Karl Wolfskehl: Leben und Werk im Exil by Friedrich Voit

Abstract

570 Reviews Asta von Unger's translation of the Italian original is,at best, clumsy. Its countless ungrammatical or incomprehensible sentences make ithard to follow the argument, and many passages read like parodies of scholarly writing. As one example among many bordering on the comical the following sentence may suffice: 'Das Gedicht fuBtauf einer reinenGebardensprache' (p. 48). Almost every page, especially in the firstchapter, provides further examples of awkwardness. Erratic punctuation and italicization furthercomplicate the issue. The book does offer a number of good observations in passages of close reading, especially on syntactical and morphological ambiguities and on the often undeter mined identity of the speaker. But these advantages cannot compensate for basic errors (confusing Der Stern desBundes and Das Neue Reich over pp. go-92), internal contradictions, and the lack of any conceptual framework. DUKE UNIVERSITY CHRISTOPHE FRICKER Karl Wolfskehl: Leben undWerk imExil. By FRIEDRICH VOIT. Gottingen: Wallstein. 2005. 8i6pp. ?42. ISBN 978-3-89244-857-0. This is the definitive account of the life and career of the poet, translator, and col lector Karl Wolfskehl after his enforced departure fromGermany in I933 and his subsequent sojourn in Italy until I937, then his ten years of exile inNew Zealand (I938-48). It isalso thedocumentation of Wolfskehl's rediscovery ofhimself as a poet, through theexperience ofbeing 'apatria pulsus et exul immeritus' (he quotes Dante's Epistula II. 25 and identifies with it).From being aminor poet, an editor, a prodigious book collector, and, most importantly, the never-wavering disciple of Stefan George, Wolfskehl found his own voice in the Italian and New Zealand years. The choice of these destinations involved firsta George-inspired identificationwith Italy ('daB das mediterrane Erbe dennoch das Versprechen eines UJberlebens birgt', p. I76), and then the radical symbolic gesture ofmoving to thepoint inhuman civilization furthest fromEurope and fromboth Hitler andMussolini ('auf Erdballs letztem Inselriff'). Wolfskehl sold his huge book collection toSalmen Schocken and was able to live precariously-off an annuity paid tohim by thepublisher. His original choice of exile was Sydney, which would inmany ways have been more congenial, but Australia did not grant him a visa, and the choice fell on Auckland instead. Voit is as fair as one can be toNew Zealand society as it thenwas, and to the problems, not all ofNew Zealand's making, which Wolfskehl faced. It isnot certain thatanyone so encumbered with the furniture of theGeorge circle could have been comfortable anywhere be yond the embrace of that fraternity. Boehringer, Verwey, Lechter, Salin, Landmann, and Pannwitz sustain him at various stages of his exile and form part of the large network of correspondence which is at least as important a document as the poetry itself.Thomas Mann isbut one of themany fellow exiles who tryto raiseWolfskehl's spirits inadversity.YetWolfskehl, despite a rootless andwandering existence inexile, did manage to identify to some degree with theAnglo-Saxon culture of his adopted land and to be a formative influence on the younger generation ofwriters (Mason, Fairburn, Sargeson). The real heroine of this account is,however, his long-suffering companion and secretaryMargot Ruben, who laterbecame thekeeper ofhisNachlass. The poetry, towhich Voit devotes a large section of thisbook and which he analyses indetail, is informed by several factors: the realityof exile itself,the rediscovery of the poet's Jewish roots and identification, and above all the sense of being a representative ofwhat was best in German culture ('Wo ich stand,war deutscher Geist'). There is the understandable desire to address thosewho have rejected and betrayed him (as inAn die Deutschen or Das Satyrspiel), which produces some good lines. The translations MLR, I02.2, 2007 57 from theHebrew, and the INRI and Hiob cycles, draw on deeper wells of experienc and contain poems which are moving testimonies to the anguish of abandonmen the empty heavens, the realityof suffering,and thepoet's role inmediation and pro nouncement (Die Stimme spricht). The long shadow of George himself and of th Master's mannerisms lies overmost of Wolfskehl's poetry, especially the Mittelmeer Zyklus. In those terms itoftenmakes claims togreatness thatcannot be sustained. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ROGER PAULI] TheTrauma of Defeat:RicardaHuch's Historiography during the Weimar Republic.By JAMES M. SKIDMORE. (Canadian Studies inGerman Language and...