Notes
1. FATAL MONOLOGUE
1. Friedrich Nietzsche,
On the Genealogy of Morals, tr. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale (New York, 1989), preface, para. 1, p. 15.
2. Friedrich Nietzsche,
Ecce Homo, tr. Walter Kaufmann (New York, 1989), preface, para. 1, p. 217.
4. Nietzsche,
Genealogy of Morals, preface, para. 2, p. 16.
5. Nietzsche to C. Fuchs, 14 December 1887.
6. Nietzsche to C. von Gersdorff, 20 December 1887.
7. Nietzsche to P. Gast [Heinrich Köselitz], 20 December 1887.
8. Friedrich Nietzsche,
Beyond Good and Evil, section 281, tr. R. J. Hollingdale (New York, 1990), p. 213.
9. Nietzsche to R. von Seydlitz, 12 February 1888.
10. Nietzsche to G. Brandes, 2 December 1887.
11. Nietzsche to P. Deussen, 3 January 1888.
13. Nietzsche to P. Gast, 7 April 1888.
14. Nietzsche to P. Gast, 20 April 1888.
15. Nietzsche to A. Strindberg, 8 December 1888.
16. Nietzsche to J. Burckhardt, 6 January 1889, in
The Portable Nietzsche, tr. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Viking, 1968), p. 686.
17. Friedrich Nietzsche,
Posthumous Fragments, 1 [67], July–August 1882. The
Posthumous Fragments are cited by number and date as established by the Colli-Montinari edition.
18. Friedrich Nietzsche,
The Gay Science, tr. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books, 1974), 367, p. 324.
19. Martin Heidegger,
Nietzsche (Pfullingen, 1961), vol. 1, p. 480.
21. Martin Heidegger,
Was heisst denken? (Tübingen, 1954), second part, passim.
22. Martin Heidegger,
Der Satz vom Grund (Pfullingen, 1957), pp. 150ff.
23. Friedrich Nietzsche,
The Case of Wagner, epilogue, tr. Walter Kaufmann (New York, 1967), p. 192.
24. Nietzsche,
Ecce Homo, preface, para. 1.
25. Friedrich Nietzsche, “Maxims and Arrows,” 38, in
Twilight of the Idols, in
The Portable Nietzsche, p. 472.
27. Friedrich Nietzsche,
Die Dionysische Weltanschauung, para. 3, in
Vorstufen der Geburtder Tragödie, vol. 3 (Leipzig, 1928).
28. Nietzsche,
Posthumous Fragments, 9[42], 1871 (for the projected work
Music and Tragedy).
29. Ibid., 2[146], Autumn 1885–Autumn 1886.
30. Ibid., 1[36], Autumn 1885–Spring 1886.
31. “Nihil etiam tam multiplex esse potest aut dispersum, quod per illam, de qua egimus, enumerationem certis limitibus circumscribi atque in aliquot capita disponi non possit.” René Descartes,
Regulae ad directionem ingenii, 8.
32. Nietzsche,
Posthumous Fragments, 6[184], Autumn 1880.
33. Ibid., 14[31], Spring 1888.
34. Friedrich Nietzsche, “How the ‘True World’ Finally Became a Fable,” in
Twilight of the Idols.
35. Nietzsche,
Posthumous Fragments, 7[54], late 1886–Spring 1887.
36. Nietzsche to P. Gast, 13 November 1888.
38. Respectively in Nietzsche,
Ecce Homo: “Why I am a Destiny,” para. 1, and “The Case of Wagner,” para. 4.
39. Nietzsche,
Ecce Homo, preface, para. 1.
40. Nietzsche to F. Overbeck, 13 November 1888.
41. Nietzsche to P. Gast, 16 December 1888.
42. Nietzsche,
Beyond Good and Evil, 40.
43. Friedrich Nietzsche, “Assorted Opinions and Maxims,” 360, part 1 of vol. 2 of
Human, All Too Human, tr. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 293.
44. Friedrich Hölderlin,
Anmerkungen zum Ódipus.
45. Nietzsche,
The Gay Science, 374.
46. Friedrich Hölderlin,
Frankfurter Plan for
Der Tod des Empedokles.
47. Nietzsche,
Ecce Homo, “Why I Am So Wise,” para. 1.
48. Friedrich Hölderlin,
Grund zum Empedokles.
49. Nietzsche, “Why I Am So Wise,” para. 5, in
Ecce Homo. [Translation slightly altered.]
50. Hölderlin,
Grund zum Empedokles.
52. Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Wanderer and His Shadow,” part 2 of vol. 2 of
Human, All Too Human, 185.
53. Friedrich Nietzsche, “Skirmishes of an Untimely Man,” 36, in
Twilight of the Idols, p. 537.
