Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46), on the FiftiethAnniversary of His DeathAuthor(s): Erich Auerbach, Martin Elsky, Martin Vialon and Robert SteinSource: PMLA, Vol. 122, No. 3 (May, 2007), pp. 742-762Published by: Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25501741 .
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[ PMLA
little-known documents
Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach
(1933-46), on the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death
ERICH AUERBACH
INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION
BY MARTIN ELSKY, MARTIN VIALON,
AND ROBERT STEIN
Biographical notes about the translators
appear on page 744.
Introduction
WE PRESENT TRANSLATIONS OF THESE LETTERS TO COMMEMORATE THE
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF ERICH AUERBACH (1892-1957)
and to remember the community of colleagues and friends of which he was
part. The historical background is the coincidence of the rise of the Nazis
in Germany and the westernization of the universities in Turkey. AuerbachTs
exile from Germany was made possible by the cultural situation in Turkey.
Recounting everyday life during times of terrible extremes, these letters now
stand out as examples of human dignity achieved through unrelenting schol
arship. The general outlines of AuerbacIVs intellectual biography are well
known. We focus here on the period of greatest turmoil in his life, when he
was forced to leave the University of Marburg and move to Turkey. This pe
riod begins with Paul von Hindenburg's appointment of Hitler as chancellor
of Germany on 30 January 1933, the day after the first letter we present here.
By April 1933 Jewish faculty members faced dismissal by the newly installed
Nazi regime, which instituted the laws concerning "the restoration of civil ser
vice with tenure" (Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums). Jewish scholars
were stripped of their pensions, their official academic titles, and any provi sion for surviving dependents. Auerbach, as a soldier decorated with the Iron
Cross for his service on the front in World War I, believed that after this "con
solidation" {Gleichschaltung) of German universities, he would be able to hold
onto his chair in Romance philology for some time. It was only shortly before
his official dismissal, during a trip to Italy in September 1935, that he became
aware of his misapprehension. The letters to Fritz Saxl (1890-1948), Karl
Vossler (1872-1949), and Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) reveal the increasing
difficulty of Auerbach's position by 1935, and they should be read against the
backdrop of memos Kurator Ernst von Hulsen (1875-1950) sent to Auerbach
requesting an accounting of his Jewish lineage and detailing Berlin's decrees,
which forced Auerbach to go on leave and then to retire, on 31 December
The letters of Erich Auerbach are translated with the permission of Claude Auerbach. The letter
of Walter Benjamin is translated with the permission ofSuhrkamp Verlag.
742 ? 2007 BY THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
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12 2.3 Ericn Auerbach 743
1935.1 (Von Hulsen also supported Auerbach's right to a pension and probably prevented his recall by
defending him when Berlin had second thoughts about allowing an anti-Nazi Jewish professor to
represent German scholarship abroad.) Auerbach
was replaced by his doctoral assistant and friend
Werner Krauss (1900-76), whose habilitation thesis
on the Spanish bucolic novel he approved in 1932
(Krauss, "Die asthetischen Grundlagen"). Krauss was
a privatdozent in Marburg from 1932 to 1940, when
he was drafted into the Wehrmacht; later, he took
the extreme, courageous step of joining the resis
tance group organized by Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack (Red Orchestra), and in January 1943 he was sentenced to death for high treason.
He was saved on the initiative of some Marburg
colleagues who helped to get the death sentence
changed to a five-year prison term based in particu lar on the psychiatric evaluation done after the trial
by the Wehrmacht. In 1947 he was appointed at the
University of Leipzig, and in 1955 he established a
research center for the history of the German and
French Enlightenment at the Deutsche Akademie
der Wissenschaften in (East) Berlin.
While dismissals were being forced on scholars
in Germany, a wave of dismissals of Turkish schol
ars was sweeping over the southeastern corner of
southern Europe; traditional scholars were deemed
lacking by newly desired Western standards. The
background to these measures was the founding of the Turkish national state by Kemal Ataturk
(1881-1938) in 1923 and the radical reforms that
followed in its wake, which aimed to organize a
modern civil state and raise the level of economic
and cultural development. Atatiirk's secular reform
project affected the university system, which was
completely restructured. In July 1933, by ministe rial edict, the Dar-ul-funun (Arabic for "House of
Teaching") at Istanbul was closed down, and it was
renamed Istanbul Universitesi in August. The newly reformed institution provided an opportunity for
the teachers dismissed from the universities of Nazi
Germany to find a new sphere of activity (Seyhan). Essential for an understanding of Auerbach's letters
is that he had agreed in his contract "to undertake no politicalf,] economic[,] and commercial activity
and no activity that has as its goal propaganda for
any foreign government."2 In this respect, his letters
provide a shelter for political comments he could
not express in public. For example, he could ru
minate to Benjamin about his criticism of the very
project he was employed to oversee, the Europe anization of Turkey. In his letter to Traugott Fuchs
(1906-97), he could ruminate with intellectual in
tegrity and a Socratic sense of self-criticism on the
apparent triumph of evil. This letter in particular
brings together in the most poignant way the con
nection between his personal Alltag, his own every
day, and the analyses of historical transformation
in his writing. Concepts and words used in his work
on Giambattista Vico and Dante, on history and
realism?words like renewal {Erneuerung) and con
crete {konkret)?now appear in his consideration
of the current political crisis that brought him to
Istanbul. The letter in fact marks an early use of
the term Ausgangspunkt ("point of departure"), the
category he would use, in his 1939 letter to Martin
Hellweg (1908-2006), his former doctoral assistant, to describe the analytic technique of his most re
cent work, "Figura," in which humanistic faith in
historical renewal resonates with Vico's concept of
divine providence and Hegel's notion of the trick
of reason {List der Vernunft): in both paradigms a
Benjaminian foreboding of destructive ruin and
the metaphor of Paul Klee's/4/7ge/_/s Novus?which
combines progress and reaction in a messianic un
derstanding of history?is present. Auerbach's exile in Istanbul was the driving force
to which Mimesis owes its existence. In his refuge there
he was surrounded by the new secular Islamic culture
and the older Ottoman culture of Turkey. At the same
time, because of this culture's historical connections to the Mesopotamian, Greek Aegean, and Greco
Roman world and of Ataturk's attempt to integrate
these elements into the new state, Auerbach's work is
geographically close to the ancient and Western tradi
tion; the Christian-Byzantine tradition of the Eastern
Roman Empire was still present in the former capital
Constantinople, and parts of Mimesis were written
between 1942 and 1945 in the Dominican monastery of San Pietro di Galata, to which Auerbach was given access by Angelo Roncali, the future John XXIII.
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744 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
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The terrible pressure of events and the rich ness of location combined, paradoxically, to make this period of personal turmoil a period of intel lectual creativity. In Istanbul Auerbach's interest in Christian realism reached its highest point of
development as the trajectory that began with his book on Dante reached its fulfillment in Mimesis. Our intention is to afford English-speaking scholars an opportunity to hear Auerbach's voice during this
dark period of both anguish and fruitful productiv
ity. As interest in Auerbach in Germany continues to rise and important work on Auerbach contin ues to come out in German (Barck and Treml; Bor
muth; Vialon),3 we hope that even a small sampling of material that reveals his Turkish, German, and
American relationships, material not otherwise known to English-speaking readers, will spur new
thought about his work. It is fitting that these let
ters appear in PMLA, since Auerbach prepared the
way for his postwar emigration to the United States
with his wartime article on the history of word pas 5/0, which was published in this journal in 1941.
Notes We would like to express our gratitude to the following for their help: Karlheinz Barck and Martin Treml (Zen trum fur Literaturforschung, Berlin), Matthias Bormuth
(University of Tubingen), Gerhard Fichtner (Univer
sity of Tubingen), Geoffrey Field (Purchase College), Hermann Fuchs (Heidelberg), Petra Hardt (Suhrkamp
Verlag, Frankfurt), Michael HerkenhofT (Handschriften
abteilung, Universitats- und Landesbibliothek Bonn), Charles Hope and Dorothea MacEwan (Warburg In
stitute, London), Frank Mecklenburg (Leo Baeck In
stitute), Sigrid von Moisy (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
Munchen), Brigitte Peters (Zeitschrift fiir Germanistik,
Berlin), Lawrence Rosenwald (Wellesley College), Azade
Seyhan (Bryn Mawr College), Gerhard Sharon (New York
City). We thank Timothy Krause (Graduate Center, City
University of New York) for his editorial assistance.
1. The Archiv der Philipps-Universitat Marburg con
tains four memos sent by von Hiilsen to Auerbach explain
ing his status. Von Hiilsen was the Kurator of the university between 1920 and 1945; his tenure was interrupted for five
months between 1932 and 1933, when he held the position of Oberprasident of the Prussian province Hesse.
2. The contract appears to have been appended to a
letter to von Hiilsen dated 19 August 1936 (Archiv der
Philipps-Universitat Marburg 310 Accl978/15 nr. 2261).
3. Several hundred of Auerbach's unpublished letters
will appear in Vialon, Erich Auerbachs Briefe von 1922 bis
1957 (Tubingen: Francke). The project is being supported
by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn, in col
laboration with the Zentrum fur Literaturforschung, Ber
lin, which has sponsored much new work on Auerbach.
