Arno Schmidt (; 18 January 1914 – 3 June 1979) was a German author and translator. He is little known outside of German-speaking areas, in part because his works present a formidable challenge to translators. Although he is not one of the popular favourites within Germany, critics and writers often consider him to be one of the most important German-language writers of the 20th century.

Biography

Born in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, the son of a police constable, Schmidt moved in 1928, after the death of his father (1883–1928), with his mother (1894–1973), to her hometown of Lauban (in

Lusatia Lusatia (german: Lausitz, pl, Łużyce, hsb, Łužica, dsb, Łužyca, cs, Lužice, la, Lusatia, rarely also referred to as Sorbia) is a historical region in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland. Lusatia stretches from the Bóbr ...

, then

Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( pl, Dolny Śląsk; cz, Dolní Slezsko; german: Niederschlesien; szl, Dolny Ślōnsk; hsb, Delnja Šleska; dsb, Dolna Šlazyńska; Silesian German: ''Niederschläsing''; la, Silesia Inferior) is the northwestern part of the ...

, now Poland) and attended secondary school in

Görlitz Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...

as well as a trade school there. After finishing school, he was unemployed for some months and then, in 1934, began a commercial apprenticeship at a textile company in Greiffenberg. After finishing his apprenticeship he was hired by the same company as a stock accountant. Around this time, at his company, he met his future wife, Alice Murawski. The couple married on 21 August 1937; they had no children. At the outset of World War II, in 1939, Schmidt was drafted into the ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

'', where his mathematical skills led him to be assigned to the artillery corps. He first served in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

and after 1941 in fairly quiet

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. In 1945, Schmidt volunteered for active front duty in Northern Germany, in order to be granted a brief home visit. As the war was obviously lost, he used this visit to organise his wife's and his own escape to the west of Germany, in order to evade capture by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

, which was known for its much harsher treatment of prisoners of war and German civilians. Schmidt gave himself up to British forces in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. As refugees, Schmidt and his wife lost almost all of their possessions, including their cherished book collection. After an interlude as a British POW and later as an interpreter at a police school, Schmidt began his career as a freelance writer in 1946. Since Schmidt's pre-war home in Lauban was now under Polish administration, Schmidt and his wife were among the millions of refugees moved by the authorities to numerous places in what was to become

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. During this time of uncertainty and extreme poverty, the Schmidts were sustained by CARE Packages his sister sent them from the US (his sister Lucie had emigrated to the US in 1939, together with her husband Rudy Kiesler, a Jewish German communist). Temporary accommodations led the Schmidts to Cordingen (near

Bomlitz Bomlitz is a village and a former municipality in the Heidekreis district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. On 1 January 2020, it was merged into the town Walsrode. Geography Location Bomlitz lies on the Lüneburg Heath in a heavily wooded area. ...

Gau-Bickelheim Gau-Bickelheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Gau-Bickelheim lies south of ...

, and Kastel (the latter two in the newly formed state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

). In Kastel, he was accused in court of

blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religiou ...

and moral subversion, then still considered a crime in some of the Catholic regions of Germany. As a result, Schmidt and his wife moved to the Protestant city of

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

, where the suit against him was dismissed. In 1958, the Schmidts moved to the small village of

Bargfeld Bargfeld is a hamlet of about 190 inhabitants near Celle in Lower Saxony, Germany, documented since 1056, now belonging to the village municipality Eldingen. It has become famous for the many novels and stories the great German author Arno Schm ...

, where they were to stay for the rest of their lives, Schmidt dying in 1979, his wife Alice in 1983.

Writing style and personal philosophy

Schmidt was a strict

individualist Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-relianc ...

, almost a

solipsist Solipsism (; ) is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known ...

. Disaffected by his experience of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, he had an extremely pessimistic world view. In 1951's ''

Schwarze Spiegel Schwarze may refer to: * Achim Schwarze (born 1958), German author * Schwarze Elster The Black Elster or Schwarze Elster () is a long river in eastern Germany, in the states Saxony, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, right tributary of the Elbe. Its ...

'' (''Dark Mirrors''), he describes his utopia as an empty world after an

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human im ...

apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...

. Although he was not a

deist Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...

in the conventional sense, he maintained that the world was created by a monster called

Leviathan Leviathan (; he, לִוְיָתָן, ) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to some ...

