Liebelei
box 13/8
B. Andnnnnwic
-O Z 31924
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„Vienna Lettery#
L
By PiERkE LoviNe
FN my last letter I touched with brief medigval tale of the zunger Iseult whose
Pemphasis on the growing threat of in¬
pale white hand was worshipped and
ternationalism, in its evil, inhuman, and
chronicled far and wide by the Knights of
mechanistic sense, to Austrian art and lit¬
the Round Table. The style of this book
erature. This threat is a very real one,
is so lyrical, so bardesque that it fairly
but in many alarmists it conduces to wild
brims over into the most limpid poctry.
and fanatic opinions such as, for instance,
Fredegund' (Rikola Verlag) is another
sthat no writer of Jewish origin is capable
ancient tale, but of Nordic origin, treated in
of fceling depth and loyalty to the eternal
a somewhat similar vein; the gestes are
valucs of folk-custom and folk-ways
more uncouth and barbaric, far more ele¬
grounded in the native soil. That this is
mental, although the lyrical vein of the
highly absurd needs nc extended proof;
narrative remains unabated. Lucka has just
completed a study of Dostoievsky which
Mr. Gilbert Chesterton has also used this
specious argument, but in total deflance of
the facts; from Heine to Werfel any num
new light, that is, as a super-modernist;
ber of illustrious names could be cited to
perhaps the greatest spirit of our times in
overset this shallow generalization. On the
that he fought valorously against the
idolatry of intellect and the apotheosis of
other hand, the burning desire for a sure
anchorage, for something unchanging and
natural science. Lucka is busily at work
unchangeable, has driven Hermann Bahr
upon a, new book which will deal with
back into the consoling arms of the Cath¬
primitive myths and their quaint disguises
in ceremonials, customs, and daily habits
olic Church. In his recent autobiography
Bahr points out that oncc a Catholic always
of thought and specch. The tentative
a Catholic; in his youth he strayed from
title of this work, which gives just enough
the church, but an inexorable law has com¬
of its theme and drift, is Der Ur-Gut der
Menscheit.'
pelled him back to its gorgeous pomp and
ritual, above all, to its disciplined faith;
Apropos of the far-flung pessimism
and it is this deep faith which has re¬
which prevails with regard to European
knitted him to the mild sweetness and
civilization. Jacob Wassermann, who has
rounded beauty of his native land.
just published a new book of stories, enti¬
In contemporary Austrian literature the
tled Der Geist des Pilgers' (the scene ci
writer who sets himself to portray the
one of them is laid in Mexico!), writes in
swiftly flowing life of the city is fully
the Neue Freie Presse-that Europe has, in
balanced by the so-called Heimatsdichter,
his opinion, become jaded and overcultured.
the singer and poet of the familiar soil. A
He relates how, after an address which
good many of the latter, to be sure, write
he had delivered at a Swedish University
in prose; but the medium is of secondary
on the subject of humanity, a student came
importance; intimacy with the cornlands
up to him, his eyes overflowing with tears,
and vineyards and forests make of them
and asked wistfully: Do you really believe
poets of the first order. Chief among these
that people can be changed for the better?
I should put Carl Schönherr, who is known
This question, Wassermann records, not
in the United States by his Children's
only stunned him, but cut deeply into his
Tragedy,“ one of his earliest but certainly
soul.
not onc of his best plays. A far better
piece in this “homeland' geure i“Erde“
In my last letter I mentioned, in pass¬
and only a little less significant is Glaube
ing, Franz Werfel'’s Spiegelmensch,' one
und Heimat.“ The latter is so deeplz
of the greatest dramatic pocms in contem¬
rooted in the mountain life of the #yrol
porary German literäture. Whien I ürste
that it is unthinkable any translator, höw¬
ever gifted, could carry it over into intelli¬
read Spiegelmensch,' in 1o2o, I was not a
gible English prose; the words might be
I could just make out; others, quite frank¬
conveyed, but the spirit and atmosphere
ly, were the sheerest kind of abracadabra.
would remain forever remote and foreign.