Translators
MARTIN ELSKY is on the faculties of the PhD programs in En
glish and in comparative literature at the Graduate Center, City
University of New York, and is a member of the English Depart
ment of Brooklyn College. He is the coordinator of the Renais
sance Studies Certificate Program at the Graduate Center and
is articles editor of Renaissance Quarterly. He has published
widely on early modern English poetry and prose, and his cur
rent project concerns the various German intellectual and con
fessional backgrounds of Erich Auerbach's literary history.
MARTIN VIALON teaches German literature and philosophy at Yeditepe University, in Istanbul. He focuses on late antiq
uity, medieval philosophy, the Enlightenment, classical and
Romantic German literature, German idealism, ethics and
political theory, and modern German literature. His publica
tions have addressed hermeneutics; critical, aesthetic, and
cultural theory; the history of the humanities; exile; modern
German literature; and modern art. He is editing the letters
of Erich Auerbach at the Zentrum fur Literatur- und Kultur
forschung, in Berlin.
ROBERT STEIN, Doris and Carl Kempner Distinguished Profes
sor of Humanities at Purchase College and adjunct professor
of English and comparative literature at Columbia University,
istheauthorof Reality Fictions: Romance, History, and Gov
ernmental Authority, 1025-1180 (U of Notre Dame P, 2006).
He has also written extensively on contemporary literary and
historiographical theory.
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12 2.3 Erich Auerbach 745
Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach
(1933-46), on the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death
Letter V
Prof. Dr. Erich Auerbach
Romanisches Seminar der Universitat2
Prof. Dr. Erich Rothacker
Schuhmannstr. 41
Bonn am Rhein
Marburg, 29. 1. [19]333
Lieber Herr Rothacker,4
Enclosed, the work of [Werner] Krauss;5 it must have been, as it appears, just now tran
scribed, otherwise you would have already received it several days ago. Would it be pos sible for you to read it through very soon and
give me a decision? We have, that is, one day before your card arrived, approached another
j journal]? this one too wants the paper. But
since we by far prefer Vj [Vierteljahrsschrift], I
want as much as possible to put off the answer
to the other until I have a decision from you.6 I hope to come to Bonn in May to speak
at the Dante Society and would be happy to
be able to speak with you then. Something has been weighing on my heart. You know me sufficiently at least from my work to know
that I can understand the motives of your po litical views.7 But yet it would pain me much,
exactly because you know me and some like
me, exactly because to a great extent I owe my
scholarly existence to your insights,8 if you wanted to deny me the right to be a German. I
would very much like clarification from your own mouth [miindlich].
Warm greetings,
Your Auerbach
Letter 29
Prof. Dr. Erich Auerbach
FriedrichstraEe 3
Marburg
Prof. Dr. Karl Vossler
Munich
22. 5. [19]33
Lieber Herr Geheimrat,10 Above all else I would like to thank you
and yours11 warmly for the friendly day in
Munich?it did me much good, and I will
keep a pleasant and comforting memory of
you all, even of Herr Rheinfelder.12 On Mon
day morning, in somewhat gusty weather and
with a pleasant outlook nevertheless, I flew to
Frankfurt, and by Tuesday a friendly line al
ready came from [Leo] Spitzer?under your influence to be sure.13
A few days ago I had an official meeting with our new Kurator, who returns to the min
istry in Berlin (the old H[er]r v[on] Hiilsen,
Oberprasident of Hesse for the past 5 months, will be coming back). He already knew that at our interview, for he came directly from Berlin; I did not yet [know]. He is a smart and decent
man. At the same time, it struck me that he
kept me after the end of our conversation and
asked quite specifically about Spitzer?how he was regarded by colleagues, how he came
to his current situation, and so forth.14 In the
process, he emphasized in several ways that in
these things it is only a matter of temporary measures and interim solutions; suspensions
have merely been spoken of as leaves. Now that the minister has the student body in hand, one
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746 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
m S
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e
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4-)
could hope for an easing of tension.151 have
told Spitzer nothing about this; it is too vague,
though the intention was clear and unmistak
able, even in the sense that I should pass it on.16
I do that rather to you than to Sp[itzer]?please tell him or write to him what you think best. I
have doubts whether the Kurator and even the
ministry] is too optimistic; and further I have
misgivings that Sp[itzer] could be careless: if
such things become public, it can make every
good intention impossible. It doubtless does
exist, whether only just in general or also in
specific cases is hard to say. Please give both of our most earnest [an
gelegentlichst] regards to your family?and warmest greetings to you from
Your
E[rich] A[uerbach]
Letter 317
Palazzo Ravizza
Pian dei Mantellinini 18
Siena
Tel. 20-402
Cable Ravizza Siena
12. 9. 1935
Sehr verehrter Herr Saxl, Please do not take it amiss if I abuse our
brief acquaintance by assaulting you with this
extremely solemn letter. You can easily imagine what it is about: I believe that my family and I
(I have a wife and a child of 12) cannot endure
it much longer in Germany.18 To be sure, I am
still in my official position, colleagues and stu
dents and other friends behave decently, many
superbly?even the child has no unbearable
difficulties?but it cannot continue much lon
ger like this. You will understand this without
my going into details. Retirement, which I can
take if necessary, would not improve the situa
tion. On the contrary. So I must try, as difficult
as it is, to find something suitable abroad, and
wish now to write to my friends, colleagues, and those with whom I have shared intellectual
connections so that they can advise me if they know of something. That is how you come to
this letter, and I beg you to inform those people who are close to the Warburg Library. But that
must be done carefully, for it would be unnec
essary for German officials to learn of my de
parture prematurely. About me you are rather
well informed; that I was a librarian for several
years, from [19]23 to [19]29, at the Staatsbiblio
thek is also well known to you. Possible evalua
tions from colleagues and seniors at home and
abroad can be made available, if requested. I
myself will be in Italy for another few weeks
(Rome, Pensione Milton, Via di Porta Pinci
ana)?after that, about 10 Oct., Marburg, Fried
richstr. 3?unless the political situation will
necessitate my returning sooner. Incidentally,
the Academic Assistance Council in London
invited my application in December 1934, and
at the time I answered that I planned to stay in
Germany for the time being?do you think it
makes sense to contact this institution?19
Once again, please forgive this assault
and accept greetings from your most obliged and very devoted
E. Auerbach
Letter 420
Prof. Dr. Erich Auerbach
Siena
Prof. Dr. Karl Vossler
Munich
15. 9. 193521
Sehr verehrter Herr Geheimrat, You must certainly have received our com
bined card from Bologna.221 was very happy to see S[pitzer] again; he has hardly changed, either externally or otherwise; and it was a very
pleasant day. You must know that he is going
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12 2.3 Erich Auerbach 747
to America next summer, and in connection
with this fact he has made certain proposals that concern me personally?as he earlier did
in a letter.23 Until recently such thoughts were
far from my mind?this time I did not have the
courage for it and asked for more time to think.
He said I have until November to decide. Before
that, I would like to look around in the rest of
the world?for if I undertake such plans, I want
to do it right?and his proposal is indeed espe
cially kind as a mark of his friendship, besides
also being, if it materializes, financially advan
tageous?but it does not tempt me very much, for this world, as I know from his and others'
stories, is quite good for a guest performance, but certainly not for long-term work. I therefore
have to get busy with these plans and would be
grateful to you for any possible suggestions or
advice, especially about the Iberian circle; I only know Castro, and even him only fleetingly.24
I must also thank you for something else:
Rheinfelder (to whom I send heartfelt greet
ings, if he should be in your proximity) wrote
to me that you want to accept my student Mar
tin Hellwegs work on conscience;25 because of
that I have assigned him another examination
[Generaldurchsicht] so that his work will be more complete and sharp. Concerning my own
work on realism, that will have to wait a while; there may still be more to get out of it.26
We want to stay in Italy for a while longer, until the beginning of October; should you want to give me some advice about my plans, you can reach me in Rome, Pensione Milton, Via di Porta Pinciana. Incidentally, no one in
my house knows of my thoughts, and for the time being no one needs to know. [I increas
ingly dislike dealing with these plans, and am
increasingly ready to hope for a miracle. But as
things are, I cannot hold out much longer.]27 I hope you are having a pleasant holiday
and am with the most pleasant greetings and
regards
Your
E[rich] Auerbach
Letter 528
Rome
Pensione Milton
Via di Porta Pinciana
23. 9. [19]35
Lieber Herr Benjamin,
My wife just discovered your contribu
tion in last Saturday's Neue Zurcher Zeitung.29 What a joy! That you are still here, that you are writing?and with a tone that evokes
memories of a home that vanished so long
ago! Please let us know right away where you are and how you are. I had thought of you at
least a year ago, when a professor to teach Ger
man was being sought for Sao Paulo. I found
your (Danish) address at that time through the Frankfurter Zeitung, and I communicated
it to the right authorities, but nothing came
of it, and to write to you from Germany had
become senseless. We are probably here until
4 October, and then with Dr. Binswanger for a
few days, Castello-Firenze, Villa la Limonaia, Via di Quarto 9.301 had a very sad letter from
Beverdell in Prague;31 it seems that Bloch too
is in Paris; his book, which I just recently read, shows him in his complete and undiminished
manner.32 Someone may like this.
We are well; I am always in my office, but I make very little use of it; my privatdozent,
Werner Krauss, reads the lecture, holds the seminars and examines; he proves himself first rate in every respect. It seems very questionable whether I will still be giving lectures in the win
ter, nevertheless, it is possible; it is impossible to give you a picture of the oddity of my situ ation. At any rate, it has advantages over some
others, yet hardly a chance of continuing, and it
becomes more senseless day by day; and so I am
beginning to make plans; whether anything will come of them is to be sure entirely uncertain.
