Speaking German in a Dream

by Herbert Kuhner

from Old Days & New Days

(1938 & 1983)

Sorglose Tage in der Heimat,

Edition Tarantel, Vienna 2021

English Title: Felled by Friendly Fire

For Fritz Kleibel, filmmaker (1949-2024)

Can fiction top fact?

Who needs to write fiction

when you can write “faction?”

I term this account “an epilogue to days gone by

that may not quite have gone by.”

It contains texts concerning remigration

and related topics from the source.

My literary mentor for it is Klaus Mann.

His “Mephisto” is a masterful literary depiction

of early Third-Reich Germany. And he too used

a personal encounter as a derivation.

I willingly commit the literary “misdeed”

of preferring Mann fils to Mann père.

Perhaps, I should be grateful in a way for

the dreadful “experience” herein described.

Without it, this text could not have come to be.

Remembrances

“Herbert Kuhner, the writer, is in a sense a historian.

His life story runs parallel to history and illustrates that history is too serious matter to be left exclusively to bona-fide historians.”

“In 1935, the year of his birth, the Nuremberg Laws were imposed in Germany. In 1938, when he was three years old: “The doorbell rang and I ran to the door and opened it. My mother swept me away as two men in street clothes entered. One of them, I remember clearly, wore a brown suit and limped. The other was thin and balding and wore a grey suit. They searched the apartment. The brown-suited man shoved my grandmother, who was eighty-three, away from the sideboard in order to ransack it. And indeed it contained her shopping money.”  

– Peter Malina, Historien, from “Herbert Kuhner als Zeitzeuge“

Biblos, Austrian National Library, Vienna, 1995

I still hear the sound

of the buzzer-like doorbell

before I went to the door to open it

for the Storm Trooper marauders.

When I opened that door

my idyllic childhood ended

and evil entered my life.

I cannot extract myself from the past.

For years, in order to keep going,

I tried to bar thoughts

of specific situations from my mind,

but they kept reasserting themselves.

Members of our family had been

robbed, dispersed and decimated.

I did not want to have the identity

of being a victim.

I didn’t want it to be

what it was and it is!

I tried to erase it,

but of course

it could not be erased.

It is unbearable,

but it must be borne

so that it can be told.

Telling it

is a necessity.

The other day, when I saw my Aunt Leni

and my Uncles Fritz and Heinrich

in a packed boxcar, I broke down and wept.

My maternal grandmother

had “the good fortune”

of dying of a broken heart

before the assassins came for her.

My paternal grandmother

had no such luck!

 

My cousin Karen Sanders

in Connecticut is researching

the fate of family members.

(kisanders@sbcglobal.net)

 

Sleep is good. Death is better,

but even better yet

would be not to have been born.

– Heinrich Heine

 

Ditto!

 

Yes, but if that were so,

my mother would have shared the fate

of other family members.

 

She left my grandmother

due to me.

 

So inadvertently

I saved my mother’s life,

which didn’t turn out to be

much of a life.

What an understatement!

 

I spent more than year of my early life

accompanying her to offices

as she applied for a visa for my father.

She had acquired a visa her herself and me

early on, but not for him.

 

She finally acquired that visa in the summer

of 1939. We left for London in July

of that year, shortly before the war broke out

and the doors were slammed shut.

 

I started to learn English at me new location

and my dreams switched to that language.

I cannot remember ever having spoken

German in a dream since leaving “Ostmark”

in July of 1939. (Prior to that departure

there was no need for nightmares.)

 

After a year of blitz bombing

we embarked for New York.

From there we went to Princeton,

where I heard the radio news

of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

But at this juncture I skip decades.

 

Not to be Expunged

 

No matter how hard I try

I could not and cannot expunge

the intrusion of past occurrences.

 

I had avoided immolation by immigration

in order to be spiritually done in later on

in the venue I had departed from.

 

Those who did not or could not flee

cannot speak.

 

Back to the Scene of Past Occurrences

 

My mother wanted to be

with a surviving brother and sister

and I returned with her in 1963.

 

Once here, I encountered a plethora

of marvelous poetry

that cried out to be translated.

 

Since I had acquired a new language

I put my lingual abilities to use

by transposing the poetry

of the old language into the new.

 

Previously, I had only translated

poems by Heine and Verlaine.

I consider the Heine translations

valid, but I threw the Verlaine

into the waste basket

since I deemed it impossible

to capture his music in English.

 

Among the poets I rendered

at this were those of Austria’s

Croatian and Slovenian minorities,

as well as Austria’s Jewish poets.

 

Coming back to my birthplace

was anything but a lark.

 

This is the location

where the language lilts

and there is an abundance of talent

but oh watch out!

 

I was welcomed back and how!

The welcome mat was a bed of nails.

I had escaped immolation early on

in order to be spiritually done in later on.

 

I ask: Did some take up up

where others had left off?

(albeit in a spiritual sense.)

 

All I needed to do

is take dictation from fate.

 

I could never conjure up

such situations.

 

This chronicle may read like fiction,

but it is anything but!…

 

Did the Echo of “Old Days”

reverberate in “New Days?”

 

Criticism by “Foreigners”

 

“Exile-Jew from America!…Austrian politics

are none of his business!”

Vorarlberg Freedom Party Chief Bertram Egger.

Source DÖW-Mitteilungen, Oct. 2009, p. 193.

 

“Exile-Jew is not an insult, as far as I’m concerned….

We will not tolerate foreign criticism.”

– Heinz-Christian Strache, Freedom Party Chief, ORF

Sommergespräche, August 24, 2009

 

“There is absolutely no reason to apologize!”

– Herbert Kickl, Austrian Freedom Party Secretary General,

vorarlberg. ORF-TV, August 24, 2009

 

“We will not let the courage of our patriotic commitment

to our homeland be diminished.”

– Herr Egger, Österreich newspaper, August 26, 2009, p. 9

 

(They said it, but others did it!)

 

Exile-Jew from America” fits me to a T.

I am the genuine article, the real McCoy.

 

The reaction to what I have written

has not been discourse,

but rather airtight blocking.

 

Did the Third Reich in Austria

begin in 1938 and did it end in 1945?

 

In “bygone days” family properties

were pillaged and family members

were sent off never to return.

Others, including me,

fled in order to save their lives.

 

Those who did not or could not flee

cannot speak!

 

Yes, the song is “Happy Days Are Here Again!”

But when were those Happy Days not here?

 

Fabrications can be countered – but not facts.

Refusal to engage in discourse invariably

signifies verification.

 

“Unfortunately, the fact that that you are American

and not Austrian or East European seems

to be an insurmountable obstacle as far

as Jeannie Ebner is concerned. My assertion

that you were born in Vienna and are

a resident of Vienna can change nothing.”

– Letter from Andreas Okopenko, Feb. 22, 1969

 

“The Commission’s decisions are bound

to guidelines and it rejects your request,

since according to your own information,

you are an American citizen.”

– Jeannie Ebner, Letter of July 8, 1993

 

“If you call him an American, he’s offended.

If you call him an Austrian, he’s offended.

American or Austrian, he’ll always be a Jew!”^[1]

– Jeannie Ebner again

 

The Co-Editor Bites the Dust

 

He writes extensively about the perpetrators in the days of yore. He’s good on details concerning the barbarism of the past. If you’re a poet who writes on the subject, he’s the one to go to since he edits a poetry series for Podium, a literary journal. He had a co-editor, who belonged to an older generation. His former colleague, a refined and cultivated older poet, did not have a particularly sanguine life. I say “former” since he took leave.

 

As a young man, he was inducted and spent five years of his youth wearing a uniform he hated. He was one of those who had to go while Waldheim and others fulfilled their martial duty in the Wehrmacht, which by no means could have been considered the defence force of Austria.

 

When the older colleague supported the publication of volumes of poetry by two émigrés who had experienced the Third Reich and its repercussions first-hand and had become rémigrés, he was shouted down and forced to pack it in by the younger colleague. And that was that! This of course is an isolated incident and is atypical.

 

(Players: Manfred Chobot who prevailed and Franz Richter who took leave. Cancelled Authors were Herbert Kuhner and Wolfgang Fischer, PEN President)

 

I am the translator of poetry by Franz Richter, Wolfgang Fischer and Manfred Chobot.

 

I ask have days gone by gone by?

