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Elisabeth Langgässer and Juan Donoso Cortés: A Source of the “Turm-Kapitel” in Das Unauslöschliche Siegel
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Abstract
New documentary evidence throws light on the genesis of Das unauslöschliche Siegel and on Langgässer's narrative techniques. Her hitherto unpublished notes on Donoso prove that the extensive quotations from his works in the “Turm-Kapitel” derive from one source: L. Fischer's introduction to his translation of the Ensayo sobre el calolicismo. Further evidence supplied by her widower shows that she wrote the chapter before 1944, and that its mise-en-scène was prefigured in her visit to Senlis, France, in 1937. Thus, the hypothesis is untenable that—as an attempt at self-justification in the face of charges of manichaeism—she inserted the chapter only after she had completed the rest of the novel. It seems probable that Langgässer considered Donoso's life exemplary from a Christian viewpoint, and that her montage of his writings stemmed from her desire to create a “new form” for the Christian novel. Donoso's religious beliefs and his hostility to the Enlightenment not only provide appropriate material for the chapter (the “counterpointing” of religious, cultural, and political events in Europe over a period of several centuries), but also reflect Langgasser's own religious attitudes, which any critical appreciation of the novel as a whole must take into account.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1968
References
1 Elisabeth Langgâsser, Das unausldschliche Siegel (Gesammelte Werke, Hamburg: Claassen Verlag, 1959), pp. 303–336. Future references are to this edition, indicated by DuS in the footnotes. I wish to express my thanks to the Weil Institute for Studies in Religion and the Humanities (Cincinnati, Ohio) for the award of a Summer Fellowship in 1965, which enabled me to do much of the preparatory work for the present article.
2 Elisabeth Langgâsser uses the descriptive abbreviation “Turm-Kapitel,” which does not appear in the text of the novel, in her essay “Grenzen und Môglichkeiten christlicher Dichtung” (1949), in Das ChrislUche der christlichen Dichtung. Vortrage und Briefe (Olten und Freiburg i. Br., 1961), p. 38. The Gesammelte Werke edition of 1959 differs from the first edition (Hamburg, 1946), and from subsequent editions up to 1953 in that the three “Books” of the novel are no longer divided into numbered chapters; these are suggested by spaces in the typeface. Otherwise, the text of all editions is identical, except that the introductory “Proszenium” of the first three editions (1946, 1948, 1949 [pp. 5–15]) was omitted in the fourth edition (1953) and in the 1959 edition. Thus, although any use of the terms “Kapitel” or “chapter” is rather problematic, it is the most convenient one for our present purposes.
3 Hermann Broch, “The Indelible Seal: A German Novel of the Pilgrimage of Faith,” Commentary, x (1950), 170–174. The slightly abridged German version of this illuminating essay, “Randbemerkungen zu Elisabeth Langgâssers Roman Das unausldschliche Siegel” (Die literarische Revue, iv, 1949, 56–59), is not included in Broch's Gesammelte Werke (Zurich, 1953–61). Broch, an enthusiastic admirer of Elisabeth Langgâsser's work and the first critic in North America to comment on the novel, tried very hard, although in vain, to have an American publisher commission an English translation of DuS. In this connection see Wilhelm Hoffmann, “Der Briefwechsel zwischen Elisabeth Langgâsser und Hermann Broch,” LJGG, v (1964), 297–326.
4 Brief discussions of the Donoso-chapter are to be found in Eva Augsberger, Elisabeth Langgâsser. Assoziative Reihung, Leitmotiv und Symbol in ihren Prosawerken, Erlanger Beitrâge zur Sprach- und Kunstwissenschaft, Xii (Niirnberg, 1962), p. 55; and in Use Hardenbruch, Der Roman “Das unaus loschliche Siegel” im dichterischen Werk Elisabeth LanggSssers. Ein Beitrag zur Form des modernen religiosen Romans [diss., Koln, 1962] (Dusseldorf, 1962), pp. 100, 109–110, 169–170.
Augsberger rather surprisingly considers the Donoso-chapter as “weitgehend unepisch” and consigns her comments on it to a footnote; Hardenbruch's interesting, but scattered refer ences to the chapter discuss some of its theological aspects, but do not do justice to its artistic merits.
