Karl Gustav Vollmoeller

Karl Gustav Vollmoeller

Karl Vollmoeller , actually Karl Gustav Vollmöller , (born May 7, 1878 in Stuttgart , † October 18, 1948 in Los Angeles ) was a German archaeologist, philologist, poet, playwright, writer, screenwriter, translator, racing driver, aircraft designer, pioneer of the mute - And talkies, entrepreneurs and reformers of German, European and American theater and at times politicians against their will.

Vollmoeller's most important and famous works include the cycle of poems “ Parcival - The Early Gardens ”, his verse drama “ Catherina - Countess of Armagnac ” and his wordless play “ Das Mirakel / The Miracle”, which is often described as pantomime , but goes far beyond that. As one of the pioneers of German auteur films, Vollmoeller's adaptation of “Das Wunder / The Miracle” is one of the first examples of a high-quality art film . Vollmoeller proved his high level of artistry as a screenwriter and consultant for the cult film “ The Blue Angel ”. As an unofficial “ambassador” for European culture and as a transatlantic mediator between the film centers in Babelsberg and Hollywood, he advocated dialogue between all artists across national and language borders at a time when Europe was breaking up into nation states and nationalisms.

Childhood and Adolescence 1878–1896

Vollmöller came from a family of Protestant theologians, scientists and entrepreneurs. His father, Kommerzienrat Robert Vollmöller , founded one of the largest German and European textile companies of his time and was one of the pioneers of a social market economy that placed the interests of employees on an equal footing with those of entrepreneurs. At the turn of the century, his social work was highlighted in many magazines and books. Karl's mother, Emilie Vollmöller , née Behr, was a representative of Christian social ethics and stood for equal rights and women's emancipation. Together with her husband Robert, she founded several social institutions in what is now Stuttgart-Vaihingen , such as the Emilienheim and the Filderhof, which still exist today as a retirement home.

Karl Vollmoeller had nine siblings, including the painter Mathilde Vollmoeller , who was married to the painter Hans Purrmann . Martha Müller, b. Vollmöller (1883–1955) was one of the first female high school graduates in Württemberg and the four first female students in Tübingen at the beginning of the 20th century. Hans Robert Vollmöller (1889–1917), Karl's second youngest brother, was an aircraft pioneer and test pilot who died in 1917 on a test flight near Berlin. Kurt Vollmöller (1890–1936), Karl's youngest brother, was like him a writer and published several novels and short stories around 1930.

For the first few years, Karl Vollmoeller and his sister Mathilde were privately tutored, before he attended the Karls-Gymnasium Stuttgart from 1888 , which he graduated with the final exam in 1896. In 1894 the mother died suddenly. From this point on, Karl Vollmoeller wrote and published poems.

Academic years 1896–1901

Vollmoeller first studied classical philology , art and painting in Berlin and Paris . With this he succeeded his uncle, the Romance scholar Karl Vollmöller , who had taught at the universities of Strasbourg, Erlangen and Göttingen and at that time was living as a private scholar in Dresden. Karl Gustav Vollmoeller studied classical archeology in Bonn from 1899 and graduated in 1901 with a doctorate. phil. from. The title of his dissertation is: "Greek chamber graves with death beds".

From 1897, Vollmoeller lived in southern Italy over the summer months, preferably in Sorrento near Naples. He acquired the Villa Arlotta, a property in the middle of a huge orange and lemon grove directly on the steep coast with a view of Naples and Ischia. He published poems in the magazines Simplicissimus , Pan and in the Blätter für die Kunst . In 1897 his first book was published in Berlin: “The Storm and Drang Period and Modern German Realism”.

In 1898 he traveled together with Max Dauthendey to Greece, where he returned in 1900 to take part in excavations for seven months in the vicinity of the archaeologists Wilhelm Dörpfeld , Alexander Conze , Theodor Wiegand and Paul Wolters . In addition, Vollmoeller carried out his own excavations together with his friend Richard Delbrueck in Megara as part of a grant from the German Archaeological Institute , both of which were published in 1900. In addition, Vollmoeller worked on his first verse drama Catherina - Countess von Armagnac and the tragedy Assues, Fitne and Sumurud . At this time he became friends with André Gide , August Strindberg , Stefan George , Rainer Maria Rilke and Gabriele d'Annunzio, as well as Dauthendey .