 

 

-Speaking German in a Dream/3

 

What language do you dream in?

 

I dream in English.

I daydream in French.

My nightmares are in German.

 

Oddly enough, I had a dream

That played an essential part

in defining reality. You could say

that it woke me up, so to speak!

 

Ptići i slavuji/ Hawks and Nightingales/

Current Burgenland Croatian Poetry

was published in my translation

by Braumüller Verlag in 1983,

Editor-in-Chief was Dr. Albert F. Reiterer

 

On June 28, 1983, there was a local presentation.

Dr. Albert F. Reiterer composed a three-page invitation

for the occasion on which the names of neither the editor nor translator were to be found. When queried him about the omission, he stated that it was intentional and that it was not his policy to give such credit.

 

On November 10, 1983, a presentation of Hawks and Nightingales, Burgenland Croatian Poetry was slated to take place at the America House, for which I had acted as an intermediary. Presentations of Carinthian Slovenian Poetry (Hermagoras Verlag) and Austrian Poetry Today (Schocken Books) were to follow and a reading tour featuring poetry from all three anthologies was planned.

      

Semi-Climax

 

However, on November 9th, a day before the presentation, Cynthia Miller, the United States Cultural Attaché received a letter from Dr. Reiterer withdrawing from the presentation. Dr. Reiterer wrote: “I must convey to you, that due to recent events, my publishing house will not be able to send a representative to the presentation that you have scheduled.”

 

The “recent events” were allegedly the situation concerning Grenada. (I interject that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into a war that Britain and the Soviet Union had no chance of winning alone.)

 

The buffet was delivered and set aside. The guests were sent home and all other events were cancelled. That was the end of my relationship with the American Embassy. I may not have been to blame for what had happened, but I had made the unfortunate connection with the man who had caused the cancellation.

 

When I phoned Reiterer, he informed me that he had achieved his intentions. I posit that his “intentions” were to damage me, which he did with flying colors!

 

(And I add, poetry is the confirmation of language. It is an act of barbarism to block the poetic work of a lingual minority?)

 

After our brief phone conversation, I received a bill for the complimentary copies of Hawks and Nightingales dated November 23, 1983, which I had distributed for PR and funding purposes.

 

Scraping the Bottom

 

I quote: “Regretfully we cannot agree to have the book presented to people such as Peter Rath, who is the owner of a glass and chandelier company that has absolutely no connection with our publishing house.”

 

Peter Rath of Lobmeyr happened to be one of the sponsors of Austrian Poetry Today (Schocken Books, New York) and received credit for his generosity in that publication. (He had bought 25 copies of the book and had presented them to his friends and to customers of Lobmeyr.

 

(The address of the Lobmeyr Glass Company is Kärntner Strasse 26, which next door to the building where my paternal grandmother lived before she was deported, Kärntner Strasse 28.)

 

On December 20, 1983, I received a letter from Dr. Reiterer informing me that Herbert Gassner of the Croatian Academic Club had purchased 50 copies of  Hawks and Nightingales on condition that Dr. Reiterer desist from harassing me with bills for complementary copies.

 

I quote Reiterer: “We regret that an uninvolved third party has entered this situation!”

 

A Novum

 

“The “situation” referred to must be unique in publishing history. An editor bemoans the sale of multiple copies of a book that his company has published. But then, harassing the translator took precedence over any commercial aspects.

 

I consider this editor the cruelest and most vicious individual

I have encountered since I opened the door for the Storm Trooper marauders in days gone by that may not quite have gone by.                                                                                                                                              

 

Twiddling

 

It could not be said that my fellow editors twiddled their thumbs during this confrontation since they sat on their hands.

 

At the time Feliks Bister with I were having lunch at the Sandwirth Restaurant in Klagenfurt with Lojze Wieser, a literary publisher.

 

Bister and I were translating Slovenian poets for a planned book.

 

He ventured to say that Reiterer was right to “dock me” for the “complementary” copies of the Croatian book.

 

The comment was delivered as a soft aside, but by God,

the blade was sharp! However instead of getting up and saying adieu, I foolishly tried to gloss that remark over, but it kept reasserting itself, and it struck me with full force in the face much later!

 

I went on to co-edit bilingual editions of Carinthian Slovenian Poetry (Hermagoras Verlag, 1984) and Roki/Hands by Edvard Kocbek with Bister (Wieser Verlag, 2015).

 

It had been Bister’s idea that we include poets from Slovenia, along with the Carinthian Slovenians in ”Slovenian Poetry Today.”

 

After years of delays, there I was all by myself.

 

The project was saved by Peter Kersche, who came in as co-editor to provide the scholarly material that was needed from a Slovenian speaker.

 

A Sort of  Revival

A Word in a Dream

(Saying it in doggerel)

 

Did some take up where others had left off,

albeit in a spiritual manner?

Does the echo of old days reverberate

in new days?

 

Was this a sort of revival?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

I never heard yet of an editor

working against a book

his house had published.

But are we not constantly

in for surprises?

 

His sole intent, to be sure,

was to damage the translator –

which he did with flying colors!

 

In a way I am grateful to him

for preventing me

from having the illusion

that the past is merely

a thing of the past.

 

The Storm Troopers came

to an address on a list,

but he was more specific.

 

He did me a favor of sorts

by providing me with material

I could never have conjured up.

 

Oddly enough it took a dream,

that could be called

a nightmare of sorts,

to bring it all to the fore.

(You could say that it

woke me up, so to speak.)

 

Let me tack this on!

I had been dozing decades

when my subconscious-self

woke me up to throw a word

at perpetrator in a dream,

in the language I lost

in young years but later

made efforts to regain.

 

I was attending a symposium

at a university. As I was walking

on the campus, I saw the editor

in question and approached him

to throw a German expletive at him

and then woke up!

 

That’s the complete dream.

I cannot remember

ever having spoken German

a dream since leaving “Ostmark”

in July of 1939.

 

The word I dreamt is “Drecksau!”

Apparently, it cannot be matched

in my new language.

 

Kärntner Strasse 28

 

My paternal grandmother had tailoring salon on the second floor of Kärntner Strasse 28, the elegant shopping street in the first district. I remember playing on the floor with a wind-up racing car with a removable driver. My grandfather died in 1935, the year of my birth.

 

It was my cousin Peter who told me about the deportation. When the Gestapo came for my grandmother, Peter’s father, Uncle Fritz, and a customer were in the apartment. They pushed my grandmother around and struck her since elderly Jewish women didn’t warrant any other treatment. When Uncle Fritz protested, they told him that he could come along.

 

Peter and my Aunt Lotte were in England at the time. Uncle Fritz had planned to follow, but he had waited in vain for a visa. His last words to Peter are contained in the following letter.

 

My dear, dear Peter,

When you read these lines you will no longer have a father. Don’t be too sad about that. We cannot interfere with the course of fate. I do not know how old you will be when you read these lines. Now you are nine, and I feel that I must let you know that every thought about you fills me with joy and pride. I can truly say that you are a fine son. You have a good hold on life and I fervently wish that you will continue to develop physically and spiritually in the same manner.

 

I cannot give you much advice on your path. You are so young, too young to understand me completely today, but there is one thing I want to say. You still have your mother, a mother who is wonderful. I am sure that there is that there is none better in the world today. She is very unhappy. Try to console her! So much grief and sadness lie ahead of her. Be a good son and prepare yourself for manhood so that you can help her.

 

When you left Vienna, I thought that I would be able to follow you soon and that I could begin a new life somewhere in the world: you, your mother and 1 together. But fate has taken a different turn.

 

Be brave, my son! You have to be tough and hardy to cope with life. Go your way without swerving and don’t let life get the better of you! Be proud of your parents! They are disconsolate, but through no fault of their own.

 

If you become a man your mother can be proud of, I have not lived in vain.

 

Good luck, my son,

Your father

 

The offices of the right-wing Freedom Party were located in what was once the apartment of my grandparents on Kärntner Strasse 28. Now a trend clothing store is at that address.

 

Old Days & New Days

 

Are New Days hooked up to Old Days?

Does their echo reverberate in the present?

Can what I relate here be considered

to be a sequel to past events?

 

I had published translations of Austrian authors

in prestigious foreign journals and was invited

abroad to attend a symposium.

