Der Briefwechsel zwischen Hermann Broch und Willi Weismann

Kathrin Kuna
2008 unpublished
The topic of this thesis is the correspondence between the Austrian writer Hermann Broch and the German publisher Willi Weisman from Munich in the years 1946 to 1951. Hermann Broch emigrated to the United States via England in 1938, Weismann lived in the German region Rheinland and Berlin as a freelance bookseller until he was forced to serve in the army in 1941. During the last month of World War II he was sent to Munich, where he actively participated in the resistance during the last days of
more » ... the war. His political activity certainly helped him to be amongst the first to become a publishing licence of the Information Control Division of the US in the year 1946. Together with a friend of Hermann Broch, Herbert Burgmüller, Weismann founded a literature magazine, called Die Fähre (the later title was Literarische Revue) and worked together with Ernst Schönwiese, the editor of the Austrian literature magazine das silberboot. Weismann sent his first letter to Broch in November 1946, asking him for articles he could publish in his magazine or even books for his publishing company. It wasn´t before 1948 that Weismann´s continuous interest in Broch´s work showed results. In 1950 he published Broch´s last novel entitled The Innocents. In the first part of this thesis the author wants to point out the historical, political and economical situation of Willi Weismann and his publishing company. As there has not been done much research on the publisher so far, neither on this period in German publishing industry, it was important to give a biographical overview and to check if Weismann was named in connection with this novel in secondary literature at all. Also it was necessary to at least give a draft of Broch´s current situation at the time of the correspondence. In the second part of the thesis Weismann´s letters to the Austrian writer in Exile have been edited. Apart from investigating certain aspects in literature and social history, especially in the German publishing field after WW II, the focus was also put on Broch [...]
doi:10.25365/thesis.2752 fatcat:2n6lqepgpzhodf3l5ikf72x72i