Walter Serner

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Walter Serner
(before 1929)

Walter Serner (born January 15, 1889 in Karlsbad , Austria-Hungary ; † probably August 23, 1942 in the forest of Biķernieki near Riga ; actually Walter Eduard Seligmann ) was an essayist, writer and Dadaist . His Last Loosening manifesto is considered one of the most important Dada texts. He also wrote under other pseudonyms: he signed his first prose text with Wladimir Senakowski , a letter to his publisher with AD , a review of his own volume of stories, The Blue Monkey, under the name of his friend Christian Schad .

Life

Memorial plaque on the house, Augsburger Strasse 21, in Berlin-Charlottenburg

The young Walter Seligmann converted from Judaism to Catholicism shortly after graduating from high school in Kaaden in 1909 and took the surname Serner . In the same year he began to study law in Vienna and published articles on theater and visual arts in his father's Karlsbader newspaper . In 1912 he moved to Berlin and completed his studies at the University of Greifswald in 1913 with a doctorate. jur. from. Title of the dissertation: The giver's liability for deficiencies in the rights and deficiencies in the gifted item (The lawyer and chairman of the Walter Serner Society, Andreas Mosbacher proved in 2013 that 80 percent of Serner's legal dissertation was based on a dissertation published in Leipzig in 1909 by Arwed Rüling with the title The Giver's Liability for Defects in Rights and Defects of the thing according to the Civil Code , which Serner does not cite in his bibliography.). At that time he was already publishing regularly in the Berlin magazine Die Aktion . With an ambiguous certificate at the end of 1914, he helped the deserted expressionist writer Franz Jung escape from the military machinery of the First World War . To avoid being arrested and called up for this, Serner went to Zurich in neutral Switzerland . Among the growing number of emigrants, the painter Christian Schad soon became his best friend.

In 1914, shortly after moving to Switzerland, he first worked on the magazine Der Mistral . The last edition appeared under his direction; then he published his own publication under the title Sirius . Since moving to Zurich, he had occasional contact with the Dadaists. He commuted between Italy, Paris, Geneva and Zurich, wrote stories and a novel and in 1918 wrote the Dadaist manifesto Last Loosening manifest dada - for Jörg Drews a “brilliant analysis of the age of perfect nihilism”. In 1920 the manifesto was published; in the same year Serner is described by some of the main exponents of Dadaism such as Tzara as a “megalomaniac outsider”.

On April 9, 1919, Serner presented parts of the Last Loosening . At the Dada soiree Non plus ultra in Zurich there was an uproar of the audience, and Serner was chased off the stage. His manifesto is clearly related to the Dada 1918 manifesto written by Tristan Tzara - however, Serner had written his manifesto before Tzara's text was published. Ultimately, who influenced whom can no longer be proven.

After his departure from the Dadaist movement, Serner turned to writing crime stories . His novel Die Tigin was published in 1925 and caused a minor scandal due to the dodgy milieu and the sexually offensive language. Only an expert opinion by Alfred Döblin prevented the book from falling victim to censorship. In 1992 the novel was filmed by Karin Howard under the same title . His collection of stories The Whistle Around the Corner was temporarily confiscated. His next volume of short stories, Die tückische Strasse , was first published as a private print, as was his “crooks play” Posada or the great coup in the Hotel Ritz , which was performed for the first (and last) time on March 6, 1927: in the Berlin Theater am Zoo.

In 1925 there were the first anti-Semitic accusations against Serner, who had a Czechoslovak passport and continued his travel life continuously over the next few years; some of his books were on the “ List of Trash and Dirty Writings ” and were only sold privately by mail. After 1933, Serner's work in Germany was finally put on "List 1 of harmful and undesirable literature" of the Reich Chamber of Literature .

Serner retired into private life from 1927:

“Poetry is and remains a hoax, albeit a higher one. It is important to me to have said this for the first time. Shaping people means: forging them. "

- Walter Serner : From a letter to his publisher Paul Steegemann , discovered in his estate; is considered to be the last text by Serner

In 1938 Serner married his long-time friend Dorotea Herz, who came from Berlin, and lived with her in Prague. From 1939 he made several attempts to emigrate to Shanghai .