The comment which has appeared since in
It is, as the reader has already guessed, a
the literary reviews has been, I am afraid,
play dealing with peasant life, and we have
not very helpful or enlightening. But the
nothing to correspond to the Austrian
difficult symbolism of“ Spiegelmensch’ was
peasant. Then, again, it portrays an aspect
recently clarified for me by the author him¬
of the anti-Reformation, as exemplified by
self. He was good enough to give me a
one family group in the Austrian Alps;
copy of his Dramaturgie' (Kurt Wolff),
how, a cluster of stubborn peasants sullenly
of which no copies were sold and only ten
clung to the homely creed of their fathers
were printed for private use. The“ Drama¬
against all the fierce onslaughts of invad¬
turgie' makes the symbolism of Spiegel¬
ing Protestantism. Glaube und Heimat'
mensch' perfectly clear; the language is
is not, however, a religious problem play.
#terse and to the point. I have only space
Far from it; the author has used the
here to point out that the three worlds
Reformation merely as a starting point, but
limned in the magic trilogy correspond to
what he is interested in, above everything
the three phases of man's mind. The clois¬
else, is the tenacity of human faith and
ter, says the author, represents the world
Profound human illusions.
of Logos (philosophy); the monk stands
for inexorable consequence. (I do not take
this to signify Fate in the Greck sense, but
In Erde' Schönherr has plumbed to the
the moral Nemesis which pursues all our
PSERCRr -I 1824
temporal man of necessity dwells. The
heir has done; the result is
third part depicts the world of the alter
ten in delicate half dreamy blan
ego, Spiegelemensch, who is Mephistoph¬
one or two fine moments.
eles to Thamal’s Faust. This is the do¬
An interesting play, dealing
main of reflected values (Spiegelwerte). In
war problems in Austria, is
this realm the ignoble desires come troop¬
heimer’s Menschen von Heu#
ing forth: desire of victory, the submerged
of Today), put out by Rikol
self and f.ar of death; in one word, as
with the temptations which con
Werfel puts it, the world of uncontrolled
sex impulse.
cal men in modern Vienna; it
a broader sense, is the danger
The“Collected Poems“ of Siefan Zweig
mergence which stares the w
have at last been published; he is one of
class in the face. The them
the most exquisite poets of the older group
handled and the action moves
in Austria; he is classic and refined in
cxorably, so that we feel at mi
manner and his appeal is t0 all who admire
we are witnessing a tragedy b
serene quietude and a high degree of liter¬
little stringent inevitabilities
ary craftsmanship. Arnold Bronnen, one of
life. There are, however, fe
the most significant of the younger
dramatists who can portray the
Austrian dramatists and author of the
trie, and especially that ofV
notorious Vatermord' (Fischer), has
greater pathos, truth and tend
just finished his new play Verrat' (Be¬
Schnitzler has done. A revi#
trayal), which I was privileged to examine
beier recenitly proved that th
in manuscript. It is a modern version, ex¬
the incisive charm, was still pr
pressionistic in manner, of a theme treated
characteristic piece, written at
with great beauty by Frederich Hebbel in
years ago. This opinion was co
Gieges and His Ring.“ Bronnen belongs
a few days ago by Hermann
*to that class of German writers, mostly
who observed, in the course
younger men, who have definitely broken
view, that for him Schnitzler
with traditional form; they are trying to
is the most charactéristic pain
discover a more direct, less rhetorical form
trian and Viennese life.
of expression. The most successful mem¬
——
ber of this group is, of course, George
Kaiser, who is now in Vienna in connec¬
Jean Rostand’s new novel,
tion with the rehearsals of his new play,
goisses, recently issued from
Nebeneinander.?
Fasquelle in Paris, has met
Anew play by Raoul Auernheimer, entitled divergent comment from Frenc
*Casanova in Wien,“ has just been pro¬
eminent a man as Fernand
pronounced it one of the m
duced with Moissi in the title röle and will
studies of jealousyrthat have e
shortiy be published by Rikola. Casanova
Never, anywhere“ (shades
is made out to be far more idealistic than
speare!), says M. Vanderem,
he was in the living flesh. He is set off in
written so profoundly,so
contrast with his brother, the painter.
movingly, or so bitingly of je
Auernheimer is concerned with the eternal
the other hand, René Crevel
conflict between the acquisitive, material¬
M. Rostand has produced
istic man and the creative spirit; Casanova,
book, one in which his inst
of course, is the materialist, while his
essayist have got the better
brother is the idealist. Let no one quarrel
mantic sense, and produced
with this free rewriting of the immortal
which maxims, thoughts, and
memoirs. All history and the whole field
blended into a nondescript bam
of fiction are fair game for the dramatist
niediocre novel,' concludes M
if he can suggestively rework his original
material; and this, let it be added, Auern- better than this fricasséel