German life and Ixtters 45:3 Ju ly 19Y2 0016-8777 S2.W

STRAIGHTENING LONG-PLAYING RECORDS: THE EARLY POLITICS OF BERTA LASK AND FRIEDRICH WOLF.’

RICHARD SHEPPARD

The ncw acccssibility of statc archives in thc formcr Eastern Block is creating a major ncw industry among scholars intcrcstcd in Icft-wing history: thc rewriting of thc official Communist version.' Onc minor aspcct of this proccss conccrns thosc writcrs and intcllcctuals who survivcd thc Sccond World War and played a lcading rolc in thc GDR’s cultural lifc, but who fclt compcllcd to altcr thcir carly political autobiographies lcst thcy bc suspcctcd of associating cithcr with thosc Icft-wing partics (thc SPD and thc USPD) which, in 1924, Stalin had found guilty of ‘Sozialfaschismus’, or with thosc cvcn morc heretical groupings (thc anarchist KAPD and AAU) which Lcnin, in 1920, had castigated as an ‘infantilc disordcr’.’’ Two such writcrs wcrc Bcrta Lask (1878-1967) and Fricdrich Wolf (18884953).

Lask’s ‘Nachlan’ in thc East Bcrlin Akadcmic dcr Kiinstc givcs thc imprcssion of having bccn carcfully fillctcd, for i t contains only thc hazicst information about hcr political attitudes and activitics bcforc 1923. Filc 383, for cxamplc, contains four c . v . ~ in Gcrman and onc in Russian, all of which dcscribc Lask’s position during the revolutionary ycars around thc cnd of the Grcat War as follows:

Durch Kranklichkeit und die Pflege meiner kleinen Kinder gehemmt blieb ich noch abseits vom Kampf, obwohl der burgerliche Pazihsmus mich durch- aus nicht befriedigte. Die Massennot der letzten Kriegsjahre und die groBe russische Oktoberrevolution begannen mir die Augen zu offnen und noch rnehr das Wiiten der deutschen Konterrevolution. Da uberwand ich endlich meinen ‘radikalen Antimilitarismus’ und trat im April 1923 in die KPD ein. (file 383/1)

’ I would likc to arknowlcdgc the hclp whirh 1 havr rrcrivrd from thr following institutions i n prcparing and writing this artirle: thr Stadtarchiv, Rrmschrid; thr Stadtbil,liothrk. \Yupprrtal- Elhrrfeld; thc Fricdrirh Ehrrt-Stiftung, Bonn; thr Akadrmir d r r Kunstr, Brrlin (East); Ihr lnstitut f i r Grsrhirhte dcr Arbeilrr-Bcwcgung, Bcrlin (East); and thr Drutschrs l,itrmtur-Archivq hlarharh/ Krrkar, rspcrially Frau Hugucttr Hrrrmann and Frau Ingrid Griiningrr. Thr work itsrlf was madr possil~lc by grants from thr British Aradrmy and thr Faculty of Slodrrn and hlrdiarval I.anguagrs, Univcrsity of Oxford.

” T h r rcfrrrnrc is to Ixnin’s Lcfl-wing Communism: A n InJnn/ife Di.rordcr which hr wrote against the Grrman ultra-left in April-May 1920 and whirh was puhlishrd in Junr 1920 in Russian and in July 1920 i n Grrman, Frrnrh and English. For an introduction to thr party-political situation in Germany 1917-22 and thr situation of radical artisis and intrllrrtuals during thr sanir prriod, scr Richard Shrppard, ‘Artists, Intrllrctuals and thc USPD 191 7-1922’, I.i~crn/unc~i.r,rcnrc.lin~lir/tr.r Jahrburh, 32 (1991). 17V216, csprrially pp. 175-7.

Cf. anon., ‘Blutigr Frtzrn’, Drr .Ypirgci, 6. I . 1992, 148-9.

280 EARLY POLITICS OF BERTA LASK AND FRIEDRICH WOLF

And filc 385 contains a short rctrospcctivc piccc about Lask’s carly carccr which is similarly cvasivc about thc proccss by which shc camc to thc vicw ‘daB dcr Widcrstand dcr hcrrschcndcn Klassc auch in Dcutschland nur durch bcwaffnctcn Widcrstand dcs Prolctariats gcbrochcn wcrdcn konntc’ (p. 3). Thus, thc ‘Nachlafl’ givcs thc impression of somconc who, likc many middlc-class intcllcctuals aftcr thc War, was instinctivcly, not to say passivcly, pacifist, but who was not associatcd activcly with any particular political ‘Tcndcnz’ until shc saw thc (rcd) light in Spring 1923.

