Auerbach, Correspondencia

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



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.



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


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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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


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




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

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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




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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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



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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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


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




:'i|Ik .l| First page of the

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J> /* a* text is transcribed

on P- 754.

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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]




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

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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




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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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.



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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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



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

gie. Bern: Francke, 1967. 233-41.

-. 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




c

? 3 W 0

C * 0 c .? i 4

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.

Seyhan, Azade. "German Academic Exiles in Istanbul:

Translation as the Bildung of the Other." Nation,

Language, and the Ethics of Translation. Ed. Sandra

Bermann and Michael Wood. Princeton: Princeton

UP, 2005. 274-88.

Spitzer, Leo. "Zur Geschichte des Romanischen Lehr

stuhls." Die Philipps-Universitat zu Marburg 1527

1927. Ed. Hermelink and S. A. Kaehler. Marburg: Elwert'sche, 1927. 726-34.

Treml, Martin. "Aus einem zerstreuten Archiv. Erich

Auerbach an Fritz Saxl. Siena und Marburg im Jahre 1935." Trajekte: Zeitschrift des Zentrums fiir Literatur

forschung 5.10 (2005): 23-24.

-. "Erich Auerbach und die Kulturwissenschaftliche

Bibliothek Warburg: Geschichten einer verhinderten

Zusammenarbeit." Trajekte: Zeitschrift des Zentrums

fiir Literaturforschung 5.10 (2005): 25-28.

Vialon, Martin, ed. Erich Auerbachs Briefe an Martin Hell

weg (1939-1950). Edition und historisch-philologischer Kommentar. Tubingen: Francke, 1997.

-, ed. Erich Auerbachs Briefe von 1922 bis 1957.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / Zentrum fiir Li

teraturforschung Berlin, forthcoming. -. "The Scars of Exile: Paralipomena concerning the

Relationship between History, Literature and Poli

tics?Demonstrated in the Examples of Erich Auer

bach, Traugott Fuchs and Their Circle in Istanbul."

Yeditepe'de Felsefe 2 (2003): 191-246.

-. "Traugott Fuchs zwischen Exil und Wahlheimat

am Bosporus. Meditationen zu klassischen Bild- und

Textmotiven." Istanbul. Geistige Wanderungen aus

einer Welt in Scherben. Ed. Georg Stauth and Faruk

Birtek. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2007. 53-129.

Viebrock, Helmut. "Erlebnis und Gestaltung des Schonen

in der Dichtung von Worthworth (1798-1808)." Diss.

U of Marburg, 1937.



Auerbach, Correspondencia

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