Car racing driver and aircraft designer (1902–1912)

Between 1902 and 1908 Vollmoeller was a racing car driver and took part in the Gordon Bennett Cup several times . The high point of his racing career was the first touring car rally around the world, which started on February 12, 1908 in New York. At this event, Vollmoeller drove a car from the Italian car manufacturer Züst and took third place with his team.

In September 1912, the poet was causally involved in a traffic accident in Innsbruck in which a small child was killed. He could not be proven to be at fault for the occurrence of the accident. The girl ran into Vollmoeller's vehicle and was run over by him.

From 1904/05, Vollmoeller began building aircraft together with his brother Hans Robert. Four prototypes were created, the last of which flew non-stop from Cannstatt to Lake Constance in 1910; The pilot was Hans Vollmöller. This aircraft is now in the Schleissheim aircraft yard , an aviation exhibition of the German Museum in Munich.

Translator (1902–1939)

In 1902 Vollmoeller began his translation work. His first work was Gabriele D'Annunzio's “Francesca da Rimini” from Italian into German. The book was published in 1903 by S. Fischer Verlag , Berlin. From 1904 he turned to the classical Greek dramas and translated Sophocles '"Antigone" and Aeschylus ' "Orestie" from Greek into German. In addition, he edited both works for the theater. Max Reinhardt staged both works several times. Vollmoeller's "Orestie" adaptation in particular developed into a long-seller; it was staged many times between 1911 and 1942. In 1904 followed, together with his sister Mathilde, the translation of the "love letters of a young woman" from English. The book was published by the Leipziger Insel Verlag . In 1908 Vollmoeller signed an exclusive contract with Insel Verlag and translated, partly together with Rudolf G. Binding , six other titles by Gabriele D'Annunzio into German, including the novel “Maybe, maybe not”.

The lyric poet (1894-1948)

Known to Stefan George since 1895 , Vollmoeller was admitted to his George circle in 1897 and between 1897 and 1902 worked on the journals for art published by George and the Georg Bondi Verlag . In 1902 his cycle of poems Parcival - The early gardens in Milan was published by Teves, and in 1903 by S. Fischer in Berlin. The planned second cycle of poems "Book of Landscapes" did not appear. Vollmoeller's next works, the verse dramas Catherina - Countess von Armagnac and Assues, Fitne and Sumurud , were originally planned as poetry cycles, but were then dramaturgically adapted to the needs of the stage.

After 1904, until 1914, Vollmoeller wrote a few poems, which he published in newspapers and magazines. Some of them were first published in book form in 1960. The literary critic KG Just wrote in 1973: “Vollmoeller's verses are reminiscent of a tapestry… On the other hand, Vollmoeller's technical perfection is brought to a point beyond which no increase is possible… his virtuoso talent carried him effortlessly over every difficulty . He didn't know any design problems in the true sense of the word ... You could ... say that Vollmoeller ... saw with a sure eye how the technical world relies on the aesthetic culture of the turn of the century for the realization and decoration of its projects ... Vollmoeller works in a very subtle way with images, who gain monumentality through their sketchiness. The proximity to Gustav Klimt's pictures, for example , is captivating and oppressive at the same time. "

The playwright (1902–1939)

In 1903 the revised version of the verse drama "Catherina, Countess von Armagnac" was published by S. Fischer Verlag, the first part of which was published in 1901 in the Blätter für die Kunst . Together with the tragedy “Assues, Fitne und Sumurud” published in 1904, both works, as part of Vollmoeller's “Love Trilogy”, represent the most important examples of symbolist dramas in German to this day . “Even Hofmannsthal had to admit that Vollmoeller's' Catherina 'was his' wife im Fenster 'in dramatic intensity, and such a determined opponent of the theater as Stefan George capitulated to Vollmoeller's talent and printed scenes from his drama in the Blätter für die Kunst. "(KG Just) In 1905 the one-act act" Giulia - the American woman. " ". The successful staging of these works on German and Austrian stages drew Max Reinhardt's attention to Vollmoeller. Their collaboration began in 1904/05, which initially included the close and successful theater work in Europe until 1919, and the second step worldwide between 1923 and 1932. In 1906 Vollmoeller completed his “love trilogy” with his comedy “Der deutsche Graf”.

