Schaeffer, Albrecht 1885-1950

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SCHAEFFER, Albrecht 1885-1950

PERSONAL: Born December 6, 1885, in Elbing, Prussia (now Elblag, Poland); died December 4, 1950, in Munich, Germany; son of Paul Friedrich and Marie Antoinette Agnes Schaffer; married Irma Beck, 1918, (divorced 1929); married Olga Elisabet Heymann, 1931; children: (first marriage) Klaus, Marlies; (second marriage) Dirk, Angelika, Veit (later called David). Education: Attended universities of Munich, Marburg, and Berlin, 1905-09.

CAREER: Author of novels, children's literature, essays, German philosophical history, poetry, plays, and translation.

MEMBER: West German Academy of Sciences and Literature, 1950.

AWARDS, HONORS: Oberlin College, named honorary professor of literature.

WRITINGS:

Amata: Wandel der Liebe, Ey (Hanover, Germany), 1911.

Die Meerfahrt (title means "The Sea Voyage"), Wolff (Leipzig, Germany), 1912.

(With A. Gerlach) Der Mischkrug (Hanover, Germany), 1912.

Attische Dämmerung (title means "Attic Dawn"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1914.

(Editor) Clemens Brentano, Gedichte, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1914.

(Editor) Annette von Droste-Hulshoff, Gedichte, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1914.

Heroische Fahrt (title means "Heroic Journey"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1914.

Kreigslieder, Ey (Hanover, Germany), 1914.

Die Mütter: Ein ernstes Stück (title means "The Mother"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1914.

Das Schicksal, (Hanover, Germany), 1914.

(Editor) Ernst Moritz Arndt, Gedichte, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1915.

Des Michael Schwertlos vaterländische Gedichte (title means "Michael Swordless's Patriotic Dreams"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1915.

Moses Tod: Ein Mysterium (Hanover, Germany), 1915.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1916.

(Editor) Friedrich Hebbel, Gedichte, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1917.

(Translator) Oscar Wilde, Die Ballade vom Zuchthaus zu Reading (title means "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1917.

Gudula oder Die Dauer des Lebens (title means "Gudula, or The Continuing Life"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1918.

(With Ludwig Strauß) Die Opfer des Kaisers, Kremserfahrten und die Abgesänge der hallenden Korridore (title means "The Sacrifices of the Emperor, Charabanc Rides, and the Swan Songs of the Echoing Hallways"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1918.

Josef Montfort, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1918, published as Das nie bewegte Herz, Deutsche Buchgemeinschaft (Berlin, Germany), 1931.

Elli oder Sieben Treppen (title means "Elli, or Seven Stages"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1919, revised as Elli: Beschreibung eines weiblichen Lebens (title means "Elli: Description of a Female Life"), Insel (Wiesbaden, Germany), 1949.

(Editor) Joseph von Eichendorff, Gedichte, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1919.

(Editor) Nikolaus Lenau, Gedichte, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1919.

(Editor) Friedrich Gottlob Klopstock, Oden, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1919.

(Editor) August von Platen, Gedichte, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1920.

Der Raub der Persefone: Eine attische Myth (title means "The Abduction of Persephone"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1920.

Helianth: Bilder aus dem Leben zweier Menschen von heute aus der norddeutschen Tiefebene in neun Bücheru dargestellt (title means "Helianth: Episodes from the Lives of Two People of Our Time from the North German Plains, Presented in Nine Books"), three volumes, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1920-24, revised and abridged as Helianth: Bilder aus dem Leben zweier Menschen und aus der norddeutschen Tiefebene in neun Büchern dargestellt, two volumes, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1928.

Der göttliche Dulder (title means "The Divine Sufferer"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1920.

Gevatter Tod: Märchenhaftes Epos in vierundzwanzig Moundphasen und einen als Zugabe (title means "Brother Death: Fairy-Tale Epic in Twenty-four Lunar Phases and an Additional One as a Bonus"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1922.