Thc reality is, however, significantly diffcrcnt. To bcgin with, although Lask published nothing in the USPD’s Die Freiheil or thc KPD’s Die role Fuhne during thc rcvolutionary pcriod, shc did publish at lcast two itcms in thc rcvisionist SPD ncwspapcr Vorwiirls (VW). Thcsc wcrc a rhapsodic pacifist manifcsto (‘Aufruf an dic Fraucn’, No. 327, 28.1 1.1918) which calls upon womcn to cschcw political partics and build a ncw ‘Mcnschhcitssozia- lisrnus’ bascd on thc spirit of lovc, frccdom and justicc, and a rcvicw (‘Fritz Klatt: ‘Dic schopfcrischc Pausc”’, No. 543, 17.1 1.1921). Givcn thc hostility which most radical intcllcctuals fclt towards thc SPD, that in itsclf was an unusual thing to do.’ But cvcn morc importantly, Lask was closcly associ- atcd with thc formcr actor and militant pacifist Ernst Fricdrich (1894-1967), who is now rcmcmbcrcd only for his two-volumc Krieg dem Kriege! (1924-5)‘ and for his cstablishmcnt of Gcrmany’s first anti-war muscum in Bcrlin’s ParochialstraBc 29 (brokcn up by thc Nazis in 1934).”

In latc spring/carly summcr 1921, Fricdrich foundcd thc Arbcitcr-Kunst- Ausstcllung (AKA) in Bcrlin’s Pctcrsburgcr StraBc 39, and latcr on in thc samc ycar hc published thrcc volumcs in his Buchvcrlag dcr Arbcitcr- Kunst-Ausstcllung. Onc of thcsc was Lask’s Rufe aus dem Dunkel, a sclcction of hcr writings 1915-21, dcscribcd in its sub-titlc as ‘Sozialc anti-militaristi- schc Dichtungcn aus dcn Vcrlags-Abcndcn von Ernst Fricdrich’ - i.c. itcms which had bccn rcad out by cithcr Fricdrich or Lask hcrsclf on onc of thc bi-wcckly rcading cvcnings organiscd i n or undcr the acgis of thc AKA.7

’ Srr Sheppard, pp. 180-7, for drtails of thr party-political alliliatioils of lrading Grrnian radicals. Of this largr group, only Paul Zrrh (SPD), Molf Brhnr (whosr synipathirs wrrr much murr strongly with the USPD) and Armin T. \\’rgncr (who was a n i rnh r r of ihr KPD from Frhruary t o .2ugust 1919 hut who publishrd porms and artirlrs in nrwspaprrs right across thr political sprctruni) puhlishrd a signifirant numhrr of artirlrs in i’H’ during thr prriod in qurstion. .’ Consisting mainly of horrifir war photos, many of which had comr from ihr illustratrd riunihrrs of the USPD wrrkly DicJreir I lS l l (1919-20). T h r trxt of thr hook’s firsi rdiiion was in four languagrs (Grrman, French, English and Danish). An rdition was rrissurd i n Grrmany i n 1981 and i n England in 1987. I’ Srr Jiirgrn Oprl, ‘Vrrgrssrn in Drutschland: Das Anti-Krirgsmusruni drs Ernst Frirdrich’. Frtirng: D i e O.~l-ll’esl-IVorhm.rrhriJ1, No. 37, 6.9.1991 ; Hingrnp1ti.rrlir.r Hnndbuch drr deul.n~lt.r~rn‘$igen Eniigrn/inn nacli 1.033, I (Politik, \Virischafi, oil‘rnilichrs I.rhrn), Munich 1980, pp. 20&1.

LTI’rrgularly carried advrrtisrmrnts for (though rarely rrporis on) ihr aciiviiirs of Frirdrich’s AKA (rf. ‘Dir “Arhrilrr-Kunstausstrllung’”, No. 457, 28.9.1921). From ihrsr wr learn thai 0 1 1 2 Junr 1921 Frirdrich spokr on ‘Prolrtariat und Kunsi’ in thc AKA (Nn. 254, 1.6.1921); that nn 14 July 1921 Frirdrirh spokr on ’Rrvolution iind Kunst’ in thr A K A (No. 324, 12.7.1921); on 18 August 1921, to inaugurate an rxhihition of p r i m hy KPthr Kollwitz illustraiing thr Silrsian \\’ravrrs’ uprising of the prrvious century, Frirdrich wad i n thr AKA from Haupimann’s D i p II‘ebrr (So. 385,

EARLY POLITICS OF BERTA LASK AND FRIEDRICH WOLF 28 1

Indccd, thc carlicst public rcfcrcncc to thc AKA which I have found to datc (W, No. 212, 7.5.1921) tclls us that thc AKA is staging a rcading- cvcning of Lask’s pocms on Monday, 9 May in thc Mcistcrsaal, Kothcncr StraRc 39. Morcovcr, at around thc samc timc, Fricdrich also foundcd an anti-authoritarian communc in Bcrlin, and in 1922 hc publishcd Lask’s Weihe der Jugend: Ein Chorwerk in thc prcss which borc its namc, thc Vcrlag ‘Kommunc Ernst Fricdrich’. In othcr words, Fricdrich was not only a pacifist, hc was also a convinccd, practising anarchist and thc cditor of Die

freie Jugend: Blatt der jungen Anarchisten ( 19 19-25), a magazinc which thcn bccamc thc supplcmcnt of his sccond magazinc Die schwarze Fahne (1925-9). And it was bccausc of his commitmcnt to anarchism that in 1923 Fricdrich publishcd a book of 83 pagcs cntitlcd Die Verfoolgung des Anarchismus in SowjetruJland as volumc 415 of Die schwarzen Hgle, a scrics of littlc books publishcd by his Vcrlag ‘Frcic Jugcnd’. Givcn all of which, i t is hardly surprising that Lask was lcss than forthcoming in hcr latcr ycars about hcr activitics and affiliations 1917-23. Not only had shc publishcd in a rcvision- ist ncwspapcr, shc had bccn closcly and activcly involvcd with a man who, far from bcing a rcprcscntativc of ‘biirgcrlichcr Pazifismus’, had, in orthodox cycs, suffcrcd from a particularly livid casc of idcological scarlatina.“