Please write! Warm greetings and wishes from us both,
your Erich Auerbach
5"
?
3 & 0 ft ? 3 3
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748 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
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Letter 633
Florence
Castello, Villa Limonaia
Via di Quarto 9 6. Oct. [19]35
Lieber Herr Benjamin, We found your letter yesterday, upon our
arrival?I too am very sorry that we will not
set eyes on your childhood book as a com
plete work?of course it is our childhood as
well.341 really hope that it will yet happen one
day. Regarding your Paris book, I've known
it for a long time?at one time it was to be
called "Paris Passages." That will be a real
document, if only there are still people who
read documents.
Yes, Marburg: I have infinite stories to
tell you, but they can't be written, and not
only for reasons of appearance. In general, it
required no great wisdom (I have of course
inherited the books of wisdom) but only a
certain clarity, which was often not easy to
get. I live there among honorable people who are not of our stock, who have completely dif
ferent presuppositions?and they all think as
I do. That is nice, but it conduces to foolish
ness: it leads to the belief that there is some
thing on which one could build?while the
opinion of individuals, even if there are many of them, doesn't matter at all.35 This trip has
freed me from this error for the first time.
Finally, the practical: we can't speak about direct help, neither from here nor from
Marburg, because I, and even both my sisters
in-law, have entirely taken advantage of even
the most distant possibilities. I have enough friends in Paris?my previous academic guests in Marburg?including Fernandez, Malraux,
Guehenno, Chamson36?but how can they
help you? With a job? Shall I write to any of
them? I have not had a good experience with
the readiness ofthe French to help?but if you think so, I'll happily write?communicate
your wishes to me, please, abbreviated and
signed with initials, to Marburg, where I will
return in a few days. I have already written to a young Swiss, Dr. Hilde Binswanger, the
daughter of the Kreuzling neurologist.37 She is
traveling to Paris, and she may see and do for
you whatever is possible. She is very kind, and
I (my wife especially) have old connections to
her family?there I would have a chance to
make initial payments in German currency.38 Please forgive the radical materialism of these
lines. They arise from the sentiments that you
yourself uninhibitedly express in your letter.
All best wishes from both of us, Your E[rich] A[uerbach]
Letter 739
E. Auerbach
Friedrichstr. 3.
Marburg-Lahn
Herr Professor Dr. Saxl
The Warburg Institute London S.W. 1
17. 10. 1935.
Sehr verehrter Dr. Saxl,
Many thanks for your cordial letter of
the 15th of this month.40 Meanwhile, I have
also already applied several weeks ago to the
Assistance Council. I did not expect that you could have given me a more favorable answer
at the moment; to begin with, my intention is
to inform as many of the relevant people and
offices as possible of my situation and plans, and if you will support me in this effort, as
often as the occasion presents itself, my let
ter would have fulfilled its goal, and I [would] owe you the greatest thanks.
Incidentally, the day before yesterday I was
suspended and relieved of whatever remaining stock of responsibilities was still left me.
With the most obliging greetings, Your
Auerbach
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12 2.3 Erich Auerbach 749
Letter 841
Istanbul-Bayazit
Edebiyat Faculty (after 20th, home: Istanbul-Bebek, Arslanli Konak)
12. Dec. [19]36
Lieber Herr Benjamin,
My former Marburg colleague Werner
Kr[auss] asked me to tell you that he sent his
work about Corneille "not for the sake of the
work itself but rather in the hope of an occa
sional friendly contact." I am making use of the occasion to com
municate my new address to you and to give you some knowledge of the altered circum
stances of my life. I've been here since the
middle of September; my wife and Clemens for
three weeks. Furniture and books are in transit.
The situation here is not exactly simple, but it is
not without charm. They have thrown all tra
dition overboard here, and they want to build a thoroughly rationalized?extreme Turkish
nationalist?state of the European sort. The
process is going fantastically and spookily fast:
already there is hardly anyone who knows Ara
bic or Persian, and even Turkish texts of the past
century will quickly become incomprehensible since the language is being modernized and at
the same time newly oriented on "Ur-Turkish," and it is being written with Latin characters.
"Romanologie" is fundamentally a luxury, and I am the only real cultural historian among the
newly hired Europeans. And I have to organize instruction in all the Western languages in the
university, and all sorts of other things as well. The work is truly laborious because one has to battle with all the most curious difficulties,
misunderstandings, resistances?yet, it is nei
ther practically nor personally uninteresting. My colleague who I named above, and
his assistant, who is well known to you, are
very experienced and have earned my trust in
everything. How are you? I recently saw your name and the names of some other friends in a journal that is much read here.42 Please send some news; I will write more circumstantially
when the move into the house is finished. Warm greetings from my wife and
Your
Erich A[uerbach]
Letter 943
Paris 14
23 rue Benard
21 December 1936
Lieber Herr Auerbach, Your letter was a great pleasure for me
for several reasons. First, it tells me that you have managed to clear up a more and more
oppressive situation in the happiest fashion.
Second[,] as a result, it puts me in a direct ex
change of thoughts with you again. It cannot surprise you if I greet this new
situation with the most warm and repeated thanks for the way you have assured me of
your friendship in the dark past. I am think
ing as much ofthe indirect personal contacts
you undertook for me as ofthe direct practi cal help you accorded me.
A little book, which I recently had pub lished in Switzerland under my pseudonym,44 shall say all this again in its own way. It will come to you as soon as the press sends me the
copies I ordered.
For the note about the Corneille,45 many thanks. I will read the issue attentively, and I'll write to the author, about whom I've heard favorable things, to acknowledge my receipt of the gift.
Now I am somewhat impatient to hear more about the extremely interesting?and certainly worthy of note?experiences, in which you are now involved. Am I mis taken?or is Spitzer also in Istanbul?
The journal, which recently fell into
your hands, does not contain what I consider the most interesting work of that time. The
Zeitschrift fur Sozialforschung, which is put
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750 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
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out by Alcan, publishes it?unfortunately with long delays. I am sending you an offprint of some work on the theory of language that
appeared there.46
My relationship with Ernst Bloch is un
fortunately not what it was. I want to hope that it is only a passing moment. But we have
arrived at an age in which one should no
longer indulge in such intermezzi. How it is
for him?but his last book was a tough en
durance test for our friendship, and some of
its supports have worked themselves loose.
I hope that the new year will find you well settled in with your family and among
your books. In this hope, may my best wishes
accompany you over the one threshold and over the other.
Warmly, Your
Walter Benjamin
Letter 1047
Istanbul-Bebek
Arslanli Konak
3. 1. [19]37
Lieber Herr Benjmin,
Many thanks for your letter and the soci
ology of language report, which I had noticed a little while ago in the journal displayed in the
local Institute for National Economy. I have
not yet read it though, because at the institute
someone pulled me away and there was no time
to read; and a German assistant, who helped me shelve my books, took away the offprint with him right away. But I am getting it back, and we are enjoying your book very much.
I am fine here. Marie and Clemens are
reasonably over the Christmas flu, which they had right in the middle ofthe move; the house
on the Bosporus is glorious; as far as research
goes, my work is entirely primitive, but per
sonally, politically, and administratively it is
extremely interesting. The whole monstrous mass of difficulties, troubles, cross-purposes, and misarrangements on the part of the lo
cal authorities, and the local conditions that
drive some colleagues to despair, is for me not
unpleasant, since it is the occasion for obser
vations far more interesting, it goes without
saying, than any of the usual activities that
engage my ordinary abilities. Here again, I am the successor to Spitzer, who has gone to
Baltimore; I am thankful to him, Croce, and
Vossler for this solution, which was not simple to arrange, because at least seven comrades in
fate, and several European ministers of culture,
particularly the German and the French, did
not look kindly on my candidacy.48 Spitzer left seven German assistants behind for me, six of
Christian descent, all emigrated in 1933, each
in his own way first-rate, and all bonded with
each other in the most pleasant way through their similar fate and identical activities. We
teach all the European philologies here?Ro mance language and literature, English lan
guage and literature, classical philology, German language and literature. We try to
influence the instructional life and the library and to Europeanize the administrative man
agement of scholarship all the way from the in
structional grid down to the card catalog. That
is naturally absurd, but the Turks want it, even
if they occasionally try to get in the way. So far, of this country I only know Istan
bul, a wonderfully situated but also unpleas ant and rough city consisting of two different
parts: the old Stambool, of Greek and Turkish
origin, which still preserves much of the pa tina of its historic landscape, and the "new"
Pera, a caricature and completion of the Eu
ropean colonization of the 19th century, now
in complete collapse. There are the remains of
dreadful luxury shops, Jews, Greeks, Arme
nians, all languages, a grotesque social life, and the palaces of the former European em
bassies that are now consulates. All along the
Bosporus one also sees decayed, or decaying, or museum-quality nineteenth-century pal
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122.3 Er'ch Auerbach 751
aces of sultans and pashas in a half-oriental, half-rococo style. But in general, the country has become decisively and completely ruled
by Atatiirk and his Anatolian Turks?a naive,
distrustful, honest, somewhat blunt and boor
ish but also emotional race of men. Because
they are accustomed to slavery and hard, slow
work, they are tougher and more unpolished, and also more rigid and more surly, than
southern Europeans, but at the same time they are quite likable and have much vital energy. The "grand chef" is a sympathetic autocrat,
smart, grand, and imaginative, completely different from his European counterparts because he has actually himself turned this
country into a state and because he is abso
lutely without eloquence. (His memoirs begin: "On 19 May 1919,1 landed in Samsun. At this
time the situation was as follows....") Yet he
has had to accomplish everything he has done
in a struggle against the European democra
cies on the one hand, and on the other against the old Muslim, pan-Islamist sultan economy, and the result is a fanatical, antitraditional
nationalism: a renunciation of all existing Islamic cultural tradition, a fastening onto a
fantasy "ur-Turkey," technical modernization
in the European sense in order to strike the
hated and envied Europe with its own weap ons. Hence the predisposition for European exiles as teachers, from whom one can learn
without being afraid that they will spread for
eign propaganda. The result: Nationalism in
the superlative with the simultaneous destruc tion ofthe historic national character. This
configuration, which in other countries such as Germany, Italy, and indeed also in Russia
(?) is not yet a certainty for everyone, steps forth here in complete nakedness. The lan
guage reform?at once fantastical ur-Turkish
("free" from Arabic and Persian influences) and modern-technical?has made it certain
that no one under 25 can any longer under stand any sort of religious, literary, or philo
sophical text more than ten years old and that, under the pressure ofthe Latin script, which
was compulsorily introduced a few years ago, the specific properties of the language are
rapidly decaying. I could report many indi
vidual instances from many areas. The whole
needs to be grasped together this way: I am
more and more convinced that the contem
porary world situation is nothing other than
the cunning of providence to lead us along a
bloody and circuitous route to the Interna
tionale of Triviality and Esperanto culture.
