Hans Sahl

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Hans Sahl (aka Hans Salomon ; * May 20, 1902 in Dresden ; † April 27, 1993 in Tübingen ) was a literary , film and theater critic during the Weimar Republic and, as an anti-fascist writer, translator and cultural correspondent, a representative of German exile literature .

Hans Sahl in the Hamburger Literaturhaus

Life

Sahl grew up in an upper-class Jewish merchant family in Berlin and studied art and literary history, archeology and philosophy in Berlin, Munich , Leipzig and Breslau . After his doctorate (1924) on old German painting, he worked in Berlin from 1926 to 1932 in the feature pages of various newspapers such as the “ Berliner Börsen-Courier ” and “ Montag Morgen ” and made a name for himself as a critic early on. His film reviews, similar to those of Siegfried Kracauer, attracted attention .

After the transfer of power to the Nazis in 1933 emigrated Sahl over Prague and Zurich , where he, among other things texts for the cabaret " The Pepper Mill wrote," to Paris . To protest against the exclusion of Leopold Schwarzschild from the KPD- dominated " Protection Association of German Writers Abroad ", he founded the anti-Stalinist writers' association Bund Freie Presse und Literatur in Paris with around twenty authors . With this he went into double exile - isolated from his former socialist friends. In 1939, like many other German artists and intellectuals (e.g. Walter Benjamin , Max Ernst and many more), he came to various French internment camps as an “étranger indésirable” (undesirable foreigner) . In 1940 he was able to flee to Marseille . There he helped Varian Fry to rescue politically persecuted people until 1941 , when he himself managed to escape to the USA via Portugal.

Most of his literary work was created in his New York exile; His translations of the works of American authors such as Maxwell Anderson , Arthur Miller , Thornton Wilder and Tennessee Williams were also of importance . An essential aspect of this time was the critical examination of Stalinism . A good example of this is Sahl's longstanding relationship with Bertolt Brecht . Early on, Sahl drew parallels between National Socialism and Communism , between Hitler and Stalin . He accused Brecht of having made the "cold and freezing of interpersonal relationships in Stalinism and National Socialism, the view of people from the outside, who now became the mere material of history [...], socially acceptable". His view of communism isolated him from many of his fellow sufferers in exile, who were still staunch supporters of Stalin in those years, which is why Sahl named the second volume of his autobiography The Exile in Exile . In New York he was a participant in the Oskar Maria Graf regulars' table .

In 1953 he returned to Germany. Sahl took offense at an early stage at the ideological orientation of the orthodox left, which sometimes led to rifts with old political comrades-in-arms. In New York he was temporarily close to the group around the anti-Stalinist Ruth Fischer , which contributed to the fact that Sahl attracted the attention of the American intelligence services during the Cold War . In 1955 he contributed to a debate on abstract art (held there and in other places between Karl Hofer , Rudolf Schlichter and Will Grohmann , among others) with contributions in “ The Month ” (issues 76 and 81) . He objected to this American-sponsored art that it was an expression of “an escape (of the artist) from reality” and that it contributed to “blurring the line between amateur and artist”. He had published a similar article ( Wallpaper Metaphysics ) in 1951 in the American magazine " The Commonweal ". Already in exile and then until 1958 in the Federal Republic, he worked as a cultural correspondent for the " Neue Zürcher Zeitung ", " Die Welt " and the " Süddeutsche Zeitung ", among others . He then lived again in the USA before finally moving to Germany with his wife in 1989. After neo-Nazi attacks in 1992, Sahl took part in the “poetry readings in asylum seekers' homes”. These were an action by the Else-Lasker-Schüler-Gesellschaft , of which he became the first honorary member.

Fritz Raddatz welcomes Hans Sahl to the Literaturhaus Hamburg
The grave of Hans Sahl in the Heerstraße cemetery in Berlin-Westend

His literary works are evidence of political emigration . The German public only took notice of them late, although Sahl had already been accepted into the German Academy for Language and Poetry in 1962 and was awarded the Great Federal Cross of Merit in 1982 . A few months before his death, he received the Lessing Prize of the Free State of Saxony .