Fricdrich Wolfs casc is similar, albcit not idcntical. Although, in an articlc publishcd in Moscow in 1931 (i.c. before hc lcft Germany for Russia in 1938), hc supprcsscd any mcntion whatsocvcr of his allcgcd conncction with the USPD, aftcr thc Sccond World War hc fostcrcd thc imprcssion that hc had bccn closcly conncctcd with, if not actually in, thc USPD

17.8.1921); on 28.4ugust 1921 Frirdrich rrritrtl .\nron \Vildgans’s A r w w in rhr \’olkshuhnr (So. 393, 21.8.1921); on 1 Srptrrnhcr 1921 Frirdrirh Ircturrd on Hauptrnann’s Hnantlcs Himnie/@hrl in thr AKA (So. 41 1, 1.9.1921); on 15 Srplrnihrr 1921 Frirdrich rrad Hans \ \rsrmann’s QJkiere: 9 Bildcr au.r dcm Ilillkricg in thr AKA (So. 135, l5.ll.l92l); rhr A K A organisrd a n rrhihition of visual work in thc \\rltlichr Sehulr, Srukiilln, from 2 to 31 Orrohrr 1921 (So. 464, l.IO.192l); Frirdrich rrritrd ’antirnilitarisrischr und rrvolurionarr Dic~htungrn’ i n thr Stadthallr, Klostrrslraflr 47-59 on 9 Ortohrr 1921 (So. 475, 8.10.1921); rhr Dadaist Raoul Hausrnann rrad from his own work in thr AKA on 5 Sovrrnhrr 1921 (So. 523, 5.ll.1921); Frirdrich rrad Tollrr’s Die I l b n d u q in the AKA on 10 Sovrrnhrr 1921 (So. 528, 8,ll.l92l); Hans \\rsrniann rrad from his own works in rhr AKA on 12 Sovrmbrr and thr prolrtarian paintrr Kurt Sruniaiin Irrtured Ihrrr 011

‘Exprrssionismus und Dadaismus’ on 13 Sovrrnhrr 1921 (So. 534, 1 1 . 1 1.1921): Vrirdrirh Ircturrd on ‘Dastojrwski als Mrnsrh und Dichtrr’ i n thr AKA on 17 Sovrmbrr 1921 (So. 541, l6.lI.192l); Frirdrich read Tollrr’s ,Ma.rse .\lcn.rrh in thr AKA on 24 Sovrrnhrr 1921 (So. 549, 21.1 1,1921); Frirdrirh rrad ‘antirnilitaristisrhr Dichlungrn’ hy Oskar Kanrhl in thr Mristrrsaal nn 21 Drcrrnhrr 1921 (So. 598, 20.12.1921); thr AKA openrd a ’Kollrktivausstrllung \Vi l l i Jarckrl ( S r u r r r Arhrircn und bishrr ungpzrigte Radirrungrn aus drm Bihrlwrrk: “Mrnsrhgott - Gott - Gotlnirnsch”)’ on 5 January 1922 (Xo. 4, 3.1.1922); Frirdrich’s 43rd AKA rrading rvrning took plarr on 5 Frhruary 1922 in the Stadthallr (So. 58, 3.2.1922); an rxhihition oprnrd at thr AKA on 19 Frhruary I922 at which ‘Arbritermalrr’ and ‘namhafte Brrubmalrr (\\‘illi Jarckrl, Marc1 \Vr~zcl)’ rshihirrd sidr hy sidr (So. 77, 15.2.1922) and on 2 .March 1922, Frirdrich rrcitrd pornis hy Drhinrl i n the ,\KA (So. 103, 2.3.1922). ” During rhr rrvolutionary yrars, Lask also publishrd singlr itrins in thr Icft-radical Die Erne (‘Dir weilk \Vrllr’, I (1919), 456-60), the pacifist Die urj$?en B/ii//er ( ‘An das Ungrhorrnr’, 7 (1920), 271-7), and Hiller’s fourth (parifist) Zit/-Jahr6urh, Munich 1920 (’Sachklingr rinrr soirialistischrn Erzirhungskonfrrrnz’, pp. 8C-I).

