by Glass! Love!! Perpetual Motion!!!-A Paul Scheerbart Reader Josiah McElheny
tainly won’t bring in a cent — so no one can accuse me of greed if I build
them. But the astronomers and opticians wil rejoice.
If you build several observatories at once, you can’t make them al the
size of Cologne Cathedral, but I would like each one of them to be three
times the size of Cologne Cathedral — with huge, cathedral-sized confer-
ence rooms and imposing libraries.
215
If people no longer have to even think about the basic necessities of
life — and we won’t have to, once we have Perpets to take care of every-
thing without our lifting a finger — then of course people wil have to con-
cern themselves with more distant matters — you can’t keep on admiring
the things of this earth forever.
And so people wil have no choice but to concern themselves with astral
affairs.
And this is what I’m finding most delightful in this entire fantastical
wheel business . . . .
27 January 1908
Of course, it wil also be necessary to found a major newspaper right
away. Founding the paper, in fact, wil take precedence over al other
projects.
A daily, of course!
The United States of Europe is what I’d like to cal it — politics, being a
commercial mat er, wil appear in the classifieds section — the local section
wil be dropped. And al its pages wil be fil ed with literature, technology,
art, and science.
This wil be a good starting point for discussing major plans — while
incidentally providing energetic support for literature.
I’m afraid, however, that literature is the last thing that can be supported
with money.
And this depresses me.
I’d almost like to hope the wheel doesn’t work. Literature would be
helped more by the wheel’s not working than by its working — this I know
for a fact.
I simply do not believe that a period of economic upswing can have a
beneficial effect on literature.
Just look at the vibrant development of literature in the first half of the
nineteenth century — and then its decline in the second half when every-
thing was on the rise economical y. I’m thinking only of German litera-
ture here. In other countries, the very same phenomenon can be observed
in similar eras when other factors are not involved — as in the Italian
Renaissance . . . .
216
29 January 1908
There might also be a large new publishing house with enormous capital
holdings devoted only to the design of a book — not what is meant to be read.
30 January 1908
Next thing you know, someone wil be tel ing me he wants to found the-
aters. Theaters don’t develop wel beneath the gleam of gold either — gold
is better for developing variety houses.
I’m real y get ing tired of thinking up al these big plans — suddenly I
can’t help thinking of the drawbacks of this new era. And al at once I am
surrounded by darkness and shadow — where for so long there was only light.
After al , the Age of Satire has not yet come to an end.
But if after the invention of the Perpet things were to become even more
humdrum than before — then one should beware of actual y completing
the invention.
For this reason, I am rather glad that the thing stil doesn’t work today.
And it’s not going to be working tomorrow either — I’d bet on it.
This reassures me a little.
• • •
These notes make it clear how violently I was gripped by this idea; it just
wouldn’t let me go. True, I often saw the comical in al of this, but some-
times the comical aspects eluded me.
My experiments with the primitive model proved inconclusive; I hadn’t
the faintest notion of craftsmanship. And fortunately I lacked the money to
charge others with the task of implementing al the things I was dreaming
up. Had I been in a position to do so, I might have given up the whole idea
rather quickly, for wheel c did in fact obstruct the whole thing, being un-
able to move in the direction of the arrow and at times bringing the entire
system to a halt.
Of al this, however, I stil had only the vaguest inkling; I hadn’t yet
grasped it, and so my imagination went on working, “against my wil .” I
kept trying to do away with wheel c altogether but had no idea how this
could be managed.
What’s more, the technical side of the thing did not interest me at al ,
since I had never in my life been much concerned with technical matters
and had never taken any interest in mechanics.
Although I kept drawing the wheel system, at least fifty times a day, in
al its possible variations and kept thinking about it, my imagination kept
217
soaring off in other directions, assuming as finished something that was far
from complete.
The slanted orientation of the carriage within the wheel gave me par-
ticular pleasure, and I populated al the highways with fabulous vehicles
that seemed to me far more fun than automobiles and carriages with their
primitive little wheels down below.
And then the exhibition park kept me busy for almost al of February.
Here are a few notes on that:
7 February 1908
In the garden, if we set up freestanding wal s made of wire and cover them
with climbing plants, we can produce avenues similar to the ones created
with square-pruned trees during the rococo period.