Also in 1906 was his “Antigone” based on Sophocles, which was staged by Max Reinhardt in Berlin. Although by this time his important "Orestie" translation and adaptation had long been completed, it did not come on stage until 1911, as it took Vollmoeller four years before he was able to convince Max Reinhardt of his ideas about reforming the German and European theater stages. Only when this followed the “arena concept” developed by Vollmoeller in close contact with Edward Gordon Craig , the return to ancient large-scale stagings, did Vollmoeller give his permission to perform his “Orestie” in Munich for the first time. In 1911 “Wieland”, a parody, was published both as a book by Insel Verlag and in a version for the stage. The piece is one of Vollmoeller's most misunderstood pieces; it provoked a violent stage scandal and had to be canceled after three performances. Vollmoeller's “Wieland” is both a parody of Richard Wagner's work and an early example of ironic social criticism. In “Wieland” Vollmoeller denounces the emerging age of the mass media with a prophetic eye and says goodbye to his own belief in technology. Almost at the same time, he stopped building both automobiles and aircraft.

On December 23, 1911, his speechless play, the erroneously pantomime called "Das Mirakel / The Miracle", premiered in London. The immediate pan-European success of this piece with a religious content catapulted the duo Vollmoeller and Max Reinhardt to the top of the theater world. Vollmoeller had worked on this piece between 1896 and 1911. It was the only consistent implementation of the radical reform of European theater, represented by both Vollmoeller and Craig, whereby the actor is deprived of his most important means, language, and the action is conveyed exclusively through facial expressions and gestures as well as background music. While Craig later propagated his even more radical approach of the “marionette”, Vollmoeller focused exclusively on musical and pantomime differentiation. The more than two decades lasting success of his “Miracle”, a speechless play that can be understood in any language without problems, proved him right. Between 1911 and 1932 the miracle was performed worldwide in front of an audience of millions, in 1924 alone for a whole year, day after day without interruption on Broadway in New York. Engelbert Humperdinck composed the music for the “Miracle” after Richard Strauss had withdrawn. Between 1500 and 2500 actors and extras played in front of up to 30,000 spectators per performance. Thus, as requested by its author, the “Miracle” tied seamlessly to the tradition of the medieval miracle games, the “Mystères mimes”, which in front of up to ten thousand spectators had conveyed contents of the Christian doctrine of the faith for the public who were then ignorant of reading and writing which are performed similarly to this day in Oberammergau.

In 1912 Vollmoeller's pieces "Venetian Adventures / A Venetian Night", the Molière adaptation "George Dandin", and in 1913 his translation and adaptation of Carlo Gozzi's piece Turandot , which Friedrich Schiller tried to work on around 1800 , were based on the content and pieces of the Commedia dell'arte premiered in London. The music for Vollmoeller's "Turandot" was composed by Ferruccio Busoni , who later arranged the material for his own opera Turandot .

The war years 1914–1918

The beginning of the First World War prevented the premiere of the "Miracle" in the United States. Since Vollmoeller was otherwise employed in the war years, his productivity as a playwright declined during this time. “For Vollmoeller, the collapse of aestheticism and the technical world (falls) chronologically ... The outbreak of the First World War marks the decisive turning point. Vollmoeller made this impressive in a broad poem, "Die Reise (July 1914)"… Vollmoeller, who was not a social outsider like many poets of those years, knew this world; the image he paints of her can be considered authentic ... The real crisis is marked by the collapse of the epoch in 1914. It is Vollmoeller's importance that he formulated this ruthlessly. What is fascinating about Vollmoeller is that he follows the path of his epoch to the edge of the abyss ... Representative virtuoso of the aestheticism of the turn of the century, one of the few poets of rank who creatively took over the technical world, Vollmoeller also becomes a chronicler of the simultaneous collapse of both Areas. As an artist, Vollmoeller did not survive the collapse of this world of his. That is what constitutes its human tragedy. At the same time, however, it lifts the ... qualities of (its) verses beyond any doubt. "(KG Just)

In 1915 the play “The Brothers” hit the German stages, in 1916 “Three Women in One”, a translation and adaptation of Lope de Vega from Spanish. In 1917 "Madame d 'Ora" followed, a play based on a novel by the Dane Johannes Vilhelm Jensen , which was performed in 1921 in a translation in Copenhagen. In 1917 Vollmoeller wrote the ballet "Christina's Honeymoon", which first premiered in Berlin and then in Stockholm. In 1918 he adapted Dostoyevsky's "Uncle has dreamed", a hearty comedy.