282 EARLY POI.ITICS OF BERTA LASK AND FRIEDRICH WOLF

1918-21.!’ This, Wolf managed to imply, was cqually truc of his timc in Langcbriick ncar Drcsdcn (whcrc he workcd as a doctor from Novcmbcr 1918 to January 1920) and in Rcmschcid (whcrc hc was cmploycd as thc Municipal Medical Officcr (‘Wohlfahrts- odcr Armcnarzt’) from 1 Fcbruary 1920 to latc May/carly June 1921),“’ aftcr which hc lcft to bccomc thc ‘Sicdlungsant’ in Hcinrich Vogclcr’s rural communc in thc Barkcnhoff at Worpswcde until disillusion sct in in autumn-wintcr 1921 . I 1

Thus, filc 305/4 in Wolfs ‘NachlaR’, transfcrrcd from Wolf‘s formcr homc in Lchnitz ncar Oranicnburg to thc East Bcrlin Akadcmic dcr Kunstc in 1990, contains thc corrcspondcncc bctwccn Wolf and thc latc Richard Hinton Thomas from 14 August 1950 to 20 Dcccmbcr 1953. In Dcccmbcr 1950, Hinton Thomas scnt Wolf a draft of his cssay ‘Fricdrich Wolf: His Development as a Dramatist’ which cvcntually appcarcd in Ccnnan LiJe and Lcllcrs in July 1951 - probably thc first cxtcnsivc cssay to appcar on Wolf in the English-speaking world. Now, although Wolf madc many suggcstions for corrccting and improving thc original typcscript, hc lcft thc following statemcnt (which appears on p. 2 of thc typcscript and p. 30 of thc publishcd cssay) intact: ‘[During the pcriod 1918-201 Wolf‘s political sympathics wcrc with thc Indcpcndcnt Socialist Party’.

This is patcntly untruc, an cxamplc of that tcndcncy to sclf-stylisation to which Wolf was prone from vcry carly on and which incrcascd as hc got oldcr (SCC bclow). Thus, although, on 11 Novcmbcr 1918, Wolf wrotc a card to his fricnd Gustav Gcrstcnbcrgcr in which hc claimcd to havc bccomc a ‘Mitglicd des Vereiniglcn rcvolutionarcn A[rbcitcr]- u[nd] S[oldatcn]-R[atcs] und zuglcich dcr Exckutivc’ in Langcbriick,’’ filc 399 sf Wolfs ‘NachlaR’ contains a lcttcr of 20 May 1976 from the Drcsdcn Staatsarchiv to Emmi Wolf showing that this claim was an cxaggcration. On thc basis of dctailcd

” Thrsr myths ahout \\‘olfs partypolitical allrgianrr wrrr takrn ovrr and propagatrd hy GDR ‘1,iteraturwissrnschaft’. Sce, for instance, Wrrnrr Jrhsrr, Frirdrirh ll’o/J Brrlin (East) 1977, pp. 19 and 24. They wrre thrn prrprtuated by Wrstrrn writrrs like mysrlf hrforr thry had had tlir opporruniry of scrutinising \\‘olfs ‘Narhlaf?’ o r visiting thr Rrmschrid Stadtanhiv (scr Shrppard, p. 178, n.8). I” \\’olrs rard in the ‘Prrsoncnkartei’ of thr Rrmschrid Stadtarrhiv datrs thr rnd of his contract thrrr as 31 May 1921, but the glowing trstimonial which was giwn him by thr municipal authorities when he finally lrft Remschrid is d a t d I3 July 1921 (Prrsonal-Akrr Frirdrirh \\’olf(IS B/l9) , also in thr Rrmscheid Stadtarrhiv). II File 277 (Iettrrs to \Volrs second wife, Elsr Dreihhols, 1921-2, whom hr niarrird on 15 April 1922, having divorcrd his first wifr, Kathc Gumpold, on 12 Decrnihcr 1921) contains (mainly unpuhlished) Iettrrs which indiratr that hr first wrnt to Worpswrdr in early Junr . H r puhlishrd a pmitivr artirle on thr BarkrnhoBcommunity in July (‘Barkrnhor, Dm Tngrburh, 2, No. 28 ( I 6 July 1921), 857-62) - rrprintrd in Frirdrich WolT, C;rmnmcItc l l irkr in rcrhzcbn Bindcn. Brrlin (East) 1960-8, XV, pp. 38-45 (hrrraftrr GI.(’)). He was still thrrr on 4 AU~IISI; lrft in mid-August 10 visit Nruwird.(whrre his parents livrd) and Hrrhingen, south ofStutrgart (whrrr hr oprned a homeopathic mrdical practirc in mid-Novrmhcr 1921); and rrvisitrd \\’orpswrdr in lair Srptrnihrr. Bur his growing disillusion with thr community is all too rvidrnt from his Irttrrs 10 Elsr of 15 Drrrnihrr 1921 and 21 January 1922. l 2 In Frirdrich Wolf, Brit$; Einc Aumahl, ed. Elsr \\’olfand \ \ ’ a h Pollarschrk, Brrlin (East)/\\‘rimar 1969, p. 50.

EARLY POI.I‘I’ICS O F BERI’A IASK AND FRIEDRICH WOLF 283

dctcctivc work involving contcmporary Drcsdcn ncwspapcrs and official documcnts, thc lcttcr from thc Drcsdcn Archivc comcs to thc conclusion

dall er [Wolfl rnit der Exekutive seine Tatigkeit als Leiter der Linienkornrnan- dantur kennzeichnete. I n dieser Funktion arbeitete er eng rnit dern Arbeiter- und Soldatenrat zusarnrnen, da er, wie aus einer U’eisung des Ministeriurns f i r Militarwesen vorn 30.I1.1918 hervorgeht, ‘Mallnahrnen nur irn Einver- nehrnen rnit den zustandigen Soldatenraten treffen’ konnte.