5 The symbolic significance of Francois's allusion to the dried-out fountain (Mortefontaine), the life-giving waters of which (Bellefontaine) are now only a memory, lies in the almost direct reference to the name of the novel's “hero,” Belfontaine. The waters of his baptism have also “dried out”; he, too, remains a “dead fountain” until his second “baptism” in the torrential rains of a violent thunderstorm when his second conversion takes place. For a more detailed discussion of the water imagery in DuS, see Eva Augsberger, Elisabeth Langgdsser, pp. 56–67.
6 See Erich Przywara, Uumanitas: Der Mensch gestern und morgen (Nurnberg, 1952), p. 714, and Eberhard Horst, “Christliche Dichtung und moderne Welterfahrung. Zum epischen Werk Elisabeth Langgâssers” (unpubl. diss., Miinchen, 1956), p. 152 and p. 214, n. 15.
7 For a typical critical attitude chastising Elisabeth Langgâsser for the dualistic gnostic-manichaeistic Weltanschauung expressed in her works and for her overemphasis of evil, particularly sexuality, see Hans Egon Holthusen, Der unbekauste Mensch: Motive und Problème der modernen Literatur (Miinchen, 1951), p. 176, and Ja und Nein: Neue Kriiische Versuche (Miinchen, 1954), pp. 258–259. Luise Rinser gives an amusing catalogue of the charges of this kind levelled at DuS in her useful essay “Magische Argonautenfahrt. Betrachtungen iiber die Dichterin Elisabeth Langgasser,” Der Monat, iii (1950), 301.
8 “Elisabeth Langgâsser scheint sich vor dem Vorwurf des Manichaismus durch die Berufung auf die pessimistische Geschichtsphilosophie Donoso Cortés' zu retten, dem sie im Unausloschlichen Siegel ein Kapitel widmet, das in der zehnjàhrigen Entstehungszeit des Romans erst ganz am Ende eingefiigt wurde” (Horst, p. 152).
9 Cf. H. Abel, Die Kirche und die Zivilisation in den Briefen von Donoso Cortés (Miinchen, 1920), pp. 15–28.
10 See especially DuS, pp. 386–407.
11 See Elisabeth Langgâsser “Aufsâtze 1948–49” in Geist in den Sinnen behausl (Mainz, 1951), pp. 145–191, and also Dos Ckristliche der christlichen Dichtung: Vortrdge und Briefe (Olten and Freiburg i. Br., 1961), passim. Future references to the latter volume are indicated by CcD.
12 Letter dated 13 March 1947, in E. Langgâsser, … so viel berauschende Vergànglichkeit: Briefe 1926–1950, ed. Wilhelm Hoffmann (Hamburg, 1954), pp. 153–154. Future references to this volume are indicated by Briefe 1926–1950.
13 u CcD, p. 76.
14 “The reader is asked to believe that the events of this story are not due to mere chance, but form a miracle because of the indelible seal stamped on the Jew Belfontaine by the act of baptism. Is this demand, however, ineluctable? The believer, the Catholic believer, certainly, will yield to it— but the others? Believers of other faiths? The atheist?” (Hermann Broch, “The Indelible Seal …,” Commentary, x, 1950, 174).
15 In this connection see Helmut Kuhn, Wesen und Wirken des Kunstwerks (MUnchen, 1960), pp. 49 and 96–118.
16 “The Indelible Seal of Elisabeth Langgâsser,” GR, xxvii (1952), 209.
17 There are very few exceptions to this rule, notably Eva Augsberger's study (see ii. 4, above), Bernhard Blume, “Zur Metaphorik von Elisabeth Langgâssers Roman Das unausloschliche Siegel,” Euphorion, xLviii (1954), 71–89, and Heinz Piontek, “Zu Elisabeth Langgâssers Roman-Prosa,” Welt und Wort, ix (1954), 299–300. Rainer Rebel's statement, made in 1962 and coupled with a plea for a new edition of Langgâsser's works adequate for the needs of scholarship, still holds good today: “Zwolf Jahre nach dem Tode der Dichterin … ist ihr Werk innerhalb der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur immer noch eine kaum erforschte Enklave” (“Die beiden Fassungen der Proserpina von Elisabeth Langgâsser,” Deutsche Rundschau, Lxxxvin, 1962, 938).
18 Jules Chaix-Ruy, Donoso Cortés: théologien de l'histoire et prophète, Bibliothèque des Archives de Philosophie, Sixième Section, Philosophie Moderne, ? (Paris, 1956), pp. 121–122.
