Casual society Berlin

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The casual society (also "casual" / "the casual" / "the casual society in Berlin") was a naturalistic literary group that was founded in 1884. The timing of the dissolution is unclear.

founding

The idea and initiative to found the “casual society” in Berlin came from the publisher Hans A. Hertz and the literary critic Paul Schlenther as well as the lawyer Paul Meyer, friend and later executor of Theodor Fontanes , at the end of 1883 . Theodor Fontane jun. reported in his unpublished memoirs that Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's 155th birthday on January 22, 1884 was planned as the day the "casual society" was founded. In the spirit of Lessing and Theodor Fontane, men of intellectual character and tolerance should come together to exchange ideas. Out of disappointment with the Berlin “Literary Club”, whose practical club life consisted more of a banal pastime, an alternative form of society was sought. Historical role models were the Berlin “lawless society”, which had been renamed “informal society” in 1826 and whose members included the Prussian minister Karl v. Altenstein and Johann AF Eichhorn belonged. Another model was the “ Lawless Society of Berlin ” (which was not identical to the one above) , whose prominent members included Friedrich Schleiermacher , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Theodor Mommsen .

According to the deed of foundation dated January 22, 1884, eleven interested parties met to found an informal round of talks and these founding members therefore waived association statutes and other obligations. Rather, the aim was a sociable pub society, which met weekly for a "casual Friday" in various bars to exchange ideas over a glass of beer. The restaurant Schulz at Potsdamer Strasse 20 was chosen as the restaurant; much later, in the 1920s, they met in the Siechmann bar on Nollendorfplatz . Hans A. Hertz, Paul Schlenther and Paul Meyer served as directors with few duties and no rights. Other offices did not exist and a society fund was run loosely. One felt less like a pure literary society , rather one aimed at a broader group of interested parties, whereby different professions, opposing opinions, political confessions and private views of the members were desired.

Prominent and active members

According to the deed of foundation, the eleven founding members included Otto Brahm , Theodor Fontane jun., The second son Theodor Fontanes, Hans A. Hertz, Eugen Joseph, Paul Lehfeldt , Max Lesser, Edwin Litty, Paul Meyer, Emil Schiff, Paul Schlenther and Ernst Wolff. Most of the members were born between 1850 and 1860, including publishers, booksellers, singers, musicians, music historians, art historians, writers, philologists and literary historians (who mostly belonged to the school of the Berlin Germanist and university professor Wilhelm Scherer ), doctors, lawyers and architects and painters: Lovis Corinth , Arthur Eloesser , August Fresenius , Max Friedlaender , Ludwig Fulda , Fritz Gurlitt , Max Halbe , Otto Erich Hartleben , Robert Hessen, Rudolf Löwenstein , Fritz Mauthner , Siegfried Ochs , Max Osborn , Otto Pniower , Gustav Roethe , Karl Stauffer-Bern , who dedicated an etching to the casual in 1886, and Heinrich Welti. Many of them were of Jewish origin. Fontane's eldest son George, who worked as a captain and teacher at the cadet institute in Berlin-Lichterfelde and whom his father referred to in a letter to Schlenther as an informal captain, was also part of the “casual” group.

activities

In addition to the discussion rounds in the local pub, the “casual” also organized festive events and excursions into the Berlin area. On June 7, 1884, Theodor Fontane and his wife also took part in what he noted in his diary: “On the 7th, the 'casual', a society of which Theo is a member, went to Pichelswerder for a summer party that we also attended Old us involved. It went very well; there were 80 people, including Miss Conrad and Miss Müller-Grote as our guests, two Miss Spielhagen, the whole Meyerheim house, Ms. Schulze-Asten, Ms. Wuerst etc. back home at midnight; Theo shot the bird with a brilliantly performed toast . "In his diary of January 1885 Fontane mentioned the following event:" On the 31st the 'casual' people have their big party in the English house : overture, singspiel, toasting, dancing; all in all very successful. ”On the occasion of Fontane's seventieth birthday, the“ casual ”organized a party on January 4, 1890, also in the English House. The "casual" were also significantly involved in the celebration of his 75th birthday.