Eduard Mörikes, "Früth im Wagen," Runge (Berlin), 1922.

Parzival: ein Versroman in drei Kreisen (title means "Parzival: A Verse Novel in Three Circles"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1922.

Die Saalborner Stanzen: eine Trilogie (title means "The Saalborn Stanzas: A Trilogy"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1922.

Der Reiter mit dem Mandelbaum, Gesellschaft der Bücherfreunde (Chemnitz, Germany), 1922.

Die Wand: Dramatische Phantasmagorie in einem Aufzug (title means "The Wall: Dramatic Phantasmagory"), [Berlin, Germany], 1922.

Abkunft und Ankunft, Gesellschaft der Bücherfreunde zu Chemnitz (Chemnitz, Germany), 1922.

Demetrius: Ein Trauerspiel in fünf Aufzügen, Rowohlt (Berlin, Germany), 1923.

Dichter und Dichtung: Kritische Versuche (title means, "Poets and Poetry: Critical Essays"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1923.

Das Gitter: Erzählung, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt (Stuttgart, Germany), 1923.

Hölderlins Heimgang, oder Der goldene Wagen (title means "Holderlin's Return, or The Golden Chariot"), Eigenbrödler (Berlin, Germany), 1923.

Das Kleinod im Lotus: Die Buddha-Legende frei nach dem Englischen (title means "The Jewel in the Lotus Blossom: The Buddha Legend"), adaptation of The Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1923.

Legende vom verdoppelten Lebens-Alter, Asmus (Heidelberg, Germany), 1923.

Lene Stelling, (Berlin, Germany) 1923.

(Editor with Ludwig Strauß) Leucothea: Ein Jahrbuch, Runge (Berlin, Germany), 1923.

Regula Kreuzfeind: Legende, Severin (Essen, Germany), 1923.

Die Treibjagd: Novelle, Gesellschaft der Bücherfreunde (Chemnitz, Germany), 1923.

Chrysoforus, oder Die Heimkehr, Gesellschaft der Bücherfreunde (Chemnitz, Germany) 1924.

Kritisches Pro Domo, Stilke (Berlin, Germany), 1924.

Die Marien-Lieder (title means "Songs in Praise of Mary"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1924.

Die Treibjagd und zwei Legenden, Schaffenstein (Cologne, Germany), 1924.

Fidelio: Novelle, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt (Stuttgart, Germany), 1924.

Das Albrecht Schaeffer-Buch, edited by Martin Rockenbäch, Kuner (Leipzig, Germany), 1924.

Das Prisma: Erzählungen und Novellen (title means "The Prism: Short Stories and Novellas"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1925.

Der Gerfällige: Lustspiel in vier Akten, frei nach Diderot's "Est-il bon, est-il méchant?" (title means "The Congenial One"), Kiepenheuer (Potsdam, Germany), 1925.

Konstantin der Große: Tragödie in fünf Aufzügen, Rowohlt (Berlin, Germany), 1925.

Der verlorene Sohn: Komödie in drei Aufzügen (title means, "The Prodigal Son"), Kohler & Amelang (Leipzig, Germany), 1925.

Der Falke und die Wölfin: Zwei Erzählungen (title means, "The Falcon and the She-Wolf: Two Stories"), Reimer (Berlin, Germany), 1925.

(Translator) Robert Louis Stevenson, Quartier für die Nacht; Will von der Mühle; Zwei Erzählungen, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1925.

(Translator) Des Apuljus sogenannter Goldener Esel: Metamorphosen, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1926.

Die Schuldbrüder (title means "The Brothers of Shame"), Deutsche Buchgemeinschaft (Berlin, Germany), 1926, revised as Die Geschichte der Brüder Chamade (title means "The Story of the Chamade Brothers"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1928.

Der goldene Wagen: Legenden und Mythen (title means "The Golden Chariot: Legends and Myths"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1927.