 

Dear Sir: In the current issue of our magazine, we have published

some five pages of Austrian poetry in excellent translations provided

by Herbert Kuhner. As you will recall, we also brought out a number

of Mr. Kuhner’s translations of Austrian poets in an earlier issue.

These created a great deal of interest both here and in North America,

where our journal is very widely distributed.

– Les A. Murray, Associate Editor, April 1, 1976,

to Dr.  Hermann Lein, Ministry of  Education and Art

(Unanswered)

 

“Yes, they’d send a writer but it wouldn’t be Kuhner.”

– Rosemary Wighten, Writers Committee, Adelaide Festival

 

Herbert Kuhner is an exceedingly weak author who could certainly never represent Austria in any way. He has not to date published a book in the German language. His sole publications are articles in anthologies and magazines; therefore advise against supporting his trip to Australia.

– Dr. Wolfgang Kraus, Austrian Literary Society & Official Government Cultural Advisor

 

At the  time I had published multiple translations of Austrian poetry  in prestigious journals and collections, and I was working on my Austrian  poetry anthologies. – H.K.

 

“Kraus may be mediocre, but let him do his work!

I don’t give a damn about Kuhner! “

– Bruno Kreisky to Wolfgang Mayer König,

his cultural secretary.

 

“Your fine novel was brought to my attention by my colleagues (Nixe, Funk & Wagnalls, 1968) and by the extremely good reviews in the library and trade journals. It in my feeling that your career will be of increasing interest to future scholars …. it be an honor to associate you with Boston University and to have a  Herbert Kuhner Collection here.”

– Howard B. Gotlieb, Chief of Special Collections, Boston University Library, July 1, 1969

 

Since I had snitched on the situation

in Index on Censorship  men of state

went about trying to extract an apology

from the victim to the perpetrator

in an interrogation that took place

in a government office on July 26, 1977.

 

“You have besmirched the reputation

of a man of honor in a foreign journal.

If you are man enough, you will apologize

to Dr. Kraus.”

– Dr. Gregor Woschnagg, Austrian Foreign Office

 

After two and a half hours of insults, I stood up and stated:

„I will not allow myself to be insulted any longer!”

and I broke out of the premises and absconded.

 

Can what I relate here

be considered to be a sequel?

 

The Poet Armed

 

During the polemical battle that was blazing,

Dr. Kraus Wolfgang , my courageous adversary

stated before witnesses[2]  that I holstered

a weapon and he feared that he would be

gunned down in his literary society.

 

The Wild West Comes to Vienna.

 

Just call me Pistol-Packin’ Harry!

No, I didn’t want him to pass on.

I wanted him to live, so that I could

use an uncapped pen as a weapon,

as I am now doing.

 

(Actually, there was someone

who have had similar experiences

with a provincial governor

and went gunning for him.

So perhaps the fears of our man

were not completely unfounded.)

 

Since then our man has gone the way of all flesh,

but I had nothing to do with his demise.

 

Indeed, I do holster a pen that I use profusely.

 

How about this! On April 15, 1980 at 9:15 in the morning,

I received an anonymous telephone call. I quote the caller:

“Herr Kuhner, if you do not withdraw your case,

we will send the public health officer!”

 

And here we have further “democratic” action:

On March 19, 1990, Rainer Lendl editor-in chief

of Edition Atelier of Wiener Journal wrote to his distributor:

“We hereby cancel Herbert Kuhner’s Der Ausschluss

(Memoirs of a 39er) from our publishing program.

All copies are to be returned to the author.” And they were.

 

Thus I had been provided with a fitting epilogue

for Memoirs of a 39er.

 

Here is a quote from an encomium for Prof, Rainer Lendl

from then Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel:

“Rainer Lendl’s heart beats for Europe,

especially for Middle Europe. Lendl’s merits

include the rediscovery of Austrian exile literature.

 

One thing is for certain: Lendl’s heart does not beat for

one exile author.

 

Wände …/Walls … Österreichische jüdische Lyrik/ Austrian Jewish Poetry, 2015 Edited & Translated by Herbert Kuhner

 

 

The first edition of this collection was published in 1992, Verlag der Apfel and was promptly sold out. The collection presented poetry by Austrian Jewish poets at home and abroad and conveyed a retrospective view of the Holocaust, as well as impressions of social and political conditions in Austria in particular and Europe in general.

The new edition has been enhanced by new poets and new poetry.

 

The collection was termed by Klara Köttner Benigni as

“the most important collection published in Austria since the war.“

 

Dr. Alexander Giese, Austrian PEN-President wrote:

“These authors deserve to be read attentively,

very attentively. This is one of the landmarks

of Austrian publishing history.”

 

Popp Goes the Wiesel! (There are no limits)

 

Under the regnum of Cultural Minister Rudolf Scholten:

“Herbert Kuhner does not qualify for a writers’ pension.

The list of his publications would not even fill one page.”

Magister Franz-Leo Popp, Director of the Commission

for Pensions for Writers at the meeting of the Board

on June 19, 1995

 

 

 

 

Breaking Down Borders was presented

at the Croatian Academic Club, Vienna

on June 1, 2022

 

Slovenian Poetry Today

was presented at the Slovenian Institute,

Vienna on November 28, 2023

 

 

 

 

Our Man in Vienna – powered by viennanet.info

Herbert Kuhner am January 31, 2024

Polemics, Politics, Translation

 

In 1983 I had published the poetic work

of Austria’s Croatian and  Slovenian minorities

The Croatian collection had been completed

and the Slovenian one was in the works.

 

Reading the English translations of

 Carinthian Slovenian Poetry (well executed

by Herbert Kuhner) it becomes obvious

that the Carinthian Slovenes are fortunate in having

a number of captivating poets who deserve attention

beyond the small and embattled community in Austria….

It is a reminder also that we need to learn more about

the ethnic minorities of Austria.

– Juergen Koppensteiner, German Dept.,

University of Northern Iowa, Austria-Focus

 

Branko Oman

AAS Avtorska agencija za Slovenijo d.o.o.

Copyright Agency of Slovenia Ltd.

 “Please, accept my deep respect for enormous work and energy you invested in promotion of poetry and literature in general, but particularly in promotion of my small nation’s poetry.”

 

Katja Sturm Schnabl

An Austrian Trilogy

 

Here are three volumes Austrian poetry in three languages which are spoken in Austria and have influenced the cultural plurality of this nation. Unfortunately this plurality has not yet established significantly Austrian consciousness. Along with the Croatian, Slovenian and German poems, we the bilingual aspect of this trilogy, which has transferred the poetry into the new lingual medium of English. When such variety becomes a unity, there must be a concept and the intent to fathom the manifold literary essence of Austria and to make accessible to the reading public. The initiator of this concept is Herbert Kuhner, the translator of all three anthologies. An anthology is an artistic credo at the outset, primarily due to the translation from one language into another, unless it has been effectuated according to historical literary aspects. And Herbert Kuhner has converted this artistic credo into reality.

 

Due to what circumstances did the writer and literary translator Herbert Kuhner have the intuition to include the two ethnic Austrian minorities in an overview of Austrian poetry?

 

It should be emphasized that literary translation not a simple philological translation; that is only the material prerequisite.

 

There is an aspect in the translator’s biography helps provide provides the motivation for this undertaking. Herbert Kuhner was born in Vienna in 1935 and had to leave the country of his birth due to the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. He spent childhood and youth in the United States and took root the Anglophone world. In 1963 he returned to Austria.

 

Apparently the search for the cultural identity of his childhood and the fact that he is at home in two cultures, helped guide him into converting this cultural variety into a unity. The phenomenon that we have in these three anthologies is that the English language medium helps form a unity. The lyrical message of all three anthologies should resound in a new common language medium, removed from the initial language medium in order form a common whole as a lingual work of art. Thus many common, deeply human dimensions have been brought to the fore, despite all diversity. The matter from which poetry derives – a particular language – is dematerialized in the translation process. The artistic statement is contained in the new materiality of a new language. And thus we experience the reincarnation of poetry as poetry.

 

Joy Hendry

The Scotsman

 

Herbert Kuhner has been the ideal foreign ambassador (at the Edinburgh Festival), reading his translations of modern European women (from Austria) and from minority European cultures (Burgenland Croatian & Carinthian Slovenian), but we haven’t heard enough of his own powerful poetry. His arm may be twisted.