54. Nietzsche, “Why I Am a Destiny,” para. 1, in
Ecce Homo.
55. Nietzsche,
The Gay Science, 367.
57. Nietzsche to P. Gast, 13 and 18 November 1888.
58. Nietzsche to F. Overbeck, 13 November 1888.
59. Nietzsche to P. Gast, 9 December 1888.
60. Nietzsche to P. Gast, 16 December 1888.
61. Nietzsche to C. Fuchs, 27 December 1888.
62. Nietzsche to J. Burckhardt, 6 January 1889, in
The Portable Nietzsche, p. 686.
64. Nietzsche to F. Avenarius, 10 December 1888.
65. Nietzsche to J. Burckhardt, 6 January 1889, in
The Portable Nietzsche, p. 687. [Translation slightly altered.]
66. Nietzsche,
Posthumous Fragments, 21[4], Autumn 1888.
67. Ibid., 16[89], Spring–Summer 1888.
68. Nietzsche to J. Burckhardt, 4 January 1889.
69. Nietzsche,
Posthumous Fragments 2[132], Autumn 1885–Autumn 1886.
70. Nietzsche,
Posthumous Fragments 24[1]2, October–November 1888.
71. Pierre Klossowski, “Don Juan selon Kierkegaard,”
Acéphale 3—4, (1937):28.
72. Pierre Klossowski,
Nietzsche et le cercle vicieux (Paris, 1969), pp. 319–56.
73. Nietzsche to J. Burckhardt, 6 January 1889, in
The Portable Nietzsche, p. 687.
74. Klossowski,
Nietzsche et le cercle vicieux, pp. 345–47.
75. Nietzsche to J. Burckhardt, 6 January 1889, in
The Portable Nietzsche, p. 686.
76. Nietzsche,
Posthumous Fragments, 10[95], Autumn 1887.
77. Klossowski,
Nietzsche et le cercle vicieux, p. 323.
78. Nietzsche,
Posthumous Fragments, 1[70], July–August 1882.
79. Nietzsche to J. Burckhardt, 6 January 1889, in
The Portable Nietzsche, p. 686.
80. Ibid, p. 687. In Italian in Nietzsche’s letter.
81. C. A. F. Bernoulli,
F Overbeck und F. Nietzsche, (Jena, 1908), vol. 2, p. 307.
82. Nietzsche,
The Gay Science, 359.
83. “On Truth and Lying in the Extramoral Sense,” para. 1 (dissertation of 1873).
2. THE SLEEP OF THE CALLIGRAPHER
1. Cf. the section “Lektüre,” in Robert Walser,
Der Europäer (Geneva, 1968).
2. Robert Walser, “Meine Bemühungen,” in
Grosse kleine Welt, ed. Carl Seelig (Zurich, 1937), p. 198.
3. Walter Benjamin, “Robert Walser,” in
Gesammelte Schrifien, vol. 2, book 1, (Frankfurt, 1977), p. 327.
4. C. Seelig,
Wanderungen mit Robert Walser (St. Gallen, 1957), p. 14.
5. R. Mächler,
Das Leben Robert Walsers (Geneva, 1966), p. 104.
6. E. Rohde, “Sardinische Sage von den Neunschläfern,” in
Kleine Schriften, vol. 2, (Tübingen, 1901), pp. 197–209.
7. L. Massignon,
Les nuages de Magellan et leur découverte par les Arabes (Paris, 1962), pp. 14–15; G. de Santillana and H. von Dechend,
Hamlet’s Mill (Boston, 1969), p. 269.
8. Santillana and Dechend,
Hamlet’s Mill, pp. 239, 418–19.
9. A. Jeremias,
Handbuch der altorientalischen Geisteskultur (Berlin, 1929), p. 189.
10. M. Schneider,
El origen musical de los animales-símbolos en la mitología y la escultura antiguas (Barcelona, 1946), p. 186.
11. H. Corbin, “Physiologie de l’homme de lumière dans le soufisme iranien,” in
Ombre et Lumière (various authors) (Bruges, 1961), p. 179.
12. Massignon,
Les nuages de Magellan, p. 14.
13. Charbry,
Josaphaz, Set Dormanz und Petit Plet (Heilbronn, 1879). Christian and Islamic sources for the legend of the Seven Sleepers in M. Huber,
Die Wanderlegende von den Siebenschläfern (Leipzig, 1910); I. Guidi, “Testi orientali inediti sopra i Sette Dormienti in Efeso,” in
Raccolta di scritti (Rome, 1945) vol. 1, pp. 61–198.
14. L. Massignon, “Les ‘Sept Dormants’: Apocalypse de l’Islam” and “Le culte liturgique et populaire des Sept Dormants Martyrs d’Éphèse,” in
Opera Minora (Beirut, 1963), book 3, pp. 104–19 and 119–81.