Immediately after the outbreak of war, Vollmoeller was hired as war correspondent for his homeland, the Kingdom of Württemberg. In addition, he worked as an advisor and companion to the then King Wilhelm II. The Foreign Office in Berlin also secured Vollmoeller's services by employing him for various tasks in the cultural department. Between 1914 and 1917 Vollmoeller made several official trips to Holland, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. In addition, between mid-1916 and the end of 1918 he worked mainly for the Foreign Office in Switzerland, from where he a. a. Organized guest tours of the Deutsches Theater Berlin to Austria-Hungary, Sweden and Switzerland.

In addition, Vollmoeller was active as the founder of the most important association in the German Empire at the time. Together with Richard Dehmel , Walther Rathenau and with the active support of Robert Bosch as well as parts of the Foreign Office and the Reich government, he founded the " German Society 1914 ", which existed until 1934. In addition to a large part of the upper management level of the Foreign Office, it included a broad spectrum of parliamentarians from all parliamentary groups, including the Social Democrats. The top of the German economy rallied around Robert Bosch. All the well-known bankers, entrepreneurs and industrialists of the time belonged to the society. In addition, the owners and editors-in-chief of all national newspapers as well as the first row of writers, painters, actors and other artists. The membership directory was like a who's who of the German Reich. At times, especially towards the end of the war and during the Weimar Republic, some of the ministers and state secretaries were among the members.

Together with Harry Graf Kessler , Vollmoeller developed activities aimed at peace plans with France and England (to be read in Kessler's published diaries). For example, they were temporarily involved in the unofficial peace talks via the German embassy in Bern and, on behalf of the Reich government, set up a kind of unofficial propaganda authority, the so-called correspondence network, at the end of the war, in order to influence the press in the neutral countries.

Intermediate period (1919–1939)

Citizens of the world and promoters of talent

The most significant personal event for Karl Vollmoeller was the divorce from his wife Maria Carmi in 1920 . At the same time he was in a relationship with the dancer Lena Amsel , whom he had discovered for the stage and who, through his protection, got engagements on German stages and film roles.

From 1924 to 1930 Vollmoeller was in a relationship with Ruth Landshoff , who initially worked as an actress, but then made a name for herself as a journalist and writer. After her relationship with Vollmoeller ended, Ruth Landshoff married Count David Yorck. From 1930 on, Vollmoeller lived without a steady partner until the end of his life.

After he had to give up his Italian residences in Sorrento and Florence due to the war, he set up his main residence in Venice from 1919. He leased Palazzo Vendramin on the Grand Canal and lived there when he wasn't in Hollywood. During these years he only visited Germany sporadically, although he always kept his apartment in Berlin on Pariser Platz. Also in 1919 Vollmoeller acquired a house in Basel that was located directly on the Rhine.

talent scout

Vollmoeller increasingly withdrew from his connections to politics and during these years worked mainly as a discoverer and supporter of young artists, primarily women. He also lived in the United States for 3 to 6 months, mostly in Hollywood, since 1919. He acted as a promoter of the exchange between Babelsberg and Hollywood and ensured the engagement of German actors, such as Emil Jannings , and job opportunities for filmmakers such as Karl Freund , Ernst Lubitsch , William Dieterle in Hollywood. At the same time, Vollmoeller campaigned for artists who were severely discriminated against in the United States at the time. He supported the Afro-Americans Josephine Baker or Katherine Dunham and the Asian Anna May Wong by giving them job opportunities in Europe.

In Europe, Vollmoeller became aware of the then unknown Marlene Dietrich in 1923 , whom he gave the leading role in the film The Blue Angel in 1929 .