Commitment to Theodor Fontane

The positive development of the partisanship for the novelist Theodor Fontane was neither a point of the program nor a fundamental declaration of intent of the "casual". But a not insignificant part of the "casual" was in personal and friendly contact with Fontane, besides his sons, these were mainly Schlenther, Brahm, Meyer, Hessen and Hertz, all of whom maintained good contacts with publishers, newspapers and journals in the capital of Berlin and wrote in them. So a kind of journalistic network emerged. Quite a few of these sympathizers kept in touch with the naturalistic school without directly propagating its goals and intentions; they represented both pro and anti-naturalistic tendencies.

After the preprint of Fontane's novel Irrungen, Wirrungen 1887 was published in the Vossische Zeitung , there were mainly negative reactions from readers and co-owners of the newspaper, as the plot and subject of this novel did not correspond to its moral norms. Part of the bourgeois readership was indignant about the free love affair of the protagonists , while noble readers reacted sensitively to the fact of the mesalliance . Fontane therefore got the reputation of an "immoral" author and tried quite successfully to win him benevolent critics for reviews of his novel, such as Mauthner and the non-member Ludwig Pietsch . This was followed by an offensive of criticism by the “casual”, who now endeavored journalistically to counteract the negative reviews after the publication of the book of Errungen, Verrungen with positive reviews . The review by Mauthner under the title Eine Berliner Dorfgeschichte in Die Nation of March 3, 1888, opened this countermeasure. But his sympathetic discussion also contained critical aspects. This was followed by Schlenther's positive review of April 1, 1888 in the Vossische Zeitung , which had published Fontane's novel as a preprint a year earlier. On the same day, Fontane thanked Schlenther with deep satisfaction. On April 7, 1888, a short review by Max Freiherr von Waldberg appeared in the Deutsche Litteraturzeitung , which was followed on April 20, 1888 by Otto Brahm's review in the Frankfurter Zeitung .

On May 9, 1888 Fontane wrote in a letter to his son Theodor: “Little Brahm […], Schlenther and a young Max von Waldberg (formerly also a casual person), plus Schiff and Mauthner, have all been very detailed and very appreciative Errungen, Verrungen written so that I can say without exaggeration: I owe my improved position or at least my current reputation in the German poet forest to a large extent to the "casual". The youth raised me to their shield, an event that I no longer expected to experience. ”There were more positive reviews of the“ casual ”, which Fontane mentioned benevolently in his diary in July 1888:“ About errors - confusions went I got three nice reviews, one (only briefly) from Dr. A. Glaser in Westermann, one of Dr. Rob. Hessen in D. Wochenblatt and a third by Dr. Otto Pniower in Rodenberg's Deutsche Rundschau. All in all, I have a reason to be satisfied with the criticism this time; you don't have to send any copies to the hostile papers. "

Fontane's rather relaxed but friendly relationship with the “casual” lasted until the last years of his life in the 1890s. Thanks to the efforts of the “casual”, the Fontane memorial in Berlin's Tiergarten was unveiled on May 7, 1910.

Publications

In addition to the Chronicle of the Casual from 1894, reviews and essays by Paul Meyer, Paul Schlenther, Otto Brahm, Robert Hessen, Max Freiherr von Waldberg, Fritz Mauthner, Maximilian Harden, Otto Pniower on the life and work of Theodor Fontane were published.

resolution

According to Frederick Betz, the end of the “informal society” probably took place in the mid-1920s, but at the latest, according to Roland Berbig , in the mid-thirties of the 20th century through the successive death of its members.