 

Marie Luise Caputo-Mayr

German Dept., Temple University,

Modern Austrian Literature

 

Herbert Kuhner, a fine poet in his own right, has to be given additional credit for his attempts to collect and publicize Austrian minority poetry in the Croatian language (from Burgenland) and in the Slovenian language (from Carinthia) which have also appeared in two volumes in English translation under the title Hawks and Nightingales (1983) and Carinthian Slovenian Poetry (1984). The three volumes are indispensable for an understanding of an insight into the current poetic scene of Austria.

 

Gertrude Urzidil 

 

The translations are impressive (poems by Johannes Urzidil). I would like to express my undivided admiration for Herbert Kuhner. He has remained true to the originals and has at the same time brought them into the new world.

 

Recognition

George Dance (georgedance04@yahoo.ca)

Penny’s Poetry Page

 

There was a renewal of interest in Brody’s poetry in the 1970s, when his work was included in 2 anthologies of Jewish poetry: a 1974 collection edited by Daniel Walden, and an anthology in 1980 edited by Anthony Rudolf and Howard Schwartz. Rudolf also wrote an essay on the poet, „Who is Alter Brody?“ That in turn led to his discovery by an Austrian-based editor, Herbert Kuhner, who has been promoting Brody’s work, including compiling his collected poems. „This great poet is waiting to assume the place in American and world literature reserved for him,“ Kuhner has stated. „I have a feeling that we’re going to help get him there.“

 

Herbert Kuhner

“Hermagoras“ Shenenigans

Translating Poetry by the Carinthian Slovenes

 

I met Lev Detela and Milena Merlak at the Fresach Symposium in Carinthia in 1972. I translated their poetry into English and also translated other Slovenian and Carinthian Slovene poets into that language. I sent the poems out, which was a complex matter in those days. Many were published in literary reviews such as

The Malahat Review, The Webster Review

and Poetry Australia.

 

I am grateful to the late Walther Nowotny for having  invited me annually to this symposium.

 

I happen to be the first translator to have rendered the Carinthian Slovenes into English,

and along with Feliks Bister was the first to anthologize them.

 

Our anthology was accepted for publication by Hermagoras  Verlag, Klagenfurt, and it was

published in 1983.

 

The edition was almost immediately sold out.

 

Hermagoras Verlag co-editor Vinko Ošlak claimed that Carinthian Slovenian Poetry, which had received critical acclaim internationally, was badly translated. This is an innovation in the publishing trade. Every editor who had previously received an unsatisfactory translation had either rejected it or sent it back to the translator for revisions.

 

Imagine, editors Franz Kattnig and Vinko Ošlak solicited an attack on the translations by Ester Sfreco in Maladika journal.

 

Ms. Sferco selected the following rendering as an example of a translation gone awry.

 

Valentin Polanšek

Kmečka slika

 

Takšen želim biti,

kot je vonj ajdovih žgancev

in sopara zavrelega mleka –

tako pristno jutranji za ves dan!

 

Takšen želim biti,

kot je domači črni kruh

in preprosti zlati jabolčnik –

tako trpežen in opojen po trdem delu.

 

Takšen želim biti,

kot je zateglo žebranje

in skupnost kmečkega spanja –

tako spojen s krvjo in zemljo!

 

Valentin Polanšek

Idyll

 

I’d like to be a morning

with the odor of buckwheat

and the steam of cooking milk –

a morning like that.

 

I’d like to be a morning

with homemade black bread

and new apple wine –

intoxicating after hard work.

 

I’d like to be a morning

with the monotony of prayers

and peaceful matrimonial sleep –

at one with everything around me.

 

****

 

I am not religious, but by God this poem happens to be a magnificent depiction of faith and the bucolic life.

 

Once was not enough! Hatchet reviews became a

feature of Mladje, the Hermagoras house journal.

 

Idyll, as well as others from the first collection, was again published as is in Slovenian Poetry Today.

 

On May 8, 1983, editor-in-chief Franz Kattnig of Hermagoras commissioned to translate The Star of Bethlehem Goes Off Course by Marica Kulnik. I duly delivered the translation and it was found to be satisfactory.

 

A year later, I heard through the grapevine that the book had been published by Jungbrunnen Verlag containing a translation by Murray Hall.

 

Herr Kattnig claimed that a new translation had to made since Marica Kulnik, the author, had revised the original, making the first translation invalid.

 

Murray Hall informed me that Jungbrunnen never received my translation from Herr Kattnig. They had to search franticly for a translator in the last minute before publication.

 

 

Filling the Bill

 

The Nuremberg Laws were declared

null and void in 1945,

but they still remain an inspiration

in some quarters.

 

I had avoided immolation by immigration

in order to be spiritually done in later on.

 

There are some people whose views

are so dangerous that democratic means

cannot be used to counter them.

They simply have to be cancelled out!

Apparently, I come under that category.

 

The upshot of such methods is invariably

confirmation and validation.

 

Fabrications can be countered – but not facts.

Refusal to engage in discourse invariably

signifies verification.

 

“Unfortunately, the fact that that you are American

and not Austrian or East European seems

to be an insurmountable obstacle as far

as Jeannie Ebner is concerned. My assertion

that you were born in Vienna and are

a resident of Vienna can change nothing.”

– Letter from Andreas Okopenko, Feb. 22, 1969

 

“The Commission’s decisions are bound

to guidelines and it rejects your request,

since according to your own information,

you are an American citizen.”

– Jeannie Ebner, Letter of July 8, 1993

 

“If you call him an American, he’s offended.

If you call him an Austrian, he’s offended.

American or Austrian, he’ll always be a Jew!”^[3]

– Jeannie Ebner, author and editor,

 

I ask have days gone by gone by?

–H.K.

 

Not to Be Expunged

 

In “Old Days” Family properties were pillaged

and family members were sent off never to return.

 

Filling the Bill

 

The Nuremberg Laws were declared

null and void in 1945,

but they still remain an inspiration

in some quarters. I had avoided

immolation by immigration

in order to be spiritually done in later on.

 

The reaction to what I have written

has not been discourse,

but rather airtight blocking.

 

The Guy is a Nutcase

 

I sincerely regret that Herbert Kuhner feels himself

persecuted by me and failure (apparently one and the same)….

Herr Kuhner already has a reputation in Vienna

for making totally unfounded accusations.

He is in a different psychological situation.

There are reasons for that, but not real ones.

He sits at home with his fantasies.

– Dr. Wolfgang Kraus, Austrian Foreign Office and

Head of the Austrian Literary Society

(Austria Presse Agentur, Index on Censorship)

 

He Wants to Help!  

 

“I still hope I can help him.”

(Wolfgang Kraus, APA 19/1/77)

 

I wrote something that I promptly erased.

When you are the weaker party in a dispute,

it is foolish to stick your neck out. – H.K.

 

****

 

Skirting the Truth

 

Headline: “We must improve the system;

otherwise, we’ll be up the creek.”

– Erhard Busek, Kurier, 3. April 2012

 

I, for one, certainly was (and am) „up the creek!”

– H.K.

 

Jörg Mauthe brought me to Wiener Journal.

At his death when Erhard Busek came in,

I knew my days there were numbered.

 

On March 19, 1990, Rainer Lendl editor-in chief of Edition Atelier

of Wiener Journal and Busek’s atlatus wrote to his distributor:

“We hereby cancel Herbert Kuhner’s Der Ausschluss from our publishing program. All copies are to be returned to the author.

 

Thus I had been provided with a fitting epilogue for Memoirs of a 39er.

 

The following is a quote from an encomium for Rainer Lendl by then Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel: Rainer Lendl’s heart beats for Europe, especially for Middle Europe. Lendl’s merits include the rediscovery of Austrian exile literature. [4]

 

One thing is for sure: Lendl’s heart does not beat for one exile author.

 

David Axmann.’s Afterword to Memoirs of a 39er: “This is a chronicle of an Austrian emigré, who as a child had to flee from the Nazis to the United States, who as a young man returned to the scene of the crime and discovered that the moral substance of the Austrian character has basically remained unchanged since 1945. Against the background of exemplary political, cultural-political and artistic emanations of an intolerant provincialism, which is a frightening way, of ever more bluntly anti-Semitic resentments, which we believed to have been overcome, the author creates a kaleidoscope of his personal life experiences in Austria, which were so bitter, depressing, humiliating and indeed frightening, that he finally comes to the dreadful conclusion: „When I returned to my birthplace to live, it was if I had never left.” An important, authentic contribution to the “Memorial Year’ of 1988.“

 

“Memoirs of a 39er is the story of an unrequited love.