On August 10, 1942 - Serner was meanwhile working as a language teacher in the Prague ghetto - he was first deported to Theresienstadt with Transport Ba , then on August 20, 1942 with Transport Bb to Riga and there - probably on August 23, 1942 - in the forest of Biķernieki murdered along with his wife Dorotea and all the other 998 deportees on this transport.

Aftermath

The Berlin Walter Serner Prize was donated in his honor and the Berlin Walter Serner Society was founded in 2012 . The Christian Schad Archive in Miesbach contains extensive archive material on Walter Serner and his relationship with Christian Schad .

Works

Single issues

  • The giver's liability for defects in rights and defects in the gifted item. According to the civil code for the German Empire . Berlin: Ebering, 1913 (dissertation)
  • Final relaxation. manifest dada . Hanover / Leipzig / Vienna / Zurich: Steegemann , 1920, reissued by Andreas Puff-Trojan in Manesse Verlag Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7175-2148-8 (online see web links)
  • To the blue monkey. Thirty-three outrageous stories . Hanover: Steegemann, 1921
  • The eleventh finger. Twenty-five crime stories . Hanover: Steegemann, 1923
  • The whistle around the corner. Twenty-two spy and detective stories . Berlin: Elena Gottschalk, 1925
  • The tigress. A strange love story . Berlin: Gottschalk, 1925
  • The treacherous street. Nineteen crime stories . Vienna: December, 1926
  • Posada or The Great Coup at the Hotel Ritz. A crook piece in three acts . Vienna: December, 1926
  • Final relaxation. A handbook for impostors and those who want to become one (extended edition, 1927)
  • Fear. Early prose . Ed., Nachw .: Thomas Milch, Ill .: Christian Schad. Erlangen: Renner, 1977
  • Brain ulcer. Texts and materials. Walter Serner and Dada . Ed., Nachw .: Thomas Milch. Erlangen: Renner, 1977
  • Wong fun. Crime story . Ill .: Volker Pfüller, Nachw .: Thomas Milch. Augsburg: Maro, 1991

Work editions

  • Walter Serner's books. Cassette in seven volumes . Berlin: Steegemann, 1927
  • The entire work. Volumes 1-8, 3 supplement volumes . Ed .: Thomas Milch. Erlangen, Munich: Renner, 1979–1992
    • Vol. 1: About monuments, women and lanterns. Early Writings (1981)
    • Vol. 2: The brain ulcer. DADA (1982)
    • Vol. 3: The tigress. A Strange Love Story (1980)
    • Vol. 4: The isabelle stallion. The Complete Crime Stories I (1979)
    • Vol. 5: The whistle around the corner. Complete Crime Stories II (1979)
    • Vol. 6: Posada or the big coup in the Hotel Ritz. A crook in three acts (1980)
    • Vol. 7: Final relaxation. A handbook for impostors and those who want to become one (1981)
    • Vol. 8: The departure. Materials for life and work (1984)
    • Vol. 9 = Supplement vol. 1: The giver's liability for defects in rights and defects in the thing given away (1982)
    • Vol. 10 = Supplement vol. 2: The fat swearing. A Walter Serner crooks dictionary (1983)
    • Vol. 11 = Supplement vol. 3: Almond at half mast. Supplements to Leben und Werk (1992) (very different texts, documents and illustrations by and about WS, Dada, Christian Schad et al., With explanations)
  • Collected works in ten volumes . Edited by Thomas Milch. Munich: Goldmann, 1988
    • Vol. 1: About monuments, women and lanterns. Early writings (contains Supplement 1 of the Renner edition)
    • Vol. 2: The brain ulcer. DADA
    • Vol. 3: To the blue monkey. Thirty-three crime stories
    • Vol. 4: The eleventh finger. Twenty-five crime stories
    • Vol. 5: The tigress. A strange love story
    • Vol. 6: The whistle around the corner. Twenty-two crime stories
    • Vol. 7: Posada or the big coup in the Hotel Ritz. A crook in three acts
    • Vol. 8: The treacherous street. Nineteen crime stories
    • Vol. 9: Final relaxation. A handbook for impostors and those who want to become one
    • Vol. 10: The departure. Materials on life and work (contains supplement volume 2 of the Renner edition)
  • Speak clearly. All poems and poems . Ed .: Klaus G. Renner. Munich: Renner, 1988
  • The Walter Serner reading book. All 99 crime stories in one volume . Munich: Goldmann , 1992
  • The narrative work in three volumes . Ed .: Thomas Milch. Munich: Goldmann / btb, 2000, ISBN 3-442-90259-2
    • Vol. 1: To the blue monkey / The eleventh finger
    • Vol. 2: The tigress
    • Vol. 3: The whistle around the corner / The treacherous street

