November 1918 omitted passages – Stauffer
The published English translation of Döblin’s huge epic is seriously incomplete: Volume 1 is entirely missing, and the subsequent volumes have been cut by some 200 pages. This post fills the last remaining gap, so that readers of English now have access to the complete work as presented in the standard 4-volume German editions since 1978.
THE FINAL PIECE OF THE JIGSAW
Previous posts have made available in English the entire first volume of November 1918 (Citizens and Soldiers 1918) and a miscellaneous set of short omitted passages from the subsequent volumes.
This post presents the final missing passages. These form a coherent novella-length story of almost 50,000 words, scattered across all three later volumes. I have titled it (with a nod to Kingsley Amis): Stauffer and the Women
WERE THE CUTS FROM THE WOODS/FROMM TRANSLATION JUSTIFIED?
The missing passages translated as Set 1 are a miscellany of encyclopedia-style historical information; resumed storylines from Vol 1 to which readers of Woods have no access; and an isolated scene not further developed.
There was, in my view, reasonable justification for omitting those passages from the Woods/Fromm translation.
The Stauffer novella is a different matter. At 165 pages of German text, it makes up nine percent of the total page count of volumes 2 – 4. So clearly Döblin devoted considerable time and effort to this storyline.
Unfortunately we have as yet no detailed studies of the composition of November 1918, such as are available (in German) for Wang Lun, Wallenstein, Mountains Oceans Giants, and Amazonas (and of course, in profusion, for that other novel Berlin Alexanderplatz). So it’s not clear if Döblin wrote the Stauffer novella as a single exercise, or developed it alongside the composition of the overall text of November 1918. We don’t know why he decided to distribute the novella text as he did, in such a seemingly random fashion.
Its omission from the Woods/Fromm translation may have resulted from two considerations:
- The publisher wanted to reduce the bulk of the two volumes, and this novella offered a single substantial target;
- The subject matter (the mental and cultural world of German writers) may have been seen as lacking interest for non-German readers.
However, a novel ranging so widely across the whole of German society could hardly ignore the “intellectuals”. So it is unfortunate (if understandable) that the reader of English has up to now been deprived of this segment of the panorama.
WHY DID DÖBLIN INCLUDE THE STAUFFER NOVELLA IN HIS EPIC?
November 1918 comprises a remarkable amalgam of two distinct strands:
- the historical experience of momentous events depicted through the actions and reactions of many different characters, both fictional and real; and
- the Miltonic “supernatural” experiences of the fictional Johannes Becker and the actual Rosa Luxemburg.
The Stauffer storyline sits somewhat apart from either of these strands. The action is firmly planted in the mundane world of postwar Berlin, Hamburg, Switzerland, with no supernatural elements. The characters are clear fictional figures in their own right, depicted with entertaining serio-comic satirical verve.
But unlike say, the speculators Brose and Motz, whose characters and actions are sufficient to themselves with little deeper meaning, Stauffer and Lucie are representatives through whom a profound and long-running crisis in German cultural life is tackled.
In his 1929 funeral oration for Arno Holz, Döblin had spoken of Holz’ struggle against “a rotten and inauthentic tradition”. For almost a century, German literature had been in a poor condition. Social, economic and political changes in the period before and after the founding of the German Empire in 1871 went largely ignored by a conservative, Philistine literary establishment, whose mental world was a pre-industrial idyll of rural and small-town life, often expressed in quasi-Wagnerian pseudo-Mediaeval novels and epics (NB: Stauffer used to write well-honed verse plays with a Mediaeval setting), and in a fossilised “lofty” lyric style modelled on classical forebears. For such writers, the aim of Art was Beauty, and “real life” was too vulgar a topic for literature.
The “educated” readership in Germany was not extensive. The post-unification ruling class brought together Ruhr “smokestack barons” with the landed “cabbage Junkers” of East Prussia – neither faction had much time for literature. The large portions of the upper and middle classes employed in Prussian military and civil service (which included the staff of schools and universities) depended for their careers on conformity with the state ideology of obedience and respect for authority. The semi-educated bourgeoisie, as the century advanced, could find plenty of reading matter in periodicals and almanacs promoting wholesome thoughts amid tales of adventure, piety and romance. For the growing urban proletariat, the literati had almost nothing to offer.
On the surface, the Stauffer novella is a social-comedic romp, descending at times into farce. But the central theme is authenticity. Lucie wants the clapped-out dramatist to reorient his vision towards the real world (which is much larger and more interesting than just Germany), and deploy his talents as an authentic human being rather than a writer faking it in his ivory tower. The novella ends with Stauffer acknowledging that
“he was not ready to adhere to any political, spiritual or religious faith. He was undecided about so much, and was content to be seen as indecisive. …”
Unlike the exclusive elitists such as Stephan Georg, “He could answer honestly: no, he had no disciples. But as far as he knew, neither did the others. And they too could do nothing. …”
As so often in his writings, Döblin sets out existential problems of individuals living in a world set to crush them, then opts, as the only valid stance, for withdrawal rather than the activism of the political enthusiast.
You can download here the PDF of Stauffer and the Women (1.7 MB).