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RESEARCHING
GERMAN EXILES
German Exile
Library and Archival Resources
The collections and
resources of the University of Southern California's University Libraries
provide a core body of materials that compliment the Institute for the
Study of Jews in American Life recently proposed by Provost Armstrong.
The University Libraries contain unusually strong holdings that document
German Jewish immigration to the United States, focusing in particular
on those who came to Southern California.
In numerous libraries
and collections of the University Libraries system, primary and secondary
documents about the German exile period have been collected, preserved,
and made accessible to researchers. A list of the manuscript collections
formed by or about German émigrés is found in Appendix
1. This list provides a useful overview of the type of primary
source materials at USC. The most valuable and extensive archival
collections are those in the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library and the
Max Kade Institute Archive.
The Doheny Memorial
Library has a vast collection of both primary and secondary source
publications relating to German exile writers. The total collection
of publications produced between 1933 and 1945 contains about 500
titles with some 3400 additional works by exile writers and secondary
source publications. This extensive print collection is complemented
by the exile publications belonging to Lion Feuchtwanger, now part
of the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library.
In the 1970s
and 80s faculty in USC's German Department supported graduate-level
research about German exile literature. Unfortunately, this trend
has declined in recent years. It is an exciting proposal that scholars
at USC will again utilize and profit from the outstanding, unique
collections and materials already available at the University. Study
of these materials can tell us much about the activities and concerns
of German Jews who found a haven in Southern California as well as
bolstering research into the psychological impact of the exile experience
worldwide, a subject receiving increasing study in light of more recent
political upheavals. The uncounted number of German exiles who came
to Los Angeles between the late 1920s and through the 1940s, many
of whom never returned to Europe, is a frequently forgotten chapter
in the history of Los Angeles. Their impact on the cultural scene
of the region is unquestionable and further research into their lives,
successes and failures in Los Angeles will provide an interesting
parallel for other ethnic groups who came before them and those who
have followed since.
December
1996
The University of
Southern California is well-suited to establish an Institute for the
Study of Jews in American Life with particular focus on Southern California.
The University's existing library and archival collections compliment
and will greatly enhance research conducted at the new Institute with
outstanding primary and secondary materials, particularly about Jews
and intellectuals who fled Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. During
this period Los Angeles was home of several thousand German-speaking
émigrés who came to Southern California persecuted by
the National Socialists for their religious or political convictions
or racial origins. They came to Los Angeles to join fellow exiles and
colleagues already here, many hoping to find employment in the film-related
industries, including art, architecture, and music.
In several libraries
and collections of the University Libraries system, primary and secondary
documents related to the German exile period have been collected, preserved,
and made accessible to researchers. A list of some of these collections
at USC appears in Appendix 1. This list provides a useful overview of
the kinds of primary source materials at USC. The most valuable and
extensive archival collections are those in the Feuchtwanger Memorial
Library and the Max Kade Institute Archive. Both of these umbrella collections
contain a wide range of documents (such as correspondence, manuscripts,
reviews, ephemera, photographs, etc.) about German émigrés
who lived for a time in Southern California during the Nazi regime.
Although many who fled Germany were not Jewish, their experiences leaving
their homeland and enormous difficulties living abroad were quite similar.
Collections of German intellectuals, such as the Heinrich Mann Collection
in the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, contain valuable correspondence
files which provide a wealth of information about his friends, many
of whom were Jewish.
Between 1933 and
1945 the writings of those considered "degenerate" or "un-German" by
National Socialists could not be published within the German borders.
As demand for works by these authors remained high (e.g., Albert Einstein,
Alfred Döblin, Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Franz
Werfel), publishers outside of Germany began to market their works.
The range of publications produced outside of Germany between 1933 and
1945 covers over 800 publishers who produced materials in some 36 countries.
At first these publishers were located primarily in Europe, and included
the Amsterdam firms Querido Verlag and Allert de Lange Publishing Company;
Verlagsgenossenschaft ausländischer Arbeiter in der UDSSR in Moscow
and Leningrad; Oprecht & Helbling in Zurich and New York; Europa in
Zurich and New York; and Der Aufbruch, Die Gestaltung and Bermann-Fischer
in Vienna and Stockholm. Between 1933 and before the outbreak of WWII
in 1940, many German exiles wrote about the barbarism of the National
Socialists in an attempt to inform those unacquainted with German politics;
a large number wrote historical fiction, and others wrote communist
and socialist propaganda. The Nazi capture of France in 1940 and expansion
throughout Europe greatly impacted the publication of German exile writers.
The publishing houses too were forced to leave Europe and moved to Israel,
Mexico, Argentina, and the United States. Between 1942 and 1947 seventy-five
percent of German-language publications of exiles were produced in America.
The Doheny Memorial
Library has a vast collection of both primary and secondary source publications
relating to German exile writers. The collection is split between the
Dewey and Library of Congress classification systems, resulting in many
instances where works by and about a particular author are found in
both locations. The Dewey collection includes some 800 titles under
the 830 classification number, the majority consisting of these works
printed in the 1920s or during the exile period. The largest number
of books about German exiles is located in the Library of Congress (PT)
classification. Roughly estimated, there are 1850 works by exile writers,
of which about ten percent are publications dating from the exile period.
Another 1300 titles are secondary sources about exile writers and about
various aspects of the exile period.
The circulating
collection located in Doheny Memorial Library compliments the exile
publications collected by Lion Feuchtwanger now housed in the Feuchtwanger
Memorial Library. Lion Feuchtwanger was given many of these exile
publications by his friends and colleagues but he also purchased numerous
titles. His collection of exile publications contains about 175 titles,
several of which include personalized inscriptions from the author.