Filmmaker

In 1922 and 1923 Vollmoeller wrote the scripts for the German films "Inge Larson" and "Catherina - Countess von Armagnac". In 1928 the film " Dirty Money " with Heinrich George and Anna May Wong , a German-English co-production , was based on his original . In 1928 and 1929 Vollmoeller worked as a consultant for the Josef von Sternberg film "Thunderbolt" and, in the case of David W. Griffith, "Lady of the Pavements" as an idea generator and screenwriter. It was the time of transition from silent to sound films. Vollmoeller contributed his extensive knowledge to these two early sound film productions in Hollywood and gained additional experience, which he benefited as a consultant for “ The Blue Angel ” (1930) in Berlin.

author

During the interwar years, Vollmoeller's literary production consisted mainly of scripts and works for the stage. In 1924 and 1926 he wrote the ballets “Die Schießbude” and “Ulala” and in 1930 the musical “Cocktail” together with Ralph Benatzky . In addition, Vollmoeller reworked both his “Mirakel”, 1923 and 1932, and “Turandot” in 1926 for the Salzburg Festival .

He also wrote the two volumes of short novels “Seven Miracles of the Virgin Mary” and the volume “Eight Miracles of the Holy Virgin Mary”, which was published as a private print. In this, Vollmoeller took up the religious theme of his play "Das Wunder / The Miracle" again, albeit in the form of very beautiful, perfectly formed narratives in the manner of medieval legends. At the same time, Vollmoeller formulated his religious approach in both books, which did not correspond to the official Catholic doctrine.

Vollmoeller was won over by Richard Nikolaus Graf von Coudenhove-Kalergi as a founding member of his Paneuropean Union , which was established in 1922 , without, however, being harnessed to a political cart as between 1915 and 1918.

World success miracle

The years from the end of 1923 to 1932 were the worldwide triumph of Vollmoeller's “ Das Mirakel / The Miracle”. Engelbert Humperdinck composed the music . The play was first performed on January 15, 1924 at the Century Theater in New York. Again it was staged by Max Reinhardt and began a triumphal march through the United States. Until the end of 1924, the play was shown almost 300 times every day in front of a sold-out house on Broadway in New York. From 1925 it went on a national tour of the United States, which ended in early 1930.

In between, Das Mirakel also celebrated triumphs in Europe from time to time, for example at the Salzburg Festival in 1925 . On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its world premiere in 1911/12, Reinhardt and Vollmoeller brought the piece out in London in 1932 in a revision specially adapted to the zeitgeist. Then the piece toured England and Scotland until 1934. Vollmoeller was a celebrated media star between 1924 and 1934.

In 1919 the large theater in Berlin opens with Vollmoeller's “ Orestie ”. It was thanks to Vollmoeller's persistence and his argument that Max Reinhardt turned to large-scale productions from 1910/11. For Vollmoeller, this was the prerequisite for being able to present an ancient piece like the "Orestie" on a modern stage. Vollmoeller's “Orestie” was last staged in Europe in 1942 in Switzerland.

The time of National Socialism

After the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, Vollmoeller held on until the spring of 1939 only a few days in Germany. During these years he lived in Venice, Basel, Hollywood and increasingly also in Paris, where more and more exile Germans were gathering.

The National Socialists offered Vollmoeller several high, representative offices in the cultural field, most recently that of a Prussian minister of culture, but Vollmoeller always refused in disgust.

At the end of 1938 the Italian fascists confiscated the Palazzo Vendramin together with Vollmoeller's valuable furniture, carpet and painting collection. From November 1938 to summer 1939 he stayed in Basel, where he had inherited a house from a brother. Shortly before the outbreak of war, he went into exile in the United States. Out of consideration for his relatives living in Germany and Italy, Vollmoeller avoided any political statements against the National Socialists and their regime. This was his undoing two years later, although between 1933 and 1939, whenever he was in Europe, he campaigned for Jews who had fled and supported people in need.

During the National Socialist era, Vollmoeller mainly worked with Italian colleagues, for example in 1934/35 with Giovacchino Forzano , for whom he translated his play "Graf von Brechard" into German and with which he wrote the script for the film Hundred Days , based on a template by Benito Mussolini wrote. The main roles in the film were played by Gustaf Gründgens and Werner Krauss .

