Franz Werfel: A Life in Prague, Vienna, and Hollywood

by Peter Stephan Jungk

  [486] See FW’s prose text “Manon,” in EzW, vol. 3, pp. 392ff.

  [487] ML, p. 254. The castle had once belonged to an uncle of Alma’s father, the novelist and parliamentarian Alexander Schindler.

  [488] Details of Weisgal’s reaction come from my conversations with Gottfried Reinhardt (see end of this chapter). Alma Mahler-Werfel describes this meeting in ML, p. 254: “Franz Werfel traveled to Salzburg in the summer of 1934 to discuss the whole thing once more with Max Reinhardt and Kurt Weill. A couple of rich East European Jews were also present, and Werfel read the rough draft of the play to them. Afterward, one of these gentlemen approached Werfel and said, ‘That was very nice, Herr Werfel, but you have to make an angrier God — a God of vengeance!’“

  [489] See Wiener Sonn- und Montagszeitung, August 6, 1934, p. 7. From now on, writers in the German Reich referred to Austria as the “Jew-ridden corporate state” (my thanks to Professor Norbert Leser of Vienna).

  [490] Unpublished letter from FW to Bab, August 28, 1934, in the Leo Baeck Institute, New York.

  [491] Among the guests was Guido Zernatto, the leader of the “Fatherland Front” and also a minister without portfolio in Schuschnigg’s government; in this context, see also Robert Musil, Tagebücher (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, 1983), vol. 1, p. 831 (autumn 1934): “The chancellor had attended a lecture given by Werfel that apparently was full of hot air. The poet speaks to the Führer.” The reference is to FW’s lecture on Verdi, which he delivered in Vienna at the end of November 1934 as “Verdi und wir”; see “Verdi in unserer Zeit,” ZOU, pp. 353-58.

  [492] See Klaus Mann, Prüfungen: Schriften zur Literatur, ed. Martin Gregor-Dellin (Munich: Ellerman Verlag, 1986), pp. 286f. Klopstock was recruited to the team of physicians attending Manon Gropius.

  [493] From “Erster Schultag,” DlW, pp. 426f.

  [494] See “Manon,” EzW, vol. 3, pp. 392ff.

  [495] According to FK letters, she died on March 23, 1935.

  [496] From “Die getreue Magd,” DlW, pp. 413f.

  [497] In ibid., pp. 413f.

  [498] See the Viennese dailies of April 23 and April 24, 1935, and Elias Canetti, Das Augenspiel, op. cit., pp. 214ff.

  [499] Unpublished letter from FW to Ludwig Hatvany of Budapest; I thank Rotraut Hackermüller for referring me to it.

  [500] Unpublished notebook, M-W Coll.

  [501] See ML, p. 251: “In Vienna, the tear-filled atmosphere of mourning after Manon’s death robbed us of what shreds of contentment we had left... and we decided to travel, with Anna Mahler, to Italy, first of all to Rome. But Rome didn’t help.”

  [502] See Wiener Sonn- und Montagszeitung, July 15, 1935.

  [503] See Arbeiterzeitung (Brünn), July 21, 1935: “While the victims of dictatorship were on hunger strike in the jails, in order to defend their human dignity against brutality, the Sonn- und Montagszeitung published an article by Franz Werfel in which he... celebrates the chancellor as the incarnation of humanity. This deserves a place as a record in the history of disgusting literary deeds. People, defenseless yet unbroken, are using the only weapon left to them in their fight against their tormentors: their health. People are refusing their meager fare in order to protect against violations of humanity. People are starving in dungeons, but the Werfels are gorging themselves at the crib and licking the hand that feeds them. Incarnations of the dregs of the human psyche!”

  [504] See Wiener Sonn- und Montagszeitung, August 12, 1935.

  [505] The final version of the drama and FW’s letter to Max Reinhardt are housed in the theater collection of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna.

  [506] One of these many celebrations took place January 5, 1936, at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York; the host was the prelate of the Armenian Church in the United States. The testimonial dinner had an extensive program, including musical performances. Rabbi Stephen Wise was also present on this memorable evening. The invitation bore the words: “He is a God-sent friend who with a singularly keen understanding has penetrated the depths of the soul of a race fighting for liberation from the annihilating force of tyranny and shedding its very life’s blood in the struggle” (library of the Mekhitarist monastery, Vienna).

  [507] See ZOU, pp. 544f.

  [508] On August 11, 1935, Maria Glaser Bondy, FW’s childhood sweetheart, died of breast cancer (FK letters).

  [509] On December 24, 1935.

