23. November 2007 by admin.

2008, the year of Lion’s fiftieth Todestag, rapidly approaching; must catch up on some events from earlier this year. In March Edgar F. and I gave father-son talk at the Lion Feuchtwanger Gymnasium in Munich on aspects of Lion’s work and Edgar’s life in Munich in the 1930s.  

Met up with Peter Thalheim, a teacher at the school and author of the Oldenbourg study guide for Die Geschwister Oppermann, along with other familiar faces among the teaching staff (we’ve both given talks at the school before, as has Primrose F., who impressed class with renditions of Australian English).

For obvious reasons German high school students don’t gobble up everything Nazi-related on the syllabus in the same way as their British or American counterparts, but they were alert enough. School’s approach to teaching the Third Reich sometimes emphasizes resistance to Nazism among the population. Peter pointed out that Die Geschwister Oppermann is very readable; students groaned as he held up his study guide presumably for the n-th time.

Edgar gave his usual account of growing up opposite Hitler’s apartment.

Pen portrait of Edgar as a small boy by Antonia F. in British Independent on Sunday

Interest level compared favourably to that of the German lit. undergrads studying Lion’s work at the Lingvisticheskii Institut in Moscow to whom I gave a one-off lecture a couple of years ago (Lion canonical in Russian universities; also popular with twenty- and thirty-somethings in Czech Republic and Poland (anecdotal evidence from MySpace)).

In the summer Edgar F. gave a speech at the University of Munich, introducing lecture on Lion by Hans-Jochen Vogel, former leader of the opposition under Kohl, justice minister in the Seventies, and until recently the chairman of the Gegen Vergessen Für Demokratie holocaust remembrance organization. The event, one in a series entitled Münchner Porträts: Drei Jüdische Biographien, was broadcast on TV in Bavaria last month.

Edgar F. about to speak in the Audimax at the University of Munich

Vogel called Erfolg “an effective picture of Bavaria in the Twenties”, but said specifically that Lion was “blind to the crimes of Stalin”. He also spoke warmly of how, as mayor of Munich in 1972, he worked with Walter F. in the run-up to the Olympics.

Vogel an interesting example of the activist approach to Vergangenheitsbewältigung. No suggestion of personal atonement, as in any case he was barely 16 when he served in the army at the end of the war. In an earlier speech held jointly with Edgar F. at the Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich, he noted that as a young man it would never have occurred to him to question anything demanded by the state. The state was always in the right. Nonetheless he clearly feels there is collective guilt. Society—a society not tolerant of dissent—to blame. 

Wonder what Jürgen Habermas of Historikerstreit notoriety made of the event. We were introduced to him and his wife on the way into the auditorium; noticed his hair lip. He is now retired and living on the Starnbergersee.

As we gathered for dinner afterwards, Edgar hilariously warned me: “You’ve got to be careful of this restaurant, it’s Jewish”. What he was referring to was the indigestible food and schnapps that did in Primrose F. on an earlier occasion…

 Edgar F. and Hans-Jochen Vogel

Next day Edgar shot footage for Michael Verhoeven’s upcoming documentary film on expropriation of Jewish assets in the Thirties.

Hot weather also prompted visit to the Feuchtwanger Bar und Kneipe with cousin and fellow translator Ruth F. The bar is near her apartment in Bergmanstr. Framed photos of scantily-dressed tattooed women adorn walls of the bar. Owner in trilby asked us if we had some good jpeg images of Lion. Surely not to blow up and put on the walls? Stocked up on Feuchtwanger Bar und Kneipe T-shirts.

In September the biennial International Feuchtwanger Society conference, held once again in Los Angeles, was a chance to say hello to some familiar faces. Manfred Flügge was in LA to work in the archive on his upcoming biography of Marta F. IFS president Ian Wallace proud that one of son Danny Wallace’s books is being made as a Hollywood movie starring Jim Carrey.  Met the new Feuchtwanger Memorial Library curator Michaela Ullmann: FML website is to be updated to include a recent acquisitions section and other additional elements. She lamented being unable to find a lionfeuchtwanger dot domain not yet taken. Bestselling novelist Tanja Kinkel, who wrote her doctoral thesis on female archetypes in Lion’s late works and whose historical novels share some characteristics with those of Lion, gave a stirring reading of her Brecht/Lion piece at Villa Aurora, where she was a Stipendiat a few years ago.

 Tanja Kinkel at Villa Aurora

Spoke briefly to participants and introduced cousin Daniella Ohad, a great-niece of Lion, who duly stepped up to the plate as latest family member to speak. Upcoming projects: Herb Krill to produce a documentary film for 3sat for the 50th Todestag year; Friedrich Knilli’s Feuchtwanger Relaunched website will have a press launch in Berlin at some point next year.

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