The experiences of the author who was born in Vienna,

had to flee the Nazis in early years, grew up in America

and returned to Vienna with the illusion that he would

be welcomed with open arms in his birthplace. But for those

who love without being loved in return, a rude awakening

in inevitable. Kuhner brings the experiences of his remigration

to life in bright colors. His conflict with Austrian bureaucracy

would be comical were it not tragic. I hope that he will find another location for his talents and finally accept the fact that his love for Austria and its capital Vienna can be nothing but unrequited.”

– Stella Hershan, Austro-American author, New York

 

Happy Golden Anniversary, Harry!

 

“If I were convinced about the literary quality of the book

(Der Ausschluss /Memoirs of a 39er),I would not have asked for details concerning its contents.  I have come to the conclusion that it deals with a very personal situation, which is presented in erratic segments.”

– Dr. Peter Huemer, ORF, (Austrian Radio)

 

No interview in 1988, the Golden Anniversary of the Annexation,of Austria by Nazi Germany for someone who experienced the Third Reich in very young years and then emigrated and returned to his birthplace 24 years later and published a book on the subject.Among the “erratic segments” are Actionism satires.

 

Peter Huemer: “I consider Viennese Actionism an essential

component of the history of art, which stemmed from the actuality of the concealment of National Socialism of the time in Austria. Initially, I considered the Mühl Commune as an extremely thrilling experiment. It probably was too.”^[5]

 

In Memoirs, I present an opposing view of the thrilling experiment and other cultural aspects which resulted in a Foreign Ministry interrogation, the threat of incarceration and a panoply of “official” harassment.

 

Revelation

 

Shortly before his death in December of 2003, Museum Director Otto Breicha confirmed that pedophilia is practiced in artistic circles. He added that these groups had international connections.

 

He advised a colleague, an artist who had information

concerning this situation that divulging it could have

dire consequences.

 

“They could ostracize you!” He warned.

When asked: “Would my life be in danger?

Breicha replied: “That could be the case!”

 

(The source of the verbal exchange quoted above was relayed it to me on condition that I not reveal the name of the source.)

 

Question:

 

Did the Third Reich in Austria

begin in 1938 and did it end in 1945?

 

In February of 1985, I flew to the United States to promote Hawks and Nightingales, Carinthian Slovenian Poetry and Austrian Poetry Today. After my departure, a letter from the Austrian Institute in Now York arrived at my Austrian address with the following information: “Leider Gottes, ist das Kulturinstitut nicht mehr in der Lage, diese Vorträge mit Reisekosten bzw. Honoraren zu unterstützen.“ (Unfortunately, the Cultural Institute is no longer able to pay for traveling expenses or to provide an honorarium for this lecture tour.)

 

Ten state-approved authors had just preceded me, five of whom I had rendered, with red carpet treatment.

 

 

His Master’s Voice

 

Jörg Mauthe brought brought me to Wiener Journal. At his death when Erhard Busek came in, I knew my days there were numbered.

 

David Axmann.’s Afterword to Memoirs of a 39er: “This is a chronicle of an Austrian emigré, who as a child had to flee from the Nazis to the United States, who as a young man returned to the scene of the crime and discovered that the moral substance of the Austrian character has basically remained unchanged since 1945. Against the background of exemplary political, cultural-political and artistic emanations of an intolerant provincialism, which is a frightening way, of ever more bluntly anti-Semitic resentments, which we believed to have been overcome, the author creates a kaleidoscope of his personal life experiences in Austria, which were so bitter, depressing, humiliating and indeed frightening, that he finally comes to the dreadful conclusion: „When I returned to my birthplace to live, it was if I had never left. An important, authentic contribution to the ‘Memorial Year’ of 1988. “

 

Revelation

 

Shortly before his death in December of 2003,

Museum Director Otto Breicha confirmed that pedophilia

is practiced in artistic circles. He added that these groups

had international connections.

 

He advised a colleague, an artist who had information

concerning this situation that divulging it could have

dire consequences.

 

“They could ostracize you!” He warned.

When asked: “Would my life be in danger?

Breicha replied: “That could be the case!”

 

(The verbal exchange quoted above was relayed to

me on condition that I not reveal the source.)

 

Cruelty to Man and Beast

 

Hermann Nitsch:“Mühl’s specialty is minors and sex,

and my specialty is the agonizing tormenting of animals….

I could well envision that murder could be a component

of a work of art.^[6] Killing was and is beyond all moral

judgments. ^[7]

 

Otto Mühl: “Nitsch is a sadist with a mania for approbation,

an autistic alcoholic who’s completely narcissistic

and a mother’s boy who didn’t get enough attention.

Rainer is genuinely violent and a sadist.

Nitsch torments the participants in his actions;

they’re constantly freezing. He arranges that intentionally.

I’d like to know how many became ill,

how many caught pneumonia, how many died.” ^[8]

 

According to Josef Dvorak, Nitsch stated his intention of peeling the skin from children’s corpses as an “action.” Art-critic Peter Gorsen told him to be careful of what he said.“Nitsch remarked that his intent was not to kill the children. He only wants work with material that is already dead.”[9] (This brings lampshades to mind.)

 

Here are excerpts from The Conquest of Jerusalem by Hermann Nitsch:“the naked body of a nine-year-old girl is placed on a church bench; the sexual organ of the girl is opened and a silver tube is forced in several times. the sexual organ is torn to pieces; sugared water is poured on the bloody wound; no. o sucks out and licks up the sugared blood that pours out of the sexual organ….after Christ has slaughtered a cow, he lies down on the back of the skinned animal which is still twitching, licks the sexual organ of the cow and sticks his tongue deep into it….after Christ has slaughtered a bull, he lies down on the back of the skinned animal which is still twitching,sucks urine out of the sexual organ of the bull….and bites the bull’s sexual organ….Christ lies down on the warm belly of the freshly slaughtered bull and sucks blood from the wound where the testicles

have been severed. …Christ slips and falls and no. 38 jumps on him and sticks his tumescent penis in Christ’s anus and copulates with him.”[10]

 

“I knew a university professor named Stephan Koren.

he was cripple and wanted to convince me that he was a man like me.…this scum of the nation fills every healthy Austrian with such dread that the pupils of his eyes would burst at the sight.”^[11] 

– Peter Weibel, Actionist & Culture Commissar

 

Peter Weibel in Der Standard: “Nitsch appeared wearing the vestments that that a priest uses for the Mass. (Hanel) Koeck, among other things, was bound to a cross and a dildo was placed in her vagina. Then Koeck placed it in Nitsch’s mouth. A lacerated sheep, the blood-soaked innards of a hare and an ox were brought into analogy with the woman’s body. Then Nitsch copulated symbolically with Koeck with the aid of the dildo.”[12]

 

Peter Weibel,and Valie Export: Wien, Bildkompendium Wiener Aktionismus und Film, Featured in this documentation is a report of an event in Cologne  in which the editors use bullwhips, coils of barbed wire, beer bottles and ether to injure themselves, as well as members of the audience.^[13]

 

Among the highlights of the latter scholarly work are photos of co-editor Export engaging in fellatio with Weibel. Here’s a quote from the horse’s mouth: “When Valie Export sucks my cock, you can see it.”^[14]

 

A key statement by Weibel: “If we don’t prosper, the world will be blown up.”^[15]

 

“Blood and Soil” was the basis Nazi art.

This has given way to “Blood and Feces.”

 

Blood and Fecal Art

is an excrescence of the Third Reich.

 

From the Horse’s Mouth

 

“Blasphemy, obscenity, charlatanism, sadistic excesses,

orgies, the aesthetics of the cesspool are our moral means.^[16]

That includes rape and murder.^[17] Murder is an integral part of sex. ^[18] It will soon become an ethical necessity to rob banks and to shoot a random cripple down.” ^[19]

– Otto Mühl, Actionist artist

 

“Mühl’s specialty is minors and sex, and my specialty

is the agonizing tormenting of animals….I could well envision

that murder could be a component of a work of art.^[20]

 

Killing was and is beyond all moral judgments. ^[21]

– Hermann Nitsch

 

“Nitsch is a sadist with a mania for approbation,

an autistic alcoholic who’s completely narcissistic

and a mother’s boy who didn’t get enough attention.