I thought this already in Germany and Italy,
especially in the horrifying inauthenticity of
"Blubopropaganda," but here for the first time
it has become a certainty for me.49
I really wanted to write you some words
about my last year in Germany, but I have to
put it off because I've been interrupted several
times while writing this letter, and now I have no more time. That your relationship with
Ernst Bloch is cloudy makes me sorry for both
of you; but perhaps you are doing well not to
take the clouds too heavily: you have known
him for a long time, some peculiarities of his
character are to be placed in the balance, and
perhaps on this proper basis a lasting relation
ship could be recovered. How is Burschell, and where is he?50 My brother-in-law Haus mann and his wife, recently fled from Ibiza, have reported from Switzerland that he might be in Paris.51 It seems doubtful that you are in
any kind of a situation to help; nevertheless, I am certain of your friendly readiness, and so I
will in any case forward your address to him. I hope to hear from you again soon, and
you are in the most friendly remembrance of us both
Your
E[rich] andM[arie] A[uerbach]
Letter 1152
Istanbul-Bebek
Arslanli Konak
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752 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
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28. 1. [19]37
Lieber Herr Benjamin, I am writing to you in a great hurry, to
thank you warmly for your book, and this
book in turn is to blame for my being in such
a hurry.53 Because just like a bolt of lightning or a very important visit in the midst of other
activities, it has pushed everything aside and
thrown everything into disorder, so that I
now have to hurry in order to catch up. You
have put together a truly wonderful selection, and I beg you?if it is possible right away? to write and tell me if one can get the book
in Germany, or at least if one can send it to
Germany; I would like to have it go to several
people. I'm sending at the same time a little
work, whose offprint I have just received.54
Warmest greetings, your
E[rich] A[uerbach]
Letter 1255
Prof. Dr. Erich Auerbach
Istanbul-Bebek
Arslanli Konak
Traugott Fuchs
Istanbul-Bebek
22. 10. [19]38
Lieber Fuchs,56 I still owe you the promised explanation.
Can you imagine that someone can be so in
tensely and exclusively busy for years with a
particular problem, a particular difficulty or
challenge, that it absorbs him so much with
all its force that only with effort can he find
strength for anything else? That's how it is
with me. The challenge is not to grasp and
digest all the evil that's happening?that's not too difficult?but much more to find a
point of departure [Ausgangspunkt] for those
historical forces that can be set against it.
All those who today want to serve the right
and the true are united only in negatives?in matters active and positive they are weak
and splintered. And yet what the good have
in common must and will again take shape and regain unity and concreteness to become a visible sign; the pressure is so terribly strong that new historical forces must be emerging from it. To seek for them in myself, to track
them down in the world[,] completely absorbs me. The old forces of resistance?churches,
democracies, education, economic laws?are
useful and effective only if they are renewed
and activated through a new force not yet visible to me. Not before that. From my bi
ography, my profession, and my writing, it
is clear why these heavy claims on my time
persistently pursue me[,] and why each mo
ment of my life renews strengthens them.57
I know well what the most general rules and
direction of the expected renewal must be. I
know well enough how to reject all distorted, false and half measures or ideas. Only it is
not concrete, not yet. The consequence: I am
a teacher who does not concretely know what
he should teach. I do not know what I have
to say to those who expect something con
crete from me (a piece of advice, a topic, a
basic decision)?at best I can say something
practical for the moment, but even that is not
so different from basic principles when there
are none. I do not consider the condition in
which I find myself unique; there are many who are just like me, or similar. Nothing is
further from me?you recently seemed to
have misunderstood?than to believe, that I
am unrecognized, in the wrong place, unable
to use the powers I have. I was never unrec
ognized; where I had something to say or do,
I could also say or do it. On the contrary, I
could be immediately active again, if I con
cretely knew how and what[,] in the light of every circumstance life circumstance in
which I happened to find myself?and this is
now hidden not only from me but from every one in similar circumstances, that is, every
one who cares for the dignity and freedom of
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12 2.3 Erich Auerbach 753
:'i|Ik .l| First page of the
:;M letter translated on
;1| pp. 752 and 755. The full German
J> /* a* text is transcribed
on P- 754.
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i|||-:F;.
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754 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
Prof. Dr. Erich Auerbach
Istanbul-Bebek
Arslanli Konak
Traugott Fuchs
Istanbul-Bebek
22. 10. [19]38
Lieber Fuchs,
Ich bin Ihnen noch die versprochene Erklarung schul
dig. - Konnen Sie sich vorstellen, dass jemand jahrelang
so heftig und so ausschliesslich mit einem bestimmten
Problem, einer bestimmten Schwierigkeit oder Aufgabe beschaftigt ist, so sehr mit alien Kraften von ihr in An
spruch genommen ist, dass er zu allem anderen nur mit
Muhe Kraft findet? So geht es mir. Diese Aufgabe ist nicht all das Bose, was geschieht, zu begreifen und zu verdauen - das macht nicht zu viele Schwierigkeiten
- als vielmehr
einen Ausgangspunkt fur die geschichtlichen Krafte zu
finden, die ihm entgegenzustellen waren. All die, die heut noch dem Recht und der Wahrheit dienen wollen, sind nur im Negativen einig
- im Aktiven und Positiven sind
sie schwach und zersplittert. Und doch muss und wird
das Gemeinsame des Guten wieder Gestalt, Einheit und
Konkretion gewinnen, zum sichtbaren Zeichen werden;
der Druck ist so ungeheuer stark, dass neue geschichtliche
Krafte aus ihm entstehen miissen. Sie bei mir zu suchen,
in der Welt aufzuspiiren nimmt mich vollkommen in An
spruch. Die alten Krafte des Widerstands -
Kirchen, De
mokratien, Bildung, Wirtschaftsregeln - sind nur dann
brauchbar und wirksam, wenn sie durch eine neue, mir
noch nicht sichtbare Kraft erneuert und aktiviert wer
den. Vorher nicht. Aus meiner Biographie, meinem Be
ruf und meinen Arbeiten ist deutlich, warum mich diese
Inanspruchnahme dauernd verfolgt und warum jeder Au
genblick meines Lebens sie erneuert verstarkt. Ich weiss
wohl welches die allgemeinsten Regeln und Richtungen der zu erwartenden Erneuerung sein miissen. Ich weiss es
gerade gut genug, um alle halben, schiefen und falschen
Massregeln oder Ideen abzuweisen. Allein sie selbst kon
kretisiert sich nicht, noch nicht. Konsequenz: ich bin ein
Lehrer, der nicht konkret weiss, was er lehren soil. Ich
weiss nicht, was ich denen, die etwas Konkretes von mir
erwarten (einen Rat, ein Thema, einen grundsatzlichen
Entschluss), zu sagen habe - allenfalls im Moment Prak
tisches kann ich sagen, aber selbst das ist oft vom Grund
satzlichen, das fehlt, nicht zu trennen. - Ich halte diese
Lage, in der ich mich befinde, nicht fur eine individuelle;
es gibt viele, denen es ebenso oder ahnlich geht. Nichts
liegt mir ferner - Sie schienen neulich es falsch zu verste
hen - als zu glauben, i c h sei verkannt, am falschen Ort,
unfahig die Krafte die ich habe zu gebrauchen. Ich war nie verkannt, wo ich etwas zu tun oder zu sagen hatte,
habe ich es auch tun und sagen konnen. Vielmehr konnte ich sofort wieder aktiv sein, wenn ich konkret wiisste wie
und zwar aus jeder Lebenskge, in der ich mich gerade zu
fallig befinde - und das ist jetzt nicht nur mir verborgen, sondern alien die in ahnlicher Lage, d. h. fur die Wiirde
und Freiheit des Menschen in Sorge sind. Es gibt zwar unter ihnen viele, die mit allerhand Rezepten, abgestande nen Ideen, oder sogar mit volliger Abwendung vom Welt
lauf sich trosten und beruhigen. Das kann ich nicht. Ich bin zu tief von der geschichtlichen Ordnung iiberzeugt, bin viel zu sehr genotigt das Geschehende anzuerken
nen, als dass ich nicht aus ihm eine Korrektur erwarten
musste - und ich habe andererseits zu viel (aus meinem
Leben und aus Buchern) gelernt, um mich von Scheinhoff
nungen tauschen zu lassen.