Morcovcr, far from cxcrcising this morc modest function as a mcmbcr of thc (rcvolutionary) USPD, thc findings of thc Drcsdcn rcscarchcrs provc that Wolf was an activc mcmbcr of thc (morc modcratc) SPD whilc in Langcbriick. Filc 399 contains a copy of a lcttcr of 6 January 1919 in which Wolf and thirtccn othcrs backcd Ernst Vcntcr as thc SPD candidatc in thc Langcbriick ‘Gcmcindcratswahl’ of 9 Fcbruary 1919. And whcn Vcntcr rcsigncd from that body in latc Junc, othcr matcrial in thc same foldcr indicatcs that Wolf took his placc, attcnding mcctings on 6, 1 1 and 25 July, 5 and 26 Scptcmbcr, 17 October and 7 and 27 Novcmbcr 1919 which discusscd such unglamorous but csscntial mattcrs as thc ‘Haushaltsplan fir dic Gas u[ nd] Elek[ trizitatsl- Wcrkskassc‘, the ‘Bcsctzung dcr Dcsinfcktor- stclle’, pauperism, aid for thc uncmploycd and war disabled, mcmbcrship of thc local ‘Schulvorstand’, ‘Baugcsuchc’, ‘Hypothckcnauslcihung’, thc pcn- sions of municipal cmployccs and ‘Vcrpachtung dcr Gcmcindc- grundstiickc’. I:’ From thcsc minutcs it transpircs that Wolf himsclf was particularly conccrncd with ‘Volkscrnahrung’, bcing convinccd that prcvcn- tion of discasc via propcr dict, frcsh-air and thcrapcutic cxcrcisc was morc important than curc - an attitudc which, combincd with his commitmcnt to homcopathic mcdicinc and hypnosis,’ ’ was to causc friction bctwccn himsclf and othcr doctors in Rcmschcid and, latcr, Hcchingcn (scc note

As Wolfs (unpublishcd) lcttcr to Gcrstcnbcrg o f 9 May 1919 (filc 275/74) indicatcs, hc dccidcd to lcavc Langcbriick for thc ‘schwarzc Stcinwiistc’ of Rcmschcid bccausc of a growing scnsc of disillusion, a fccling that hc had accomplishcd littlc. But this mood brought no visiblc m o w further to thc left whcn hc took up his ncw post. Likc Lask, he published nothing in Die Freiheil or Die role Fuhne, but hc did publish at lcast thrcc articlcs in W a rhapsodic account of thc dcfcat of thc Kapp-Putsch in thc Rcmschcid arca in mid-March 1920 (‘Hciligcr Friihling: Nach dcn Kampfcn im Bcrgischcn Land’, No. 222/224, 1.5.1920, Erstc Bcilagc), a dcwy-cycd appraisal of thc Russian Rcvolution from a pacifist pcrspcctivc which contrivcs, totally unconvincingly, to combinc thc thought of Tolstoy and Buchncr (‘Ultima

11) .

I ’ Copirs of thr rrlrvanl niinutrs arc 10 br round in filr 399 of \\’olrs ’Sachlafl’. ” Scr thr unpublishrd lrt‘rr to his parrnls of rarly ,\ugust 1919 (lilr 274) whrrr hr says that this is thr kind of programmr hr has trird to iniplrmrnt in 1,angrt~rUck and hoprs to implrnirnt onw hr has movrd to Rrmsrhrid.

284 EARLY PO1,ITICS OF BER?‘A LASK A N D FRIEDRICH WOLF

Ratio’, No. 501, 9.10. 1920),15 and an cxprcssionistoid pocm on thc sccond annivcrsary of thc Ccrman Rcvolution (‘Um dicscr [sic] Stundc!’, No. 552/553, 9.1 1.1920).“‘ Morcovcr, thrcc othcr clippings from othcr ncwspapcrs of 20Ap1il’~ and 4Junc 192011i makc it uncquivocally clcar that dcspitc thc grass-roots strcngth of thc USPD in thc Rcmschcid arca and thc cvcnts of thc Kapp-Putsch, Wolfs allcgiancc to thc SPD had not wcakcncd. Thc advcrtiscmcnt namcs Dr. Wolf as onc of thc spcakcrs for thc SPD at a tri-partitc dcmonstration on Rcmschcid’s Waldfcstplatz on May Day 1920; and thc two othcr articlcs rcport Wolf cxplaining ‘Warum ich zur SPD ging?’ at a bi-partisan mccting on 3 Junc at which his good fricnd, Dr. Johanncs Rcsch, thc foundcr and dircctor of thc Rcmschcid Volkshochschulc (SCC bclow), cxplaincd ‘Warum ich zur USPD ging?’. Thus, whcn, on 24 March 1920, Wolf wrotc to his mothcr that hc had spokcn ‘fir mcinc Partei”!’ at a mass, tri-partitc rally in thc wakc of thc Kapp- Putsch, i t is beyond doubt that hc mcant thc SPD and no1 thc USPD.