15. L. Massignon,
Les temps dans la pensée islamique, in
Opera Minora, book 2, p. 607.
16. Robert Walser, “Minotauros,” in
Maskerade (Geneva, 1968), p. 199.
17. H. Günterr,
Calypso (Halle, 1919), pp. 170–72.
18. R. Eisler,
Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt (Munich, 1970), vol. 2, pp. 390–91.
19. Mächler,
Das Leben Robert Walsers, p. 107.
20. Max Brod,
Streitbares Leben (Munich, 1960), pp. 393–94.
21. Franz Kafka,
Briefe (Frankfurt, 1958), p. 75.
22. Robert Musil, “Literarische Chronik,” in
Tagebücher, Aphorismen, Essays und Reden (Hamburg, 1955), p. 687.
23. Elias Canetti, “Kafka’s Other Trial: The Letters to Felice,” in
The Conscience of Words, tr. Joachim Neugroschel (New York, 1979), p. 111.
24. Robert Walser, “Das Kind (III),” in
Poetenleben (Geneva, 1967), p. 406.
25. Carl Seelig,
National-Zeitung (Basel, 6 January 1957).
26. Robert Walser, “Theodor,” in
Festzug (Geneva, 1966), pp. 307–33.
27. T. Izutsu,
The Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism (Tokyo, 1966), pp. 11–13.
28. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, “The Letter of Lord Chandos,” tr. Tania Stern and James Stern, in
Selected Prose (New York, 1952), p. 138.
29. Robert Walser, “Die Glosse,” in
Maskerade (Geneva, 1968), p. 296.
30. Mächler,
Das Leben Robert Walsers, p. 47.
31. Jacket copy for the Italian edition of
Der Gehülfe (The Assistant) (Turin, 1961).
3. DÉESSES ENTRETENUES
1. Bertolt Brecht, 1918, in
Gesammelte Werke, vol. 7, p. 3.
2. Arthur Kutscher,
Frank Wedekind: Sein Leben und sein Werk (Munich, 1927), vol. 2, pp. 130–31.
3. M. Granet,
La pensée chinoise (Paris, 1934), p. 332.
4. Les mémoires historiques de Se-ma Tsïen, ed. É. Chavannes, chap. 28.
5. Morhofius,
Polyhistor (Lübeck, 1747), p. 348.
6. Karl Marx,
Marx Engels Werke (Berlin, 1956–), vol. 23, pp. 91–93. (Hereafter
MEW.)
8. Karl Marx,
Capital, in
MEW, vol. 25, p. 838.
9. Marx,
Capital, in
MEW, vol. 23, p. 85.
12. Karl Marx,
Grundrisse (Berlin, 1953), p. 391.
13. Marcel Mauss, “Essai sur le don,” in
Sociologie et anthropologie (Paris, 1960), p. 167.
14. Marx,
Auszüge aus Mill, in
MEW, Ergbd. 1, p. 446.
15. Capital, in
MEW, vol. 23, p. 102.
19. Auszüge aus Mill, in
MEW, Ergbd. 1, p. 455.
21. Marx,
Grundrisse, p. 391.
22. G. W. F. Hegel,
Aphorismen aus dem Wastebook, 1803–1806.
23. Marx,
Grundrisse, p. 25.
24. Marx,
Capital, in
MEW, vol 23, p. 58.
25. Marx,
Grundrisse, pp. 117ff.
26. Pierre Klossowski,
La monnaie vivante (Paris, 1970), p. [30].
27. Marx,
Auszüge aus Mill, in
MEW, Ergbd. 1, p. 461.
28. Marx,
Grundrisse, p. 80.
29. Arthur Rimbaud, “Illuminations,” in
Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters, tr. Wallace Fowlie, (Chicago, 1966), pp. 253–55.
30. Marx,
Grundrisse, p. 134.
31. Frank Wedekind,
Schloss Wetterstein, act 1, scene I.
4. ENAMEL SCAR
1. Gottfried Benn,
Epilog und lyrisches Ich, in
Gesammelte Werke, ed. D. Wellershoff, vols. 1–4 (Wiesbaden, 1958–61) [hereafter
GW], vol. 4, p.8. All passages quoted are by Benn.
2. Gottfried Benn,
Zur Problematik des Dichterischen, in
GW, vol. 1, p. 78.
3. Gottfried Benn,
Lebensweg eines Intellektualisten, in
GW, vol. 4, p. 38.
4. Letter of 27 October 1940, in
Briefe an F. W. Oelze 1932–1945 (Wiesbaden, 1977), p.246.
