everywhere. Correspondence [1941–1949] with owls and originals. (1982), 280 pp.
  • 14. Pegasus in the yoke. Correspondence with publishers and editors. (1983), 288 pp.
  • 15. That was Vienna too. Novel. (1984), 384 pages, written during emigration
  • 16. Non-smokers also have to die. Essays - feuilletons - notes - glosses. (1985), 288 pp.
  • 17. Where Barthel gets the milk (1983)
  • 18. Dearest friend and Alma. Correspondence with Alma Mahler-Werfel. (1987), 288 pp.
  • 19. A great, great time. Letters and documents from the years of the flight 1938–1941. (1989), 186 pp.
  • 20. Biased as I am. By poets, thinkers, and authors. (1991), 212 pp.
  • 21. Vienna or the difference. A reading book, 1998, ISBN 3-7844-2699-9 , 286 pp.

Film adaptations

Sound carrier

literature

chronologically

  • Joseph P. Strelka (Ed.): The journey was already the goal. Festschrift for Friedrich Torberg on his 70th birthday. Munich 1978, Langen Mueller.
  • Franz Heinrich Hackel: On the linguistic art of Friedrich Torberg. Parody, joke, anecdote. With an appendix of unknown works from Torberg's early days. Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1984. (= European University Papers Series 1; 769) ISBN 3-8204-7170-7 .
  • Frank Tichy: Friedrich Torberg. A life in contradictions . Otto Müller, Salzburg a. a. 1995, ISBN 3-7013-0915-9 .
  • David Axmann (Ed.): And smiling is the inheritance of my tribe. Memory of Friedrich Torberg. With contributions by Klaus Maria Brandauer et al., Wiener Journal, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-900379-23-8 .
  • Helga Abret: Between Reality and Legend - On Friedrich Torberg's story “Golems Wiederkehr” . In: Up and back / into the bright future . German-Jewish literature in the 20th century. Festschrift for Birgit Lermen , Bouvier, Bonn 2000, pp. 521–542.
  • Anne-Marie Corbin-Schuffels: L'image de l'Europe à l'ombre de la guerre froide. La revue forum de Friedrich Torberg à Vienne, 1954–1961. L'Harmattan, Paris et al. a. 2001, ISBN 2-7475-1674-1 .
  • Klaus Maiwald: Learning to read literature. Justification and documentation of a literary didactic experiment. Schneider-Verlag Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2001 (= Deutschdidaktik aktuell; 10), ISBN 3-89676-361-X .
  • Michael Howard Rice: Nazis and Jews. A thematic approach to three exile works by Friedrich Torberg. Cincinnati, Ohio: Univ. Diss. 2001.
  • Marcel Atze , Marcus G. Patka (Ed.): The "Dangers of Versatility". Friedrich Torberg 1908–1979. Catalog for the exhibition of the same name in the Jewish Museum Vienna . Vienna: Holzhausen 2008. ISBN 978-3-85493-156-0 .
  • David Axmann: Friedrich Torberg. The biography. Langen Müller, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7844-3138-3 .
  • Marcel Atze (Ed.): “Write. No, don't write ”. Marlene Dietrich, Friedrich Torberg; Correspondence 1946–1979 . Synema, Vienna 2008.
  • [Entry] Friedrich Torberg. In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon . 3rd, completely revised edition, 18 volumes, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , vol. 16, p. 367 f. [Biogram and work article on The student Gerber graduated from Irena Zivsa].
  • Daniela Vergud: "Friedrich Torbergs daily Brod." The correspondence between FT and Max Brod 1943–1968. Master's thesis, Modern German Literature, Professor Karl Müller, University of Salzburg 2009.

Web links

Wikiquote: Friedrich Torberg  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Anneke Müller: "Lucky that my first novel was a success". Prager Tagblatt , September 25, 2008, p. 7.
  2. ^ Friedrich Torberg: The heirs of Aunt Jolesch . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1981, p. 199 f.
  3. ^ Friedrich Torberg: The student Gerber has graduated . Vienna, Zsolnay, first edition, p. 4.
  4. ↑ a b Friedrich Torberg: The heirs of Aunt Jolesch. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1981, pp. 119–123.
  5. ^ Friedrich Torberg: The heirs of Aunt Jolesch. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1981, p. 168.
  6. ^ Friedrich Torberg: The heirs of Aunt Jolesch. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1981, p. 169 f.
  7. ^ Friedrich Torberg: The heirs of Aunt Jolesch . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1981, p. 173.
  8. ^ Friedrich Torberg: The heirs of Aunt Jolesch . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1981, p. 177.
  9. ↑ Frances Stonor Saunders: Who pays the bill ... Siedler Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 3-88680-695-2 , p. 201 f and p. 291.
  10. ^ Ulrich Ammon: The German language in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Walter de Gruyter, 1995, ISBN 3-11-014753-X ; Pages 187 and 209.
  11. ^ Frank Tichy: Friedrich Torberg. A life in contradictions. Salzburg 1995, pp. 202-250.
  12. ↑ Kurt Palm : Brecht in the trunk . Löcker, 2006; P. 159; Frank Tichy: Friedrich Torberg. A life in contradictions . Otto Müller, 1995; P. 242; Hilde Spiel: Which world is my world? Memoirs 1946–1989 . List, 1990; P. 145.
  13. ↑ Susanne Kunckel: Should we still read Torberg today? In: The world . September 14, 2008.
  14. ^ Friedrich Torberg: The heirs of Aunt Jolesch. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1981, p. 63.
  15. ^ Friedrich Torberg: The world of Aunt Jolesch. 1975; quoted from: Die Tante Jolesch and the heirs of Tante Jolesch. Double volume, Langen Müller, Munich 2008, p. 256.
personal data
SURNAME Torberg, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kantor-Berg, Friedrich Ephraim (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1979
Place of death Vienna , Austria