Furthcrmorc, during thc rcvolutionary ycars, Wolfs pacifist socialism, likc that of so many middlc-class intcllcctuals who had fought in thc War, owcd far morc to Tolstoy and thc. romantic paganism of thc ‘Jugcnd- bcwcgung’”’ than i t did to Marx, Engcls, or any of thcir Gcrman disciples, and had, as such, a dccidcdly rcligious coloration. In c. Novcmbcr 1920, Wolf pcnncd an (unpublishcd) mcditation cntitlcd ‘Von dcm Wartcn und dcr groflcn Bcgcgnung’ which not only contains positivc rcfcrcnccs to Tol- stoy and Karl Barth’s RiimubrieJ, but also dcscribcs ‘dic Fragc dcr Gewalt und Gcwaltlosigkcit’ as ‘kcinc politischc Fragc dcs Augcnblicks’ but as

I.’ Having praised Tolstoy’s hclirf in ‘dir Marht uiid drn Sirg drs Grislrs, wir j r d r r wahrr SoAialisi und Rrvolutionar’, \\’OK thrn drsrrihrs thr Russian rrvolutionarirs as ‘rnisrhirdrnr, klarr, cindruligr Gristrr’ who do not s u l k fmm .jrnrm \\’ahn, r inr gronr gristigr Brwrgung mil Grwalt vrrwirklichrn zu wollrn’, and then concludes hy aligning this with thr Hr.r.ri.rrhe f.nndbo/e! ,\ variant of ‘Hriligrr FrGhling’ was simultanrously puhlishrd as ‘Vrr Sacrum’, Der Zuingrr, 4, So. 9 (IMay 1920), 207-12 and rrprintrd in ell', XV, pp. 24-30. ‘Ultima Ratio’ is, not surprisingly, not includrd in thr CII’. “’This poem apprars as ‘Sahnr d r r Edr’ in G I I ; Sll, pp. 47-8, hut with no indication as to whrre i t was first puhlishrd. l i Advrrtisemrnt in thr Bergische Ib/krs/irnmr (Rrmsrhrid), So. 81, 29.1.1920. ’” Srr ‘Aus drm Verbrrilungsgrhiel’, Rergi.rrhe I’o/k.rs/irnnze, So. 108, 4.6.1920 and ’1,rnnrp-Rrm- srhrid-Mrrtmann’, Fwie Pmrr (Elhrrfrld), So. 128, 4.6.1920. I” \\'elf, Bride, p. 77. a’ \Volf playrd a major part in thr psrudo-pagan ‘Sonnwrndfrirr’ organisrd hy thr Rrnischrid ‘Volkshorhsrhulr’ on 19-20 Junr 1920 as part or a largrr sumnirr frstival (srr thr lrttrr to his mothrr of 13 .Marrh 1920, Bride, pp. 7 5 4 ) . Hrrr , as part of thr ‘Morgrnfrirr’ or 20 Junr , \\’OK

rrad O U I two of his own poems to thr arrompanimcnr of a display ofrurhythniirs. Both, likc so much ‘Arbeitrrdirhtung’, wcrr wry much in thr rcstatir jugrndhrwrgung’ mould: ‘Brrnnrn, vrrhrrnnrn, Iruchten!’ (CM’, XII, pp. 49-50) and ‘Flammrnsrgrn’ (not inrludrd in thr G I I ‘ hut publishrd i n hr C‘olkrhochrrhulblaf~er fur d m Bergi.rrhe Land, No. 9/10 U ~ l y l A ~ g ~ s t 1920). unpag.). T h r link hrtwrcn this rvrnt and the ‘Jugendbewrgung’ was madr rxplicit in ‘Volkshochschulr und Ju~rndhrwrgung’ , an articlr publishrd in thr ahovr numbrr of the C’o/~.rhorh.rrhulb/ii/fer. T h r influrncr of rhr ‘Jugrridbe- wrgung’ ran also hr Frlt in thr motivation brhind \Volfs mow to \Vorpswrdr (src his (unpuhlishrd) Irttrrs to Elsr Drrihholx of 7 August and 7 Drrrmbrr 1921 (filr 277)). In thr rormrr, in thr contrxi of his movc to thr Barkrnhom, hr says that hr can krl Grrat Pan awakrning, and i n thr lattrr, Iir claims that hr has always kit himself a pagan.

EARLY POLITICS OF BERTA LASK AND FRIEDRICH WOLF 285

‘cinc rcligiosc; cinc Fragc lctztcr Dingc’.2t Howcvcr, as Wolfgang Fcy has dcmonstratcd in an cxcmplary two-part articlc,22 Wolf, aftcr joining thc KPD in 1928, covcrcd ovcr thc rncmorics of his involvcmcnt in thc SPD and his quasi-rcligious pacifism, and incrcasingly styliscd himsclf, both in his rctrospcctivc and his fictional works, as thc ‘Rcd Gcncral’ of Rcmschcid who had playcd a ccntral rolc in rcpclling the Kapp troops by forcc. As Fcy has convincingly shown, this largcly fictitious account ncccssarily involved thc claim that he was in thc USPD. This, Fcy argucs, dcrivcd partly from Wolfs dcsirc to bc sccn as thc ‘Typus dcs bcwuridcrtcn und gcfcicrtcn sozialistischcn Intcllcktucllcn, als Hcldcngcstalt dcr DDR-Vorgc- schichtc’ and partly from thc fact that thc SPD’s parliamcntary importancc in thc Rcrnschcid arca dcrivcd to a grcat cxtcnt from its ability to form coalitions with thc bourgcois partics. In othcr words, i t was idcologically prcfcrablc in thc DDR to admit to onc-timc mcmbcrship of thc short- livcd but rcvolutionary USPD rathcr than to onc-timc mcmbcrship of thc ideologically compromiscd SPD.