Ich glaube vorlaufig noch nicht, dass meine spontane
Aktionskraft beschadigt ist - sie funktioniert im Notfall
noch. Aber sie falsch und impulsiv einzusetzen ist nicht
meine Rolle. Die Nazis sagen: lieber falsch handeln als
garnicht. Das ist in manchen Lagen, wo ein schneller Ent
schluss Chancen gibt, gewiss richtig. Aber wir sind nicht in solcher Lage, wenigstens nicht grundsatzlich. Wir miis
sen und werden, wenn die Zeit reif ist, richtig handeln - bis dahin miissen wir warten, suchen und bereit sein. - Es ist gar kein Zweifel, dass unter all dem meine Bereit
schaft fur das Personlich-Menschliche meines einzelnen
Nachsten zu kurz kommt. Ich fiihle das oft. Manchmal
werde ich ungeduldig, wenn so was auf mich eindringt, und denke: sieh doch zu, Mensch, wie Du mit Dir fertig wirst: links, rechts, links, rechts, essen, schlafen, arbeiten,
das wird schon gehen, und dann denke ich an Gott und
an die unendliche Welt, und nimm Dich nicht so pathe
tisch. Aber ich weiss auch, dass ich damit unrecht habe,
und dass es auch nicht meine eigentliche Natur ist so zu
fuhlen. Ich war darin friiher einmal ganz anders, und zu
weilen kommt es auch jetzt vor, dass mich irgendein ein
zelnes Wesen um seiner selbst willen ruhrt und ergreift.
Leider ist das viel zu sehr Sache des glucklichen Augen
blicks und des Kontakts, den man nicht herbeizwingen
kann. Ich habe eine gute Eigenschaft, namlich einen fast
unermudlichen guten Willen. Vielleicht hilft er mir da
bei, damit meine eigentlich menschlichen Beziehungen zu meinen einzelnen Nachsten fruchtbarer werden.
Ihr
E[rich] A[uerbach]
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12 2.3 Erich Auerbach 755
man.58 There are certainly many among them
who comfort and calm themselves with all
kinds of prescriptions, stale ideas, or even by
completely turning away from world events.
I cannot do that. I am too deeply convinced
of the historical order, am much too com
pelled to acknowledge what is happening not
to feel compelled to expect a correction from
events themselves?and I have on the other
hand learned too much (from life and from
books) to allow myself to be deceived by il
lusory hopes. I do not yet believe for now that
my spontaneous power to act is impaired?it still functions in emergency. But to exert it
erringly and impulsively is not my role. The
Nazis say: better to act in error than not at all.
That is in many circumstances, where a quick decision affords a chance of success, certainly
right. But we are not in such a situation, at
least fundamentally. We must and will, when
the time is ripe, act correctly?until then we
have to wait, look, and be ready.?There is no
doubt at all that, given all this, my readiness
for the personal and the human in my indi
vidual fellow man falls too short. I feel that
often. Sometimes I become impatient if the
like intrudes on me, and I think: take a look, man, how you come to terms with yourself: left, right, left, right, eat, sleep, work, sure, that works, and then I think about God and
the eternal world, and [I say to myself] don't be so melodramatic. But I also know that I am
wrong about that, and that it is also not my real nature to feel that. In the past I have been
very different in this regard and sometimes it
happens even now that some individual hu man being stirs and moves me. Unfortunately it is too much a matter of the lucky moment
and making contact, which one cannot force. I have one good quality, namely an almost
tireless good will. Maybe it helps make my real human relationships with my individual
fellow man more fruitful.
Your
E[rich] A[uerbach]
Letter 1359
Prof. Dr. E. Auerbach
Istanbul-Bebek
Arslanli Konak
Istanbul]
Dr. Martin Hellweg Heinrichstr. 67
Fulda
22. 5 [19]39
Lieber Hellweg, I was very happy to hear from you again.
Apologies for your break in writing are unnec
essary, no one now takes much pleasure in writ
ing, and, besides, I am always happy whenever
you finally do decide to [write]. Your situation
is not especially pleasant, yet it is conducive to
work. Bear in mind, that I was 30 when I finally was able to conclude my studies, and in a rush at
that, that I then spent 7 years at the Staatsbiblio
thek, and was almost 38 when I brought out the Dante and arrived at the university[.]60?You are not yet too old!?Besides, I never had the
opportunity to be abroad for more than a cou
ple of weeks, aside from the war years in north ern France, which were not very productive for th4s scholarship?in many respects you have it much better.?Unfortunately I cannot send
you Figura and another shorter study of a simi
lar character, whose appearance I expect one
of these weeks, because I only have a few off
prints, and with these I must try to reach some
people in related fields who do not normally get to see philological journals.61 But you can either
pump the things out of Kr[auss] or look at them in a U[niversity] L[ibrary]. "Figura" is in the is sue that just appeared?Oct [ober]-Dec[ember] [19]38?of Archiv[um] Roman[icum], the other
one?"Sacrae Scripturae sermo humilis"?in
one ofthe next issues of Neuphilologische Mit
teilungen, which Langfors publishes in Helsinki. These things, by the way, may interest you more
for their methodology than their substance;
they are for the most part theological and con
cerned with classical philology. But method
ologically I can especially recommend figura
ft I *r 3 0 $ 3 a o c 1 ft 3 VI
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756 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
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to you. Have you read the papers of E[rnst] R[obert] Curtius on the M[iddle] A[ges], which
appeared in the Z[eitschrift] [fiir] Romfanische] Ph[ilolgie] and [were published] in part by Ro
thacker and Schalk?62 The papers are full of
self-denial [entsagungsvolle], but very essential
and excellently put together. I would be very
happy if you decided to continue your work, and especially if you would use a technique that starts out not from a general problem but from a well-chosen, specific phenomenon [Einzelphd nomen] that is easy to get a grip on; perhaps a
history of a word or an interpretation of a pas
sage. The specific phenomenon cannot be small and concrete enough, and it should never be a
concept introduced by us or other scholars but
rather something the subject matter itself pres ents. If one does otherwise, one has the great est difficulties making the material serviceable, and it never succeeds without being forced. My Publikum and my work on realism, whether one
approves the results or not, are properly put to
gether: they proceed from a small, unquestioned collection ofthe facts ofthe case, and otherwise it would not go over well anymore today.63 In
the case of French translations from German, I would have first of all attempted a survey of what was translated year by year, from the
Journal de la librarie or similar sources, [and] as
best as possible also to ascertain the number of
copies sought published (the information office
of German libraries will help you, in the build
ing ofthe Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, NW 7, which also answers written inquiries). That's the kind
of data to start from. Your view of intercultural
exchange [Austauschbeziehungen] and world
literature seems to me to be good, but if you will begin on such a thing (arising only in your
head), it will only lead to preconceptions and
will tempt you to force the material. It must, if
done right, grow out of concrete data?you can
be sure that it will change in the process, some
times threaten to disappear entirely, and pre
sumably, finally, once again erupt, enriched and at the same time incarnate.?Naturally, I would
leave the essay that you have already finished as
it is, especially if it is intended for a journal, but do try in the future first of all to put your mind to use only in the choice ofthe concrete point of
departure [Ausgangspunkt] (which is the most
difficult) [it was years before I had found "la cour et la ville" or "figura,"]64 and after that to
forget it as much as possible while working it
out, that is, to wait until you test the evidence to see whether and in what form it proves to be
useful.65?I am happy that Kr[auss] has a nice
apartment and writes his book (Cervantes or
bucolics?).66 Aside from that, I worry about him. Not only for external reasons. You know how much I like him, and how much I think of him in every way. But he is gradually becom
ing all too learned, and his inclination to the
strange in specifics, which, as I hope, would be overcome as he grew, does not abate. Much of
what he writes I do not understand, and other
friends of his also do not. Common sense is a very trivial attribute, but he has much too
much contempt for it[.]?The three of us are
doing well. There's no lack of uncertainty and restlessness even now. But life is for the time be
ing enchanting here.?Only books, that is, a us
able U[niversity]L[ibrary] is lacking, and travel
is impossible.
Cordial greetings from all of us, Your E[rich] A[uerbach]
Letter 1467
Prof. Dr. E. Auerbach
Istanbul-Bebek
Arslanli Konak
Dr. Martin Hellweg Lindenstr. 17
U.S. Zone Hesse
Germany
22.6.1946
Lieber Hellweg, I was very happy to hear that you have
survived everything intact. Despite all the re
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12 2.3 Erich Auerbach 757
ports and letters I can form an idea of condi
tions in Germany only with great difficulty; if
I had freedom of movement (but I have nei
ther passport nor money) I would try to un
dertake a reconnaissance trip, but as things are it is completely impossible. On the other
hand, there maybe some chance of returning since I hear the Marburgers want to call me
back; and Krauss, in contrast to all the others
who in general have an opinion on this prob lem, strongly advises me to take the offer. It
would be a difficult decision if circumstances
allowed me freedom for a quick decision; but, even if the official invitation would soon fol
low, it would probably be long before I could
detach myself from here, and by then the
situation might well be somewhat clarified.