5. Gottfried Benn,
Mein Name ist Monroe, in
GW, vol. 1, p. 401.
6. Letter of 11 April 1942, in
Briefe an F W Oelze 1932–1945, p. 311.
7. Letter to Wellershoff of 22 November 1950, in Gottfried Benn,
Ausgewählte Brief (Wiesbaden, 1957), p. 202.
9. Gottfried Benn, “Die Reise,” in
GW, vol. 2, p. 33.
10. Gottfried Benn, “Die Insel,” in
GW, vol. 2, p. 46.
11. Benn,
Lebensweg eines Intellektualisten, p. 30.
13. Gottfried Benn,
Probleme der Lyrik, in
GW, vol. 1, p. 515.
14. Gottfried Benn,
Zucht und Zukunft, in
GW, vol. 1, p. 457.
15. Benn,
Epilog und lyrisches Ich, p. 11.
16. Letter to Nele Soerensen of 24 August 1949, in N. P. Soerensen,
Mein Vater Gottfried Benn (Wiesbaden, 1984), p. 97.
17. Gottfried Benn,
Doppelleben, in
GW, vol. 4, p. 133.
19. Gottfried Benn,
Roman des Phänotyp, in
GW, vol. 2, p. 171.
20. Benn,
Doppelleben, p. 133.
5. ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE COCA-COLA BOTTLE
1. [A beautiful and wicked sorceress in Torquato Tasso’s
Gerusalemme liberata.—Trans.]
2. [“Die Frage nach der Technik” and “Überwindung der Metaphysik,” both in
Vorträge und Aufsätze, 1954.– Trans.]
6. THE PERPETUAL WAR
1. Elias Canetti, “The New Karl Kraus,” in
The Conscience of Words, tr. Joachin Neugroschel (New York, 1979), pp. 218, 219.
2. Walter Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” in
Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, tr. Edmund Jephcott (New York, 1978), p. 260.
3. Elias Canetti,
The Torch in My Ear, tr. Joachim Neugroschel (New York, 1982), p. 71.
4. Canetti, “The New Karl Kraus,” p. 214.
5. Canetti,
The Torch in My Ear, p. 71.
6. Karl Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo” (1912), in
Beim Wort genommen (Munich, 1955), pp. 294–95.
8. Karl Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (Munich, 1957), pp. 726, 679.
9. Kraus, “Nachts” (1918), in
Beim Wort genommen, p. 435.
10. Walter Benjamin, “Erfahrung und Armut,” in
Gesammelte Schriften (Frankfurt, 1977), vol. 2, book 1, p. 214.
11. Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, p. 643.
12. Ernst Jünger,
In Stahlgewittern (1920), in
Werke (Stuttgart, n.d.), vol. 1, p. 11.
13. Ernst Jünger,
Die Totale Mobilmachung (1930), in
Werke, vol. 5, p. 133.
14. Ibid., pp. 125–26, 130, 132.
15. Canetti, “The New Karl Kraus,” p. 217.
16. [References are to scene and line number—Trans.]
17. Elias Canetti,
Crowds and Power, tr. Carol Stewart (New York, 1996), pp. 73–75.
18. Leopold Liegler,
Karl Kraus und sein Werk (Vienna, 1920), pp.
57–58. This book is the first and unsurpassed monument of Krausian apologetics.
19. Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, p. 659.
20. Karl Kraus, “Erfahrung,”
Die Fackel, nos. 381–383, September 1913, p. 43.
21. Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, p. 9.
23. Delivered on 19 November in Vienna and printed as the only text in no. 404 of
Die Fackel, 5 December 1914.
24. Karl Kraus, “In dieser grossen Zeit,” in
Weltgericht (Munich, [1965]), p. 9.
25. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” p. 243.
26. Canetti, “The New Karl Kraus,” p. 217. [Translation slightly altered.]
27. Karl Kraus,
Briefe an Sidonie Nádherný von Borutin (Munich, 1974), vol. 1, pp. 179–80.
28. Karl Kraus, “Notizen,”
Die Fackel, nos. 423–25, May 1916, p. 18.
29. [In English in original—Trans.]
30. Canetti, “The New Karl Kraus,” p. 216.
31. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” p. 269.
32. Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, p. 501.
34. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” pp. 255–56.
35. Ibid., p. 256; Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, p. 681.
36. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” pp. 250, 253, 260.
37. Karl Kraus, “Kriegssegen,”
Die Fackel, nos. 706–11, December 1925, p. 29.
38. Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, p. 385.
39. Gottfried Benn,
Roman des Phänotyp, in
Gesammelte Werke (Wiesbaden, 1962), vol. 2, p. 161.
40. Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, pp. 495–96.
43. “Reklamefahrten zur Hölle,” on the recording
Karl Kraus liest aus eigenen Schriften, Lebendiges Wort, LW 17.