19 Chaix-Ruy, p. 122, ii. 8.
20 I particularly wish to record my deep debt of gratitude to Dr. Wilhelm Hoffmann, the unexpected news of whose death on 5 Feb. 1967 reached me after my article had been completed, for his generous advice, help, and encouragement. I also wish to express my thanks to his heirs, Frau Dr. Christa Hoffmann-zur Verth, Frau Barbara Gruttner Hoffmann, and Frauleins Annette, Franziska, and Elisabeth Hoffmann, for their permission to quote from unpublished manuscripts of Elisabeth Langgâsser. A list of Dr. Hoffmann's writings on Frau Langgâsser may be consulted in my bibliography, “Die Literatur iiber Elisabeth Langgâsser: Eine Bibliographie,” LJGG, viii (1967), 265–287. At present, I am preparing, in collaboration with Frau Barbara Griittner-Hoffmann, a primary bibliography of Elisabeth Langgâsser's works, together with a 2Vacttabericht, both of which will appear in future volumes of LJGG.
21 In a letter to me, dated Cologne, 13 Sept. 1966, Dr. Hoffmann wrote: “… [ich] kann bestimmt sagen, dafi aufier diesen Notizen iiber Donoso nichts vorliegt.” In the same letter an interesting insight is given into the way in which Elisabeth Langgâsser worked as a writer: “Es gehoren diese zwei Seiten zu dem wenigen Material, das E.L. vorbereitet hat. Sie machte weder fur den Gang der Romane noch fur sonstige Arbeiten grofie Vorârbeiten.”
22 Words and phrases enclosed within asterisks are crossed out in the original; words in italics are underlined in the original; square brackets denote my own interpolations.
23 A Letter to me, dated Cologne, 23 July 1966.
24 “Die These von E[berhard] H[orst] ist schlechthin irrig. Es [the chapter] ist im Laufe der Abfassung geschrieben worden” (ibid.). In a published letter dated 30 July 1939 Elisabeth Langgâsser mentions that her novel “bereits zu einem Buch von annahernd dreihundert Schreibmaschinen seiten angewachsen ist” (Briefe 1926–1950, p. 90). Since the typed MS of the novel consisted of 652 pages (an unpublished letter to E. Langgâsser from H. Goverts Verlag, Hamburg, dated 10 Nov. 1945 [now in the possession of the heirs of Dr. W. Hoffmann, Cologne], confirming the receipt of the MS, gives this exact figure), it seems probable that the Donoso-chapter was written in the early years of World War II; it certainly was not written later than April 1944, since by that time, as an unpublished letter of E. Langgâsser to Wilhelm Lehmann, dated 26 April 1944 (in the possession of the heirs of Dr. W. Hoffmann), makes clear, the novel was “zu etwa zwei Dritteln (oder drei Vierteln) fertig.” Unfortunately, it seems almost certain that the MS of DuS is no longer extant. When I visited Cologne in the summer of 1967 and made a thorough examination of the late Dr. Hoffmann's extensive collection of his wife's papers, the only traces of the MS that I could find were the following: a handwritten draft (with numerous corrections) of “Epilog 1943” (DuS, pp. 591–623), one single sheet (p. 144) of what appears to be the original typescript, and microfilms of 52 pages of the typescript (irregularly paginated, with some handwritten corrections), corresponding to DuS, pp. 169–189 and 216–235. A more detailed report on these items will be contained in my N achlaûbericht (see ii. 20, above). Langgâsser's publishers, Claassen Verlag (formerly H. Goverts Verlag), Hamburg, inform me in a letter dated 14 June 1967 that the MS is no longer in their possession and is thus presumably lost.
25 Juan Donoso Cortés, Der Stoat Gotles: Eine katholische GeschichtsphUosophie, tr, and ed. Ludwig Fischer (Karlsruhe: Badenia Verlag, 1933). The page references in Elisabeth Langgâsser's notes tally exactly with Fischer's pagination.
26 Fischer, Einleitung, pp. 1–112. The pagination of the Einleitung is in italicised Arabic numerals; future page references to the Einleitung, as opposed to the text of the translation, will be in italics. It is interesting to note that the first German translation (1854) of the Ensayo was probably commissioned by Metternich, who, together with Ranke and Schelling, was an admirer of Donoso's (cf. Fischer, pp. 4–5, and 37).