literature

  • Theodor Fontane: trials and tribulations . Ed .: Gotthard Erler . The narrative work. tape 10 . Structure Verlag, 1997 (large Brandenburg edition).
  • Roland Berbig: Casual Society [Berlin] . In: Wulf Wülfing, Karin Bruns , Rolf Parr (eds.): Handbook of literary-cultural associations, groups and associations 1825–1933 . Repertories for the German History of Literature Volume 18 . JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-476-01336-7 , p. 500–502 (there further literature).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Frederick Betz: The casual society in Berlin. A circle of friends around Theodor Fontane (with 1 ill.) . In: Gerhard Küchler, Werner Vogel (ed.): Yearbook for Brandenburg State History . 27th volume. State Historical Association for the Mark Brandenburg e. V., Berlin June 1, 1977, p. 86-104 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Hans Ester: Theodor Fontane and Paul Schlenther. A chapter of impact history . In: Friedhilde Krause (Ed.): Theodor Fontane in the literary life of his time. Contributions to the Fontane Conference from June 17 to 20, 1986 in Potsdam . With a foreword by Otfried Keiler (=  contributions from the German State Library . Volume 6 ). German State Library, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-7361-0029-9 , pp. 216-246 .
  3. ^ A b Frederick Betz, Hans Ester: Unpublished and little-known letters from Theodor Fontane to Paul and Paula Schlenther . In: Fontane leaves . Issue 57 of the complete series. Theodor Fontane Archive, 1994, ISSN  0015-6175 , p. 7-47 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Roland Berbig: Casual society [Berlin] . In: Wulf Wülfing, Karin Bruns , Rolf Parr (eds.): Handbook of literary-cultural associations, groups and associations 1825–1933 . Repertories on German literary history. tape 18 . JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-476-01336-7 , p. 500–502 (there further literature).
  5. ^ Roland Berbig, Josefine Kitzbichler: Theodor-Fontane-Chronik . 1884-1895. tape 4 . De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-018910-0 , pp. 2610 .
  6. ^ A b c Christian Grawe : Fontane Chronicle . With 12 illustrations (=  Reclams Universal Library . No. 9721 ). 1st edition. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-15-009721-5 , chapter 1884, p. 230 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g Frederick Betz: Fontane's "Irrungen Wirrungen". An analysis of the contemporary reception of the novel . In: Hugo Aust (Ed.): Fontane from today's perspective. Analyzes and interpretations of his work. Ten posts . Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-485-03228-X , p. 258-281 .
  8. ↑ a b c d e Hans Adolf Hertz, Paul Schlenther : Chronicle of the casual. Festively donated by loved ones. 1884-1894. Private print, Berlin 1894, p. 9, 17 f .
  9. ↑ a b c Roland Berbig: Fontane and the literary life of his time . In: Christian Grawe, Helmuth Nürnberger (ed.): Fontane manual . Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-520-83201-1 , chapter 1.3.5 Groups, associations, institutions and sociability. 1870 to 1898, p. 255–280 , here p. 277 f .
  10. ^ Theodor Fontane: Diaries. 1886-1882. 1884–1898 / Volume 2 . With the collaboration of Therese Erler. Ed .: Gotthard Erler (=  Great Brandenburg Edition. Diaries and Travel Diaries ). Construction Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-351-03100-9 , chap. 1884 , p. 216-217 .
  11. ^ Theodor Fontane: Diaries. 1886-1882. 1884–1898 / Volume 2 . With the collaboration of Therese Erler. Ed .: Gotthard Erler (=  Great Brandenburg Edition. Diaries and Travel Diaries ). Construction Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-351-03100-9 , chap. 1885 , p. 224 .
  12. ↑ a b c d e Frederick Betz, Jörg Thunecke: The letters Theodor Fontane to Fritz Mauthner . A contribution to the literary life of Berlin in the 80s and 90s of the 19th century. (Part I) . In: Fontane leaves . tape 5 , issue 6 (issue 38 of the complete series). Theodor Fontane Archive of the German State Library, 1984, ISSN  0015-6175 , p. 507-560 .
  13. ↑ a b c Jürgen Jahn: Irrungen, Wirrungen . In: Peter Goldammer, Gotthard Erler , Anita Goltz, Jürgen Jahn (eds.): Theodor Fontane. Novels and short stories in eight volumes . 2nd Edition. tape 5 . Construction Verlag, Berlin / Weimar 1973, development, p. 529-558 .
  14. ↑ a b Theodor Fontane: The poet on his work / Volume 2 . Edit .: Richard Brinkmann , Waldtraut Wiethölter (=  dtv library . No. 6074 ). Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-423-06074-3 , Irrungen, Wirrungen. Novel. Origin: since summer 1882. First edition: 1888, p. 358-379 .
  15. ^ Theodor Fontane: Letters. Third volume 1879–1889 . Ed .: Otto Drude, Manfred Hellge, Helmuth Nürnberger, Christian Andree (=  works, writings and letters . Department IV). Carl Hanser, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-446-12762-3 , chap. 1888 , p. 577-671 , here p. 603 .
  16. ^ Theodor Fontane: Diaries. 1886-1882. 1884–1898 / Volume 2 . With the collaboration of Therese Erler. Ed .: Gotthard Erler (=  Great Brandenburg Edition. Diaries and Travel Diaries ). Construction Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-351-03100-9 , chap. 1888 , p. 245 .