44. Karl Kraus, “Reklamefahrten zur Hölle,”
Die Fackel, nos. 577–82, November 1921, p. 97.
10. A REPORT ON READERS OF SCHREBER
1. D. P. Schreber,
Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken nebst Nachträgen und einem Anhang über die Frage: “Unter welchen Voraussetzungen darf eine für geisteskrank erachtete Person gegen ihren erklärten Willen in einer Heilanstalt festgehalten werden?” (Leipzig, 1903).
2. D. P. Schreber,
Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, ed. and with two essays by I. Macalpine and R. A. Hunter, (London, 1955), p. 369; Elias Canetti,
The Human Province, tr. Joachim Neugroschel (New York, 1978), p. 119.
3. C. Pelman, review of Daniel Paul Streber
[sic], Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken, in
Allgemeine Zeitschriftfür Psychiatrie 60(1903): 657.
4. R. Pfeiffer, review of D. P Schreber,
Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken, in
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde 27(1904): 352–53.
5. C. G. Jung, “The Psychology of Dementia Praecox” (1907), in
Collected Works, vol. 3,
The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease, tr. R. F. C. Hull (New York, 1960), passim.
6. Sigmund Freud, “Further Remarks on the Defence Neuro-Psychoses” (1896), in
Collected Papers (New York, 1959), vol 1, p. 169.
7. Sigmund Freud,
The Origins of Psycho-Analysis: Letters to Wilhelm Fliess, Drafts and Notes: 1887–1902, ed. Marie Bonaparte, Anna Freud, Ernst Kris, tr. Eric Mosbacher and James Strachey (New York, 1954), letter 69, p. 216.
8. Jung, “Psychology of Dementia Praecox,” p. 34.
9. The Freud/Jung Letters, ed. William McGuire, tr. Ralph Manheim and R. F C. Hull (Princeton, 1974), p. 13.
12. The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi, vol. 1,
1908–1914, tr. Peter T. Hoffer (Cambridge, Mass., 1993), p. 221.
13. Freud/Jung Letters, p. 356.
14. J. Honegger, “Über paranoïde Wahnbildung,”
Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen 2(1910): 734–35.
15. Sigmund Freud, “Psycho-Analytic Notes upon an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia (Dementia Paranoides),” in
Collected Papers, tr. Alix Strachey and James Strachey (New York, 1959), vol. 3, pp. 423–24.
20. Freud/Jung Letters, p. 471.
21. C. G. Jung, “The Content of the Psychoses” (1908/1914), supplement: “On Psychological Understanding,” in
Collected Works, vol. 3,
The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease, p. 187.
22. Sabina Spielrein, “Über den psychologischen Inhalt eines Falles von Schizophrenie (Dementia praecox),” in
Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen 3(1911): 396–97.
23. Eugen Bleuler, review of Freud, “Psychoanalytische Bemerkungen über einen autobiographisch beschriebenen Fall von Paranoia (Dementia paranoides),”
Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse 2(1912): 346.
24. Sigmund Freud, “On Narcissism: An Introduction” (1914), in
Collected Papers, vol. 4, pp. 30–59; “A Case of Paranoia Running Counter to the Psycho-Analytical Theory of the Disease” (1915), in
Collected Papers, vol. 2, pp. 150–61; “Certain Neurotic Mechanisms in Jealousy, Paranoia, and Homosexuality” (1922), in
Collected Papers, vol. 2, pp. 232–43; “A Neurosis of Demoniacal Possession in the Seventeenth Century” (1923), in
Collected Papers, vol. 4, pp. 436–72.
25. Walter Benjamin, “Bücher von Geisteskranken,” in
Gesammelte Schriften (Frankfurt, 1972), vol. 4, bk. 2, p. 616.
26. This information is from a personal letter from Elias Canetti, whom I here thank for allowing me to quote it.
27. Canetti,
The Human Province, p. 120.
28. Elias Canetti, “The Case of Schreber: I/II,” in
Crowds and Power, tr. Carol Stewart (New York, 1984), p. 435.
31. W. J. Spring, “Observations on World Destruction Fantasies,”
Psychoanalytic Quarterly 8(1939): 48–56; R. P. Knight, “The Relationship of Latent Homosexuality to the Mechanism of Paranoid Delusions,”
Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic 4 (1940): 149–59.
32. Melanie Klein, “Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms,” in
Envy and Gratitude and Other Works, 1946–1963 (New York, 1984), pp. 22–24.