Rainer is genuinely violent and a sadist. Nitsch

torments the participants in his actions; they’re

constantly freezing. He arranges that intentionally.

I’d like to know how many became ill, how many caught

pneumonia, how many died.” ^[22]

– Otto Mühl

 

From the trial of Otto Mühl on January 23, 1990, Frau Jelinek, the judge stated: “After the moving descriptions of seven girls who were sexually abused by Mühl, a compilation of videos was shown after the courtroom had been cleared of spectators. In addition to violent actions by Mühl, his wife Claudia was shown forcing minors to engage in oral sex with her in front of an enthusiastic audience. The boys did not want to do it; they were in tears. They received a permanent shock. One of the boys was the son of Otto Mühl and Claudia’s sister, the son and his stepmother. I have seen the films,

and they cannot be compared to anything I have ever viewed. 36

 

Msgr. Otto Mauer, the official “Catholic Caretaker of Souls” was the pater familias of the Actionists. With Cardinal Franz König’s benediction, he promoted the poète maudit element of the Austrian cultural scene and helped mint their spirit. Mauer in 1948, three years after the Holocaust: (Online: Die Jüdische)“The Jews have immense influence on communism and capitalism. They pass themselves off as defenders of humanity…but they are nothing but a depraved people with a perverted spirit….They have been condemned to eternal damnation….They invariably choose the evil path.” [23]

 

Mauer continues on the subject: “The choice of Barabbas at the time of Jesus is analogous to the man with the submachine gun and the man who plants bombs in Palestine today…it is impossible to believe in the realization of the Jewish state…and the Jews are to blame that the Kingdom of God has not been established. This promise will not be fulfilled until all heathens and then the Jews recognize the Church…But first it will be the turn of the heathens and then the

Jews.”^[24]

 

A year later Mauer was more “conciliatory.” In 1949 he wrote: “There is a solution to the Jewish problem, but just one: the Jews must recognize Christ as the Messiah, the heathens must become Christians…”^[25]

 

Bishop Egon Kapellari, Austria’s Bishop for Art: “Monsignor Otto Mauer, the unforgotten sponsor of contemporary art of his time, wrote in his renowned text, “A Discourse on Art,” that he was aware that society, yes even the state, had to defend itself against anti-humanistic, racial discriminatory and anti-Semitic, art. “ ^[26]

 

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna: “Let us look back to 1968! Sexual permissiveness, the movement for sexual freedom pervaded all of society. Needless to say, the Mühl Commune serves as the best negative example. There was a time when that institution was very fashionable in intellectual circles.” ^[27]

 

But pray, who promoted Otto Mühl and associates? It couldn’t have been Msgr. Otto Mauer, could it?

 

The Good Samaritan and the Protégé

 

Among Mauer’s political protégés was former Third Reich Mauer and his protégé, former Third Reich publicist Otto Schulmeister, collaborated as editors of the Catholic cultural monthly Wort und Wahrheit together, which they founded in the Fifties.

 

Otto Schulmeister became a member of the Nazi Party in 1942. His doctoral thesis, “Die werdende Großraumwirtschaft“ was published that same year in the Nazi publishing house “Berlin.” In this thesis he justified the German expansion in the East as restoration of the German Lebensraum.^[28]

 

Schulmeister laid it on the line 1989: “There were many swine at the time, not only brown ones…The Revisionists are right about that. Not only Nazis committed crimes. And not only Jews were victims. There were many victims at the time and many since then. And as we see in Israel, Jews can also be oppressors.” ^[29]

 

Asked whether he regretted what he had written during the Third Reich in National Socialist organs, he replied: “Not in the least!” ^[30]

 

The Commune

 

Otto Mühl established the Commune in Prater Strasse in 1970 while he was being promoted by Msgr. Otto Mauer. During this time Mühl went to the Allgemeinen-Krankenhaus-Hospital in Vienna with a group of children that were infected with venereal disease. The head nurse at the time was Greta Scherhak.^[31]

 

A key phrase by Mühl: “Democracy is a load of shit!” ^[32]

 

Concerning proceedings during the trial of Mühl on January 23, 1990:

District Attorney Rabonog, still under the impression of the testimony of witnesses and the videos, stated in his summation: ‘I have taken part in many major trials, but the fate of the victims has never moved me so much as in this one. Mühl engages in the practice of terror. History has shown us what a concentration camp is. What the girls in the Friedrichshof had to go through was just as horrible. Otto Mühl experimented with people; he manipulated them. He was so sensitive as an artist that he thought that when a girl said “no” she meant “yes.” The children weren’t voluntarily there; he had taken their parents from them, and thus the ability of leaving the commune. They didn’t have a chance.’”^[33]

 

“After the moving descriptions of seven girls who were sexually abused by Mühl, a compilation of videos was shown after the courtroom had been cleared of spectators. In addition to violent actions by Mühl, his wife Claudia was shown forcing minors to engage in oral sex with her in front of an enthusiastic audience. ‘The boys did not want to do it; they were in tears. They received a permanent shock. One was her son, the son and his stepmother!’ (One of the boys was the son of Otto Mühl and Claudia’s sister).”

 

“Blood and Soil” was the basis Nazi art.  This has given way to “Blood and Feces.”

 

Blood and Fecal Art is an excrescence of the Third Reich.

 

From the Horse’s Mouth

 

“Blasphemy, obscenity, charlatanism, sadistic excesses,

orgies, the aesthetics of the cesspool are our moral means.^[34]

That includes rape and murder.^[35] Murder is an integral part of sex. ^[36] It will soon become an ethical necessity to rob banks and to shoot a random cripple down.” ^[37]

– Otto Mühl, Actionist artist

 

More Mühl:“Nitsch is a sadist with a mania for approbation,

an autistic alcoholic who’s completely narcissistic and a mother’s boy who didn’t get enough attention. Rainer is genuinely violent and a sadist. Nitsch torments the participants in his actions; they’re constantly freezing. He arranges that intentionally. I’d like to know how many became ill, how many caught pneumonia and how many died.” ^[38]

– Otto Mühl

 

“Mühl’s specialty is minors and sex, and my specialty is the agonizing tormenting of animals….I could well envision that murder could be a component of a work of art.^[39] Killing was and is beyond all moral judgments. ^[40]

– Hermann Nitsch

 

From the trial of Otto Mühl on January 23, 1990, Frau Jelinek, the judge stated: “After the moving descriptions of seven girls who were sexually abused by Mühl, a compilation of videos was shown after the courtroom had been cleared of spectators. In addition to violent actions by Mühl, his wife Claudia was shown forcing minors to engage in oral sex with her in front of an enthusiastic audience. The boys did not want to do it; they were in tears. They received a permanent shock. One of the boys was the son of Otto Mühl and Claudia’s sister, the son and his stepmother. I have seen the films,

and they cannot be compared to anything I have ever viewed. 36

 

Msgr. Otto Mauer, the official “Catholic Caretaker of Souls” was the pater familias of the Actionists. With Cardinal Franz König’s benediction, he promoted the poète maudit element of the Austrian cultural scene and helped mint their spirit. Mauer in 1948, three years after the Holocaust: (Online: Die Jüdische)

 

The Good Samaritan and the Protégé

 

Among Mauer’s political protégés was former Third Reich Mauer and his protégé, former Third Reich publicist Otto Schulmeister, collaborated as editors of the Catholic cultural monthly Wort und Wahrheit together, which they founded in the Fifties.

 

Otto Schulmeister became a member of the Nazi Party in 1942. His doctoral thesis, “Die werdende Großraumwirtschaft“ was published that same year in the Nazi publishing house “Berlin.” In this thesis he justified the German expansion in the East as restoration of the German Lebensraum.^[41]

 

Schulmeister laid it on the line 1989: “There were many swine at the time, not only brown ones…The Revisionists are right about that. Not only Nazis committed crimes. And not only Jews were victims. There were many victims at the time and many since then. And as we see in Israel, Jews can also be oppressors.” ^[42]

 

Asked whether he regretted what he had written during the Third Reich in National Socialist organs, he replied: “Not in the least!” ^[43]

 

Was and Is

 

This is how it was

and this is how it is.

