Journey of fate

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Journey of fate. Report and Confession is a travelogue by the German writer Alfred Döblin and was published in November 1949 by Verlag Joseph Knecht in Frankfurt am Main. As the most extensive autobiographical work by this author, the book covers the period of approx. Eight years (1940 to 1948) from his escape from Paris before the advance of the German army to his American exile and his return to Germany as a French officer. Thematically, the book deals primarily with his conversion to Catholicism during this phase.

Emergence

At the beginning of October 1940, immediately after arriving in California, Döblin set to work, which was originally supposed to bear the title of Robinson in France and to deal with his French experiences. In the spring of 1941 the "little [...] book about the French. Experiences ”and passed on to several publishers, who, however, were not used for the typescript due to content-related or strategic considerations. It was not until April 1948 that Döblin resumed the project after his resignation from the French service, which he has now restructured and expanded into a three-parter. Thus the Robinson text as “Europe, I must let you” became the first book, which was followed by the two other books, which were much smaller than the previous one, about the following periods: “America” about his life as an emigrant in the USA and “ Back again ”on his return to Europe. At the end of the same year Döblin finished the work of a completion, and finally it became a journey of fate. Report and confession delivered in November 1949 by Joseph Knecht's publishing house in Frankfurt am Main, which specializes in Christian non-fiction literature.

content

The journey of fate is about the eight-year period from May 1940 to February 1948. The first book "Europa, I must let you" describes the writer's flight from France via Spain, Portugal and finally to the USA. On the morning of May 16, 1940 - the "fateful date" - Döblin was finishing the second part of his romantic tetralogy November 1918, Betrayed People, in his apartment in Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris, and heard the news of a break-in on the radio German army through the northern front. First of all, Döblin lets his wife Erna and his youngest son Stefan flee via Paris to Le Puy, while he himself remains temporarily in Paris and continues to work for a French authority against the National Socialist regime. In view of the approaching dangers, however, Döblin must be on 10./11. Leave Paris on June 6th and want to drive towards Le Puy, where he is expecting Erna and Stefan. After stops like Tours and Moulins, however, the odyssey continues south, and Döblin ends up in a refugee camp in Mende via Clermont-Ferrand, Capdenac, Cahors, and Rodez. In the midst of desperation - above all due to increasing impoverishment and the unsuccessful trip to Le Puy - he increasingly had spiritual experiences, and on his last visit to Mender Cathedral, Döblin was given a key religious experience: he was sitting “within sight of the crucifix. / When I close my eyes, I feel the crucifix on the top right as a radiant warmth «. When Döblin left for Toulouse, where the family was finally supposed to reunite, it became apparent that he was invited “under the guise of this journey […] [z] u a journey of fate” - a formal conversion, however, is still pending. At the suggestion of his wife, Döblin decides in Toulouse to continue to flee to the USA. In Marseille, the family "wonderfully" overcomes all difficulties with the necessary visas and tickets, then crosses Spain with stops in Portbou, Barcelona and Madrid and finally leaves the port of Lisbon with the ship Nea Hellas for the USA, the Döblins should bring to New York.

Compared to the involvement in the Hollywood film industry and the relationships within the community in exile, in the second part, “America”, Christian topics in particular are at the fore. Döblin visits churches and crosses on the west coast and visits Jesuits on Sunset Blvd, and here the conversion of him and his family to Catholicism is finally completed. Shortly before the end of the war, a letter from the now liberated France brought bad news to California that the second oldest son Wolfgang (Vincent) died in June 1940. After the war, however, another letter from a friend from his time in Paris gave him information about the "plan to re-educate the Germans": a "call from over there", the Doblin on the way to Chicago, Niagara Falls and New York to return to Europe emotional.

The third book, "Back again", is primarily about Döblin's work as a French cultural officer in Germany. Just on the "revolution date", November 9th, Döblin set foot on German soil again and reached Baden-Baden, where the military government of the French occupation zone is stationed. Through his efforts, Döblin wants to promote a self-criticism of the people that has been robbed by the National Socialists. At the same time, his activities are intended to restore a “European, Christian humanistic attitude” to the German “pagan contaminated” “mentality”. For converts, German cities like Mainz and Berlin now offer bombed-out, but Christianly transfigured appearances, while Döblin has to defend his conversion against violent accusations in the now divided hometown. In the end, however, the book comes to an end with the optimistic outlook »[a] new, better enlightenment towards«.