33. Maurits Katan, “Schreber’s Delusion of the End of the World,”
Psychoanalytic Quarterly 18(1949): 60–66; “Schreber’s Hallucinations about the ‘Little Men,’”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 31(1950): 32–35; “Further Remarks about Schreber’s Hallucinations,”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 33(1952): 429–32; “Schreber’s Prepsychotic Phase,”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 34(1953): 43–51; “The Importance of the Non-Psychotic Part of the Personality in Schizophrenia,”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 35(1954): 119–28.
34. Maurits Katan, “Schreber’s Hereafter,”
The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 14 (1959): 314–82.
35. A. C. Carr, “Observations on Paranoia and Their Relationship to the Schreber Case,”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 44 (1963): 195–200; R. Waelder, “The Structure of Paranoid Ideas,”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 32 (1951): 167–77; J. Nydes, “Schreber, Parricide, and Paranoid-Masochism,”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 44 (1963): 208–12; P. M. Kitay, introduction and summary of the symposium on
Reinterpretations of the Schreber Case: Freud’s Theory of Paranoia, in
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 44 (1963): 191–94, 222–23; R. B. White, “The Mother-Conflict in Schreber’s Psychosis,”
International Journal ofPsycho-Analysis 42 (1961): 55–73; and “The Schreber Case Reconsidered in the Light of Psychosocial Concepts,”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 44 (1963): 213–21; H. F. Searles, “Sexual Processes in Schizophrenia,” in
Collected Papers on Schizophrenia and Related Subjects (London, 1965), pp. 429–42.
36. R. Stoller, “Faits et hypothèses: Un examen du concept freudien de bisexualité,”
Nouvelle Revue de Psychanalyse 7(Spring 1973): 135–55.
37. Schreher,
Memoirs of My Nervous Illness.
38. Jacques Lacan, “On a Question Preliminary to Any Possible Treatment of Psychosis,” in
Ecrits: A Selection, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York, 1977).
39. Schreber,
Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, pp. 381ff.
40. W. G. Niederland, “Three Notes on the Schreber Case,”
Psychoanalytic Quarterly 20 (1951): 579–91; “River Symbolism,” parts 1 and 2,
Psychoanalytic Quarterly 25 (1956): 469–504 and 26 (1957): 50–75; “Schreber: Father and Son,”
Psychoanalytic Quarterly 28 (1959): 151–69; “The ‘Miracled-Up’ World of Schreber’s Childhood,”
The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 14 (1959): 383–413; “Schreber’s Father,”
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 8 (1960): 492–99; “Further Data and Memorabilia Pertaining to the Schreber Case,”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 44 (1963): 201–7; F. Baumeyer, “New Insights in the Life and Psychosis of Schreber,”
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 33(1952): 262; “Der Fall Schreber,”
Psyche 9 (1955): 513–36 (reprinted in
Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken—see note 42 below); “Noch ein Nachtrag zu Freuds Arbeit über Schreber,”
Zeitschrift fur psychosomatische Medizin und Psychoanalyse 16 (1970): 243–45 (also reprinted in
Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken).
41. Alfons Ritter,
Schreber: Das Bildungssystem eines Arztes (Erfurt, 1936).
42. D. P. Schreber,
Denkwürdikeiten eines Nervenkranken, ed. P. Heiligenthal and R. Volk, with two articles by F. Baumeyer and a glossary of the “basic language” (Wiesbaden, 1973), pp. 341–66.
43. Lacan, “On a question,” p. 221.
44. “Une étude: la remarquable famille Schreber,”
Scilicet 4 (1973): 287–321 (no author’s name given).
45. M. Schatzman,
Soul Murder (New York, 1973).
46. W. G. Niederland, “Schreber and Flechsig,”
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 16 (1968): 740–48.
47. Lacan, “On a question,” p. 179.
48. Freud, “Psycho-Analytic Notes upon an Autobiographical Account,” p. 465.
49. Lacan, “On a question,” p. 190.
51. G. Rosolato, “Paranoïa et Scène Primitive” and “Repères pour la psychose,” in
Essais sur le symbolique (Paris, 1969), pp. 199–241 and 315–34; O. Mannoni,
Clefs pour l’imaginaire (Paris, 1969), pp. 75–79; M. Mannoni,
Le psychiatre, son “fou,” et la psychanalyse (Paris, 1970), pp. 165–85, 229–31, and
Éducation impossible (Paris, 1973), pp. 21–32, 48–49, and passim.
52. D. P. Schreber,
Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken, ed. and with an essay by S. M. Weber (Frankfurt, 1973).
53. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari,
Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, tr. Robert Hurley et al. (New York, 1977), p. 56.
54. Freud, “Psycho-Analytic Notes upon an Autobiographical Account,” p. 439.
55. Deleuze and Guattari,
Anti-Oedipus, p. 57.