, whose predatory nature was passed on to humans. Still, he thought this monster could not be too powerful to be attacked, if it behoved humanity. His writing style is characterised by a unique and witty style of adapting colloquial language, which won him quite a few fervent admirers. Moreover, he developed an

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...

by which he thought to reveal the true meaning of words and their connections amongst each other. One of the most cited examples is the use of ''“Roh=Mann=Tick"'' instead of "Romantik" (revealing romanticism as the craze of unsubtle men). The atoms of words holding the nuclei of original meaning he called Etyme (etyms).

''Zettel's Dream''

His theory of etyms is developed in his

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

, '' Zettels Traum'', in which an elderly writer comments on

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

's works in a

stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver (physician), Daniel Ol ...

, while discussing a Poe translation with a couple of translators and flirting with their teenage daughter. Schmidt also accomplished a translation of Edgar Allan Poe's works himself (1966–1973, together with

Hans Wollschläger 150px, Signature, 1988 Hans Wollschläger (17 March 1935, in Minden – 19 May 2007, in Bamberg) was a German writer, translator, historian, and editor of German literature. Biography Wollschläger is widely known as the translator of '' Ulysse ...

). Some critics even dismissed ''Zettel's Traum'' as non-art, or sheer nonsense, and Schmidt himself as a "psychopath". But Schmidt's reputation as

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

, and that of his work as non-art, has faded and he is now seen as an important, if highly eccentric, German writer of the 20th century.

Other, minor works

In the 1960s, he authored a series of plays for German radio stations presenting forgotten or little known and—in his opinion—vastly underrated authors, e.g.

Johann Gottfried Schnabel Johann Gottfried Schnabel (November 7, 1692 – ) was a German writer best known for his novel ''Insel Felsenburg''. He published his works under the pen name Gisander. Schnabel was born in Sandersdorf near Bitterfeld, Germany. Orphaned in 1694, ...

Karl Philipp Moritz Karl Philipp Moritz (Hameln, 15 September 1756 – Berlin, 26 June 1793) was a German author, editor and essayist of the ''Sturm und Drang'', late Enlightenment, and classicist periods, influencing early German Romanticism as well. He led a li ...

Leopold Schefer Leopold Schefer (30 July 1784 in Muskau – 13 February 1862 in Muskau), German poet, novelist, and composer, was born in a small town in Upper Lusatia (then under Saxon rule), the only child of a poor country doctor. Biography Leopold Schefer wa ...

Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow ( in Berlin – in Sachsenhausen) was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century. Life Gutzkow was born of an extremely poor family, not proletarian, but of the lowest and most meni ...

, and others. These "plays" are basically talks about literature with two or three participants plus voices for quotations (Schmidt lent his voice for his translations of ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction whi ...

'' quoted in ''Der Triton mit dem Sonnenschirm''

961 Year 961 ( CMLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 6 – Siege of Chandax: Byzantine forces under Nikephoros II Phokas cap ...

. Eleven of these so-called "Radio-Essays" were republished on 12 audio CDs in 2003.

The final years

1971 Schmidt was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

Lars Gyllensten Lars Johan Wictor Gyllensten (12 November 1921 – 25 May 2006) was a Swedish author and physician, and a member of the Swedish Academy. Gyllensten was born and grew up in a middle-class family in Stockholm, son of Carl Gyllensten and Ingrid R ...

, a member of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, Gustav III, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish lang ...

. But as none of Schmidt's works sold more than a few thousand copies (he openly admitted that he only wrote for the small handful of people who could appreciate his work), he lived in extreme poverty. During the last few years of his life, he was financially supported by the

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and writer

Jan Philipp Reemtsma Jan Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma (born 26 November 1952) is a German literary scholar, author, and patron who founded and was the long-term director of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Reemtsma lives and works mainly in Hamburg. Biog ...

, the heir of the German cigarette manufacturer Philipp F. Reemtsma. Schmidt's final completed novel was ''Abend mit Goldrand'' (1975) which was praised by some critics for its verbal inventiveness, although many had a difficult time digesting the erotic themes of the book. He died in a hospital in

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

on 3 June 1979 after suffering a stroke.

Posthumous legacy

Dalkey Archive Press Dalkey Archive Press is an American publisher of fiction, poetry, foreign translations and literary criticism specializing in the publication or republication of lesser-known, often avant-garde works. The company has offices in Funks Grove, Il ...

has reissued five volumes of Schmidt's work translated by John E. Woods. The series includes ''Collected Novellas'', ''Collected Stories'', ''Nobodaddy's Children'', ''Two Novels'', and most recently, '' Bottom’s Dream'' (''Zettel’s Traum''). The reissues were scheduled to coincide with "Rediscovering Arno Schmidt events in the US, UK, and continental Europe." The Arno Schmidt Foundation (''Arno Schmidt Stiftung'') in

, sponsored by

, is publishing his complete works.

