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More than 1,300 letters in 25 years: This is the legacy of the long-standing correspondence between poet Gottfried Benn and merchant Friedrich Wilhelm Oelze. Their exchange of letters has now been fully explored in a complete edition.
Until his death, poet and doctor Gottfried Benn (1886-1956), was engaged in an intensive exchange of letters with Friedrich Wilhelm Oelze, legal professional and merchant from Bremen, who had a great interest in literature and art. Some 750 letters of Benn and around 600 of Oelze's replies from 1932 to 1956 have survived. Experts in literature regard this correspondence as Benn's central forum for poetic, political and personal thoughts.
Benn's letters were already published nearly 40 years ago by the literature scholars Harald Steinhagen and Jürgen Schröder. In time for the 2016 Leipzig book fair, a commented edition has been published which for the first time takes Oelze's replies into account.
Experiencing the monologue artist in dialogue
"Until recently, we were only able to observe the correspondence like a game of chess where you see only half of the figures and you frequently wonder what could have triggered this or that move," says Stephan Kraft, Professor of History of Literature at the University of Würzburg. "Even though the new edition does not reveal a 'totally different Benn', we see the notorious monologue poet so deeply immersed in dialogue as nowhere else."
The four-volume edition is interesting not only in terms of Benn's works. "It also reveals details about the mysterious Mr. Oelze who for the first time becomes a plastic character in his fascinating internal contradictions," Kraft further. And he points out that the correspondence is also an insightful historical document about two intellectuals and friends during the Nazi era and the post-war period.
Engaged in role play in correspondence
In fact, Benn and Oelze were quite the opposite of what would be considered "good buddies". By today's standards, the two men had a rather distant relationship: They addressed each other formally all their lives and Benn avoided longer and personal contact. For example, he would not allow unannounced calls from Oelze and visited him in his home only after they had known each other for 17 years.
When corresponding, Benn and Oelze repeatedly assume very specific roles in which they consistently appreciate their counterpart and devalue their own position. Benn liked to emphasise Oelze's bourgeois background and repeatedly addressed him as "senator", even though Oelze never held such a function. In contrast, Benn referred to himself as a "bug from Bozenerstraße", for example. Oelze in turn called Benn his "master" and characterised himself as a "pupil without works".
Shared cultural pessimism
The two correspondents were linked by a nihilistically tinted cultural pessimism and a contempt for mass society. In their letters, they discussed Benn's works and exchanged their thoughts regarding general literary issues such as books they had just read. But they also conversed about topical questions.
Both were rather fond of National Socialism when it first emerged. However, they soon changed their minds, mainly because of the new system's vulgarity and hostility towards art. The correspondence documents Benn's growing opposition to the Nazis and his stepwise exclusion from the literary and cultural circles of the "Third Reich". In 1938, a publication ban was imposed on Benn.
Military secrets in encrypted form
During the war, Benn had temporarily been working in the Berlin Bendlerblock, the military headquarters of the Nazis. So he was quite well informed about the current situation. When he disclosed his secret knowledge in his letters, he often did so in an encrypted form. For example, he referred to the upcoming invasion of the Allied Forces in France as "spring" approaching.
Notebooks and daily calendars included
"It has been a special pleasure to re-annotate these splendid letters from Benn based on all texts published since the first edition forty years ago," Professor Kraft explains. "Thanks to our co-editor Dr. Holger Hof, we had access to hitherto unpublished notebooks and daily calendars of the poet. They have allowed us to spot even more references."
The trio was made complete by Professor Harald Steinhagen (Bonn) who had already been involved in the 40-year-old edition of Benn's letters. Shortly before he died, Oelze had allowed him to publish his letters as well, having ruled out this option categorically for many years before.
The publishers invested six years of work into the new edition. The three are particularly pleased about the fact that the magazines Der Spiegel and Literarische Welt have dedicated detailed articles to accompany the publishing of the volumes.
To get a first impression, visit the publisher's web site for an extract of letters from the time directly after the end of war in 1945.
"Gottfried Benn – Friedrich Wilhelm Oelze. Briefwechsel 1932-1956," published by Harald Steinhagen, Stephan Kraft and Holger Hof, Klett-Cotta and Wallstein 2016, 4 volumes with 2334 pages in total, 181 illustrations, EUR 199. ISBN: 978-3-8353-1826-7
Contact
Prof. Dr. Stephan Kraft, Institute for German Philology, University of Würzburg, Phone +49 931 31-83657, stephan.kraft@uni-wuerzburg.de
http://www.ndl2.germanistik.uni-wuerzburg.de/mitarbeiter/kraft/ Link to Prof. Dr. Stephan Kraft's homepage
http://www.wallstein-verlag.de/9783835318267-gottfried-benn-friedrich-wilhelm-oe... Link to the web site of publisher Wallstein – including an extract of the correspondence
The new edition about the correspondence between Been and Oelze.
Quelle: (Photo: Wallstein Verlag)
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