interpretation

The text seems to oscillate between two voices: the factually descriptive one of a report (›report‹) and the other, which tends to explain the events supernaturally (›confession‹). Through the repeated alternation between the two voices, a certain rhythm unfolds in the journey of fate. In view of this observation, Helmuth Kiesel advocates the influential thesis that three points of view overlap in this travel report: that of the psychologically disturbed refugee, that of the soberly observing psychopathologist and that of the mystic. However, this split suggests that conversion in the journey of fate is not experienced as a one-off event, but as an everlasting process or an ongoing struggle for faith. Döblin's skepticism towards his new denomination, which is betrayed in his diary notes about the "abstract [en] [...] belief in the brain", does not mean that the conversion of his autobiographical self is incomplete or merely staged. In the course of the journey of fate, the ›confession‹ recurs incessantly, and the conversion represents a necessary »memorial« in this constant inner process through the »catastrophe«. However, it is precisely this process that can have the consequence that the newly won faith is all the more more solidifies.

reception

With the journey of fate, Döblin met with clear rejection from the German readership of the early post-war period. Despite the Christmas business immediately after the book was delivered in November 1949, the publisher Joseph Knecht had to report to the author at the end of January 1950 that no more than 700 copies had been sold, and also spoke of a "passive resistance" on the part of the public. While most of the 60 or so reviews are positive and the scathing, resentment-laden criticism of the returned exile belongs to the minority, the majority of the reviews are ultimately from Christian papers. Even in the camp of the religious community, however, the journey of fate hardly aroused any sympathy, since the faith presented in the book only appeared formulaic and dogmatic in the eyes of contemporary Christians. The self-portrayal of this new Catholic triggered all the more alienation, which Brecht had given a shape in the poem “Embarrassing Incident” as early as 1943 after the first announcement of Döblin's conversion to the exile community.

Only posthumously, i.e. H. Since the 1980s and 1990s, historical and confessional interest has enabled new editions of the book, among which the comprehensive 1993 edition by Anthony W. Riley deserves a special mention as a volume of the Selected Works. A Dutch (1982), English (1992) and French version (2002) as well as a partial Japanese translation (2014) are available of this work.

Text output (selection)

  • Journey of fate. Report and confession . Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1949
  • Journey of fate. Report and confession . (= Selected works in individual volumes), Walter-Verlag, Solothurn / Düsseldorf 1993
  • Journey of fate. Report and confession . (= Collected Works, Vol. 18), Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2014

Literature (selection)

  • Bettina Bannasch: The Jew of my name - the poet of my name . In: Hanst Otto Horch (Hrsg.): Exile experience and constructions of identity 1933 to 1945. Berlin, Gruyter 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-029852-9 , pp. 207–232.
  • Oliver Bernhardt: Alfred Döblin . (= dtv portrait), Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2007, pp. 105–156
  • Stefan Keppler-Tasaki: Journey of Fate . In: Sabina Becker (Ed.): Döblin manual. Life - work - effect . Metzler, Stuttgart 2016
  • Riley, Anthony W .: “Afterword of the editor”, in: Döblin, Alfred: Schicksalsreise. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), pp. 483–505.
  • Wilfried F. Schoeller: Alfred Döblin. A biography . Hanser, Munich 2011, pp. 629-730

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Döblin: To Arthur u. Elvira Rosin on February 10, 1941, in: ders .: Briefe II, Düsseldorf / Zurich: Walter 2001 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 152 f., Here p. 152.
  2. ^ Alfred Döblin: Journey of Fate. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 85.
  3. ^ Alfred Döblin: Journey of Fate. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 168.
  4. ^ Alfred Döblin: Journey of Fate. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 174.
  5. ^ Alfred Döblin: Journey of Fate. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 224.
  6. ^ Alfred Döblin: Journey of Fate. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 294 f.
  7. ^ Alfred Döblin: Journey of Fate. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 295.
  8. ^ Alfred Döblin: Journey of Fate. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 307.
  9. ^ Alfred Döblin: Journey of Fate. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 312.
  10. ^ Alfred Döblin: Journey of Fate. Report and confession, Solothurn / Düsseldorf: Walter-Verlag 1993 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 365.
  11. ^ Alfred Döblin: [Tagebuch 1945-1946], in: ders .: Writings on life and work, Olten / Freiburg im Breisgau: Walter-Verlag 1986 (= selected works in individual volumes), pp. 259–264, here p. 264 .
  12. ^ Alfred Döblin: [Diary 1945-1946], in: ders .: Writings on life and work, Olten / Freiburg im Breisgau: Walter-Verlag 1986 (= selected works in individual volumes), p. 277. Cf. Stefan Keppler-Tasaki : Art. 'Journey of Fate', in: Sabina Becker (ed.): Döblin-Handbuch. Life - Work - Effect, Stuttgart: Metzler 2016.