In 1936 Vollmoeller's play “The Secret” was staged in Berlin, with a plot that can be understood as a disguised criticism of Hitler and the National Socialists.

Period of exile (1939–1948)

Vollmoeller spent the last nine years of his life in exile in America. Despite financial hardship and his internment (1942), he completed his literary work during these years.

Due to the outbreak of war in Europe, Vollmoeller was unable to get orders from the major Hollywood studios in 1939 or 1940. It was not until 1941 that he worked one last time with his friend, the director Josef von Sternberg , on the film project Billing in Shanghai . His old friend, Arnold Pressburger , a Jewish producer who had to flee from the Nazis, thanked with this order for Vollmoeller support since 1915. At the end of filming took place in December 1941 after the previous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , the declaration of war of Germany and Italy to the United States . Vollmoeller was arrested on New Year's Eve 1941 along with tens of thousands of other German exiles. His lawyers did not obtain release until 13 months later.

During the internment, he became critically ill three times and survived, although the doctors had already given him up. During this time he wrote his old age poems, but a small selection of them did not appear in Germany until 1960. In the internment camp, Vollmoeller met Arnold Bergstraesser , who was interned three times as a supposed Nazi supporter. (see individual proof)

Vollmoeller lived and worked in New York from 1943 to 1948. He took up the theme of his life, the miracle, a third time in order to complete his second trilogy, the "Miracle Trilogy". The result was an old age novel, “The Miracle of Heiligenbluth”, with more than 700 pages in the abridged English version. The English translation that appeared shortly after his death in New York in 1949 is called The last Miracle . Here Vollmoeller settles his basic theme of the nun and the virgin Mary in the time of the French Revolution . In addition to the theological theories already known from the novellas, Vollmoeller takes a critical look at violence and war in this work. He makes no secret of his disgust for the atrocities of a mass of people stirred up by bloodthirsty dictators. The book is generally understood as a settlement with the National Socialists and their crimes. Due to his personally negative experiences, Vollmoeller also deals extensively and critically with American democracy in the novel.

Parallel to his work on his novel, Vollmoeller worked in part as the editor of other exile authors such as Hans Wolff and taught for two years as a lecturer at Katherine Dunham's dance and drama school in New York.

In 1948 he traveled one last time to Europe, where he stayed exclusively in Switzerland. He celebrated his 70th birthday in Basel with his relatives and friends, toured Graubünden and Ticino one last time and flew back to the United States in September. On the occasion of the negotiations about the filming of his novel, he stayed in Hollywood for the last time from the beginning of October 1948. He died here on the night of October 17-18, 1948 in his hotel suite.

Ten days later, a memorial service for him was held at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, at which some of the exiled artists who were still in New York at the time gathered. His remains were only brought home by Ruth Landshoff- Yorck in 1951 . Karl Vollmoeller found his final resting place in the family grave on the Prague cemetery in Stuttgart, next to his parents and his two younger brothers Hans and Kurt.

Works

Poems

• 1894 - The early gardens - poems (garden of childhood - Hortus pueri, happiness of first love - Hortus rosarum)
• 1896 - Simplicissimus - "Sonett" and "Nocturno" poems, August
• 1897–1913: several poems and articles in “Blätter für die Kunst”, Insel Almanach, Rundschau, Hyperion, Pan, Süddeutsche Rundschau and others. a. "When the day dies", "As a prologue", "Odysseus", "Parcival", "From the sacred songs", "The fisherman's song", "Catharina von Armagnac", "Landscapes", "The landscapes last piece" , "Landscapes", "The old prince", "The anvil", "Nordic hero", "The giantess"
• 1903 - Parcival - The early gardens , poems
• 1903 - Catherina - Countess of Armagnac and her two lovers , verse drama
• 1903 - Francesca da Rimini - verse drama, translated from the Italian after G. d'Annunzio
• 1904 - Assüs, Fitne and Sumurud, tragedy oriental (verse drama)
• 1905 - Giulia, one-act play, verse drama
• 1906 - The German Count, verse drama
• 1906 - Antigone by Sophocles, verse drama translated from Greek, edited
• 1908 - The Oresty of Aeschylus, verse drama
• 1911 - Wieland - A fairy tale, verse drama
• 1960 - Poems - A selection - Schiller National Museum, German Literature Archive

Plays

First performance in brackets.