 

On August 4^th the following letter to the editor appeared in the Kronen Zeitung newspaper. My queries here also met with no reply and no further mention of this event was published.

 

“Dear Herr Chancellor,

If your daughter were to be placed on a stage with shaven head and have her sex organ penetrated under the direction of Herr Nitsch, I would like to know whether you would still speak about ’the freedom of art.” ^[44]

Lore Jarosch, author, Letter to the Editor, Kronen Zeitung, August 4, 1998, p.20

 

“Hermann Nitsch stated in a TV-interview

that we all had skeletons in our closets

but that Mühl had to atone for us.”

– Günter Brus, Actionist

 

Here are Segments from Violence Under the Guise of Art from The Conquest of Jerusalem by Hermann Nitsch: In the ”Partitur” to his 6-Day Feast and The Conquest of Jerusalem, Nitsch describes the laceration and desecration of women’s and children’s bodies.^[45]

 

Here is a segment:“the naked body of a nine-year-old girl is placed on a church bench; the sexual organ of the girl is opened and a silver tube is forced in several times. the sexual organ is torn to pieces; sugared water is poured on the bloody wound; no. o sucks out and licks up the sugared blood that pours out of the sexual organ.”[46]

 

More from the Partitur:

„Cadavers of two-year old-children, one-year old children

and new-born children are brought into the room. Hair is torn from the heads of the cadavers. The lips and the sexual organs are torn apart. The chests of the small corpses are opened. The moist-bloody innards are torn out. Pieces of flesh are torn from the dead children. Hands and feet are ripped out of their sockets. Body parts of the dead children are hurled around the room.”[47]

(This makes lampshades come to mind.)

 

More from The Conquest of Jerusalem by Hermann Nitsch:

“After Christ has slaughtered a cow, he lies down on the back of the skinned animal which is still twitching, licks the sexual organ of the cow and sticks his tongue deep into it….after Christ has slaughtered a bull, he lies down on the back of the skinned animal which is still twitching, sucks urine out of the sexual organ of the bull….and bites the bull’s sexual organ….Christ lies down on the warm belly of the freshly slaughtered bull and sucks blood from the wound where the testicles have been severed. …Christ slips and falls and no. 38 jumps on him and sticks his tumescent penis in Christ’s anus and copulates with him.”[48]

 

Toni Faber, Chaplain of St. Stephan’s Cathedral priest extolls an artist: “I have much in common with Hermann Nitsch. I have always a fan of this artist. I even have an original Nitsch painting in my apartment.” ^[49]

 

Actionism may have originated in Austria, but the Mercer Arts Center in New York latched onto Nitsch in 1975, other American galleries followed suit and spread the word Actionism became a hit internationally and the Austrian cultural-political powers-that-be  latched onto it and Nitsch and Co. were awarded the most prestigious state and municipal prizes.

 

“The ‘moral-attackers’ look a bit ridiculous as they bang the same heads against the same wall decade after decade ….

A crime us not less of a crime because it has been committed by an artist, and it follows that art is not less valid due to the fact that the artist is an offender… It is imperative that in a civilized legal system that the judges must be impartial and independent

and that the victims should take it upon themselves to judge the perpetrator.“^[50]

– Dr. Rudolf Scholten, former Minister of Art, concerning Otto Mühl.

 

Let the poets say it!

 

Else Keren (of Bukovina, once part of Austria)

Extinguished Sparks

 

Extinguished sparks

ash-grey

lie along remote tracks

endlessly

 

Many trains came this way

The derailed wind

calls the names of the dead

 

Tamar Radzyner (Poland & Austria)

My True Homeland

 

My true homeland

is called misery.

I ‚m at home there.

 

Midas‘ enchanted daughter

turns everything

into gloom.

 

My evil eye glitters

with envy for those

who know the joy

that has never been mine.

 

Hans Reiter (Austria)

Stones

 

Even if Heaven is silent – and deaf,

I’ll find a place where stones speak,

where tears are broken out of stones

and pressed out of dust

 

for us, the Jews of this city.

Only stones mourned our death.

Woe to a world without stones!

Woe to a city where calumny forms mountains.

 

Herbert Kuhner

Humble Pie

 

Humble pie

isn’t exactly a gourmet dish.

You don’t eat it with delectation

to music and soft lights

with a glass of wine.

It can’t be had at Maxims

or The Four Seasons.

It’s not on any five-star menu

and you can’t get it

at Al’s, Joe’s or Mom’s.

They don’t have it in diners,

fast food places, pizzerias

or all-night cafés either.

And it’s not the special

at the greasy spoon.

 

Humble pie

can’t be ordered at a table

or sitting or standing at the counter.

You have to genuflect to get it,

and it has to be eaten while kneeling.

It’s dry and pasty

and not very nourishing,

and you won’t even get a glass of water

to wash it down.

Eating it is degrading and humiliating.

You have to stuff it down your gullet

in front of everyone.

It may make you gag and retch

and give you a stomach ache

but it’s not toxic.

 

It just kills you

a little bit.

 

There are commemoration’s for the victims of the Third Reich.

I have never been invited.

 

The Golden Anniversary of the Annexation

 

At the unveiling of the monument commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, speeches of regret were read by political luminaries, Church dignitaries, public figures and high-ranking military men. Poets read epics about the slaughter of the victims and an oratorio was played and sung for the occasion. While those present vowed that what had happened must never happen again, a Jew was beaten by thugs in the midst of the ceremony. No one could hear the blows or the cries due to the chorus of raised voices. Nor could the beating be seen since the bystanders’ sight was blurry from the tears that were being shed.

 

My encounter has been with Assassins of the Spirit.

They are worthy Successors to their Predecessors.

 

Fritz Kleibel (1949-2O24)

 

My friend and colleague is gone.

Goodbye Fritz, goodbye to you,

my dear friend!

(There is a void in my life.)

 

“A writer needs a pen,

an artist needs a brush,

but a filmmaker needs an army.”

– Orson Welles

 

My late friend Fritz Kleibel

was a brilliant filmmaker

and an army of one.

 

He had the knack

and whatever he filmed

was a composition.

 

We collaborated on

Our Man in Vienna

viennanet.info:

 

A One-Man Film Team

 

Fritz is a filmmaker in every sense of the word. He carries through from beginning to end. He’s his own director, cameraman, cutter and what-have-you. When he starts out, he knows where he’s going and he gets there by the hard work of doing the best he can. He has the ability, and the ability has to be there to start with, but it takes more than ability to create a work of art. It takes motivation and drive. Fritz knows his craft, and he never uses technique for its own sake or lets it dominate him.

 

He has mastered the technical aspects, and he is always in command. He uses cinematic tricks, but when he uses them they aren’t tricks. He knows how to integrate them, and they always fit. They’re never obtrusive or irritating. Fritz has a natural feeling for composition and he knows that breaking the rules means adhering to rules. Fritz is a magician and not a conjurer. Making the magic entails hard and meticulous work. A conjurer uses sleight of hand. With Fritz, the magic is genuine. Fritz is a small giant.

 

Fritz has the knack. He uses a camera in a way that makes it an instrument that could only be his.

 

They call Fritz Andy. He has a shock of white hair like Andy. But the resemblance ends with the hair and the difference begins with the hair. Andy wore a white wig, but with Fritz is the color, or lack of color, if you will, is genuine.

 

Fritz moves forward in slow motion. Fritz is a small giant.

 

 

 

 

 

En Route with Herbert Kuhner

a film by the late Fritz Kleibel

 

The first three years of my life in the second district of Vienna

were idyllic. I remember going to the Prater with aunts and uncles for rides on the carousel. When Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, drastic changes occurred, and the mood mutated to fear and apprehension.
The death knell for old Europe and European Jewry rang out.

The shtetl and the other Jewish locations would soon be history.They would be doomed forever. They would become locations that would only be sung and written about with nostalgia. (from Felled by Friendly Fire: a Memoir)

 

Felling a Giant

For the late Fritz Kleibel, filmmaker

 

It’s not easy to fell a giant,

especially if you’re tiny,

but it can be done

if you are cunning

and you unite with your kind.

 

All you need is enough allies

who are your size,

the more, the better.

 

The Lilliputians

did it with Gulliver.