Texts on the Internet

Secondary literature

  • Serner, Walter. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 19: Sand – Stri. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. De Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2012, ISBN 978-3-598-22699-1 .
  • Alfons Backes-Haase: About topographical anatomy, psychological air exchange and related matters. Walter Serner, author of the 'Last Loosening' Aisthesis, Bielefeld 1988 ISBN 3-925670-18-1
  • Neda Bei, Helmut Eisendle, Elfriede Jelinek , Thomas Kling , Raimund Meyer, Bärbel Nolden: Vocabulary mixtures about Walter Serner Klaus G. Renner, Munich 1990 ISBN 3-927480-03-7
  • Jörg Drews: Behind every sentence you can clearly indicate wild laughter. On the intellectual existence of Walter Serner In: manuscripts. H. 89/90 (1985) pp. 149-153
  • Jörg Drews (Ed.): The pace of this time is no small matter. On literature around 1918 Edition text + kritik München 1981 ISBN 3-88377-081-7
  • Jonas Peters: "Dem Kosmos one step!" The development of Walter Serner's work and the conception of his Dadaist cultural criticism Lang, Frankfurt 1995 (= Hamburg contributions to German studies 19)
  • Helmut Lethen: The behavior of the cold. Life attempts between the wars. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1994. ISBN 3-518-11884-6
  • Andreas Puff-Trojan: Vienna - Berlin - Dada. Traveling with Dr. Serner special number, Vienna 1993 ISBN 3-85449-059-3
  • Andreas Puff-Trojan & Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler (eds.): The whistle for the whole. Studies on Walter Serner Vienna 1996 ISBN 3-85449-091-7
  • Andreas Puff-Trojan:  Serner, Walter Eduard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 270 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Christian Schad: Relative realities. Memories about Walter Serner. With a follow-up by Bettina Schad Maro, Augsburg 1999 (EA in: Walter Serner: Die Tigerin. Munich: Rogner & Bernhard, 1971, pp. 211–312) ISBN 3-87512-661-0
  • Enno Stahl: Anti-Art and Abstraction in Modern Literature. From Italian Futurism to French Surrealism 1909 - 1933 Peter Lang, Frankfurt / M. et.al. 1997, pp. 212-281 (on Serner specifically: 267-278) ISBN 3-631-32633-5
  • Herbert Wiesner (Ed.): Dr. Walter Serner. 1889-1942. Exhibition book Berlin: Literaturhaus Berlin, 1989 (= texts from the Literaturhaus Berlin 4), ISBN 3-926433-05-5

Adaptations: film / radio play / audio book (reading)

Web links

Commons : Walter Serner  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Walter Serner  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Dreiocker: This is Walter Serner speaking. A portrait of the inverted moralist. ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Broadcast Kulturtermin , Kulturradio RBB , January 11, 2014, accessed on January 14, 2014 (approx. From min. 4:00) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kulturradio.de
  2. ↑ Angrick / Klein, The “Final Solution” in Riga: Exploitation and Destruction 1941 - 1944, Darmstadt 2006, pp. 355 f .; Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. et al. [Hrsg.]: Book of Memory, The German, Austrian and Czechoslovak Jews Deported to the Baltic States, Munich 2003, Volume I, p. 17 ff .; 469 ff., 515 ff .; Walter Serner and his wife are mentioned by name on the list of names of all deportees on transport Bb p. 528
  3. ↑ http://www.kulturvision-aktuell.de/schad-archiv-stadt-miesbach-2018/
  4. ^ BR radio play Pool - Serner, last loosening
personal data
SURNAME Serner, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seligmann, Walter Eduard (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Essayist, Writer and Dadaist
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Carlsbad , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH August 23, 1942
Place of death Biķernieki forest near Riga