Kasimir Edschmid: Expressionist, Reisender, Romancier. Eine Werkbiographie by Hermann Schlösser

Abstract

ii62 Reviews itwas an act of bravery.Moritz Bassler uses Benn's poem 'Meer- undWandersagen' and Carl Einstein's 'Die Uhr', dedicated by each poet to the other, toprove that they misunderstood each otherwhile furthering theiraesthetic aims. Bassler implies that a much closer friendshipmay have existed, citing Rainer Rumold's Gottfried Benn und derExpressionismus (Konigstein/Ts.: Scriptor, I982), but not the reserved judgements on Benn and Einstein inBrussels fromThea Sternheim's diaries, and articles byRhys Williams ('Primitivism in the Works ofCarl Einstein, Carl Sternheim and Gottfried Benn', Journal of European Studies, i3 (I983), 247-67) and Brian Keith-Smith in GottfriedBenn (Galway: Galway University Press, I990), pp. I4I-54. Dieter Burdorf pays fittingtribute toBenn as an orator forofficial occasions and commemorations, and Michael Eskin uses examples by Benn, Paul Celan, and Durs Griinbein to illu minate the limitations and potential of lyricpoetry asmonologue or dialogue. Theo Meyer, in an impressively researched contribution, differentiatesBenn's the ories of creative productivity not only as the essence of the individual subject and of absolute art, but also in contrast with writings by (among others) Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche, George, and Celan. Meyer also examines Benn's interest in the genius, loneliness, themonologue, nihilism, melancholy, stasis, the individual word, and Buddhism. The intricacies of using Benn's io6 notebooks to establish his process of writing textsarewell illustrated byThorsten Ries with critical glances at inconsisten cies within the standard editions. Hans Dieter Schafer uses the poems 'Kasino' and 'General' to characterize Benn's dismissive attitude towards themilitary driven by sexuality and power, not as specific portraits nor as political statements, but as a sign of classmentality creating itsown sense of form. According toJoachimVahland, Benn stood in the tradition ofGerman idealism, standing out like Max Weber against posi tivism as seen in the essays 'Das moderne Ich' and 'Wissenschaft als Beruf'. Vahland also shows Benn's debt to Semi Meyer's Probleme der Entwicklung des Geistes and Georg Simmel's Philosophie des Geldes. Much of Silvio Vietta's presentation of the lettersbetween his fatherand Benn is a short biography of Egon Vietta. Benn's atti tude towards theNazi regime emerges as an erroneous idealism, an attempt to save thecultural heritage of Western civilization fromdestruction, in linewith others such asMartin Heidegger. These essays reveal new complexities behind Benn's private life and constructed public persona, and theyoffersome of themost varied and interesting recent insights into the enigmas of thismodernist writer. MELLEN UNIVERSITY, IOWA BRIANKEITH-SMITH Kasimir Edschmid: Expressionist, Reisender, Romancier. Eine Werkbiographie. By HER MANN SCHLOSSER. Bielefeld: Aisthesis. 2007. 480 pp. ?29.80. ISBN 978-3 89528-6I2-4. Kasimir Edschmid, born inDarmstadt in I890 asEduard Hermann Wilhelm Schmid, is a familiar name to any student ofGerman literaryExpressionism. It is a name as sociated for most with strident pronouncements innumerous essays and manifestos about the intentions of this loosely bound generation of artists and writers. Assuming the role of speaking for this diverse group, Edschmid famously declared: 'Die Welt ist da. Es wiire sinnlos, sie zu wiederholen' (FriiheManifeste (Hamburg: Wegner, I957), p. 32). Although he also published three volumes of short prose during this early phase of his literary career, reference to such pronouncements has largely de finedEdschmid's role inExpressionism. From the broader perspective ofHermann Schlosser's biography, this neglect of the early part of his creative writing pales in comparison with literaryhistory's neglect of the restof his long career as a storyteller, MLR, I03.4, 2oo8 I I63 essayist, travelwriter, and journalist. A prodigiously productive writer whose biblio graphy listsninety-two book publications, Edschmid lived andwrote through the tur bulent twenties, survived and published in National Socialist Germany, and in the final phase of his career became an influential literary figure inpost-warWest Germany. For many revolutionary-minded writers after the First World War, political ac tivism marginalized any prior literary ambition. This was not the case with the politically indeterminate Edschmid, however, who published novels, short prose, and travel books at a furious pace in the twenties and thirties.As Schlosser writes, he 'agierte und argumentierte aus wechselnden Richtungen-wie dieWinde, die er so gern durch seine Texte wehen lieBi' (p. I24). His firstnovel, Die achatnen Kugeln (I920), themelodramatic adventure story of a free...