 

They bound him down

while he was asleep,

which is fine,

but if there are enough of you,

you can do the trick,

while he is awake,

with no danger to yourself

and those who are on your side.

 

All you have to do

is limit his movement

and keep him occupied

with trivialities.

 

That should be an easy task

for someone who doesn’t

need much room,

even if that someone

is a half-pint, a midget, a pigmy.

 

When someone

who is minuscule

works with a lot of others

who are like him,

they can do wonders together.

 

The trick is

to corral a giant spiritually

so that he doesn’t find an excuse

to use his strength.

 

If you do that,

you can limit his movement

and keep limiting it

until his strength is sapped

from shadow boxing

with his own shadow,

as well as those

of others.

 

The strain of trying to focus

on blurry images

that assert and reassert themselves

not only impairs vision

but makes the toughest muscle flaccid.

 

And in the end

the giant

will be putty in your hands.

 

***

herbert.kuhner@chello.at

Harry’s Blog = www.viennanet.info

 

[1] Source: Gunther Kraus, artist.

[2] Adolf Opel and Kurt Klinger on two separate occasions.

[3] Source: Gunther Kraus, artist.

[4] OTS0217, 6. Mai 2003

[5] Peter Huemer, letter to Herbert Kuhner.

[6] Falter 24-30, 7, No. 30, 1998, p. 18.

[7] Paula Devarney: “Nitsch – Art of Killing,” Caellian, 9. Oct. 1970; Hermann Nitsch: Das rote Tuch – Das Orgien Mysterien Theater – Im Spiegel der Presse 1960-1988, Freibord, Vienna, 1988, p. 106.

[8] Andreas Schlothauer, Die Diktatur der freien Sexualität: AAO, Mühl-Kommune, Friedrichshof, Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik; Vienna, 1992,p. 122.

[9] www.politik-forum.at Political Discussion Platform for Austria.

[10] Die Eroberung Jerusalems, Die Drossel, Berlin, 1977.

[11] Peter Weibel, Valie Export: Wien, Bildkompendium Wiener Aktionismus und Film, Kohlkunst Verlag, Frankfurt, 1970; Speech at the University of Vienna, June, 7, 1968.

[12] Peter Weibel: “Ein deutscher Krimi,” Der Standard, April, 19, 1989, Vienna, p. 23.

[13] Peter Weibel, Valie Export, eds.: Wien: Bildkompendium Wiener Aktionismus und Film, Kohlkunst Verlag, Frankfurt, 1970, p.233 & 237.

[14] Axis, Interview Peter Weibel / Gerhard Petak, April 17, 1985, Vienna.

[15] Fritz Rumler: “Exhibitionisten an die Front,” Der Spiegel, No. 17, April 21, 1970,  p. 194.

[16] Transparent Spezial, ORF (Austrian Radio), May 8, 1996.

[17] Josef Dvorak: “Die Faschisten von heute: Antwort an Hermann Nitsch,“ Neues Forum, No. 246, June 1974, Vienna, p. 44; Otto Mühl, ZOCK, Aspekte einer Totalrevolution 66/71 Munich, 1971; Supervisuel 6, „Otto Mühl will Menschen schlachten,“ Zurich, 1970.

[18] Fritz Rumler:” Ein Problem der Umweltverschmutzung?,“ Der Spiegel, 1968 (exact date illegible), Frankfurt,  p. 254

[19] Josef Dvorak: “Amoklauf der Aktionisten,“ Neues Forum, Sept./Oct. 1974, Nos. 249/250, p. 2.

[20] Falter 24-30, 7, No. 30, 1998, p. 18.

[21] Paula Devarney: “Nitsch – Art of Killing,” Caellian, 9. Oct. 1970; Hermann Nitsch: Das rote Tuch –

Das Orgien Mysterien Theater – Im Spiegel der Presse 1960-1988, Freibord, Vienna, 1988, p. 106.

[22] Andreas Schlothauer, Die Diktatur der freien Sexualität: AAO, Mühl-Kommune, Friedrichshof, Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik; Vienna, 1992, p. 122.

36 Andreas Schlothauer, Die Diktatur der freien Sexualität: AAO, Mühl-Kommune, Friedrichshof, Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik; Vienna, 1992 , p. 123

 

[23] Hugo Löwy: “Warum Haß?“ Renaissance, No. 10, May, 1948, p. 10: quoted from a lecture by Otto Mauer on April 10, 1948 at the Volkshochschule Alsergrund for the “Circle for Christian and Jewish Problems”; also referred to in No. 18, Jan. 1949; researched by Dr. Evelyn Adunka.

[24] Hugo Löwy: “Warum Haß?“ Renaissance, No. 10, May, 1948, p. 10: quoted from a lecture by Otto Mauer on April 10, 1948 at the Volkshochschule Alsergrund for the “Circle for Christian and Jewish Problems”; also referred to in No. 18, Jan. 1949.

[25] Renaissance, No. 18, January, 1949.

[26] Salzburger Nachrichten, „Geistiger Widerstand“, Martin Behr, Interview mit Bischof Egon Kapellari, p. 14, 19. Nov. 2005.

[27] Kurier, March 6, 2010.

[28] Christa Zöchling: “Ex-Presse‘-Chef im Dienste der CIA: Otto Schulmeister agierte für den Geheimdienst.”  Profil. No. 17 April 20, 2009.

[29] Inlandsreport, ORF, July 20, 1989; Medien und Zeit, No. 3, 1989, Vienna, p. 2,

[30] Ibid.

[31] Sources: Greta Scherhak; Walter Jaromin, Detective.

[32] Andreas Schlothauer: Die Diktatur der freien Sexualität, p. 139.

[33] Andreas Schlothauer: Die Diktatur der freien Sexualität, p 174.

[34] Transparent Spezial, ORF (Austrian Radio), May 8, 1996.

[35] Josef Dvorak: “Die Faschisten von heute: Antwort an Hermann Nitsch,“ Neues Forum, No. 246, June 1974, Vienna, p. 44; Otto Mühl, ZOCK, Aspekte einer Totalrevolution 66/71 Munich, 1971; Supervisuel 6, „Otto Mühl will Menschen schlachten,“ Zurich, 1970.

[36] Fritz Rumler:” Ein Problem der Umweltverschmutzung?,“ Der Spiegel, 1968 (exact date illegible), Frankfurt,  p. 254

[37] Josef Dvorak: “Amoklauf der Aktionisten,“ Neues Forum, Sept./Oct. 1974, Nos. 249/250, p. 2.

[38] Andreas Schlothauer, Die Diktatur der freien Sexualität: AAO, Mühl-Kommune, Friedrichshof, Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik; Vienna, 1992, p. 122.

36 Andreas Schlothauer, Die Diktatur der freien Sexualität: AAO, Mühl-Kommune, Friedrichshof, Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik; Vienna, 1992 , p. 123

 

[39] Falter 24-30, 7, No. 30, 1998, p. 18.

[40] Paula Devarney: “Nitsch – Art of Killing,” Caellian, 9. Oct. 1970; Hermann Nitsch: Das rote Tuch –

Das Orgien Mysterien Theater – Im Spiegel der Presse 1960-1988, Freibord, Vienna, 1988, p. 106.

[41] Christa Zöchling: “Ex-Presse‘-Chef im Dienste der CIA: Otto Schulmeister agierte für den Geheimdienst.”  Profil. No. 17 April 20, 2009.

[42] Inlandsreport, ORF, July 20, 1989; Medien und Zeit, No. 3, 1989, Vienna, p. 2,

[43] Ibid.

[44] Letter to the editor by Lore Jarosch, Kronen-Zeitung, August 4, 1998, p. 20.

[45] Hermann Nitsch: Orgien Mysterien Theater/Orgies Mystery Theater, März Verlag, Darmtadt, 1969; Das Orgien-Mysterien-Theaters in Schloß Prinzendorf, Vols.1-9, Edition Freibord, Vienna, Die Eroberung von Jerusalem, Die Drossel, Berlin, 1977.

[46] Die Eroberung Jerusalems, Die Drossel, Berlin, 1977.

[47] www.politik-forum.at Political Discussion Platform for Austria..

[48] Die Eroberung Jerusalems, Die Drossel, Berlin, 1977.

[49] Erlesen, ORF III, 22.3.216

[50] Rudolf Scholten, Profil, No. 11, 8, March 8, 2004, p. 147.