Vine-covered wal s of this sort can serve to create arbors and terraces
in the vil a style. How strange that no one has ever thought of employing
such easily produced horticultural devices.
Large-scale terrace architecture can thus be — simulated — by means
of climbing plants on wire wal s — the effect wil be magnificent when
applied in hil y terrain.
11 February 1908
A garden with rearrangeable parts.
Transportable hedges.
Transportable terraces.
And above al : transportable flowerbeds.
Evening il umination by means of glass plates lit from below.
Flower baskets hanging from chains.
Enormous masts covered with blossoming flowers in baskets of earth
that can be moved — hoisted up and down — and also rotated slowly
around the mast. The flowers should dangle far down out of these baskets.
Adjustable flower wal s made of wire.
Wal s to provide shelter from the wind.
Everything that can be moved must be given pride of place in the gar-
den: plants on large pedestals that can be driven around — with Perpets.
“Moveable” lighting.
Floating flowerbeds in the ponds.
Large mechanical fans with glittering glass insets.
Etc. etc. etc.
•
218
13 February 1908
When you have machines that can function in perpetuity through the appli-
cation of weights, you can undertake changes to the terrain in the grandest
possible style — then you wil truly have acquired the ability to organize
the greatest mountain chains any way you like — according to rhythmic
relationships, lowe
ring and elevating them.
Colossal spatial art can be created in this way.
And the Harz is very wel suited as a place for erecting smal -scale
models.
Of course, these models wil have to be larger than anything we have
ever seen in the field of architecture; the pyramids in the land of the pha-
raohs wil look like toys compared to these models in the Harz.
15 February 1908
Large canal and dam projects should of course not be undertaken without
forethought. This is why model constructions for the “large” projects of the
future are to be put on view in the Harz. The finest of what the architec-
tural spatial arts have to offer must be included.
Enormous streets — gigantic terraces —
And ravine architecture . . . .
17 February 1908
The Bode Valley in the Harz can be left just as it is — for the sake of
contrast — and perhaps the Brocken as wel .
As for the rest, we’l be able to demonstrate the effect produced by
400-meter-high vertical wal s. And these wal s can be sculptural y orna-
mented. And within these sculptural ornaments, vil as can be built that can
be reached only by elevator.
Entire landscapes should be reserved for dramatic tower architecture.
And of course machines must be invented for constructing buildings.
These machines wil then build the largest towers without a single human
hand having to stir.
Only the wheels wil work — without pause.
It is somewhat wearying and enervating to imagine such a construc-
tion process; this alone could easily provide material for several thousand
utopian novels.
•
219
19 February 1908
Everything that the regal garden architecture of the sixteenth, seventeenth,
and eighteenth centuries was aiming to achieve can now be produced
in entirely new dimensions — even sweeping curves wil be given their
due — not only rectangular shapes — and crystal ine forms as wel . . . .
Countless models for buildings and vil as must be created — along with
model cities, of course — the cities that were not created by using models
wil be converted to storage sites for goods and raw materials.
Anyone who supposes that my architecture park in the Harz might seem
in any way strange to me, is very much in error — the only things I think of
as odd are the so-cal ed “modern” cities — their demise wil be balsam for
my soul.
• • •
As you can see, in sketching out these fantasy constructions I gave both
Europe and America short shrift; constructing a Panama Canal struck me
as a pure bagatel e — a few months should suffice for this — in my estimation.
February 1908 was rather a serious month; within me, a sort of fanati-
cism was already taking root, and being contradicted by anyone at al was
more than I could bear.
Nevertheless my sense of humor did not entirely abandon me, as evi-
denced by the fol owing little scene:
The Barbarian General
In the year 2050 A.D., there lived in the land of Germania a general who
was wickeder than al the other generals of his time put together.
At that time, the Europeans were waging a major bombing war against
the Americans. Modern military science was able to celebrate the most
spectacularly explosive victories. And the Americans merrily went on liv-
ing al the same.
Natural y this circumstance was quite vexing to the wickedest general
of his time, who was commander-in-chief of Germania’s armed forces.
And what did this cruel man, who went by the name of Kuhlmann,
proceed to do?
Kuhlmann devised a plan to inundate al of America.
It was his intention to surround al of Europe with enormous floodwal s
and then use two bil ion Perpets to squirt the Mediterranean and Baltic
Seas into the Atlantic Ocean.
