Robert Ellis - Ernst Toller and German Society: Intellectuals as Leaders and Critics, 1914–1939

Ernst Toller and German Society

FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Madison Teaneck

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ellis, Robert, 1946

Ernst Toller and German society : intellectuals as leaders and critics, 1914-1939 / Robert Ellis.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: Between 1918 and 1939 Ernst Toller was one of Germanys prominent left-wing intellectuals, He was a leader of the German Revolution of 1918-1919, famous playwright of the 1920s and best known spokesman against Hitler during the 1930s, writing about a country unsuccessfully balancing between survival and annihilation. This study, the first comprehensive analysis in two decades, shows the influence that intellectuals can have in a troubled society and asks what qualities make leaders effective Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-1-61147-635-4 (cloth) | ISBN 978-1-61147-636-1 (electronic)

1. Toller, Ernst, 1893-1939Political and social views. 2. IntellectualsGermanyHistory20th century. 3. Politics and literatureGermanyHistory20th century. 4. Dramatists, German20th centuryBiography. 5. Authors, German20th centuryBiography. 6. GermanyPolitics and government1918-1933. I. Title. II. Title: Intellectuals as leaders and critics, 1914-1939.

PT2642.O65Z654 2013

832'.912dc23

2013026716

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

This book is for Howard Winter,
Tenth Mountain Division, World War Two, Bronze Star:
Warrior, Benefactor, and Hero.
This book is also for Dr. Edward Berger.

In his Hamburgische Dramaturgie, Lessing writes that the pure fountain of inspiration did not spring unforced within him; rather, various outside aids were necessary for his literary production.

My first debt goes to George Novobaczky, the man who gave me my first serious introduction to history as an undergraduate. The present work has profited from the comments of the late Robert Kann and Harold Poor of Rutgers University. Lewis Wurgaft also went to the trouble to photocopy his Harvard dissertation on Kurt Hiller for me. His work was most helpful in setting Toller within the framework of the activist movement, and I am indebted to him for many of the ideas in chapter 3. I also wish to thank Dr. Harold Hurwitz of the Free University of Berlin for sending me a copy of some papers by Toller. I want also to thank Edward Zevin at Bronx Community College and Miriam Frolow at the University of Phoenix for their reading and comments. Conversations with Howard Winter helped teach me what courage and leadership are. Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger and June Schlueter at Lafayette College were kind enough to provide cogent comments which made this a much better study. This book could also not have been written without the help, support and encouragement of Judy Wilensky-Elsasser to whom I owe much. Also thanks to Carl Hanser Verlag in Munich for allowing quotes from selections from Tollers autobiography Eine Jugend in Deutschland contained in the Rowohlt collection of Tollers work, Prosa, Briefe, Dramen, Gedichte (Munich, 1978).

Libraries and librarians are wonderful additions to the world. Yale Universitys Special Manuscripts Collection, the Rehse Collection at The Library of Congress, and the Bavarian State Archive were a source of material on Toller. The librarians at Christ Church College, Oxford University provided a comfortable space in an ancient university while I worked on revisions of the book. One of the unknown treasures of New Jersey has been the Giovatto Library at Fairleigh Dickinson University. The library and its staff have provided a home for me in finishing this book. Particular thanks I extend to Kathleen Stein-Smith, the librarys Director of Public Services, Debbie Daniele, who tirelessly tracked down obscure books in German for me, and particularly to Maryann Sena who provided much needed encouragement, understanding and support.

To breathe the air of Germany is to be truly aware of the tragic nature of the twentieth century. It was Nietzsche who, in the nineteenth century, analyzed many of the contours of twentieth-century Germany, Freud who discovered its underside, Einstein who helped discover a possible means of its destruction, and Hitler who dedicated a part of his life to the elimination of much of its population. The modern mind, observes Erich Heller, speaks German. Not always good German, but German none the less. Ernst Toller.

In pictures taken long ago, Tollers eyes stare out from faded black and white photos. Inquisitive eyes. Eyes deeply set under prominent brows, large eyes, vivid and questioning, like chipped dark agate semi-precious stones. Behind those eyes was a massively creative force. He had a strikingly exotic quality that attracted people, something that gave Toller a quiet air of authority and yet conveyed rare warmth. He was an impassioned public speaker, with a magnificent and stentorian baritone, speaking with dramatic outrage that excited audiences into emotional fervor. His speeches were performances and his powers of rendition formidable. He had an actors sense for the dramatic and used pacing, juxtapositions, aggregations of tone to form a shaping presence. He had this down to an art. Someone who heard him observed that his manner of speaking was a transformational event:

Ernst Toller transforms the old unspoken yearnings of the workers into words, and [with] the heat of his tongue the words become a springboard for the rage of the exploited. He stands there in the park, like fire in the treesyoung, dark-haired, electric, almost stuttering with emotion, the epitome of the Expressionist.... He is shaken by flaming hatred, of war and the war-mongers. He is in tears, he is moved and his expression moves the masses. They know this is no mere Paganini of rhetoric... this is Ernst Toller.

He was the equivalent of a rock star, a modern-day Mick Jagger or Bono (though with more politics and erudition). He had talent, natural charm, the gift of persuasion, and an incredible energy behind his skills. He was neutral in nothing.

During the years of Weimar and the Third Reich, Toller was one of the more active of the other Germanys left-wing intellectuals. A leader of the Bavarian Soviet of 1919, he had in addition won the Kleist prize and was recognized as one of Germanys best playwrights. Indeed, during the years of the Weimar Republic, the popularity of his works was unquestioned, and they were translated and circulated on the grand scale that befitted that of an author of international stature. His first play,