During the past
five years, the focus of library collection development has been to
support the research of the Feuchtwanger Institute of Exile Studies
and the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library. Particular attention has been
paid to acquire all monographs about German émigré writers
who lived in Southern California. Secondary publications about German
exile writers who lived in Southern California or those who were acquainted
with Lion Feuchtwanger are acquired at a comprehensive level. In addition,
works by Los Angeles exile writers published between 1933 and 1945
are purchased when available from antiquarian book dealers. General
secondary studies about the German exile experience outside of Southern
California are also acquired.
The formation
of the Institute for the Study of Jews in American Life within the
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences will necessitate a shift in
the collecting focus of the University Libraries, logically directing
particular attention to works by and about German Jewish exiles. With
increased use of German exile manuscript collections, secondary materials
about all German émigrés who lived in Los Angeles during
those years (including those in the film industry, musicians and composers,
architects, graphic artists, etc.) should be collected at the same
comprehensive level as currently collected for exiled writers. The
geographic focus of the collection could also be expanded to include
émigrés living in other parts of the United States because
many of them were in regular contact with each other. Trips between
the East and West coast were not uncommon for those with the financial
resources; and their correspondence indicates the level of interaction
and influences on each others' works.
The Institute
for the Study of Jews in American Life should lead to renewed interest
in USC's outstanding holdings of primary and secondary documents and
publications about the German exile experience in Southern California.
As USC begins to pay closer attention to Los Angeles and the history
of Southern California, study of the German exiles who came here to
escape fascist Germany provides a significant, if little known, chapter
in the history of this multi-dimensional city. By studying Los Angeles'
past we can best understand how Los Angeles came to be what it is
today and where it might be in the next century.
German
Exile Studies Collections at USC
A great strength
of the collections in the University Libraries at USC are the unique
primary documents and collections about German exiles, many of whom
were Jewish. These collections came to the University from different
sources, but they all contain original correspondence, manuscripts,
photographs relating to German artists and intellectuals who spent some
time in Southern California between the 1920s and 1950s. Most of these
collections have materials of extreme scarcity and importance which
have not yet been studied. All of the collections have documents that
would provide valuable primary source material for scholars of literature,
cinema, history, and music.
Feuchtwanger
Memorial Library
Manuscript Collections
The Feuchtwanger Memorial Library was bequeathed to the University by
the widow of the historical novelist, Lion Feuchtwanger, a German Jew
whose outspoken criticism of National Socialism and Hitler before 1933
made him a dangerous enemy in his homeland. The Feuchtwanger Memorial
Library and Archive contains extensive correspondence files (both personal
and business), manuscripts of novels, articles and other works, reviews,
and photographs.
Lion Feuchtwanger
Archive (200 boxes)
Hanns Eisler Collection (2 boxes)
Heinrich Mann Collection (12 boxes)
Ludwig Marcuse Collection (14 boxes)
Book collection The Feuchtwanger Memorial Library contains
a great number of exile publications which were given to Lion Feuchtwanger
by his friends and colleagues, or purchased by him. His collection
of exile publications contains about 175 titles, many of which include
personalized inscriptions from the authors.
Special Collections
Manuscript Collections
Max Kade Institute Archive (35 boxes)
The Max Kade
Institute Archive was assembled by USC emeritus professor Marta Mierendorff
during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The collection contains dozens of files
about German exiles who were primarily involved with the film industry.
The files contain articles, photographs, ephemera, and correspondence.
Manuscript
Collections The Department of Special Collections houses several
distinct manuscript collections which contain the papers of specific
German émigrés. One particularly interesting large collection,
collected by a Jewish doctor who lived in Berlin, includes contemporary
newspapers and ephemera documenting the changing political climate
from World War I through the 1930s.
Julius Berstl
(8 boxes)
Leo Jacobsohn (11 boxes)
Ernest Kanitz (30 boxes)
Richard Ralf (6 boxes)
Cinema / Television
Library
Manuscript Collections
The archival collections in the Cinema / Television Library contain
files about directors and writers who worked for the film studios.
John Brahm (4
boxes)
William Dieterle (5 boxes)
Fritz Lang (14 boxes)
Joe Pasternak (various files)
Eric Pommer (15 boxes)
Joseph Schildkraut (1 box)
Franz Werfel (various files)
Warner Brothers
Archives
The Warner Brothers
Archives include files about directors, composers, writers, production
designers, and art directors who worked for the Warner Brothers studio.
The names listed
below provide a sampling of materials about German émigrés:
Henry Blanke
William Dieterle
Leonhard Frank
Gina Kaus
Erich Korngold
Henry Koster
Fritz Lang
Heinrich Mann
Max Reinhardt
Curt Siodmak
Franz Waxman
Franz Werfel
Doheny Memorial
Library
Circulating book
collection The Doheny Memorial Library has a vast collection of
both primary and secondary source publications relating to German exile
writers. The collection is split between the Dewey and Library of Congress
classification systems, resulting in instances where works by and about
a particular author are found in both locations. The Dewey collection
includes some 800 titles under the 830 classification number, the majority
consisting of these works printed in the 1920s or during the exile period.
The largest number of books about German exile is located in the Library
of Congress (PT) classification. Roughly estimated, there are 1850 works
by exile writers, of which about ten percent are publications dating
from the exile period. Another 1300 titles are secondary sources about
exile writers and about various aspects of the exile period.
Important
Local Collections for German Exile Studies
UC Los Angeles