In any case, I believe one must have patience with the viscosity ofthe Germans and their
tenacity in holding on to the appearance of
bourgeois orderliness [Burgerlichkeit]. Bour
geois orderliness is indeed not only a political attitude but also a human need, and even a
society emerging from revolutionary events
immediately seeks everyday security and
customary order. After three decades of such
horrible experiments, after this conclusion, and in present circumstances, the Germans can be nothing other than terribly tired and
in need of rest, though in the meantime you are not offered any prospect of rest.
Krauss's health makes me worry a lot, he
probably needs much better nutrition to re
cover; some friends and I are trying hard to
get some packages to him; everything is un
fortunately horribly slow and laborious from
here.68 What has happened to the rest of the
colleagues ofthe former Romanistik staff? Do
you know anything about Honsberg, Black
ert, Janik, Viebrock?69
Things have gone well for us against all
odds. The new order did not reach these straits; that really says it all. We have lived in our apart
ment and suffered nothing but small discom
forts and fear: until the end of [19]42 it looked
very bad, but then the clouds gradually with
drew. Our son Clemens attended the American
college here, and then we worked for several
years to send him to the USA as an immigrant; there was no other possibility. Finally, we suc
ceeded, and he has been studying chemistry at
Harvard for a year; the separation was some
what bitter, especially for my wife, since the
prospect of meeting again in the near future [is
completely unsure].701 have worked a lot despite my lack ofthe most important books; you will
certainly have received some of what I've done
in time. Until now little has been published, but this autumn several things should appear all at once. I am very curious about Krauss's
most recent writing, but printed material still
appears not to be allowed.71 Won't you tell me
some more details about your own work, even
if it is not about Romance studies?72 Are you
really in contact with Borkenau, who indeed
landed in Marburg?73 And on what occasion
did you speak at the University of Frankfurt?
Incidentally, do you know how the Roman
ist Erhard Lommatzsch is doing over there?74
Among the many amenities of our stay here
(Lowith wrote me once, still from Japan: warm
greetings from house to house) one ofthe most
important is that we share them with quite a
number of comrades in fortune [Schicksalgenos sen], emigrants of various kinds, most also at
the university, many of them very smart and
likable.75 Things have really not been bad for us,
only that we have become rather poor; I could not bring out any funds at the time, wages are
very low, and Clemens's expedition and study over there is also a difficult financial under
taking, so that gradually all objects of value have gone toward it, even some of my books. But these are bourgeois worries_We did not
become Turkish, not even legally, now we are
again "Germans without passports"; everything is temporary. At the university we have indeed achieved something, but by far not so much as
would have been possible; the precarious and
often dilettantish politics ofthe administration makes work very difficult, though admittedly
they do not have it easy; I have learned here how
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758 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
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difficult it is to Europeanize a non-European country in a short time; the danger of practical and moral anarchy is very great.
Write to me soon. My wife sends warm
greetings, and I send you and yours my best wishes.
Your Erich Auerbach
Translators' Notes 1. The letter is held in the Erich Rothacker Nachlass,
Manuscript Department ofthe Universitats- and Landes
bibliothek, Bonn. Auerbach's correspondence with
Rothacker includes eighteen letters and nine postcards and will appear in Vialon's forthcoming edition of Auer
bach's letters.
2. Auerbach was at the time the director ofthe Roma
nisches Seminar of Philipps University, Marburg, which
was heir to a rich tradition of German Romance philol
ogy. Marburg became an important center ofthe Neu
philologie ("new philology"), which, as outlined by Spitzer in his short history of Romance philology at Marburg on
the occasion ofthe university's four-hundredth birthday,
emphasized a cultural and humanistic approach more
broadly conceived than the traditional approach, which
was purely linguistic and technical. Previous directors of
the Romanisches Seminar under this new approach were
Eduard Wechfiler (1901-20), who, ironically, as chair
at the University of Berlin later blocked Auerbach's ap
pointment there; Ernst Robert Curtius (1920-24); and
Spitzer himself (1924-30), whom Auerbach succeeded,
fittingly, since Spitzer admired Auerbach's broad huma
nistische Bildung compared with the technical interests
ofthe other candidates for the position at Marburg. 3. The letter is written at the peak ofthe parliamen
tary crisis that led to Hindenburg's appointment of Hitler
as chancellor the next day, 30 lanuary 1933.
4. Erich Rothacker (1888-1965), was a professor of philos
ophy, sociology, and psychology at the University of Bonn.
5. The reference is to Krauss's habilitation lecture, "Deutschland als Thema der franzosischen Literatur."
6. The Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift fur Literaturwis
senschaft und Geistesgeschichte was founded and edited
by Erich Rothacker and Paul Kluckhohn (1886-1957). Krauss's lecture was ultimately published in it in 1933
("Deutschland"). Auerbach's early publications on Cou
rier ("Paul-Louis Courier"), Dante (Dante), and Vico
("Vico and Herder") were published in this journal. Af
ter the war, his essay that was to appear as a chapter on
Cervantes in the second edition of Mimesis (1953) first
appeared in this journal ("Die verzauberte Dulcinea").
7. Auerbach is referring to Rothacker's political con
victions and his anti-Semitic statement that Jewish in
tellectuals should be removed from their positions at
German universities. Auerbach permanently broke offhis
correspondence with Rothacker in 1933, after Rothacker
refused to respond to his challenge to his anti-Semitism. In a letter to Ludwig Binswanger (28 Oct. 1932), Auerbach
wrote about Rothacker: "I am offended that Rothacker so
demonstratively came out for the Nazis, and I have de
cided to give nothing more to the [Vierteljahrsschrift] (the Vico essay has lain there for Wi years); of course I thereby harm myself more than him, for there is no other journal of this kind" ("Dass Rothacker sich so demonstrativ fur
die Nazis erklart hat, habe ich ihm iibelgenommen und
beschlossen, der Vj nichts mehr zu geben (der Vicovor
trag lag dort seit Wi Jahren); freilich schadige ich damit
mich mehr als ihn, denn eine andere Z[eit]s[chrift] die ser Art gibt es ja nicht" [Vialon, Martin Hellweg 66; our
trans.; the letter is held in the Werner Krauss Nachlass,
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Kunste]). 8. Auerbach is probably referring to Rothacker's Ein
leitung in die Geisteswissenschaften ("Introduction to Hu
manist Studies"). This book, which was reissued in 1930,
represents for Auerbach the methodological approach ofthe German Romantic-historical school of Hegel and
his age, an approach that formed the basis of Auerbach's
"historical relativism," which he used in his own research
method and historical categories for explaining the so
cial, political, economic, aesthetic, and literary changes in the historical process.
9. The letter is held in the Karl Vossler Nachlass, Bay rische Staatsbibliothek Miinchen, Ana 350. 12. A. Auer
bach, Erich.
10. Auerbach addresses Vossler by the title that was
used until 1918 for highly placed officials in the civil ser
vice. Vossler's position as professor at the University of
Munich gave him a right to the title.
11. Auerbach and his wife, Marie, had visited Vossler
and his wife, Emma, possibly with colleagues. 12. Hans Rheinfelder (1898-1971), was a Romance
philologist and the founder, in 1953, ofthe Deutscher
Romanisten-Verband.
13. Leo Spitzer (1887-1960) was a Romance philolo
gist born in Vienna, where he received his doctorate
under Wilhelm Meyer-Liibke in 1910. He came to the
University of Marburg in 1925, left for Cologne in 1930, and then left Germany for Istanbul in 1933. In 1936 he
received an appointment at Johns Hopkins University, where he remained until his death. Best known for his
work on stylistics, he was instrumental in helping Auer
bach replace him in both Marburg and Istanbul.
14. Spitzer, the former director ofthe Romanisches
Seminar in Marburg, was relieved of his duties as the chair
of Romance philology at the University of Cologne on 29
April 1933. He was later dismissed on 11 September 1933
and stripped of his Austrian citizenship in July 1939.
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122.3 Erich Auerbach 759
15. Spitzer's dismissal was instigated by his denun
ciation by the leader of the Nazi student movement in
the Romance philology department at the University of
Cologne. Spitzer's assistant, Traugott Fuchs, later started
a petition against his mentor's dismissal. He too was de
nounced by the same student; Fuchs, along with Spitzer's other assistant, Rosemarie Burkart, was ultimately ex
pelled from the university as a Jewish sympathizer. See
Hausmann 228, 303-06. Fuchs followed Spitzer to Is
tanbul, where he settled and became close friends ofthe
Auerbachs. See Vialon, "Scars" and "Traugott Fuchs."
16. Here Auerbach's handwritten insertion is unclear.
17. The letter is held in the Warburg Institute, Lon
don. A published version appears in Treml, "Aus einem
zerstreuten Archiv" 23.
18. Auerbach's wife was Marie Auerbach nee Mankie
witz (1892-1979); his son, Clemens Auerbach (1923-2002), was a pupil at the humanistic Gymnasium Philippinum in Marburg. Later he finished his secondary education at
Robert College in Istanbul and received his PhD in chem
istry from Harvard University in 1951. He taught and did
research at Brookhaven National Laboratory (Long Is
land, New York).
19. The Academic Assistance Council (AAC), founded
in May 1933 by the director of the London School of
Economics and Political Science, William Beveridge
(1879-1973), was involved in rescuing the Kulturwis
senschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg and supported those
scholars who were displaced from their university posi tions after the rise of fascism in Germany.
