Krieg, Exil und die Seele des Dichters Hermann Broch und Józef Wittlin im Briefwechsel

Abstract

This article deals with Hermann Broch (1886–1951) and Józef Wittlin (1896–1976), two writers born in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy who were formed or even stigmatized by the generational experience of World War I. They both struggled with the problem of the representation of the war in their main novels: Die Schlafwandler (Sleepwalker, 1930–32) and Sól ziemi (Salt of the Earth, 1935). The similarity between their protagonists is the starting point for an attempt to compare the biographies and literary works of the authors. The article is based on the source materials – the unpublished letters in German, exchanged between Broch and Wittlin during the years from 1945 to 1951. Their correspondence is stored in two literary archives: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Yale, New Haven) and Houghton Library (Harvard, Cambridge).