(There are 6 messages below. -ed.)

1.
Submitted by: Robert Kunath
kunath@hilltop.ic.edu

In response to Christian Nielsen's question about the numerous ellipses in
the Klemperer diaries, I believe that the editor of the German version
stated that he removed personal material that did not bear on the nature of
Klemperer's life in the Third Reich (I fear my copy is at home, so I cannot
yet confirm this).  I believe the editor also explained that the publisher
sought to reduce the bulk of the diaries for purposes of publication
(obviously, no one expected it to become so remarkable a bestseller).

        As for the change of title, I too wonder why it was done.  The German
title seems to be so much more expressive of Klemperer's courage that I
very much regret the alteration.

Robert Kunath
Illinois College

2.
Submitted by: Fabian Rueger
Fabian.Rueger@ber.netsurf.de

It might be of interest in this respect that there will be a 13-episode TV
series based on Klemperer's diaries - maybe some are good for the
classroom, once it's out?

All I've heard so far regarding the series on the German Cultural programme
"Kulturreport" is that there currently is in production a 13 episode
series; the Kulturreport showed some footage.  From what I gather the ARD
is producing it, and the series will contain several of his life's
"episodes" including some of his post-war experiences in the GDR.  The
director gave an interview saying that he intended to concentrate on those
"everyday life events" in the diary that viewers could connect to; shown
was a scene where Klemperer proudly received his driver's license.  There
probably is currently not much more to say about it, since they're somewhat
in mid-production; even the release date is unclear, but I understood they
aim for fall this year.

Fabian Rueger
Dep. of History, Stanford University
Fabian.Rueger@ber.netsurf.de

3.
Submitted by: Shareen Brysac
username@webquill.com

In reply to the following messages.  I remember an English review of the
German
originals that stated that the omissions in the German editions were
because of
repetitions and mention of persons who who would take to long to explain.
What is
curious in the English edition is the omission of the material relating to
Klemperer's take on the the Third Reich and what it did to the German
language.  Since this is what LTI is about and this was what his early
reputation in Germany relied upon this is truly curious.

Shareen Brysac

4.
Submitted by: Hans-Martin Moderow
ges92clj@studserv.uni-leipzig.de

To Christian A. Nielsen

Two points:


> 2. It would be interesting to discuss the organization of the diary.  ...
[long quote omitted]  In a recent discussion of the diaries here at
> Columbia University, the point was raised that this delay could perhaps be
> explained as function of psychological shock.

I do not think so.
1) Isn't it normal that events become important after the event?
2) Are you not occupied by the many doings of every day life and
realise you not things a long time after it happens?

> 4. Finally, could anyone explain why the German original of the Klemperer
> diaries are filled with ellipses?  [long quote omitted]

As far as I know, the manuscipt is very redundant.

Greetings
HMM

5.
Submitted by: Alan E. Steinweis
aes@unlinfo.unl.edu

In using the Klemperer diary as a text for teaching I think it is essential to
emphasize to students that Klemperer's attitude, and his treatment at the
hands
of the Nazis, were quite unrepresentative of the Jewish experience in Nazi
Germany. I do not mean to imply that there was an easily definable "typical"
German Jew, but, that having been said, I think that Klemperer was
pronouncedly
atypical. His diaries tell us a good deal more about the complicated
question of
German antisemitism than they do about the (equally complicated) question of
Jewish responses to it.

I've just finished reviewing a recently published collection of documents from
the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden, the umbrella organization of German
Jews between 1933 and 1939. Many of the documents deal with questions of
culture
and education, in which self-definitions of German-Jewish identity inevitably
arise. As I made my way through these documents I was continually reminded of
how radically their perspective differed from that of Klemperer (who is the
one
getting all the media attention). Like Klemperer, many of the German Jews
reflected in the documents clung steadfastly to their German patriotism
even as
their Fatherland betrayed them. But very much unlike Klemperer, they had never
so totally subsumed their Jewish identity under their German one.

6.
Submitted by:  Laura Graham
lgrah@loc.gov

What fascinated me the most about the first volume of Victor Klemperer's
diaries was his references to the "Americanisms" in Hitler's speeches
(p. 237 of the Random House transl.: "The Americanism of the language
has increased even further) and his ongoing study of the language of the
Third Reich. Since, of course, Klemperer made no effort to trace
American cultural influences on Hitler himself, which hardly seems
plausible, I thought, well, this is that anxiety that began in the 1920s
about the intrusive influence of American commercialism, the
identification of America with mass production and consumerism and a
certain naive optimism about the future? (I should say I listen in on
the German history list as someone with a 18th- and 19th-century
American history background.) This seemed this case in one further
reference in which Klemperer talks about Hitler's reference to a party
rally as the "biggest" (same page)--the use of superlatives, etc., as
being very American.

I would be interested in what those with a specialist's background think
about this.

For myself, I thought the portions of Volume 1 in which one could
ostensibly find support for Goldhagen's thesis--well, I thought rather
than supporting his thesis, they provided for me insights about how one
could progressively move toward a subjective position of essentialism.
Of course, how one would judge that process for Klemperer or any
individual caught in such desperate circumstances, and how one would
judge it in a historian are two different things. For Klemperer, I
understood it completely, and even thought at times that it was the only
way one could steel oneself for survival against the realization that
Hitler and the Nazis were, after all, not going to be overthrown.


Laura Graham
Coordinator, Presidential Papers Projects
National Digital Library Program
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, D.C., 20540-11310
(202) 707-2993
lgrah@loc.gov

Humanities & Social
Sciences Online

Copyright © 1995-2006 - Contact Us
RSS | Validate: XHTML | CSS