Gerhard Heller

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Gerhard Heller (born November 8, 1909 in Potsdam , † August 29, 1982 in Baden-Baden ) was a German publisher and translator. During the Second World War he was in occupied France with the rank of special leader (equivalent to the rank of lieutenant) responsible for the literary policy of the occupation authorities.

Life

Gerhard Heller belonged to the Bündische Jugend . In 1928 he met Horst Wessel, who was a year older than him, during a stay in a youth home in Thuringia. Wessel then invited him once to a Hitler speech in the Berlin Sports Palace . After graduating from high school, he studied German, Romance studies and history from 1930 to 1935 in Berlin, Heidelberg, Pisa and Toulouse. Travels took him to Italy, France and Scandinavia. On February 1, 1934, he joined the NSDAP and received membership number 3402212. 1935–1940 he was head of the word division at the German shortwave transmitter in Berlin. The end of October 1940, Heller after the French campaign for propaganda season when military commander France convened (MBF) to Paris, where he worked in the group literature. His superiors were Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Heinz Schmidtke and Labor Leader Schulz. In July 1942, several departments of the propaganda squadron were handed over to the German embassy - including the literature department. There Heller worked as head of the literature department. He also had an office at the German Institute in Paris, which was responsible for cultural-political issues and was led by Karl Epting .

Heller was in Paris with the rank of a special leader (equivalent to the rank of lieutenant) responsible for the literary policy of the occupying power, which also included censorship and the allocation of paper for the printing press. Heller was the central office for book censorship in France, which had its point of reference in the " Otto List " named after Otto Abetz , the first version of which was created on September 28, 1940. It also listed the literature of German emigrants and German Jews. A third version also lists the French authors of Jewish origin. Heller and Ambassador Abetz managed to persuade the collaborating French publishers to self-censure .

In his memoirs, Heller portrayed it as having acted relatively liberally. With his permission, works by Albert Camus , Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Aragon have appeared. In the more recent specialist literature it is emphasized that the aim was to show the French the illusion of a functioning cultural life, although their country was occupied by the Germans. Katrin Engel reproached Heller for having presented the propaganda relay in Paris as a vacation trip for educated lovers of French culture. In any case, he did not allow Jewish and non-Nazi authors to publish. Even by his own admission, Heller was an anti-Semite at the time.

When the Aryanization of the Jewish-French publishers had opened up, Heller suggested to the German Foreign Office that they acquire shares in the Jewish publisher “Ferenczi und Nathan”. Heller even took it upon himself to forbid the publication of Jewish writers, although the Military Commander-in-Chief (MBF) had not yet issued such an order (initially only selected German and non-French Jewish writers were prohibited from publishing). At the beginning of 1941, Heller told the French publisher that although there was no official ban on publication, it would not be "timely" to publish the works of Jewish writers.

From December 1940, Heller also enabled the reappearance of the Nouvelle Revue Française, which was now anti-Semitic under Pierre Drieu la Rochelle .

Heller organized the two trips by French writers to the European Poets' Meeting in Weimar . Goebbels wanted to demonstrate to French writers the superiority of Germany and to show interest in French culture. On the first trip, the French writers completed a tour of Germany, during which they were shown the most important sights. They were invited to celebratory dinners by high dignitaries and were allowed to visit Hitler's office in the Reich Chancellery. Goebbels gave a reception in her honor.

Heller's long-term acquaintance with Carlo Schmid and Ernst Jünger , who were also employed by the MBF, resulted from the occupation. According to Jünger's diary entries, which were published after the war under the title Radiation , there was lively contact with Heller. He met Heller for the first time on February 1, 1942 and for the last time on the day of his departure from Paris on August 13, 1944, at least six times in between in 1942 and at least 13 more times in the years that followed until the departure from Paris. In his memoirs, Heller explains that he and Jünger disapproved of the persecution of the Jews:

We discussed this topic frequently, because Jünger had precise information that he received from the >> President <<, which is often mentioned in the diary, and from high-ranking military officials such as Colonel Schaer and Colonel Speidel. The descriptions of the shootings of Jews or of the "great smugglers' huts that have been built in the eastern border states" made us both tremble with horror.

After the surrender , Heller made himself available to the French occupying forces. He acted as an intermediary when companies had to deal with French authorities. Here he became acquainted with the crew officer Pierre Grappin, who made him work for the magazine “Lancelot. The messenger from France ”invited. Under the editorship of Jacqueline Grappin, the officer's wife, he and Hans Paeschke were on the editorial staff of the magazine in Baden-Baden from 1946 to mid-1947. In 1947 he founded the Heller & Wegner publishing house in Baden-Baden and the Merkur magazine with Christian Wegner . Journal for European Thinking , which he ran with Paeschke. From 1950 Heller was equal partners with Ingeborg Stahlberg and Ernst Krawehl of the Stahlberg Verlag in Karlsruhe, founded in 1946 by Ingeborg Stahlberg . Stahlberg Verlag published important modern authors such as Arno Schmidt , Curzio Malaparte , Raymond Queneau and - in the publisher's Amadis Verlag - Marguerite Yourcenar . When Stahlberg Verlag was sold in 1970, Heller started his own business as a freelance translator and publishing consultant.