220
To this barbaric plan the response he received was a great outcry of
horror; at once Germania made peace with America.
Kuhlmann just sat there, utterly perplexed.
Then an enterprising young impresario came into his room and said:
“Your Excellency! Let us go on tour in America, where you can present
your plan along with maps and ful models. We’l hit the jackpot, I guaran-
tee it! Let’s set off at once.”
The general did as the impresario suggested, and the Americans greatly
enjoyed Kuhlmann’s performances.
If only the impresario had not vanished along with the cashbox right
after the last stop on this lecture tour, General Kuhlmann would have
returned to Europe filthy rich.
• • •
But I digress.
Given that it no longer appeared possible to me that our native lands
and borders could go on existing — because everyone would constantly be
tooling around in Perpets — militarism was destined to become defunct as
wel — its only significance, it seemed to me, would be as a figure of fun in
comic strips . . . .
It struck me as a matter of far more serious concern that someone might
undertake major dril ing projects that could produce internal injuries to the
star Earth.
But when I considered how splendidly the Earth has heretofore man-
aged to shield its two polar lands, I thought:
“Surely she knows what to do to prevent the worms creeping about on
her surface from becoming a danger to her.”
Al at once, however, I realized how impossible it would be to prevent
al the mischief that would be made possible by Perpetua. That militarism
would, first off, mount al its cannons on Perpetua — this much was clear.
Eventual y the wheels would be trained to wage war al on their own,
without human crews. And al this terrible mischief would no doubt be
tolerated with amusement.
But what about al the things that could be overturned by means of
these perpetual machines? My God! Contemplating this, I began to feel a
bit queasy.
“And in consequence,” I said to myself, “won’t the inventor of this
device be dealt with rather summarily? Suffering the wrath of al these
threatened lands wil not be a trifling matter. The best thing would be
221
for me to withdraw in a timely fashion and live out the rest of my life
incognito.”
The most innocuous development, it seemed to me, would be the revo-
lution in the horological industries.
And yet — even there —
A good ten thousand utopian novels could be penned about these
immanent revolutions; the material could certainly not be covered in a mere
one thousand novels.
When I thought of the poor physicists, I was almost seized with pity;
for so long they’d been such braggarts, putting on airs as the elucidators of
the universe — and declaring with such vehemence that perpetual motion
“violated the laws of nature” . . .
And here I was composing long speeches intended to make it clear to
these detested gentlemen once and for al , as gently as you please, that I
found their conduct most peculiar, given that materialism, after al ,
had
long since been debunked as “philosophical y impossible” — meaning
that the “cosmic significance” of the physicist had been debunked along
with it.
“Al the physical things known to us,” I said, “are ‘psychic’ properties of
the star Earth — including gravity — gravity above al , in fact. It is utterly
improbable that these psychic properties of the star Earth are to be found
anywhere else in our planetary system.”
The Physicist, in other words, is to be attacked by the Psychicist — and
slain.
Let us not devote any more time to this mat er.
• • •
Physicists are constantly insisting that we do not know what electricity
is — but they forget to mention that gravity is also utterly incomprehensible
to us.
The most amazing miracle of al time is that we are able to walk, sit,
and lie down without flying out into space. It is not at al natural for two
bodies to attract one another; and whether they also do so in the space that
lies beyond the atmosphere of our Earth is something we don’t yet know.
It certainly isn’t correct to speak of a cosmic gravitational force. In short,
the word “force” ought to be confiscated from the physicists — they’ve
certainly done enough harm with that word.
And yet — for the moment I wish to speak only of what is relevant
to the further development of the so-called invention — which of course,
222
like al inventions, ought instead to be referred to as a “discovery”: al
this uncovering and inventing is surely not primarily the doing of us
humans.
Unfortunately, I gradual y moved away from the first notion without
having sufficiently investigated its value or lack thereof. And immediately
a great deal of confusion ensued, so I dropped the spokeless wheel and
instead thought about a composition corresponding roughly to Figure 4.
That this configuration would not work became clear to me soon enough,
and I was growing tired of occupying myself with this business.
Throughout March 1908 I wrote astral novelettes that were set on the
asteroids, where “gravitational force” is neither as grave nor as forceful as
on Earth.
The possibility that on other stars there might be a completely different
force or astral quality than gravity at work — it didn’t even cross my mind;