  [510] See the interview with FW in the Wiener Sonn- und Montagszeitung, March 2, 1936. A further disappointment for FW was that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had yielded to Turkish pressure and boycott threats, and had decided not to make a movie of The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.

  [511] See ML, pp. 257f.

  [512] Unpublished letter from FW to Rudolf Kommer, March 6, 1936 (manuscript collection of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna).

  [513] ZOU, p. 773.

  [514] Published in 1937 by Viking Press, Twilight of a World contains Poor People, Class Reunion, Estrangement, Severio’s Secret, The Staircase, The Man Who Conquered Death, The House of Mourning, and Not the Murderer. FW wrote a prologue to the volume, “An Essay upon the Meaning of Imperial Austria” (“Ein Versuch über das Kaisertum Österreich,” ZOU, pp. 493ff.). On the transitional notes, see EzW, pp. 379ff.

  [515] Previously, in Zurich, FW and Alma had met up with Hollnsteiner, who was lecturing on “Germanness and Christianity”; see Thomas Mann, Tagebücher 1935-1936 (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1978), p. 287 (April 5, 1936). In Locarno, Hollnsteiner celebrated mass for Manon one year after her death (ML, p. 258).

  [516] ZOU, pp. 755-73. See also ML, p. 258.

  [517] ZOU, pp. 773-83.

  [518] Unpublished notebook, a sequel to the one reprinted in ZOU, titled “Gedanken, Einfälle, Notizen zum Plan des Prophetenromans,” UCLA.

  [519] During his stay in New York, FW apparently received as a gift a novella by Irene Untermeier-Richter that dealt with the theme of déjà vu; it impressed him considerably and inspired his frame story (see Alma Mahler-Werfel’s unpublished diary, M-W Coll.). Evidently this frame displeased Alma particularly, and after FW’s death she republished the novel without it, and without even mentioning that it had existed; see Jeremias: Höret die Stimme (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1956; part of the Gesammelte Werke, in single volumes).

  [520] FW’s unpublished notebook (UCLA) also contains other references to models for various minor characters: he intended to model a female journalist in the frame story after Dorothy Thompson, and a prophetess and traveling companion of Jeremiah’s after Else Lasker-Schüler; an “obese joker” known among the priests as an enemy of God who dressed up his “blasphemous paradoxes in... orthodox views” was to be a caricature of Egon Friedell. Manon, too, was to be immortalized as the chaste beauty Zenua, an Egyptian girl whom Jeremiah wants to marry. Alma Mahler-Werfel tells about a Negro boy who became the model for the character Ebedmelech: “In 1935 I read a newspaper advertisement seeking a foster home for a musically talented Negro child... I wanted the little fellow for Manon, who was lying paralyzed in her bed, and she got very excited... He danced all day, on the street, in the house, he was really unable to take a normal step. I knew immediately that I would not be able to keep this child... Franz Werfel was very interested in the boy and gave him form and content in the Jeremiah novel” (ML, pp. 247f.).

  [521] One must not underestimate the influence of Thomas Mann on the Jeremiah novel; the first two novels of Mann’s tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers had already been published at this time. In Monatshefte für deutsche Literatur, vol. 30, no. 8 (December 1938), Wolfgang Paulsen writes: “It is hardly surprising that Thomas Mann’s great biblical novels, the Joseph books... became a model for any similar effort... However, Thomas Mann is a particularly risky model because his style in its unique meticulousness cannot be seriously repeated or even hinted at. And that is exactly what Werfel has tried to do... Psychologically, very understandable — but artistically catastrophic.” Paulsen cites
numerous similarities, quotes from Werfel’s book, and goes on to say: “But even subtler similarities and correspondences can be found. Even Jirmija’s position in the parental home is definitely a ‘Joseph’ situation. Here and there one finds echoes of the bourgeois-artist opposition that was a leitmotiv in Thomas Mann’s early work.” Mann and FW had also become closer personally during the last few years. From time to time Mann considered a move from Switzerland to Austria, and Alma Mahler-Werfel and Johannes Hollnsteiner had already petitioned Schuschnigg in the matter, so that there were no obstacles to Mann’s immigration; see Mann, Tagebücher 1935-1936, op. cit., pp. 286, 289, 299.

  [522] On June 12, 1936.

  [523] Manuscript of Jeremias, M-W Coll.

  [524] MD conversations.

  [525] Once again, FW collaborated with Ernst Polak on the final version. The 1937 Austrian edition bore the title Höret die Stimme; an edition in Germany the following year was titled Jeremias: Höret die Stimme.