The closcst Wolf camc to thc USPD in Rcmschcid sccms to havc bccn his vcry rcal involvcrncnt in its ‘Volkshochschulc’, foundcd in Scptcmbcr 1919 by his fricnd, thc ‘50-jahrigcr Jungling’2:’ Johanncs Rcsch (USPD).2” Wolfs lcttcr to his mothcr (notc 23) indicatcs that hc was alrcady an cnthusiastic proponcnt of thc ‘Volkshochschulc’ idcal by spring 1920, sccing in it a mcans of a-political, spiritual rcncwal for thc Gcrrnan pcoplc, and that hc had, as a budding dramatist, agrccd to run its ‘Abtcil[ung] Thcatcr’. In this capacity, bctwccn October and Dcccmbcr 1920, Wolf gavc a wcckly coursc thcrc cntitlcd ‘Das jungstc Drama’ in which hc discusscd and rcad from work by Buchncr, Kaiscr,2” Johst, Stramm and himsclf. And in thc contcxt of that coursc, hc organiscd a wading-cvcning in Rcmschcid on 25 Novcrnbcr at which (thc non-aligncd) Waltcr Hascnclcvcr rcad his mani-

2’ Containrd in thr largr notrhook from 192W22 in filr 166 of thr ’SachlaB’. 2L’ \\’olfgang Fry, ’Frirdrirh Wolf - dr r “Rotr Grnrral”?, Die Hciaid .rprir/t/ :u Dir (hlonatsbrilage drs Rcm.rr/itidcr ~;mrrol-Anzeiger), 55, Sos I I and 12 (Sovcmhrr and Dccrrnhrr 1988), unpag. I ’ Ix t t r r to his mothrr of 13 March 1920, HricJc, p. 76. 2’ Src \\’olfgang Fry, ‘Zur padagogischrn Brdrutung d r r Arhrit Frirdrich \\’olfs i n Rrnischrid’, i n ‘MuI, norhmals M u / . irnrncrzu Mu/’: Prokhdlband In/ernnlionnlc.r Frirdric/i-ll blJ-.~ivnpo.rion I 19881. rditrd hy thr VHS Sruwird and the Frirdrirh \Volf-Arrhiv Ixhnitx, Nruwird 1989-90, pp. 139-47. I n this excrllrnt artirlr, Fry givrs a largr amount of drtailrd information on thr vrry positivr work whirh \\‘OM arromplishrd as Rrmsrhrid’s Muniripal Xlrdical Ollicrr. Scr also filr SI Abt. 7 (Volkshorhschulr) in thr Rrmschcid Stadtarchiv. 2i \Volrs ‘Von drm Warten und d r r groBrn Bcgrgnung’ (now 21), writtrn whilr giving this coursr, drsrrihes two ways of changing the world: ‘ I . “Dir Tugend muB durrh drn Srhrrckrn hrrrschrn!” (Gewaltmcthoclr) 2. \Yir konnrn rrst dann dir \ V d t andrrn, wrnn ukrclbs/ UIIS grindrr t hahrn. (” lhr sollt vollkomnirn

T h r first quotation is spokrn by Biirhnrr’s Rohrspicrrr in Art I , Srrnr 6 of Danfonr To4 thr prohlrms addrrsscd by thr Milliardarsohn in Kaisrr’s Ca.r h a w an obvious link with \\’olrs incrrasing scnsr that thr urban population of Rrmschrid was irredrrmablr and his suhsrqurnt movr 10 (rural) \\’orpswrdr (cf. his remarks on thc Rrmschrid rhildrrn in his (unpuhlishrd) Irttrr to Elsr Drribholz of 15 Drrcmhcr 1921 (filr 277)).

wrrdrn . . .” “Hriligt Eurh!” Tragik in “Gas”)’.

286 EARLY PO1,ITICS O F BERI’A LASK AND FRIEDRICH WOLF

fcsto ‘Dic Aufgabc dcs Dramas’, read from his dramas Die Menschen (1918), Die Enlscheidung (1919) and Jenreils (1920) and dcclaimcd a sclcction of his poetry.'" On thc basis of Wolfs conncction with Rcsch, it is tcmpting to assumc that thc ‘Wolf from Rcmschcid who is listcd as attcnding thc fatcful USPD confcrcncc in Hallc from 12 to 17 Octobcr 192027 (whcn thc lcft wing split away to join up with thc KPD) was Fricdrich Wolf. But an article publishcd in thc Elbcrfcld Freie Presse (No. 254, 29.10.1920) which reports on a mccting in Rcmschcid of 28 Octobcr whcn thc split in thc USPD was discusscd, indicatcs that thc dclcgatc in qucstion was in fact onc Jakob Wolf, a mcmbcr of Rcmschcid’s Town Council.