• 1903 - Catherina - Countess von Armagnac (March 6, 1905 Vienna, Carl-Theater)
• 1903 - Catherina - Countess von Armagnac (December 9, 1907 Berlin, Kammerspiele)
• 1904 - Assüs, Fitne and Sumurud, tragedy
• 1905 - The Oresty (November 30, 1911 Munich, Festhalle)
• 1905 - Giulia - The American Woman - one-act play (December 4, 1904 Elberfeld, Stadttheater)
• 1906 - The German Count - Comedy
• 1906 - The Antiogons of Sophocles (March 10, 1906 Berlin, Kleines Theater)
• 1911 - The Oresty (October 13, 1911 Berlin, Schumann Circus)
• 1911 - Wieland Parody (February 7, 1911 Berlin, Deutsches Theater)
• 1911 - The Miracle - Mystery Play (23 December 1911 London, Olympia Hall)
• 1912 A Young Man's Venetian Adventures (November 11, 1912 London, Palace Theater)
• 1912 - George Dandin - Comedy based on Moliere (April 13, 1912 Berlin, Deutsches Theater)
• 1912 - A Young Man's Venetian Adventures (29 August 1913 Berlin, Deutsches Theater)
• 1913 - Turandot - Editing Vollmoeller (January 18; 1913 London, St. James's Theater)
• 1914 - The Princess
• 1915 - The brothers
• 1916 - Three women in one - after Lope de Vega
• 1917 - Madame de Ora - a play based on Jensen (September 13; 1917 Berlin, Kammerspiele)
• 1917 - Christina's honeymoon ballet (1917 Berlin, Deutsches Theater)
• 1918 - Uncle dreamed, comedy (August 1, 1918 Berlin, Kammerspiele)
• 1919 - Oresty after Aeschylus - Drama (July 29, 1920 Berlin, Volksbühne)
• 1924 - The Shooting Gallery - Ballet
• 1924 - The Miracle - English version (January 15, 1924 New York, Century Theater)
• 1925 - The Miracle - Festival version (August 16, 1925 Salzburg, Festival Square)
• 1926 - Turandot - processing Vollmoeller (14.1926 Salzburg, festival area)
• 1926 - Ulala - ballet
• 1930 - Cocktail - comedy with Ralph Benatzky (March 17, 1931 Stuttgart, Schauspielhaus)
• 1936 - The Secret - play

Prose, short stories and novels

• 1897 - The Storm and Drang Period and German Realism, Walther Vlg, Berlin
• 1912 - EFGH Legacy Prosaic Writings, March
• 1919 - The Beloved, Novelle, Musarion Verlag
• 1921 - The Paiva, novella
• 1925 - Dirty Money, Novella
• 1928 - Eight Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• 1945 - The Younger Brother of Christ
• 1949 - The Last Miracle , Roman - Duell, Sloan and Pearce - New York
• 1950 - The Last Miracle, Roman - Cassels - London

Film projects

• 1912: Das Mirakel - screenplay and dramaturgical advice, silent film
• 1913: A Venetian Night - screenplay, silent film
• 1915: The ermine coat - screenplay, silent film
• 1923: Inge Larsen - screenplay, silent film
• 1928: dirty money
• 1928: Thunderbolt - dramaturgical advice, sound film
• 1929: Lady of the Pavements - screenplay, sound film
• 1929: The Blue Angel - screenplay + dramaturgical advice, sound film
• 1935: Hundred Days - screenplay, sound film
• 1941: Settlement in Shanghai (The Shanghai Gesture) - script + advice, sound film

Posthumous film adaptations

• 1959: The Madonna with the Two Faces , based on The Last Miracle, with Roger Moore
• 1959: The Blue Angel (The Blue Angel) , with Curt Jurgens

Translations

• 1904 - Oresty, translation and adaptation after Aeschylus
• 1904 - Love letters from an English girl (with Mathilde Vollmoeller)
• 1905 - Antigone, translation after Sophocles
• 1900–1910 - Translations of several works by D'Annunzio
• 1903 - Francesca da Rimini, tragedy
• 1909 - More than love
• 1909 - La Nave
• 1909 - Phaedra
• 1910 - Maybe, maybe not, Roman
• 1911 - Turandot by Carlo Gozzi
• 1912 - Poems by Verlaine together with Rilke, Zweig a. a.
• 1927 - Seven Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• 1939 - The Count von Brechard, play by Giovacchino Forzano