  [526] At the time, Marianne Rieser’s play Turandot was premiering at the Zurich Schauspielhaus. On May 31, 1937, on the occasion of the world premiere of Alban Berg’s opera Lulu at the Zurich Stadttheater, FW gives his lecture “Preface to Alban Berg” (“Vorrede auf Alban Berg”), which he repeated at the Zurich Tonhalle on June 2; see Thomas Mann, Tagebücher 1937-1939 (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1980), p. 593. Werfel’s text for this lecture is considered lost.

  [527] See the Neues Wiener Journal, June 13, 1937, p. 5. The guest list included Prince Alexander Dietrichstein, Prince Hohenlohe, Ida Roland, the vicomte de Montbas, Bruno Walter, Carl Zuckmayer, Egon Wellesz, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Ödön von Horváth, Franz Theodor Csokor, and Hermann Broch.

  [528] See Foltin, p. 78.

  [529] Marta Feuchtwanger told me in a conversation: “Werfel certainly attacked Lion terribly — we couldn’t figure out why. After his speech he was introduced to us. Lion and I had agreed that both of us would act as if it hadn’t mattered at all. I didn’t want us émigrés to appear divided. And Werfel was charming and also pretended that nothing had happened. Then Lion invited him to visit us at our hotel the next day. As soon as he got there, they of course started talking politics — that was inevitable — and Werfel immediately started raging against Russia. I didn’t usually interfere, but in order to help Lion, who was a little embarrassed because he didn’t want to contradict his guest, I said, ‘Well, in Russia, as there are no class differences, there really are only poor people. In Russia, poverty is very widespread.’ And Werfel yelled at me, ‘Be quiet! You don’t know anything about politics!’ I became frightened and didn’t say anything else. And Lion, he was a little too polite, he didn’t really say anything, either. Suddenly Werfel went down on his knees in front of me and shouted, ‘Oh, please forgive me! Can you forgive me?’ Now I was embarrassed, and Lion ordered some caviar.” To my question “Perhaps that was how Werfel related to his wife as well?” Frau Feuchtwanger replied, “It certainly was. I was there to experience it often enough. Both of them would really scream at each other, but the next moment they were the best of friends.”

  [530] Huebsch (1873-1945) describes the meeting with Joyce in his unpublished memoirs (Manuscript Division, Columbia University, New York). See also Joyce’s unpublished letter to FW, Paris, June 24, 1937 (M-W Coll.): “Dear Mr. Werfel: Since you were kind enough to inscribe your book for my son I hope you will accept the copy of my daughter’s illuminations in Chaucer which I asked my publisher to send you. Wir wissen noch nicht bestimmt wohin wir gehen sollen heute abend. Wenn sie C [?] sehen im Laufe des Tages vielleicht wird er es wissen. Freundliche Grüsse James Joyce [We do not know yet where we will be going tonight. If you see C in the course of the day perhaps he will know. Friendly regards James Joyce].” Foltin’s assumption (p. 79) that Joyce and FW weren’t able to communicate is erroneous.

  [531] See Milan Kundera, “The Central European Tragedy,” New York Review of Books, April 26, 1984, p. 36: “[FW] ended his speech with a proposal... Not only was this proposal rejected, it was openly ridiculed. Of course, it was naive. Terribly naive... However, this naive proposal strikes me as moving, because it reveals the desperate need to find once again a moral authority in a world stripped of values. It reveals the anguished desire to hear the inaudible voice of culture, the voice of the Dichter und Denker [poets and thinkers].”

  [532] Newspaper interview in the manuscript collection of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna).

  [533] DD, vol. 2, pp. 179-240.

  [534] MD conversations.

  [535] I owe the description of that evening to a letter from Helen Wolff of New York.

  [536] ZOU, pp. 86ff. FW wanted to go on a grand lecture tour of the United States in 1938 with this lecture and the earlier “Realism and Inwardness” and “Can We Live Without Faith in God?”

  [537] Unpublished letter from FW to Stefan Zweig, January 25, 1938; M-W Coll.

  [538] DlW, pp. 477f.

  [539] See unpublished 1938 notebook, UCLA.

  [540] ZOU, pp. 291ff.

  [541] While in Naples, FW also visited the famous Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce (1866-1952), an opponent of Mussolini, whose works had probably influenced FW’s lectures in recent years. See also ML, p. 270.

  [542] See unpublished 1938 notebook, UCLA.

  [543] See unpublished 1938 notebook, UCLA; see also ML, p. 270.

  [544] See FW/Mahler.

  [545] See unpublished 1938 notebook, UCLA.

  [546] DD, vol. 2, pp. 489ff.

  [547] FW/Mahler.

  [548] ZOU, p. 743.