Der Apfel vom Baum der Erkenntnis: Erzählung und Gleichnis, Weitbrecht (Heidelberg, Germany), 1927.

(Translator) Homer, Die Odyssee, Horen (Berlin, Germany), 1927.

(Translator) Der Hymnus auf Demeter, Werkstatten der Stad Halle (Halle, Germany), 1928.

Mitternacht: Zwölf Novellen (title means, "Midnight: Twelve Novellas"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1928.

(Translator) Homer, Die Ilias, Schneider (Berlin, Germany), 1929.

Das verdoppelte Lebensalter, Deutsche Dichter-Gedachtnis-Stiftun (Hamburg, Germany), 1929.

Greichische Heldensagen: Neu erzählt nach alten Quellen (title means "Greek Heroic Myths"), two volumes, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1929-1930.

Kaiser Konstantin: Eine Zeitwende, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1929.

Die Sage von Odysseus: Neu erzählt nach den ursprünglichen Motiven, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1930.

Das Opfertier: Erzählungen (title means "The Sacrificial Animal"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1931.

Gedichte aus den Jahren 1915-1930, Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1931.

Nachtschatten: Vier Novellen aus kriegerischen Zeiten (title means "Night Shadow: Four Novellas from Times of War"), Insel (Leipzig, Germany), 1932.

Der Roßkamm von Lemgo (title means "The Horse Dealer of Lemgo"), Deutsche Buchgesellschaft (Berlin, Germany), 1933, revised as Janna du Coeur, Desch (Munich, Germany), 1949.

Das Haus am See: Zwei Trilogien (title means "The House on the Lake: Two Trilogies"), Blatter für der Dichtung (Hamburg, Germany), 1934.

Der General, Rütten & Loening (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), revised edition, Eckart (Witten, Germany), 1954.

Heimgang: Novelle, Fischer (Berlin, Germany), 1934.

Cara, Rütten & Loening (Potsdam, Germany), 1936, revised, 1948.

Aphaia: Der Weg der Götter, Volker und Zählen (title means, "Aphaia: The Way of the Gods, Peoples, and Numbers"), Rütten & Loening (Potsdam, Germany), 1937.

Heile, heile Segen: Sieben Geschichten für Kinder von drei bis fünf Jahren, Rütten & Loening (Potsdam, Germany), 1937.

Ruhland: Lebensbild eines Mannes (title means "Ruhland: Episodes from the Life of a Man"), Rütten & Loening (Potsdam, Germany), 1937.

Von Raubern und Riesen: Drei Marchen für Kinder, Rütten & Loening (Potsdam, Germany), 1938.

Die Geheimnisse (title means "The Enigmas"), Rütten & Loening (Potsdam, Germany), 1938, revised and enlarged as Die goldene Klinke (title means, "The Golden Doorknob"), Vereinigung der Oltner Bücherfreunde (Olten, Germany), 1950.

Kaniswall: Novelle, Rütten & Loening (Potsdam, Germany), 1938.

Rudolf Erzerum, oder Des Lebens Einfachheit (title means "Rudolf Erzerum, or Life's Simplicity"), Neuer (Stockholm, Sweden), 1945.

Enak, oder Das Auge Gottes (title means "Enoch"), Honeit (Hamburg, Germany), 1948.

Der Auswanderer: Erzählungen und Novellen (title means, "The Emigrant"), Wulff (Uberlingen, Germany), 1949.

Albrecht Schaeffer: Im Schatten der Marienburg. Eine Auswahl aus seinem dichterischen Werk, edited by Walter Ehlers and Alfred Mohrhenn, West-Verlag (Essen, Germany), 1951.

(Translator) Frederic Prokosch, Die Asiaten: Roman, Fischer (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), 1952.

Vom ursprünglichen Glauben: Gedanken eines Dichters zur modernen Theologie, Eckart (Witten, Germany), 1953.

Der grüne Mantel, Reclam (Stuttgart, Germany), 1955.