Heller translated mostly from French, but occasionally from Italian and English. In the 1970s he translated books by collaborators such as Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Pierre Drieu la Rochelle , whom he had known personally. His most-read translation is probably Patrick Modiano's 1979 novel The Alley of Dark Shops ( Rue des Boutiques Obscures ).

In 1980, Heller received the German-French translator's prize donated by the Baden-Baden spa and spa administration and the “Prix du Rayonnement de la Langue Française” from the Académie française .

On July 20, 2010, the German-French Society Baden-Baden held an event with a lecture about Heller. Jean d'Ormesson , who was invited but was unable to be present, wrote an apology from Heller for this event : “It couldn't be a better choice than one that fell on Gerhard Heller and I am very satisfied with it. I knew and loved Gerhard Heller ... He is well known and appreciated in France and appears in many memoirs and memorials. During the dark years of the occupation he performed numerous services for many writers ... I remain true to his memory. "

Autobiography

  • Un allemand à Paris . Paris: Éditions du Seuil , 1981
    • With Jean Grand: In an occupied country. Lieutenant Heller and the censorship in France 1940–1944 . Translated from the French by Annette Lallemand-Rietkötter. Introduction Hanns Grössel . Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1982
    • Paperback edition: Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1985, ISBN 3-404-65066-2 (not identical pages)

literature

Translations

  • Pietro Aretino : Discussions of the Hetaerae ( Ragionamenti ), Deutscher Bücherbund, Stuttgart 1969
  • Yves Berger : Big Dream of America ( Le Fou d'Amérique ), S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1976
  • Louis-Ferdinand Céline : The Church. Comedy in five acts ( L'Église ), Merlin Verlag, Hamburg 1970
  • Gilbert Cesbron: A baobab tree in the middle of the city: Stories ( Un baobab dans le XVe ) Drei-Brücken Verlag, Heidelberg 1969
  • Gilbert Cesbron: Winter Palaces of Happiness ( C'est Mozart qu'on assassine ), Dreibücken Verlag, Heidelberg 1968
  • Rosy Chabbert: The death of the tiger ( Leonella. La mort du Tigre ), Desch Verlag, Munich 1975
  • Rosy Chabbert: Leonella, the sky is down ( Leonella. Le ciel a l'envers ), Deich Verlag, Munich 1975
  • Rosy Chabbert: Love in Venice ( Leonella. Les amours vénitiennes ), Desch Verlag, Munich 1975
  • Jean Clémentin: Die Puppen von Kirchenbronn ( Les Poupées de Kirchenbronn ), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / M., 1971
  • Wilkie Collins : Der Monddiamant ( The Moonstone ), translated from English, together with Marie-Luise Hellmann, Deutscher Bücherbund, Stuttgart 1974
  • Henri Coulonges: Dresden died with you, Johanna ( L'Adieu à la femme sauvage ), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1984
  • Michel Déon : The wild ponies ( Les poneys sauvages ), Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1973
  • Pierre Drieu la Rochelle : The woman man ( L'Homme couvert de femmes ), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1972
  • Pierre Drieu la Rochelle: The will-o'-the-wisps ( Le feu follet ), Propylaea Verlag, Berlin 1968
  • Pierre Drieu la Rochelle: The Memoirs of Dirk Raspe ( Mémoires de Dirk Raspe ), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1972
  • Pierre Drieu la Rochelle: The Inadequate ( Gilles ), Propylaeen Verlag, Berlin 1966
  • Pierre Drieu la Rochelle: Dreamy Bourgeoisie ( Rêveuse bourgeoisie ), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1969
  • Alexandre Dumas : The Three Musketeers ( Les Trois Mousquetaires ), Deutscher Bücherbund, Stuttgart 1963
  • Max Gallo Engelsbucht , ( La Baie des Anges ) S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1979
  • Romain Gary : Oh, dearest, that doesn't matter ( Au-delà de cette limite, votre ticket n'est plus valable ), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1980
  • Julien Green : The Other ( L'Autre ), Bertelsmann Verlag 1971
  • Julien Green: Louise ( Le Mauvais lieu ), S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt 1980, later as The wicked place , Carl Hanser Verlag 1997
  • Paul Guth : Mazarin. France's rise to world power ( Mazarin ), Societäts-Verlag, 1975
  • Louis Madelin , Fouche. The man whom even Napoleon feared ( Fouché ), Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1975
  • Patrick Modiano : The alley of the dark shops ( Rue des Boutiques Obscures ) Propylaen / Ullstein, Frankfurt 1979
  • Henry de Montherlant : The Little Infanta ( Les jeunes filles ), Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1979
  • Jean Orieux : Talleyrand. The misunderstood Sphinx ( Talleyrand ou le Sphinx Incompris ), Gutenberg Book Guild , Frankfurt / M. 1973
  • Jean d'Ormesson : The shine of the empire ( La Gloire de l'Empire ), Propylaeen Verlag, Berlin 1971
  • Jean d'Ormesson: As pleases God ( Au plaisir de Dieu ), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1976
  • Roger Peyrefitte : Manouche. A woman in our time ( Manouche ), Deich Verlag 1976
  • Francois Ponthier: Greed (from the French), Stahlberg Verlag, Karlsruhe, 1967
  • Judith Regende: Betrayed love ( La corrida des solitudes: la fugitive des deux mondes ) Heyne Wilhelm Verlag, Munich 1979
  • Pierre Schneider: The Mona Lisa's smile. Walks in the Louvre. ( Les dialogues du Louvre ), Hoffmann & Campe Verlag, Hamburg 1973
  • Jacques Serguine: a lovely man. (from the French), Stahlberg Verlag, Stuttgart 1970
  • Henri Troyat : The heirs of the future. ( Les Héritiers de l'Avenir ), Deutscher Bücherbund Stuttgart 1972
  • J. Rodolfo Wilcock : The Book of Monsters. ( Il libro dei mostri ), Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1981

