A Stranger in My Own Country (36 page)

Read A Stranger in My Own Country Online

Authors: Hans Fallada

106
.Â The letter that Fallada apparently planned to incorporate into his manuscript later reads as follows: âMy dearest, the letter that will reach you via the prison authorities is written. I've also written one to Schlegel, which is just as much for you as the one to you is for the folks in Schlegel. I just want to tell you about my great love for you, how it makes me so happy at this particular time, and that I now bequeath that happiness to you, to be with you at all times on your journey through life, and eventually, some day, far in the future, in your final hour. May my love be so great and powerful that, after a short time of tears, it enfolds you all the days of your life, protecting you, bearing you up, warming you: for ever and ever and ever. I saved some bread from breakfast and the bigger half I have just eaten, slowly. The other half I shall send to you. Our wedding breakfast. (People get married by proxy, after all, so why not this?) Eat as I have eaten, so that I am as much in you as you were in me when I ate: then get on with your life and grab it with both hands! For the real purpose of my life (so it seems to me at least, although at this moment
it no longer matters to me) remains unaccomplished. I'm only going to be leaving this body now (not this world!!!), at the very most we would have had maybe 30 years together. It has been my privilege that the shortness of my days has been more than made up for by the richness of my life (and never forget, it was your love that made this possible). You now remain behind. Whatever befalls you, whatever makes you happy, joyful, strong, good and reverential in the face of life, people and the unknowable: in all this I will be coming to you and I will be present with you: in music, paintings, books, in our kindly Mother Nature, in the strivings, errings and attainments of the human heart's desire. Do not grieve for longer, or more deeply, than is natural. There is no reason why you should. Think of it this way: I am no longer flesh and blood, and therefore not usurping anyone else's place. The time has come. Be good to Sas by being good to those around you. I kiss you, my one and only wife, in fondest love! sasil.' (Reproduced in: Volker Hoffmann,
Der DienstÃ¤lteste von PlÃ¶tzensee. Das zerrissene Leben des Musikerziehers Alfred Schmidt-Sas (1895â1943)
, Berlin 2000, pp. 230f.) It was through his close friendship with Marga Dietrich that Fallada learned about the letters and poems that Sas had written in his death cell.

114
.Â The correspondence with Friedrich Hermann KÃ¼the began in March 1933: the unemployed librarian wrote to the author he so admired and asked for a portrait photograph. Although the correspondents never met in person, and always addressed each other formally as âMr Fallada' and âMr KÃ¼the', their correspondence from the years 1933 to 1946 suggests a relationship of closeness and trust. They discussed books, and Fallada had words of encouragement for his unemployed pen-friend. In 1940 KÃ¼the, now serving with the army in France, sent silk stockings and sweets to Carwitz. In 1943 he was seriously wounded on the Eastern front and spent some five months in a field hospital in Chemnitz. The letter that reached Fallada in the prison at Neustrelitz-Strelitz does not appear to have had any negative consequences for KÃ¼the. The bundle of letters is kept with Fallada's literary estate in the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

121
.Â The Hotel Kaiserhof, which opened in 1875 as Berlin's first luxury hotel, was located at Wilhelmplatz 3/5, across from the Reich Chancellery in what was then Berlin's government district. In the 1920s the hotel's owners sympathized with right-wing nationalist organizations and made their premises available to anti-republican groups. In 1931 Hitler had a meeting in his suite with leading German industrialists, and in 1932 he moved into the hotel permanently. During the election campaign the upper floor of the Kaiserhof became the provisional party headquarters of the NSDAP. Other Nazi functionaries were also living in the hotel. In April 1935 Hermann GÃ¶ring held a lavish wedding reception at the Kaiserhof when he married his second wife Emmy. Joseph Goebbels' memoirs dealing with the âtime of struggle' leading up to the takeover of power were entitled:
Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei
[
From Kaiserhof to Reich Chancellery
]. In November 1943 the Kaiserhof was completely destroyed in a British bombing raid.

