Yolla and Alfred 1
For almost four decades, the intense liaison between Döblin and his younger lover, muse and soulmate Yolla Niclas was a closely held secret, known only to a very few trusted friends. Even after both had passed away, Döblin’s heirs and the German literary establishment sought to suppress the history, which they regarded as a blemish on the great writer’s reputation. Not until 2017 was Yolla’s story at last made public.
YOLLA NICLAS: ENCOUNTER WITH ALFRED DÖBLIN
The role played in Döblin’s emotional and creative life by the photographer Yolla Niclas is still almost unknown in the English-speaking world, and is often glossed over by German literary historians, who tend to evade too much prying into Döblin’s erotic life and its impact on his works.
In 2017 an attractive volume titled Fotofalle 3: Yolla Niclas und Alfred Döblin (ISBN 978-3-00-057707-9), edited by a historian of photography Eckhardt Köhn, for the first time presented the entire text of Yolla’s memoir, which until then existed only as two (or more probably three) typescript copies with handwritten emendations by Yolla: one copy in the German Literature Archive in Marbach, which on Yolla’s instructions was embargoed until 2005; her own copy; and likely one more given to the French Germanist Robert Minder, who was Döblin’s great friend and confidant in the last two decades of the writer’s life, and also an insightful critic of his works. (I have no information as to where that copy ended up.)
Herr Köhn’s lovingly compiled book is augmented with many photos taken by Yolla of Döblin’s children, reproductions of several of the charming and life-affirming photographic essays she published in the 1950s and 60s, and an invaluable account of the fraught attempts to publicise the relationship once both parties had passed away – not for prurient reasons, but because such an intense relationship cannot fail to have influenced the direction and character of Döblin’s works during his most creative decades. Analyses of his works from Mountains Oceans Giants onwards can only be deficient if this relationship is ignored.
When I contacted Herr Köhn about translating Yolla’s memoire, together with excerpts from his accompanying text, he kindly put me in touch with Yolla’s closest living relative, her great-nephew Jack Mautner in New York. After a friendly exchange of emails, Mr Mautner surprised and honoured me by offering to pass on Yolla’s original copy of her memoir, which had been in his keeping for some thirty years. It reached me in November.
The text is identical with that used in the Fotofalle3 volume, which was taken from the copy in the German Literature Archive at Marbach; it also has some loose inserts. I am seeking a permanent archival home for this historic document.
The full translated text of Yolla’s Begegnung mit Alfred Döblin can be downloaded here as a PDF.
As an aid to the reader, here’s a timeline:
TIMELINE
Feb 1921 (more likely 1922) AD and YN meet for the first time. Immediate attraction.
1920s: YN a frequent visitor to AD’s home, alternately tolerated and detested by Erna. She is a favourite with the Döblin children, and takes many delightful photographs.
1933-40: Both are refugees in Paris, meeting infrequently whenever AD can evade Erna. Erna intercepts all YN’s letters.
1922-1940: YN is closely engaged with all AD’s works in progress, and the model for gentle life-giving female characters, e.g. Venaska (MOG) and Savitri (Manas).
1941-45: AD in Los Angeles, YN in New York. Letters intercepted; a few phone calls come through.
Oct 1945: AD manages a very fleeting last visit to YN in New York, a day before sailing back to Europe.
1950s-60s: YN establishes a reputation in the US as a photographer of rare sensitivity.
1955: the dying AD dictates to Robert Minder the whole story of YN (taking care not to let his wife Erna hear any of it), in order to forestall distorted and Bowdlerised versions of his life. After AD’s death, Minder corroborates details from YN’s own testimony.
1957: AD dies on 26 June.
1970: YN offers several of her letters from AD to the editor of the forthcoming Letters volume in the Döblin Selected Works series edited by Walter Muschg. These are omitted from the published volume.
1971: The omission is publicly challenged in a Neue Rundschau article, but the editors snootily hold firm. YN recognises that her story cannot yet be told in public.
Mid-1970s: YN composes her memoir Begegnung mit Alfred Döblin. One copy is lodged with the German Literature Archive in Marbach, embargoed until 2005. One copy probably went to Prof. Minder. YN’s own copy passed eventually to her great-nephew Jack Mautner, who stored it for some thirty years.
1977: YN dies on 21 December.
1978 May: Die Zeit-Magazin publishes a long piece based on Minder’s information. This is the first public exposure of YN’s importance in AD’s life and creative work.
1978 August: Minder’s lecture at the Berlin Academy of Sciences on the centenary of AD’s birth is printed in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on 5-6 August 1978. Minder goes into AD’s love life more extensively and trenchantly than in his earlier contributions.
1979 April: AD’s son Claude launches a legal action in Berlin against Minder, alleging infringement of personal rights.
1979 September: Minder dies before the case is decided, but leaves behind a detailed statement to the court rebutting the allegation.
YOLLA NICLAS (Part 2: What happened next) will present Eckhardt Köhl’s account of the events following Yolla’s death.
YOLLA NICLAS (Part 3: The Significance) will present excerpts from Robert Minder and others detailing the importance of the Yolla-Alfred relationship for an understanding of the writer’s life and works.