Janna du Coeur, K. Desch (Vienna, Austria), 1956.

Mythos: Abhandlungen über die kulturellen Grundlagen der Menschheit (title means "Mythos: Treatise on the Cultural Foundations of Humanity"), Schneider (Heidelberg, Germany and Darmstadt, Germany), 1958.

Contributor to numerous periodical publications including Hilfe, Literarische, and Frankfurter Zeitung.

Author's papers are housed at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach a Neckar, Germany.

SIDELIGHTS: Albrecht Schaeffer was a German fiction writer and poet who also completed novellas, short stories, myths, legends, and children's stories. As Ingeborg H. Solbrig wrote in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, "It is difficult to place Schaeffer's work into a specific category at any time in his career; his writings bear the stamp of neoromanticism, impressionism, and symbolism, and elements of the grotesque. Religion of a speculative, mystical Christian kind, Greece and Rome and other ancient cultures, nature, and the simple life close to the soil are themes prevalent in his works."

Schaeffer, a younger contemporary of Stefan George and Rainier Marie Rilke, studied classical and modern philology at the university level. After working briefly as an unpaid apprentice newspaper reporter, he decided against a conventional career and moved back in with his parents. While at home, he studied literature and the creation of poetry, drama, and fiction. During this period, he came to admire the poetry of George, an artist who shunned materialism.

Drawn to the power of ancient myth throughout his career, Schaeffer borrowed motifs from The Odyssey in his early poetry collection, Die Meerfahrt. Schaeffer translated Homer's The Odyssey in 1927, and The Iliad in 1929. In 1920 he rewrote the myth of Persephone in Der Raub der Persefone. In addition, he published two volumes of narrative, titled Griechische Heldensagen, in 1929 and 1930.

In 1914 the small publishing house Insel in Leipzig published two volumes of Schaeffer's poetry, Heroische Fahrt and Attische Dammerung. Solbrig wrote, "They reflect a modern sensitivity and clearly reveal his models during this early phase of his career: George, Homer, Friedrich Holderlin, August von Platen, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and, especially, Heinrich von Kleist."

Schaeffer's 1914 play, Die Mütter, published as World War I began and its author had been drafted as a desk clerk at the bureau of disabled soldiers, is a traditional nineteenth-century drama. A book of poems, Des Michael Schwertlos vaterländische Gedichte, published the following year, celebrates personal strength during wartime without glorifying battle.

Schaeffer collaborated with friend Ludwig Strauß on Die Opfer des Kaisers, Kremserfahrten und die Abgesänge der hallenden Korridore, a collection of poetic parodies making light of Stefan George's lesser imitators, published in 1918. Strauß, a writer, critic, historian, and devoted Zionist, specialized in translating Hebrew and Yiddish into German. A few years later, in 1923, the friends would collaborate on a yearbook, Leucothea.

After relocating to Neubeuren, in the upper Bavarian countryside, with his first wife, Schaeffer saw the publication of his first serious fiction works. Gudula oder Die Dauer des Lebens tracks the Napoleonic wars to the start of the industrial age. "This work is actually a bildungsroman with a female protagonist who realizes her aesthetic, ethical, and intellectual capabilities through meeting life's challenges," Solbrig wrote.

The novel Josef Montfort is less romantic than Gudula in tone and language; instead, the tale is Freudian-influenced. Li, the Chinese servant of young and supposedly fearless Baron Josef Montfort, narrates the book. Soon, Josef's look-alike double surfaces, proves himself to be Josef's twin brother, and murders Josef in cold blood. "In this novel," Solbrig wrote, "Schaeffer de-familiarizes the external world; the uncanny horror becomes symbolic of a second, supernatural world that lurks in the characters' minds. The style … became characteristic of Schaeffer; it has affinities with the styles of E.T.A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe."

Elli oder Sieben Treppen, a lengthy narrative consisting of seven sections, is a tragedy tracking protagonist Elli's numerous upsets and intimate betrayals. Josef Montfort and his murderous twin appear.