Hans Sahl died in April 1993 at the age of 90 in Tübingen. The burial took place in the Berlin cemetery Heerstrasse in today's Westend district . By resolution of the Berlin Senate , the final resting place of Hans Sahl (grave location: II-Ur 8-141) has been dedicated to the State of Berlin as an honorary grave since 2018 . The dedication is valid for the usual period of twenty years, but can then be extended.

The authors of the Federal Republic honored him with the award of the Hans Sahl Prize .

Awards

Quote

Most interesting in Hans Sahl's prose are the parts that relate to the events of 1933. Only the private space is illuminated, but world history is shown. The portrayal is very distant, a little melancholy, without a trace of hatred or anger. Pain and sadness and boundless amazement dominate. "

Works (selection)

Dramatic works, poetry, prose

  • Someone. A choral work. Secular cantata based on the woodcut cycle Wood: The Passion of a Man by Frans Masereel . Verl. Oprecht, Zurich 1938. An oratorio against Hitler's fascism. Music by Tibor Kasics (1904–1986), world premiere by the Zürcher Arbeitersängerkartel in 1938, Volkshaus Zürich . Performed again at the Zurich International June Festival in 1988 with the theme Vanishing Point Zurich .
    • Someone . Live recording of the performance in 1988. Music: Tibor Kasics. Overall musical direction: Johannes Schläfli. Audio CD. Bostelmann & Siebenhaar, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-934189-59-8 .
  • The bright nights. Poems from France. New York 1942; Weidle again, Bonn 2012 ISBN 3938803541 .
  • The few and the many. Novel of a time. Frankfurt 1959; New editions: Luchterhand, Darmstadt / Neuwied 1991 and Luchterhand, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-630-87292-6 .
  • House music. A sequence of scenes. First performance in New York 1981. Stefanie Hunzinger Bühnenverlag, Bad Homburg 1990.
  • Memoirs of a Moralist. Ammann, Zurich 1983, Luchterhand, Darmstadt / Neuwied 1985 and 1991.
  • Exile in exile . Luchterhand, Darmstadt & Neuwied 1990; New edition: Luchterhand, Munich 2008.
  • Rubinstein or The Bayreuth Dance of Death. An antioper in two acts. First performance Tübingen 1991. Stefanie Hunzinger Bühnenverlag, Bad Homburg 1990.
  • We are the last. The Mole. Poems. Luchterhand, Darmstadt / Neuwied 1991.
  • The acrobat's death. Stories. Luchterhand, Darmstadt / Neuwied 1992.
  • The scream and the silence. 19 poems with drawings by Georg Sternbacher , Verlag G. Sternbacher, Bopfingen-Oberriffingen 1993.
  • The poems . Eds. Nils Kern and Klaus Siblewski , Luchterhand, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-630-87288-9 .
  • The man who visited himself. The stories and glosses . Luchterhand, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-630-87293-3 .
  • Poetry album 303 , Märkischer Verlag, Wilhelmshorst 2012, ISBN 9783943708035 .

Essays

  • Wallpaper Metaphysics. Notes on Modern Art. In: "The Commonweal", June 22, 1951, Vol. LIV, No. 11, pp. 263-265.
  • How modern is modern art? A contribution to the discussion. In: The Month, January 1955, Issue 76, Volume 7, pp. 353–357.
  • The critic's duty to criticize. A preliminary conclusion to the art debate. In: The Month, June 1955, No. 81, 7th year, pp. 279–281.
  • "And yet…". Essays and reviews from two continents. Edited by Klaus Blanc, Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-630-61980-0 .
  • Rolf Aurich, Wolfgang Jacobsen (ed.): Hans Sahl, film critic. With reviews and essays by Hans Sahl. Essay by Ruth Oelze. (Film & Scripture; Vol. 14). Edition text + kritik , Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86916-138-9 .