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See questionnaire for members of the 'Reichsfachschaft Rundfunk'. Pictured in Dufay, Die Herbstreise, p. 11
  2. ↑ It was introduced by Friedhelm Kaiser , u. a. Editor and employee at Ahnenerbe , see DNB
  3. ^ "Arbeitsführer Schulz, head of the literature group in the Propaganda Department", Michels, Das Deutsche Institut, p. 236
  4. ↑ from the Propaganda Ministry General was Wilhelm Knothe off
  5. ^ "Ouvrages retirés de la vente par les éditeurs ou interdits par les autorités allemandes"
  6. ^ Katrin Engel: German cultural policy in occupied Paris 1940–1944: Film and theater. Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, p. 4ff and p. 230.
  7. ^ Gerhard Heller: In an occupied country. Nazi cultural policy in France - memories 1940-1944 . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-462-01521-4 , p. 121 ff .
  8. ^ Philippe Burrin : France under the Germans (French: La France à l'Heure Allemande ), The New Press, New York 1996, p. 327. Sources Burrins: Heller, Arbeits und Lagebericht , March 20, 1942; For the activity report , December 27, 1941; Activity report from May 17 to May 23, 1941 ; Activity report from January 15 to 22, 1941 . Archives Nationales, Paris. AJ 40 1005, dr. 7th
  9. ^ Gerhard Heller: In an occupied country. Nazi cultural policy in France - memories 1940-1944 . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-462-01521-4 , p. 200 .
  10. ↑ Michael Klein: wake-up call for a ´disoriented´ Germany. Lancelot magazine and its book publisher 1946-1951. Marginalia, 237. Quartus-Verlag, Bucha 2020 ISSN  0025-2948 p. 54ff.
  11. ^ Gerhard Heller: In an occupied country. Nazi cultural policy in France - memories 1940-1944 . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-462-01521-4 , p. 183 ff. or p. 59 ff .
  12. ↑ - Six letters from Heller to Modiano, from 1979 and 1981, in: Maryline Heck, Raphaëlle Guidé (editor), Patrick Modiano , Les Cahiers de l'Herne, 2012, pp. 206–209.
  13. ↑ According to a communication on December 12, 2011 by an employee of the German-French Society Baden-Baden, the city of Baden-Baden awarded this prize from 1976 to 1984 with a grant of DM 2,000. After 1984 the prize was no longer awarded. Heller's friend Carlo Schmid was the first winner in 1976; In addition to the two, two other relatively unknown people received the award.
  14. ↑ See event of the German-French Society Baden-Baden.
  15. ^ Letter in May 2010 from Jean d'Ormesson to the writer Madeleine Klümper-Lefebvre of the DFG, translated from French, December 2011: “Il ne pouvait y avoir de meilleur choix que celui qui s'est porté sur Gerhard Heller et je m'en suis profondément réjoui. J'ai bien connu et beaucoup aimé Gérard Heller ... Il est très connu et apprécié en France et apparaît dans beaucoup de souvenirs et de mémoires. Dans les années noires de l'Occupation, il a rendu beaucoup de services à beaucoup d'écrivains ... je reste fidèle au souvenir de Gerhard Heller. Trans.
personal data
SURNAME Heller, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heller, Gerard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher and translator
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1982
Place of death Baden-Baden