56. Anthony Wilden, “Critique of Phallocentrism: Daniel Paul Schreber on Women’s Liberation,” in
System and Structure: Essays in Communication and Exchange (London, 1972), p. 291.
57. Much has been published on Schreber since 1974, when this essay was written. But all of it follows more or less the paths that were already laid out. One ought, however, to single out a book written by a Dutch sociologist that offers an impressive mass of new information about Schreber and his family: Han Israëls,
Schreber: Father and Son, tr. H. S. Lake (Madison, Conn., 1989).
11. ACCOMPANIMENT TO THE READING OF STIRNER
1. [Published in English as
The Ego and His Own, tr. Steven T. Byington (London, 1907).—Trans.]
2. F. A. Lange,
Geschichte des Materialismus (Iserlohn, 1866), p. 292; the judgment seems to have stuck, since we read “
Der Einzige, a famous, or rather infamous, book,” in W. E. Biermann,
Anarchismus und Kommunismus (Leipzig, 1906), p. 52.
3. Ettore Zoccoli,
I gruppi anarchici degli Stati Uniti e l’opera di Max Stirner (Modena, 1901), pp. 31–32.
4. Letter to M. Hildebrand, 22 October 1889, in
Marx Engels Werke (Berlin, 1956ff.) [hereafter
MEW], vol. 37, p. 293.
5. Documents of the Landesarchiv of Bautzen, cited by B. Andréas and W. Mönke, “Neue Daten zur
Deutschen Ideologie,”
Archiv für Sozialgeschicht 8(1968): 18–19.
6. MEW, vol. 27, pp. 11–13.
7. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels,
The German Ideology, in
MEW, vol. 3, p. 168.
8. Quoted in W. Bolin,
Ludwig Feuerbach (Stuttgart, 1891), p. 106.
9. All in
Ausgewählte Briefe von und an Ludwig Feuerbach (Leipzig, 1904), vol. 2, p. 259.
10. Arnold Ruge,
Briefwechsel und Tagebuchblätter aus den Jahren 1825–1880 (Berlin, 1886), vol. 1, pp. 379, 381–82, 386.
12. Max Stirner,
Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (Stuttgart, 1972), pp. 153, 159.
13. Marx and Engels,
The German Ideology, in
MEW vol. 3, p. 17.
14. Now in
Werke, vol. 4, (Frankfurt, 1975), pp. 69–80.
15. In the form of a pamphlet,
Die letzen Philosophen (Darmstadt, 1845), then collected in
Sozialistische Aufätze 1841–1847 (Berlin, 1921), pp. 188–206.
16. In the
Norddeutsche Blätter of March 1845; but next year, the eager Szeliga, a favorite laughingstock of Marx and Engels and of Stirner as well, tried to incorporate something of Stirner’s in a pamphlet. At the end of the pamphlet, he states that it “testifies to a great lack of clarity to designate egoism as the enemy of universal reform; on the contrary, it is its precursor, its school of hard knocks”;
Die Universal reform und der Egoismus (Charlottenburg, 1846), p. 27.
17. Max Stirner, “Recensenten Stirners,” reprinted by J. H. Mackay in
Kleinere Schriften, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1914), pp. 343–96.
18. G. Edward [Max Stirner], “Die philosophisehen Reaktionäre,” reprinted in MacKay,
Kleinere Schriften, pp. 401–15.
19. Dronke,
Berlin (Frankfurt, 1846), vol. 2, p. 116.
20. Karl Rosenkranz,
Aus einem Tagebuch (Leipzig, 1854), p. 133.
22. “Marx und der ‘wahre’ Sozialismus,”
Die Neue Zeit, 12, no. 2 (1895): 217.
23. Engels, Letter to Max Hildebrand, 22 October 1889, in
MEW, vol. 37, p. 293.
24. Ludwig Feuerbach und der Anfang der deutschen Philosophie [1888], in
MEW, vol. 21, p. 271.
25. Eduard Bernstein, “Die soziale Theorie des Anarchismus,”
Die Neue Zeit 10, no. 1 (1891–92): 421–28; Franz Mehring,
Geschichte der Sozialdemokratie (Stuttgart, 1897), vol. 1, p. 203.
26. Friedmund von Arnim, “Die Auflösung des Einzigen durch den Menschen,”
Die Epigonen 4(1847): 180–251.
27. Fritz Mauthner,
Der Atheism us und seine Geschichte im Abendlande (Stuttgart-Berlin, 1923), vol. 4, p. 216.
28. Kuno Fischer, “Moderne Sophisten,” reprinted in
Die Epigonen 5(1848): 279.
31. Max Stirner, “Die philosophischen Reaktionäre,” p. 412.
32. In
Die Epigonen 4(1847): 152.
