A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF THE FEUCHTWANGER MEMORIAL LIBRARY MICHAELA ULLMANN

Transcription

1 A Y E A R I N T H E L I F E O F T H E F E U C H T WA N G E R M E M O R I A L L I B R A RY MICHAELA ULLMANN

2 Michaela Ullmann A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF THE FEUCHTWANGER MEMORIAL LIBRARY 75 When I first came to California and joined the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library as a curator in October of 2006, I expected to spend the bulk of my time processing collections, handling archival materials, and occasionally assisting researchers. I have to admit that I was genuinely surprised by the tremendous impact of Lion Feuchtwanger and the German-speaking exiles in California on researchers, authors, students, and filmmakers. After just a few days in my new position, my inbox rapidly began filling up with inquiries from all around the globe. At times, our special-collections reading room at the USC Libraries is packed with researchers consulting the Feuchtwanger archives. As most of them are German or fluent German speakers, I sometimes forget that I am in the United States. While assisting these researchers, I have been astonished by the number and variety of Feuchtwanger-related projects and the connections they explore with the émigrés whose lives were interwoven with the Feuchtwangers in Germany, and France, and the United States. Instead of ebbing away, the interest in Feuchtwanger s work and life has grown steadily. The latest generation of researchers is asking important questions and exploring new types of media for their projects. RESEARCH PROJECTS The researchers who consult the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library play an important role in our work. They shed light on the diverse materials in our archives and their relevance to ongoing scholarly conversations about the exiles role in 20th-century politics, literature, music, and visual arts. In the process, the visitors bring our collection to life in new ways, using it as the basis for everything from novels to documentary films and academic publications. In December 2006, filmmaker Herbert Krill and his crew shot the documentary on Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Ein ungleiches Schicksal (or An Unequal Fate), in the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library. In 2007, Herbert returned to do research for his new documentary, Feuchtwanger lebt! (or Feuchtwanger Is Alive!) He shot footage for his latest film in the library and Villa Aurora in March The German television station 3sat produced both documentaries, and it broadcast Feuchtwanger lebt! in December of In 2007, Horst Weber and his colleague Maren Köster worked intensively with the Hanns Eisler Collection, helping us to identify handwriting and determine the authors of personal letters to Eisler.

3 76 Starting in May 2007, California State University Northridge professor Michael Meyer and Anne Clara Schenderlein visited several times with Michael s students to gather information about the library s history and Feuchtwanger s love for collecting books. They published an article, titled Wie würde ich ohne Bücher leben und arbeiten können, in a book about the personal libraries and book collections of celebrated 20th-century Jewish intellectuals, Privatbibliotheken jüdischer Intellektueller im 20. Jahrhundert. In August of 2007, radio journalist Svenja Flasspöhler visited to put together a radio feature about Feuchtwanger s life in Southern California, Lion Feuchtwanger im amerikanischen Exil, for broadcast on Deutschlandfunk. In 2007 and 2008, Manfred Flügge did extensive research in Los Angeles for his biography of Marta Feuchtwanger, Die vier Leben der Marta Feuchtwanger. Director Peter Rosen and writer Sara Lukinson used numerous photographs, letters, and manuscripts from our archival collections in Shadows in Paradise, a documentary about the German-speaking exiles in Southern California. The film was broadcast on the Los Angeles PBS station KCET and ARTE in May 2008, and it appeared on PBS stations throughout the United States in 2008 and The Feuchtwanger Memorial Library also awarded research grants to the following scholars who used our collections for projects about the Feuchtwangers and other German exiles in 2007 and 2008: Anne Hartmann from the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany studied Lion Feuchtwanger s travelogue Moskau 1937 (or Moscow 1937) in order to reconstruct his stay in the Soviet Union. Hanna Therese Maaria Hörmann from Munich conducted research for a master s thesis about Lion Feuchtwanger s political ideas in Die Füchse im Weinberg which Feuchtwanger first published as Waffen für Amerika (or Proud Destiny) and the influence of cosmopolitanism on the novel. Sandra Nagel from the Memorial de le Shoah in Paris requested materials for a permanent exhibition on the site of Camp des Milles, the former internment camp near French village of Les Milles. Christian Schärf from the University of Mainz in Germany and Magali Nieradka from the University of Nice studied the correspondence between Heinrich and Nelly Mann for a critical edition of their letters. The publication will include a detailed analysis of their relationship, its influence on Heinrich Mann s literary work, and the circumstances of his life in exile. USC students studying rare books in the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, Photograph by Jon Vidar