Ovcr and abovc the argumcnts advanccd by Fcy, wc can spcculatc on two furthcr rcasons why Wolf might havc wantcd, rctrospcctivcly, to makc his youthful sclf sccm, as thc phrasc has it, ‘prolicr than thou’. Thc Rem- scheider General-Anzeiger of 23 April 1920 (No. 100) rcportcd on thc plans which wcrc bcing madc for thc ‘Altdcutschc Volksfcstc und Fcstspiclc’ of thc coming summcr which would includc thc ‘Sonnwcndfcicr’ dcscribcd in notc 20. That samc articlc article rccordcd that ‘Dr. Wolf was vcry cagcr to involvc thc Jcna-bascd HaaR-Bcrkow-Truppc, a thcatrical company which was said to vicw its ‘Hauptaufgabc darin, schlummcrndcs, cdlcs Volksgut zu wcckcn und insbcsondcrc dic millelallerlichen Schauspiele wieder lebendig zu machen’. Wolf apparcntly succccdcd in this aim, for hc publishcd an articlc in thc July/August numbcr of thc Volkshochschulblaller f u r das Bergische Land in which hc dcscribcd thc company’s six-day stay in Rcm- schcid (whcn thcy had stagcd Gocthc’s Fausl) as follows:

Remscheid ist ein ganz felsiger und heilJer Boden, ein Brennpunkt in des Worts verwegenster Bedeutung. Was hier besteht, hat eine Art Feuerprobe bestanden. HaaO-Berkow hat bestanden! Unser Glaube an die Kraft der Spiele ward ebenso.bestatigt, wie unser Glaube an den geheimen Kern des bergischen Volkes. Uberall wurden die Spiele mit starker Anteilnahme aufge- nommen; vielen wurden sie Erlebnis.’H

Although writtcn from a Icft-wing pcrspcctivc, thc rhetoric could almost havc comc from thc pcn of a ‘volkisch’ writcr. So whcn, aftcr his convcrsion to orthodox Communism, Wolf lookcd back to a timc in his Iifc which involved a vcry painful divorcc, thc dcath of his fathcr and thc dashing of thc hopcs which hc had pinncd on both Rcmschcid and Worpswcdc,“’ his sclf-stylisation as thc USPD ‘Rotcr Gcncral’ may wcll havc fulfillcd two

’“ This programmr is srt out in a Irttrr in \\’OH’S ‘Sac-hlan’ From \ \ ’ a h Hasriiclrvrr of 18 Sovrnihrr 1920. A detailrd rrport on thr rvrning was puhlishrd in ‘Stadt-Chronik’, Rentsrlreider ~ ; e f i e y ~ / - . l f ~ ~ r i ~ ~ y ,

No. 314, 26.1 1.1920 in which Die Enlsrheidung is callrd Dir Rcpublik der Srhiebrr. 27 To hc round in filr I I 143/1 I in the Instirut f i r Grschirhtr drr hhrilrrhrwrgung, Zrntralrs Partriarrhiv (formrrly thr lnrlitur f i r .Marxismus-l.riiinismus), Bcrlin (East). ’” Thr article was mtitlrd ’\Yas hedrutrn dir Haan-Brrkow-Spirlr rur das Brrgischr I.and:” and H’PS

not inrludrd in thr 6‘11’. “’Srr \Voll‘s (unpublishrd) lrttrr to Elsr Drrihholz or 15 Drcrnihrr 1921 (filr 277) whrrr hr drsrrihes those rxprrirnrrs.

EARLY POLITICS OF BERTA LASK AND FRIEDRICH WOLF 287

additional functions. On thc onc hand, it may havc hclpcd him to ovcrlay thosc sad mcmorics with morc positivc, albeit fictitious oncs. And on thc othcr, i t must have hclpcd him to forgct his vcry rcal attraction to a complcx of idcas - thc aesthctic paganism of the 'Jugcndbcwcgung' combincd with a quasi-'volkisch' mcdiacvalism and a pcnchant for mass fcstal forms - which thc Nazis wcrc visibly appropriating and cffcctivcly pcrvcrting for thcir own, sinister cnds. If thc way Wolf rcad Biichncr (SCC notc 15) and Kaiscr (sec notc 25) is any indication of thc way he rcad thc futurc Nazi Johst when hc lccturcd on that writcr in thc Rcmschcid 'Volkshochschulc', thcn Wolf must, by thc law 1920s, havc scnscd just how casy it was for someone who had sought, for thc highest and most worthy cthical rcasons, to movc 'dic wogcndc Massc dcr Zuschaucr und Mithincingcrisscncn',"" to bc suborncd by thc radical right's rhctoric of spiritual and cultural rcgcncr- ation. Thither, Wolf must havc scnscd, but for thc dialcctic of Marx, wcnt I

"I' I,rltrr to his rnothrr of 13 March 1920, Bride, p. 76.