123
.Â The fictional character Gustav Hackendahl is based on the Berlin horse-drawn cab driver Gustav Hartmann (1859â1938), who was nick-
named âIron Gustav' for his opposition to motorized taxis. He became a celebrity in 1928, when he took his horse-drawn cab from Berlin to Paris and back. Jannings was much taken with Fallada's manuscript, since it offered him a meaty role as the eponymous cab driver. However, Goebbels insisted on changes to the text: he wanted Fallada to continue the story up until the time the Nazis came to power. Fallada agreed and wrote a new ending that satisfied the Propaganda Minister. The film project was approved by Goebbels, but fell foul of Alfred Rosenberg's objection to any involvement of Hans Fallada in a German film project. When the novel appeared in 1938, it was savaged by the National Socialist press.

128
.Â The screenwriter and author Thea von Harbou (1888â1954), who wrote screenplays for Carl Froelich in 1935 (
Ich war Jack Mortimer
) and for Emil Jannings in 1937 (
Der zerbrochene Krug
). On 23 July 1938 Goebbels noted in his diary: âLong discussion with Jannings. I pointed out all the weak points in his film script. He cut up rough, but then calmed down. The ending will be completely revised and given a more positive twist.' That same afternoon a meeting took place in Jannings' lakeside house at St. Wolfgang, at which Thea von Harbou and Goebbels were present: âFurther protracted debate about the film.
With Jannings, Krause, K. . ., Mrs Harbou. The discussion became quite heated. But in the end everyone came round to my point of view.' The film project under discussion can only have been
Iron Gustav
, because Fallada was told on 28 July that Goebbels had approved the project in principle and was only insisting on one change: a new ending. (Joseph Goebbels,
TagebÃ¼cher
. Vol. 3: 1935â1939, Munich/Zurich 1992, p. 1240)

130
.Â Fallada was caught in the middle of the power struggle between Goebbels and Rosenberg to control literary policy. As early as January 1938 a savage review of
Wolf among Wolves
appeared in
BÃ¼cherkunde
, the official organ of the âRosenberg Office' for the âcultivation of literature'. In October 1938 Rosenberg succeeded in blocking the film project with Fallada, which had the support of Goebbels (cf. note 123). In a letter to his mother of 17 October Fallada says that a spokesman for the âRosenberg Office' had recently stated in Berlin that âthe position of the Reich Chamber of Literature is essentially that all Fallada's writings, past and future, are entirely unsuitable' (letter to Elisabeth Ditzen, 17 October 1938, Hans Fallada Archive, Neubrandenburg). When
Iron Gustav
appeared on 28 November 1938, the âRosenberg Office' conducted a smear campaign against Fallada.

132
.Â Mathias Wieman (1902â1969) gave a reading from
Wolf among Wolves
on the radio on 5 November 1937. He and his wife visited Fallada in
Carwitz at the beginning of December. Fallada and Wieman kept in contact over the next few years. Wieman visited Fallada for the last time in Berlin in November 1945. Fallada's account of the relationship between Wieman and Goebbels takes a few liberties with the facts. Wieman, who staged
Das Frankenburger WÃ¼rfelspiel
[a historical open-air pageant cum morality play] during the Olympic Games, had been in close contact with Goebbels since 1936. In January 1937 he was awarded the honorific title âStaatsschauspieler' [National Actor] and invited to join the supervisory board of Ufa in April of that year. The falling-out with Goebbels occurred when in August 1937 the Minister strongly criticized Wieman's portrayal of a general staff officer in the film
Unternehmen Michael
[
Operation Michael
]: Wieman, he claimed, was not right for the part of an army officer. With reference to discussions about a film project telling the story of âDr Peters and the colonies', Goebbels notes: âBut not Wieman for the lead role' (diary entry for 20 October 1937). Wieman's appearance in the film
Die Kadetten
[
The Cadets
] was also judged by Goebbels to be âa failure' (diary entry for 30 July 1939). Wieman moved to Hamburg, where in 1940 he performed in
Faust
under the direction of Gustav GrÃ¼ndgens. In 1941 he was back in Berlin, where he had a part in the film
Ich klage an
[
I accuse
] (1941). During the war Wieman continued to work in films and on the radio, where he recited German poetry in the regular Sunday series âDas SchatzkÃ¤stlein'.

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