Letters

  • Reinhard Müller : Obediently report: Renegade Sahl with timpani and trumpets on the spot. Letters from Hans Sahl to Willi Schlamm (1937). In: exile, research, knowledge, results. H. 1, 23rd year 2003, ISSN  0721-6742 pp. 50-61
  • George Grosz / Hans Sahl: So long with a handshake. Letters and documents. Ed. Karl Riha , collection of letters 1950–1959, with two essays by Hans Sahl on George Grosz: Die Stockmenschen. (1950) and George Grosz or The Expulsion from Paradise. (1966), Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 978-3-630-86811-0

Interviews

  • David Dambitsch: In the shadow of the Shoah. Conversations with survivors and their descendants . Foreword by Wolfgang Benz . Philo, Berlin 2002 ISBN 3-8257-0246-4
    • as an audio book: Voices of the Rescued. Reports from survivors of the Shoah. 3 CDs, booklet, Audio Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89813-213-7 review and FAZ , October 8, 2002

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Sahl  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

  1. "" Being wrong is one of the deadly sins "" , Frankfurter Hefte , April 1993.
  2. Hans Sahl, Das Exil im Exil, Frankfurt: Luchterhand Literaturverlag, 1990, p. 147.
  3. Cf. Karl Hofer: Painting has a future. Letters, speeches, essays. Kiepenheuer, Leipzig and Weimar, ISBN 3-378-00478-9 , p. 436 f (commentary on Karl Hofer's article on the situation of the fine arts from February 1955).
  4. Hans Sahl: The Critic's Duty to Criticize. A preliminary conclusion to the art debate. In: “The Month”, June 1955, issue 81, 7th year, p. 280 f.
  5. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 493.
  6. Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection: Honorary Graves of the State of Berlin (Status: November 2018) (PDF, 413 kB), p. 74. Accessed on November 13, 2019. Recognition and further preservation of graves as honorary graves of the State of Berlin (PDF , 369 kB). Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 18/14895 of November 21, 2018, pp. 1–2 and Annex 1, p. 6. Accessed on November 13, 2019.
  7. see: “The Few and the Many” (1959).
  8. ^ "Ask Reich-Ranicki" , FAZ , June 28, 2007.
  9. ↑ Special issue on Sahl, also contains: "Hans Sahl." Drawing by Gert Wollheim , in the French camp for foreigners "Château de Vernuche" with a picture of a staircase there ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was used automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in Varennes-Vauzelles near Nevers , France 1940. - Momme Brodersen: Read bloody reality past the reader as if he were reading a story”. On Hans Sahl's anthology of poems "The bright nights". - dsb. with Gregor Ackermann: Hans Sahl. Supplements to the bibliography of his writings 1995-2013. - Hans Sahl: Letters: 1982 .- Edita Koch: Commentary.- Frithjof Trapp: Junk of the incomprehensible. To Sahl's “The Few and the Many”. .- Hans Sahl: Chronicle of the Bright Nights. An unpublished feature from the estate. Archived at Harvard University. Here description @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zintzen.org
  10. 224 min. The FAZ review reports: Michael Jeismann contradicts those who expect a repetition of the collection project of the Shoa Foundation , USC, with these voices . No, this compilation of radio programs from the past 10 years is a "compelling and touching story from the belly of the 20th century". Dambitsch is thus giving the victims their identity back, and the listeners learn not only about their personal fate but also about the larger story in which the speakers moved at the time. When you hear the voices of different people from the cultural life of Germany at that time, you understand better the diversity of opinions in the Jewish society of the 1930s, that is, the ignorance of many and the clarity of some; one understands the disgust for Germany and the attraction of the fatherland when z. B. W. Michael Blumenthal reports from his parents that they later ordered their cutlery as a matter of course in Solingen. The more you hear about it, says Jeismann, the more real it becomes to us what was and what is. Other than Sahl, we have a say: Primo Levi , Arno Lustiger , Grete Weil , Simon Wiesenthal and Imre Kertész and their descendants.