Contributions

• 1895–1948 - various articles in domestic and foreign newspapers and magazines, primarily in English, American, Italian, Swiss and German publications
• 1909 - "Aviatica", about the air show in Brescia in " Süddeutsche Monatshefte "
• 1910 - EFGH The posthumous prosaic writings, in "March", magazine
• 1912 - "Shōtai" in "Mita-Bungaku" ("The Beloved" in Japanese translation by Mori Ōgai )
• 1914 - "Die Geliebte" in "Der Herr der Luft", anthology, publisher Leonhardt Adelt
• 1915–1916 - War correspondent for the Württembergische Zeitung

literature

• Leonhard Adelt: Vollmoeller or the aviator and the seal. Study of six poets . Reuss & Itta, 1917
• Ines R. Braver: Karl Gustav Vollmoeller. Diss. New York University 1961
• Klaus Günther Just: The poet Karl Vollmoeller. Transitions, problems and forms of literature . Francke, 1966
• Klaus Günther Just: History of German Literature since 1871. From the early days to the present . Francke, 1973
• John M. Spalek , Konrad Feilchenfeld, Sandra H. Hawrylchak (eds.): German-language exile literature since 1933. Volume 4: Bibliographies. Writer, publicist and literary scholar in the USA. Part 3: N – Z. Saur, Bern / Munich 1994.
• Frederik D. Tunnat: Karl Vollmoeller: Poet and cultural manager: A biography . tredition, [Hamburg] 2008, ISBN 978-3-86850-000-4
• Frederik D. Tunnat: Karl Vollmoeller: A cosmopolitan life under the sign of the miracle . tredition, [Hamburg], ISBN 978-3-86850-235-0
• Hans Peter Buohler: The correspondence between Karl Gustav Vollmoeller and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. In: Hofmannsthal-Jahrbuch 18 (2010), pp. 105-137.
• Hans Peter Buohler: [Art.] Vollmoeller, Karl Gustav. In: Killy Literature Lexicon . Authors and works from the German-speaking cultural area . Lim. by Walther Killy, ed. by Wilhelm Kühlmann (among others). Second, completely revised. Edition. Volume 12. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-022038-4 , pp. 20-21.
• Klaus Konrad Dillmann: Dr. Karl Gustav Vollmöller * 1878 Stuttgart - + 1948 Los Angeles - A journey through time through an eventful life. The archaeologist, philosopher, poet, theater man, screenwriter and aircraft designer . Dillmann, Ilsfeld, 2012, ISBN 978-3-9807733-5-5

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Gustav Vollmoeller in the catalog of the German National Library
• Annotated link collection of the university library of the FU Berlin ( Memento from September 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) ( Ulrich Goerdten )
• karl-vollmoeller.de
• Films on the German-language website Filmportal
• Karl Gustav Vollmoeller in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

• EXILE RESEARCH AN INTERNATIONAL YEARBOOK Volume 4, 1986 - The Jewish exile and other topics, edition text + kritik - Claus-Dieter Krohn : The Bergstraesser case in America
• Alexander Stephan - In the sights of the FBI, Metzler 1995
• Robert Boehringer: Stefan George 1956, Arnold Bergstraesser on Karl Vollmoeller

1. ^ The source house of Theagenes in Megara . In: Communications from the Imperial German Archaeological Institute, Athenian Department 25, 1900, pp. 23–33 (“Text by Delbrueck, drawings by Vollmoeller”).
2. ↑ Innsbrucker Nachrichten, September 3, 1912, page 3 [1]
3. ↑ Examples from Vollmoeller's age poems  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Information on Vollmoeller's "Der Deutsche Graf"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Vollmoeller and his missions on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Relationship between Marlene Dietrich and Karl Vollmoeller ( Memento of the original from November 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ On the novellas of Karl Vollmoeller  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ ^{a b c} State Archives Basel-Stadt Signature: PD-REG 3a 30216 ( [2] )