20. The letter is held in the Karl Vossler Nachlass, Bay rische Staatsbibliothek Miinchen, Ana 350. 12. A. Auer
bach, Erich.
21. The letter is written on the day the Nuremburg Laws, which racialized Judaism and dismissed Jews from
all state employment, were passed. Although the law gave
government offices until the end ofthe year to "regular ize" employment, the universities were in great haste to
stabilize their faculties before the beginning ofthe winter
term in October.
22. The card was from Auerbach and Spitzer, with whom
Auerbach had a personal meeting in Bologna when Spitzer came there from Istanbul during the semester break.
23. This is a reference to Spitzer's proposal that Auer
bach replace him in Istanbul.
24. Americo Castro (1885-1972), a Spanish historian
and philologist, was ambassador to Berlin (1931-32). He
emigrated to the United States and reemigrated to Spain in 1968.
25. The reference is to Hellweg's doctoral thesis (Be
griff), which Auerbach supervised. However, it was not
published in Miinchener Arbeiten (edited by Rheinfelder) but appeared instead in the Marburg Beitrage zur Ro
manischen Philologie, which was edited by Krauss.
26. This is a reference to his work in progress on
"Figura."
27. The letter is handwritten; these sentences are in
serted in the margin. 28. The letter is held in the Walter Benjamin Archiv,
Akademie der Kiinste Berlin, Archiv 13/1. A published version appears in Barck 689-90.
29. This reference is to "Gesellschaft," which would
become a section of Berlin Childhood around 1900 (Berli ner Kindheit um neunzehnhundert) and which appeared in the Saturday edition oiNeue Zurcher Zeitung on Sat
urday, 21 September 1935.
30. Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966) was a Swiss psy chiatrist and writer.
31. Beverdell has not been identified.
32. Ernst Bloch (1885-1977), a Utopian Marxist phi
losopher, was a mutual friend of Auerbach and Benjamin. He presented Auerbach with a personally dedicated copy of his book Spirit of Utopia {Geist der Utopie) on the oc
casion of Auerbach's marriage to Marie Mankiewitz in
1923. The book to which Auerbach refers is Heritage of Our Times (Erbschaft dieser Zeit), which plays a part
throughout the correspondence. 33. The letter is held in the Walter Benjamin Archiv,
Akademie der Kiinste Berlin, Archiv 13/2. A published version appears in Barck 690.
34. Benjamin tried without success to secure a pub lisher for Berlin Childhood around 1900. Benjamin and
Auerbach were born in the same year and grew up in the
Grunewald and Charlottenburg sections of Berlin.
35. A short piece on the front page of the 21 Septem ber issue of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung in which Marie
Auerbach found the Benjamin childhood reminiscence
contains the following notice: "Anti-Semitism also is
causing trouble for several Marburg professors whose
names were inscribed on the pillory of the university
city as punishment for defending Jewish businesses"
("Der Antisemitismus macht auch einigen Marburger Professoren zu schaffen, deren Namen zur Strafe fiir das
Vertreten judischer Geschafte an den Schandpfahl der
Universitatsstadt geheftet wurden"). 36. A list of prominent French writers and intellectu
als of the left: Ramon Fernandez (1894-1940); Jean Gue
henno (1890-1978); Andre Malraux (1901-76); Andre
Chamson (1900-83). 37. Born in 1911, she was the daughter of Ludwig
Binswanger. 38. This sentence is vague and perhaps refers to some
thing Benjamin had asked in the lost letter that precedes this one.
39. The letter is held in the Warburg Institute, Lon
don. A published version appears in Treml, "Aus einem
zerstreuten Archiv" 24.
40. Saxl had responded that there was no possibility of
employment at the Warburg Library because conditions
there were difficult but that he would keep his eyes open. He also suggested that Auerbach contact the Academic
Assistance Council in London. A published version of the
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760 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
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letter appears in Treml 24. See the accompanying article
by Treml, "Erich."
41. The letter is held in the Walter Benjamin Archiv, Akademie der Kunste Berlin, Archiv 13/3. A published version appears in Barck 691.
42. The journal to which Auerbach refers is Die Zeit
schrift fiir Sozialforschung. See Benjamin's response in Auerbach's next letter. Besides Benjamin's essay
("Probleme"), the issue, edited by Max Horkheimer, contains long articles by Henryk Grossmann and Har
old D. Lasswell and reviews by Herbert Marcuse, Hans
Muller, Gerhard Meyer, Paul Lazarsfeld, Erich Fromm, Thea Goldschmidt, Anna Hartock, Robert Briffault, H. Mankiewitz (perhaps Auerbach's sister-in-law, Hed
wig), and Charles Trinkaus, among others.
43. The location ofthe original is unknown. A pub lished version appears in Benjamin, Gesammelte 5:
446-47.
44. German People (Deutsche Menschen). The book is
a collection of antinationalist letters written by philoso
phers and writers who exemplify the democratic spirit and liberal positions ofthe bourgeoisie during the period between 1783 and 1883.
45. A reference to Krauss, Corneille.
46. See Benjamin, "Probleme."
47. The letter is held in the Walter Benjamin Archiv, Akademie der Kunste Berlin, Archiv 13/4-13/5. A pub lished version appears in Barck 691-93.
48. Benedetto Croce (1866-1952), an Italian idealist
philosopher. His acquaintance with Auerbach began with
a letter in 1922 over a shared interest in Vico. In 1927 Au
erbach translated Croce's 1911 book on Vico; Auerbach
had translated Vico's New Science in 1924.
49. Blut und Boden ("blood and soil") was a major slo
gan of Nazi racialist propaganda. 50. Friedrich Burschell (1889-1970), a writer and
critic, emigrated in 1933. He traveled through France
and Spain and was in Czechoslovakia until 1938, when
he went to England. 51. Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971) was one ofthe
founders of Dadaism and married Marie Auerbach's sis
ter, Hedweg Mankiewitz (1893-1974).
52. The letter is held in the Walter Benjamin Archiv,
Akademie der Kunste Berlin, Archiv 13/6. A published version appears in Barck 694.
53. Deutsche Menschen.
54. This is likely to be "Giambattista Vico und die
Idee der Philologie." 55. The letter is held in the Traugott Fuchs Nachlass,
Bosporus University, Istanbul. A published version ap
pears in part in Vialon, "Scars" 223-25. See also Vialon,
"Traugott Fuchs" 68-69.
56. Traugott Fuchs (1906-97) was Spitzer's doctoral
assistant who followed him to Istanbul when he was
forced to leave the University of Cologne in 1933. Fuchs
settled in Istanbul and became close friends of the Auer
bachs. See Vialon, "Scars" and "Traugott Fuchs."
57. Words crossed out replicate Auerbach's marks.
58. The phrase "and what in the light of every life in
which I happened to find myself" is an insertion.
59. The letter is held in the Privatarchiv Martin Hell
weg. A published version appears in Vialon, Martin Hell
weg 57-58.
60. Auerbach, Dante.
61. Auerbach, "Figura." 62. Ernst Robert Curtius (1888-1956) was a Romance
philologist at Bonn University and is best known in En
glish for his European Literature and the Latin Middle
Ages (Europdische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelal
ter), which incorporates the articles to which Auerbach
here refers. See Curtius, "Alexiusliedes," "Mittelalters I," "Mittelalters II," "Mittelalters III," and "Musen." Fritz
Schalk (1902-80) was a Romance philologist at the
University of Cologne and the editor of Romanische For
schungen, in which Auerbach published "Epilegomena zu
Mimesis" his response to the early reception of Mimesis.
63. Auerbach, Dasfranzosische Publikum; "Romantik
und Realismus"; and "Die erste Nachahmung." 64. Bracketed phrase is added in the margin of the
letter.
65. Auerbach here refers to his 1933 essay, Das fran zosische Publikum des 17. Jahrhunderts, later published in
1951 in a revised version as "La cour et la ville."
66. Between 1935 and 1937 Krauss and Hellweg lived
in the same house in Marburg under the address Roten
berg 28a. Krauss used his 1932 habilitation thesis, "Die
asthetischen Grundlagen," for further publications such
as "Die Kritik des Siglo de Oro am Ritter- und Schaferro
man," "Uber die Stellung der Bukolik in der asthetischen
Theorie des Humanismus," and Miguel Cervantes. Leben
und Werk.
67. The original is held in the Privatarchiv Martin
Hellweg. A published version appears in Vialon, Martin
Hellweg 69-70.
68. Krauss suffered greatly, both physically and men
tally, as a result of brutal prison conditions. Auerbach's
son, Clemens, sent him medical treatment in several
"CARE Packages" while Krauss was in Marburg and
Leipzig. 69. Eugen Honsberg, born 1906, was a German phi
lologist and probably died during the war in the Soviet
Union. He did his PhD dissertation on baroque style in
Paul Fleming's German lyrics and taught seminars on
French and medieval literature at the University of Mar
burg as Auerbach's assistant ("Studien"). Hermann Black
ert was a Romance philologist and probably died during the war in the Soviet Union and did his PhD dissertation
on Marcel Proust under Auerbach's supervision (Aufbau). He taught seminars on French literature as Auerbach's
assistant. Janik remains unidentified. Helmut Viebrock
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122.3 1 Erich Auerbach 761
(1912-97) completed his PhD at Marburg on William
Wordsworth in 1937 ("Erlebnis"). After World War II, he
was professor of English language and literature at the
University of Frankfurt and published essays on William
Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, Charles
Dickens, James Joyce, and T. S. Eliot.