27 Juan Donoso Cortes, Der Staat Gotles: Eine katholische GeschichtsphUosophie, tr. and ed. Ludwig Fischer (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966). While this is described (p. [iv]) as an “unverânderter reprographischer Nachdruck der Ausgabe Karlsruhe 1933,” the half-title page of the 1933 edition was not, however, reprinted in full in 1966; the original half-title page contained the quotation from Menendez Pelayo (“Wo Donoso Cortés wohnt, haben nur Konige Zutritt”) which E. Langgâsser reproduced at the beginning of her notes under the heading: “Vor-Motto des Schreibers.”
28 The following complete list of page references to the text of DuS and to the appropriate passages in Fischer will serve to facilitate the task of scholars who wish to examine the source in more detail. The first page reference is to DuS, and those after the diagonal stroke (/) refer to Fischer: 314/3, 51, 6,8; 315/2, 3, 43; 316/43,44,11,12,13; 311/44; 318/44, 105, 106; 319/106; 320/29; 321/29; 322/29; 323/25, 32; 311/32; 325/29; 326/J0, 37, 33; 327/33, 34, 35, 36, 23; 328/ 23; 329/54; 331/3, 4,8, 9, 11; 332/18, 20, 21, 22, 27; 333/27, 28, 29.
29 See Fischer, p. 51, n. 3. The original quotation runs:“La letra con sangre entra.”
30 See DuS, pp. 589–590.
31 See DuS, pp. 25, 259, 581–583.
32 See Fischer, pp, 13–23.
33 See DuS, pp. 327–329, and Fischer, pp. 21–25. Tn Elisabeth Langgasser's notes on Donoso the date of the letter is erroneously given as 15 July 1849, which was in fact the date of Albéric de Blanche's letter, to which Donoso replied on 21 July (see Fischer, p. 21), giving the account of his conversion.
34 It is interesting to note that Jules Çhaix-Ruy quotes a long passage from this letter of Raczinski's to illustrate the “masterly intuition” which he considers so characteristic of Elisabeth Langgâsser's approach to the œuvre of Donoso Cortés (Chaix-Ruy, Donoso Cortés, p. 122).
35 M The text of DuS appears to be marred here by a misprint: “belehren” instead of “bekehren.”
36 See Fischer, p. 38.
37 CcD, pp. 39–40, and (with minor variants) DuS, pp. 326–327. The source is to be found in Fischer, p. 33; a comparison of Fischer's translation with Elisabeth Langgâsser's version reveals a slight “modernization” of words (e.g., “Katastrophe” for “Sintflut,” “in der Zeitlichkeit” for “hienieden”) and also the addition of phrases to achieve special emphasis (e.g., “und zwar zwangslâufig” is not in Fischer); but apart from minor modifications of this kind, it is completely faithful to the original.
38 “Moglichkeiten christlicher Dichtung—heute” (1948), CcD, p. 20.
39 In this connection see Hans Urner, “Barock—heute: Zu E. Langgassers neuem Werk,” Zeichen der Zeit, I (1947), 329–334.
40 In “Grenzen und Moglichkeiten christlicher Dichtung” (CcD, pp. 38–39), Langgâsser quotes extensively from the passage in which these words of François occur—the Donosochapter again serving to illustrate her theories on the modem Christian novel.
41 CcD, p. 20 [my italics],
42 CcD, p. 21.
43 See Karl Korn, “Briefe der Elisabeth Langgâsser,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 55 (6 March 1954), Literaturblatt (unpaginated).
44 For a lucid summary of these conflicting theories and of recent research in this field, see Martin Broszat, “New Focus—i: Nazism,” TLS (8 Sept. 1966), pp. 829–830.
45 Fischer, p. 32.
46 Fischer, p. 32. The last sentence of Fischer's version runs: “Ich glaube, dafi es von seiner Geburt an dem Satan … geweiht ist und hege die Uberzeugung, dafi es ihm durch ein Geheimnis seiner Geschichte (‘por una fatalidad de su historia‘) fur immer geweiht bleibt.”
47 DuS, pp. 324–325, and Fischer, pp. 28–30.
48 See Clara Menck, “Perlentauchen und Reprâsentanz. Zum 60. Geburtstag von Elisabeth Langgâsser,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 44 (21 Feb. 1959), p. 2.
49 The motto of the novel (DuS, p. 6) is “Commystis committo.” See also Elisabeth Langgâsser's remarks in CcD, p. 24.