Published in three volumes, between 1920 and 1924, Helianth: Bilder aus dem Leben zweier Menschen von heute aus der norddeutschen Tiefebene in neun Büchern dargestellt follows main character Georg as he flirts with perfection via art. Solbrig wrote, "The work has the idealistic background of the bildungsroman, yet it is marked by a distinctly modern sensitivity. … Historical figures such as Lassalle, Marx, Bebel, Rilke, Oskar Kokoschka, and Christian Morgenstern situate the plot in a specific historical period, but behind this world there exists. … a timeless sphere indicated by the names of Rembrandt, Goethe, and Jean Paul."

Helianth sparked a debate which many consider a prelude to the 1930s debates on expressionism. Solbrig said, "In 1922, Oscar Walzel pointed out many romantic elements in Helianth … maintaining that Schaeffer 'had tried to write exactly as Jean Paul would have done if he had lived in our century.'" On the other hand, Solbrig added, "In the Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift in 1926 Eduard Berendt discussed Helianth … in the contexts of trends in contemporary narrative technique and criticized Schaeffer for mixing narrative with dramatic techniques." Yet another critic called Schaeffer's work an example of innovative literature, a reaction against "positivistic" naturalism.

Dichtung: Kritische Versuche contains reflections on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Eduard Morike, and Ludwig Strauß, chapters on the ballad, the sonnet, the tragedy, and the epic, and closes with an essay on Stefan George.

The 1920s and 1930s were Schaeffer's most productive years, during which he wrote much poetry, both lyric and meter. Die Saalborner Stanzen: Eine Trilogie, Die Marien-Lieder, and Das Haus am SEE: Zwei Trilogien contain some of these works. Die Wand: Dramatische Phantasmagorie, a one-act play, is also from this period. The story centers around the characters of Goethe and his friend; the setting is an inn in Zurich.

Other longer works published during this prolific time include the epic Gevatter Tod: Märchenhaftes Epoch in vierundzwanzig Mondphasen und einer als Zugabe, a critically praised novel in verse; Parzival: Ein Versroman in drei Kreisen; Der Gäfallige, Schaeffer's loose adaptation of Diderot's Est-il bon, est-il méchant?, the comedy Der verlorene Sohn, and the historical novel Der Roßkamm von Lemgo.

Among his most celebrated short-story collections from these decades are Hölderlins Heimgang oder Der goldene Wagen, Der Falke und die Wölfin: Zwei Erzählungen, Mitternacht: Zwölf Novellen, and Die Geheimnisse. Solbrig said, "Like Helianth … these stories are characterized by complex symbolism, the use of interior monologue and dream, elements of the fantasy and surreal, and a wealth of images."

Schaeffer's writing career peaked just before the Nazi government took over Germany. Though Schaeffer was not Jewish, Nazi restrictions greatly impeded him. His novel, Cara, a marriage story, indirectly condemns the racist activities of the National Socialists. Ruhland: Lebensbild eines Mannes chronicles the fate of a family living on an old Prussian estate during the Napoleonic era.

In 1939 Schaeffer and his second wife, Olga Elisabet Heymann, went into voluntary exile in the United States, with several children in tow. For several years Schaeffer worked as a freelance writer. According to Solbrig, his most important accomplishment during his days in exile was the novel Rudolf Erzerum, oder Des Lebens Einfachheit. The book captures the intellectual and ethical development in the life of a young man.

During his last decade, Schaeffer devoted much of his time to a philosophical history of civilization, Die Schopfungsgeschichte der Menschheit. Part of this manuscript was published posthumously under the title Mythos: Abhandlungen über die kulturellen Grundlagen der Menschheit.

Schaeffer's work has not been translated into English, although he translated several English-language works into German, including Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol and two short stories written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Schaeffer also completed Das Kleinod im Lotus: Die Buddha-Legende adapted from Edwin Arnold's blank verse epic, The Light of Asia.