Arno Schmidt Prize

The Arno Schmidt Prize, awarded by the Arno Schmidt Foundation and awarded from 1981 to 1988, was endowed with DM 50,000 (about €25,000). The prize has only been awarded four times: *1982:

* 1984:

Wolfgang Koeppen Wolfgang Arthur Reinhold Koeppen (23 June 1906 – 15 March 1996) was a German novelist and one of the best known German authors of the postwar period. Life Koeppen was born out of wedlock in Greifswald, Pomerania, to Marie Köppen, a seamstress w ...

* 1986:

Peter Rühmkorf Peter Rühmkorf (25 October 1929 – 8 June 2008) was a German writer who significantly influenced German post-war literature. Rühmkorf's literary career started in 1952 in Hamburg with the magazine ''Zwischen den Kriegen'' ("Between the Wars"), ...

* 1988: Karlheinz Deschner After that the award was converted into the two-year Arno Schmidt scholarship, endowed with 36,000 euros.

Arno Schmidt scholarship winners

* 1992/1993:

Ulrich Holbein Ulrich Holbein (born January 24, 1953, in Erfurt) is a German writer. Holbein was the winner of the 2003 Hugo Ball Prize and winner of the 2012 Kassel Literary Prize The Kassel Literary Prize for Grotesque Humor (''Kasseler Literaturpreis fü ...

* 1994/1995:

Andreas Eschbach Andreas Eschbach (born 15 September 1959, in Ulm) is a German writer, primarily of science fiction. His stories that are not clearly in the SF genre usually feature elements of the fantastic. Biography Eschbach studied aerospace engineering ...

* 1996/1997:

Werner Kofler Werner Kofler (23 July 1947 – 8 December 2011) was an Austrian novelist was born in Villach, Austria, and died in Vienna. Life Werner Kofler was the son of a merchant. He broke off his teacher training at the teacher training college in Klag ...

* 2000/2001: Kurt Drabert * 2000: Georg Martin Oswald * 2002/2003:

Friederike Kretzen Friederike is a feminine given name which may refer to: People *Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine of Prussia, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1709–1758), Prussian princess and older sister of Frederick the Great *Princess Friederike Luise of Pr ...

* 2005/2006:

Reinhard Jirgl Reinhard Jirgl (born 16 January 1953 in East-Berlin) is a German writer. Biography Jirgl was born in Berlin-Friedrichshain. He became a skilled worker for electromechanics. Then he completed a degree in electronics at Humboldt University, Ber ...

* 2007/2008:

Werner Fritsch Werner may refer to: People * Werner (name), origin of the name and people with this name as surname and given name Fictional characters * Werner (comics), a German comic book character * Werner Von Croy, a fictional character in the ''Tomb Rai ...

* 2015/2016: Andreas Maier *2018/2019: Georg Klein

Bibliography

Novels

*''Brand's Haide'' (1951). ''Brand's Heath'' * ''Schwarze Spiegel'' (1951). ''Dark Mirrors'' *''Aus dem Leben eines Fauns'' (1953). ''Scenes from the Life of a Faun'' *''Das steinerne Herz'' (1954). ''The Stony Heart'' *''KAFF auch Mare Crisium'' (1960). ''B/Moondocks'' *''Nobodaddy's Kinder'' (1963). ''Nobodaddy's Children''; collects ''Aus dem Leben eines Fauns, Brand's Haide, Schwarze Spiegel'' *'' Zettels Traum'' (1970). ''Bottom's Dream'' * '' Die Schule der Atheisten'' (1972). ''The School for Atheists'' * ''Abend mit Goldrand'' (1975). ''Evening Edged in Gold'' *''Julia, oder die Gemälde'' (unfinished, 1983).