  [549] Ibid. FW is referring to Hitler’s rise to power and also to the death of Manon Gropius.

  [550] Author’s conversations with Anna Mahler; but see also ML, pp. 247f.

  [551] See unpublished 1938 notebook, UCLA; but see also ML, p. 276.

  [552] See, for example, Wiener Montagsblatt, April 4, 1938.

  [553] Unpublished letter, KW Archives.

  [554] See unpublished correspondence between FW and Marianne Rieser, copies in M-W Coll.

  [555] See unpublished 1938 notebook, UCLA. They remained in Zurich until April 29, in Paris until May 6, Amsterdam until May 9, and in London until May 30, 1938.

  [556] On the signing of the contract with FW, Fischer (born 1897) recalls: “I went to London in 1938 and signed the contract with him there. His relationship to Zsolnay was unclear then, but Zsolnay didn’t have a publishing house anymore, or at least it had been quasi-impounded by the Nazis. And Werfel and I were of the opinion that he was free to sign” (author’s conversation with G. B. Fischer in Camaiore, Italy). In his memoirs Fischer says of the contract: “On my return flight to Stockholm I carried an important contract. Franz Werfel, who was staying in London,... had signed on with me. I was grateful for his trust” (Bedroht, bewahrt: Der Weg eines Verlegers [Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1967], p. 168).

  [557] G. B. Fischer permitted me to see the unpublished correspondence between FW and him. In one of the letters, soon after the signing of the contract, FW announces a political essay titled “In the Final Hour” (“In letzter Stunde”), which was never written.

  [558] Author’s conversations with Anna Mahler.

  [559] See unpublished 1938 notebook, UCLA; but see also ML, p. 278. The Hôtel Royal-Madeleine on rue Pasquier still exists; the building has been modernized, the name retained.

  [560] See “Beim Anblick eines Toten,” EzW, vol. 3, pp. 28ff.

  [561] Alice Herdan-Zuckmayer, Carl Zuckmayer’s widow, told me: “In Paris, we all got together for Horváth’s funeral. Before the event we sat in the Café Weber, Alma, Werfel, my husband, and I. And Alma said to Franzerl, ‘Listen, I won’t let you go to that funeral.’ And my husband said, Alma, that’s out of the question, he’s on the list, he has to speak, just like me.’ But Alma retorted, ‘First one dies, then the other. No, Franz mustn’t go.’“ The funeral took place on June 7, 1938. Horváth’s remains were transferred to an honorary grave in Vienna�
��s Central Cemetery in the spring of 1988.

  [562] See unpublished 1938 notebook, UCLA; but see also ML, p. 278.

  [563] The hotel in St. Germain-en-Laye still exists, under the same name. After his heart attack and until the spring of 1940, FW often returned to it, as Alma and he were traveling back and forth between the South of France and Paris.

  [564] Author’s conversation with Anne Marie Meier-Graefe-Broch, St. Cyr; but see also ML, p. 280.

  [565] ZOU, p. 743.

  [566] ML, p. 280.

  [567] DlW, pp. 470f.

  [568] FW later retitled this poem “The Greatest German of All Time” (“Der grösste Deutsche aller Zeiten”); DlW, p. 482.

  [569] EzW, vol. 3, pp. 40ff., 46ff. In the same volume, see also “Par l’Amour” (pp. 51-58), “Anlässlich eines Mauseblicks” (pp. 37-39), and “Die arge Legende vom gerissenen Galgenstrick” (pp. 7-27).

  [570] Unpublished letter from FW to Carl Moll, in DL.

  [571] See Cella oder Die Überwinder, EzW, vol. 3, pp. 65-304.

  [572] Unpublished notebook for Cella, UCLA.

  [573] See FW’s poems “Das Bauernboot” and “Der Neusiedlersee,” DlW, pp. 437f. See also poem sketches in an unpublished notebook titled “Eisenstadt, 1932,” M-W Coll.

  [574] See Richard Christ’s afterword to Cella oder Die Überwinder: Versuch eines Romans (Berlin and Weimar: Aufbau-Verlag, 1970), pp. 326f.

  [575] ZOU, p. 743. In an unpublished letter to his parents dated October 14, 1938 (DB), FW writes: “I suffer unspeakably for Bohemia, which has been butchered by vicious stupid and cowardly ‘allies.’ I am choking on the horrifying fate that has already caught up with tens of thousands and threatens all, all.”

  [576] ZOU, p. 743.

  [577] See unpublished letter to his parents, September 15, 1938, in DB. After October 28, 1918, the date of Czechoslovakia’s independence from Austria-Hungary, FW was a Czech citizen.