70. This is a handwritten insertion on the bottom
margin. 71. After the war, Krauss was the editor, with Karl Jaspers
and Dolf Sternberger, of Die Wandlung, which published some of his own essays. He helped with the postwar reedu
cation process at the University of Marburg and published several essays on the necessity of a political education.
72. See Hellweg, Stellung. 73. Franz Borkenau (1900-57) was a sociologist and
historian famous for his 1934 book on the transition
from feudalism to capitalism. He was a member ofthe
Kommunistische Internationale and was expelled from
the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands in 1929. He
was professor at the University of Marburg from 1947 to
1949 and later served as chief research consultant for the
British Secret Service in Frankfurt.
74. Erhard Lommatzsch (1886-1975) was a Romance
philologist and the supervisor of Auerbach's PhD at the
University of Greifswald.
75. Karl Lowith (1897-1973), a philosopher and friend of
Auerbach, was suspended from the University of Marburg in
October 1935. He spent his exile in Sendai, Japan, from 1936
to 1941 and emigrated to the United States; from 1952 he was
professor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg.
Works Cited Auerbach, Erich. "La cour et la ville." Vier Untersuchun
gen zur Geschichte der franzosischen Bildung. Bern:
Francke Verlag, 1951. 12-50. Trans, as "La cour et la
ville." Scenes from the Drama of European Literature.
New York: Meridian, 1959. 133-79.
-. Dante als Dichter der irdischen Welt. Berlin: Gruy ter, 1929. Trans, as Dante, Poet ofthe Secular World.
Trans. R. Manheim. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1961.
-. "Entdeckung Dantes in der Romantik." Deutsche
Viertel)ahrsschriftfur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistes
geschichte 7 (1929): 682-92.
-. "Epilegomena zu Mimesis." Romanische For
schungen 65 (1954): 1-18. Trans, as "Epilogomena to
Mimesis." Trans. Jan M. Ziolkowski. Auerbach, Mi
mesis 559-74.
-. "Die erste Nachahmung des Alltaglichen." Romano
lop Semineri Dergisi I Travaux du seminaire dephilolo
gie romane. Ed. Auerbach and Sahabattin Eyuboglu. Vol. 1. Istanbul Universitesi Edebiyat Fakultesi Yaylin lari, Publications de la Faculte des Lettres de l'Univer
site d'lstanbul 2. Istanbul: Basimevi, 1937. 262-93.
-. "Figura." Archivum Romanicum 22 (1938): 436-89.
Trans, as "Figura." Scenes from the Drama of Euro
pean Literature. New York: Meridian, 1959. 11-76.
-. Das franzosische Publikum des 17. Jahrhunderts.
Munchen: Hueber, 1933.
-. "Giambattista Vico und die Idee der Philologie." 1936. Gesammelte Aufsdtze zur romanischen Philolo
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-. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western
Literature. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Fiftieth Anniver
sary Ed. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2003.
-, trans. Neue Wissenschaft uber die gemeinschaftli che Natur der Volker (1744). By Giambattista Vico.
Munich: Allgemeine, 1924.
-. "Passio als Leidenschaft." PMLA 56 (1941): 1179
96. Trans, as "Passio as Passion." Trans. Martin Elsky. Criticism 43 (2001): 288-302.
-. "Paul-Louis Courier." Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift
fur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 4
(1926): 514-47.
-. "Romantik und Realismus." Neue Jahrbucher fur
Wissenschaft und Jugendbildung 9 (1933): 143-53.
-. "Sacrae scripturae sermo humilis." Neuphilologi sche Mitteilungen 42 (1941): 57-67.
-. "Die verzauberte Dulcinea." Deutsche Vierteljahrs
schrift fiir Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 25 (1951): 294-316.
-. "Vico und Herder." Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift
fur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 10
(1932): 671-86.
Barck, Karlheinz. "5 Briefe Erich Auerbachs an Walter
Benjamin in Paris." Zeitschrift fur Germanistik 6
(1988): 688-94.
Barck, Karlheinz, and Martin Treml, eds. Erich Auer
bach. Geschichte und Aktualitat eines europaischen
Philologen. Berlin: Kadmos, 2007.
Benjamin, Walter. Berliner Kindheit um neunzehn
hundert: Giessener Fassung. Ed. Rolf Tiedemann.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000. Trans, as Ber
lin Childhood around 1900. Trans. Howard Eiland.
Cambridge: Belknap, 2006.
-. Deutsche Menschen: Eine Folge von Briefe, Aus
wahl und Einleitung von Detlef Holz. Lucerne: Vita
Nova, 1936.
-. Gesammelte Briefe. Ed. Christoph Godde and
Henri Lonitz. 6 vols. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1995-2000.
-. "Gesellschaft." Neue Zurcher Zeitung 21 Sept. 1935, Saturday ed., sec. 2: 1.
-. "Probleme der Sprachsoziologie. Ein Sammelrefe
rat." Zeitschrift fur Sozialforschung 4.2 (1935): 248-68.
Blackert, Hermann. Der Aufbau der Kunstwirklichkeit bei
Marcel Proust. Aufgezeigt an der Einfuhrung der Perso
nen in A la recherche du temps perdu. Diss. U of Mar
burg, 1935. Neuere deutsche Forschungen, Abteilung
f? ft i 7T 3 0 $ 3 a o n e 3 ft 3
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762 Scholarship in Times of Extremes: Letters of Erich Auerbach (1933-46) PMLA
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romanische Philologie. Vol. 2. Ed. Walther von Wart
burg. Berlin: Junker und Diinnhaupt, 1935.
Bloch, Ernst. Erbschaft dieser Zeit. Zurich: Oprecht, 1935. Trans, as Heritage of Our Times. Trans. Neville
Plaice and Stephen Plaice. Berkeley: U of California
P, 1991.
-. Geistder Utopie. Munich: Duncker, 1918. Trans, as
Spirit of Utopia. Trans. Anthony A. Nassar. Stanford:
Stanford UP, 2000.
Borkenau, Franz. Der Ubergang vomfeudalen zum burger lichen Weltbild. Studien zur Geschichte der Manufak
turperiode. Paris: Alcan, 1934.
Bormuth, Matthias. Mimesis und der christliche Gentle man. Erich Auerbach schreibt an Karl Lowith. Warm
bronn: Keicher, 2006.
Curtius, Ernst Robert. Europdische Literatur und lateini
sches Mittelalter. Bern: Francke, 1948. Trans, as Eu
ropean Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Trans.
Willard R. Trask. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1953.
-. "Die Musen im Mittelalter." Zeitschriftfur romani
sche Philologie 59 (1939): 129-88.
-. "Zur Interpretation des Alexiusliedes." Zeitschrift
fur romanische Philologie 56 (1936): 113-37.
-. "Zur Literaturasthetik des Mittelalters I." Zeit
schrift fur romanische Philologie 58 (1938): 1-50.
-. "Zur Literaturasthetik des Mittelalters II." Zeit
schrift fur romanische Philologie 58 (1938): 129-232.
-. "Zur Literaturasthetik des Mittelalters III." Zeit
schrift fiir romanische Philologie 58 (1938): 433-79.
Hausmann, Frank-Rutger. "Vom Strudel der Ereignisse
verschlungen": Deutsche Romanistik im "Dritten
Reich." Frankfurt: Klostermann, 2000.
Hellweg, Martin. Der Begriff des Gewissens bei Jean
Jacques Rousseau. Beitrag zu einer Kritik der politi schen Demokratie. Diss. U of Marburg, 1936. Beitrdge zur Romanischen Philologie 20. Ed. Werner Krauss.
Marburg: Ebel, 1936.
-. Die Stellung des Proletariats bei Marx. Frankfurt
am Main: Schulte-Blumke, 1947.
Honsberg, Eugen. "Studien iiber den barocken Stil in
Paul Flemings deutscher Lyrik." Diss. U of Wiirz
burg, 1937.
Krauss, Werner. "Die asthetischen Grundlagen des spani schen Schaferromans." Diss. U of Marburg, 1932.
-. Corneille als politischer Dichter. Marburger Bei
trage zur Romanischen Philologie. Herausgegeben von Werner Krauss 18. Marburg: Ebel, 1936.
-. "Deutschland als Thema der franzosischen Litera
tur." Deutsche Vierteljahrsschriftfur Literaturwissen
schaft und Geistesgeschichte 11 (1933): 445-63.
-. "Deutschland als Thema der franzosischen Litera
tur." Marburg U. 29 Feb. 1932.
-. "Die Kritik des Siglo de Oro am Ritter- und Scha
ferroman." Gesammelte Aufsatzezur Literatur- und
Sprachwissenschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Kloster
mann, 1949. 152-76.
-. Miguel Cervantes. Leben und Werk. Neuwied: Luch
terhand, 1966. Rpt. in Cervantes und seine Zeit. Ed. Werner Bahner. Vol. 2 of Das wissenschaftliche Werk.
Krauss, gen. ed. Berlin: Akademie, 1990. 5-177.
-. "Uber die Stellung der Bukolik in der asthetischen
Theorie des Humanismus." Archivfiir das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 3-4 (1938): 180-98.
Rothacker, Erich. Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften. 1919. Tubingen: Mohr, 1930.
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