Novellas and short stories

* ''Leviathan'' (1949). Includes: ''Enthymesis'', ''Gadir'', ''Leviathan'' *''Die Umsiedler – 2 Prosastudien'' (1953)''.'' Includes: ''Die Umsiedler'' (''The Displaced'') and ''Alexander'' *''Seelandschaft mit Pocahontas'' (1955). ''Lake Scenery with Pocahontas'' * ''Kosmas oder Vom Berge des Nordens'' (1955) * ''Tina oder über die Unsterblichkeit'' (1956) * ''Goethe und einer seiner Bewunderer'' (1957) * ''Die Gelehrtenrepublik'' (1957). ''The Egghead Republic'' (trans. Michael Horovitz, 1979) and ''Republica Intelligentsia'' (trans. John E. Woods, 1994) * ''Rosen und Porree'' (1959). Collects ''Pocahontas'', ''Die Umsiedler'', ''Alexander'' and ''Kosmas'' * ''Kühe in Halbtrauer'' (1964). Later published as ''Ländliche Erzählungen'' (''Country Matters'') * ''Trommler beim Zaren'' (1966). Short story anthology.

Dialogues

* ''Massenbach, Cooper, Brockes, Fouqué, Pape, Schnabel, Europa, Wieland, Meyern, Meisterdiebe, Klopstock, Moritz'' * ''Joyce, May, Stifter, Krakatau, Herder, Vorspiel, Oppermann, Wezel, Kreisschlösser, Müller, Tieck, Schefer, Dickens'' * ''Das Zweite Programm, Joyce, May, Frenssen, Stifter, Gutzkow, Lafontaine, Joyce, Collins, Bulwer-Lytton, Spindler''

Literary theory

* ''Fouqué und einige seiner Zeitgenossen'', biography of

Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué (); (12 February 1777 – 23 January 1843) was a German writer of the Romantic style. Biography He was born at Brandenburg an der Havel, of a family of French Huguenot origin, as evidenced in ...

, 1958 (2nd, extended ed. 1960) *''Dya Na Sore'' (1958) *''Belphegor'' (1961) * ''Sitara und der Weg dorthin'', biography of

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...

, 1963 *''Die Ritter vom Geist'' (1965) *''Der Triton mit den Sonnenschirm'' (1969). ''The Triton with the Parasol''

English translations

* ''The Egghead Republic'' – 1979 (''Die Gelehrtenrepublik'', trans.

Michael Horovitz Michael Yechiel Ha-Levi Horovitz (4 April 1935 – 7 July 2021) was a German-born British poet, editor, visual artist and translator who was a leading part of the Beat Poetry scene in the UK. In 1959, while still a student, he founded the "t ...

) * ''Evening Edged in Gold'' – 1980 (''Abend mit Goldrand'', trans. John E. Woods) * ''Scenes from the Life of a Faun'' – 1983 (''Aus dem Leben eines Fauns'', trans. John E. Woods; revised in 1995) * ''Collected Early Fiction, 1949–1964'', in four volumes (all trans. John E. Woods): ** Volume 1: ''Collected Novellas'' – 1994; collects ''Enthymesis'' (1949), ''Leviathan'' (1949), ''Gadir'' (1949), ''Alexander'' (1953), ''The Displaced'' (1953), ''Lake Scenery with Pocahontas'' (1955), ''Cosmas'' (1955), ''Tina'' (1956), ''Goethe'' (1957) and ''Republica Intelligentsia'' (1957) ** Volume 2: ''Nobodaddy's Children'' – 1995; collects ''Scenes from the Life of a Faun'' (1953), ''Brand's Heath'' (1951) and ''Dark Mirrors'' (1951) ** Volume 3: ''Collected Stories'' – 1996; collects ''Aus der Inselstraße'' (''Tales from Island Street'') (16 stories, 1955-1962), ''Stürenburg-Geschichten'' (''Stürenburg Stories'') (9 stories, 1955-1959), ''Country Matters'' (9 stories and the novella ''Caliban über Setebos'' (''Caliban upon Stetebos''), 1960-1964) ** Volume 4: ''Two Novels'' – 1997; collects ''The Stony Heart'' (1954) and ''B/Moondocks'' (1960) * ''Radio Dialogs I'' – 1999 (trans. John E. Woods) * ''

The School for Atheists ''The School for Atheists: A Novella=Comedy in 6 Acts'' (''Die Schule der Atheisten'') is a novel by Arno Schmidt. It was originally published in German in 1972. It was translated into English by John E. Woods and published by Green Integer in 20 ...

'' – 2001 (''Die Schule der Atheisten'', trans. John E. Woods) * ''Radio Dialogs II'' – 2003 (trans. John E. Woods) * ''Bottom's Dream'' – 2016 ('' Zettels Traum'', trans. John E. Woods)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Arno 1914 births 1979 deaths Writers from Hamburg English–German translators German Army personnel of World War II Translators of Edgar Allan Poe Trümmerliteratur 20th-century German translators 20th-century German novelists German male novelists 20th-century German male writers