4 Michaela Ullmann A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF THE FEUCHTWANGER MEMORIAL LIBRARY 77 Christoph Schmitt-Maass from the University of Basel examined the influence of film narrative and the techniques of montage and typage on Feuchtwanger s novels. He conducted research for a paper that he presented at the 3rd-annual conference of the International Feuchtwanger Society. Larissa Schütze from Munich visited to do research for a dissertation about German-speaking film artists who worked for the Warner Brothers studios between 1933 and Ian Wallace from the University of Bath researched Lion Feuchtwanger s life and work for the online Literary Encyclopedia. He also prepared for a lecture and public discussion to commemorate Feuchtwanger s 50th death year. Evelyn Juers from Sydney visited to conduct research for House of Exile, her recent book about the writers and intellectuals who fled Germany in the 1930s. Juers focused on writer-activist Heinrich Mann and his wife Nelly Kroeger Mann. The couple lived in France until 1940 before leaving for Los Angeles, where they lived in great despair. There has also been a renaissance of film and television adaptations of Feuchtwanger s work. The DEFA Film Library released the DVD of Konrad Wolf s Goya with additional material, restored film footage, and remixed sound. We received requests from filmmakers throughout the world for assistance adapting Feuchtwanger novels, and we are excited they will be realized in the near future. The Feuchtwanger Memorial Library houses an extensive photograph collection as well as rare audio and film footage, so this was a busy year for licensing the rights to use them in books and documentary films. Materials from our collections appeared in articles, biographies, and a variety of other publications. THE FEUCHTWANGER COLLECTION An important focus in 2007 was processing the collection of literary agent Felix Guggenheim, who was a legal adviser to many of the émigré artists. We made finding aids for the collection available online, so researchers can locate materials more effectively. Guggenheim s contracts, manuscripts, and other legal documents as well as personal correspondence will certainly attract researchers during the coming years. We also started to process the collection of Marta Feuchtwanger and hope to publish new finding aids online in We continue to digitize photographs, films, audio materials, and selected manuscripts and letters.

5 78 In order to build our collections, we continue to acquire further materials related to the Feuchtwangers and their fellow émigrés. We are especially interested in finding letters and editions of Lion s work that are not included in our collections. We also hope to assist with new editions of Feuchtwanger s work, particularly translations that are now out of print. CULTURAL EVENTS In addition to assisting researchers and preserving the materials in our archives, we host cultural programs such as film screenings, lectures, and conferences. These help us reach a broader audience and inform people about the history of German-speaking exiles in Southern California. A highlight of 2007 was Feuchtwanger & Film, the 3rd-annual conference of the International Feuchtwanger Society (IFS). We organized the conference in cooperation with the IFS, and scholars from all over the world joined library and Villa Aurora patrons for three days in USC s Doheny Memorial Library and the idyllic Villa Aurora. The newly remodeled special-collections reading room was soon taken over by Feuchtwanger researchers. Many stayed well after the conference ended, and the mainly German-speaking crowd populated our special collections facilities. Before the events at Villa Aurora for the second day of the conference, two buses full of attendees toured Santa Monica and the Pacific Palisades to visit the former émigré residences. Thanks to the Lappen family, we were even granted access to Thomas Mann s former house. On the last day, the USC Libraries organized a concert featuring the music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold as part of their fall exhibition about the exiled film-music composer which was a perfect conclusion to the conference. The conference enabled us to further expand our cooperation with Villa Aurora. In December of 2007, we co-hosted a screening in Doheny Memorial Library. Feuchtwanger Fellow Mary Amin Ayubi showed her film Shadows, which documents the lives of women in Afghanistan, and participated in a lively discussion with the audience afterwards. Many attendees were high school students from L.A.-area schools, and the event helped raise awareness of the continuing abuses against women in Afghanistan. Each year, the Feuchtwanger Fellowship is given to a writer or journalist who is censored or persecuted in his or her native country. We built on our partnership with Villa Aurora in 2008 with the series of cultural events dedicated to the memory of Lion Feuchtwanger, Against the Eternal Yesterday. The series commemorated Feuchtwanger s death 50 years ago and the 125th anniversary of his birth in It included film screenings, readings, discussions, exhibitions, and a behind-the-scenes tour Poster for the International Feuchtwanger Society s third conference, Feuchtwanger & Film

6 Michaela Ullmann A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF THE FEUCHTWANGER MEMORIAL LIBRARY 79 of Feuchtwanger Memorial Library. The events took place at both USC and Villa Aurora, and the German Consulate General provided generous support. Following in the footsteps of Marta Feuchtwanger, who protected her husband s legacy after his death, we continue to preserve Lion Feuchtwanger s library and the memory of his artistic and humanitarian efforts. In addition, we are now reaching out to a broader audience in order to share the history of Lion, Marta, and the other German-speaking exiles in Southern California. Michaela Ullmann is curator of USC s Feuchtwanger Memorial Library. A 2008 reading from Feuchtwanger s notes, letters, and diaries at Villa Aurora to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his death. The performers were Nina Franozcek, Eric Braeden, and Adrian Feuchtwanger. Photographs by Jon Vidar