33. “Every insignificant pamphlet published in Berlin or other provincial or district towns of German philosophy was ordered and read to tatters and smudges, and the leaves fell out in a few days, if only there was a mention of Hegel in it”; A. I. Herzen,
My Past and Thoughts, tr. Constance Garnett (London, 1968), vol. 2, p. 398.
34. On Stirner’s reception in Russia, see, first of all, P. V. Annenkov,
The Extraordinary Decade: Literary Memoirs, tr. Irwin R. Titunik (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1968), pp. 211–14; also copious references in T. G. Masaryk,
The Spirit of Russia (London, 1919); P. Scheibert,
Von Bakunin zu Lenin (Leiden, 1956); M. Malia,
Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism (Cambridge, Mass., 1961); A. Walicki,
Un’ntopia conservatrice (Turin, 1973).
35. Eduard von Hartmann,
Philosophie des Unbewussten (Berlin, 1869), pp. 611–12.
36. F. A. Lange,
Geschichte des Materialismus, p. 292.
37. K. Joël,
Philosophenwege (Berlin, 1901), p. 229.
38. J. H. MacKay,
Max Stirner: Sein Leben und sein Werke (Berlin, 1898); later expanded in successive editions: Treptow, 1910, and Charlottenburg, 1914.
39. Some useful supplementation and correction of Mackay’s data can be found in various studies and documents collected by D. Dettmeiyer, ed., in
Max Stirner (Lausanne, 1979).
40. H. G. Helms,
Die Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft (Cologne, 1966), pp. 510–600.
41. K. Mühsam,
Der Leidensweg Erich Mühsam (Zurich-Paris, 1935), pp. 13–31.
42. He dreamed of Ascona becoming “a meeting place for persons who by the nature of their individuality are unsuited ever to become useful members of capitalistic human society”; Erich Mühsam,
Ascona (Locarno, 1905), p. 57.
43. Rolf Recknagel,
Beiträge zur Biographie des B. Traven (Berlin, 1977).
44. Karl Löwith,
Das Individuum in der Rolle des Mitmenschen (Munich, 1928), pp. 169–80.
45. Martin Buber,
Die Frage an den Einzelnen (Berlin, 1936), pp. 9–27.
46. Thinking, of course, of
L’être et le néant, in
Existentialism, Marxism, and Anarchism (London, 1949), p. 24.
47. Günther Anders, “Nihilismus und Existenz,”
Die Neue Rundschau, 1947, pp. 58–62.
48. Albert Camus,
L’Homme révolté (Paris, 1951), pp. 84–88.
49. Henri Avron,
Aux sources de l’existentzalisme: Max Stirner (Paris, 1954).
50. R. W. K. Patterson,
Max Stirner: the Nihilistic Egoist (Oxford, 1971).
51. Ernst Schultze, “Stirner’sche Ideen in einem paranoischen Wahnsystem,”
Archiv für Psychiatric und Nervenkrankheiten 36 (Berlin, 1903): 793–818.
52. Ludwig Binswanger,
Grundformen und Erkenntnis menschlichen Daseins (Zurich, 1942).
53. Reprinted along with other short writings by Panizza in
Die kriminelle Psychose (Munich, 1978), pp. 119–77.
54. Zoccoli,
I gruppi anarchici degli Stati Uniti e l’opera di Max Stirner.
55. Ettore Zoccoli,
L’anarchia (Turin, 1907), pp. 7–69.
56. Letter to Cesare Berti, 3 November 1911, from Forlì prison, in
Opera omnia, vol. 4 (Florence, 1952), p. 258.
57. Opera omnia, vol. 6 (Florence, 1953), p. 331.
58. Ibid., vol. 14 (Florence, 1954), p. 194.
59. Paolo Orano,
Il fascismo (Rome, 1940), vol. 2, p. 240.
60. Julius Evola, Introduction to
L’Internationale ebraica, I “protocolli” dei “savi anziani” di Sion [Protocols of the Elders of Zion] (Rome, 1937), pp. xix–xx. This is the slightly varied and revised version—and Stirner’s name is part of the revision—of another list of great conspirators of Hebraism offered by Evola a few months earlier: Marx, Heine, Börne, Freud, Nordau, Lombroso, Reinach, Durkheim, Einstein, Zamenhof, Offenbach, Sullivan—obviously thinking of
The Mikado as a document of Judaic infiltration—Schönberg, Stravinsky, Wassermann, Döblin; in Julius Evola,
Tre aspetti del problema ebraico (Rome, 1936), pp. 38–39.
61. Eugenio Garin,
Cronache di filosofia italiana (Bari, 1959), p. 166.
62. For example, D. Koigen,
Zur Vorgeschichte des modernen philosopischen Sozialismus in Deutschland (Bern, 1901).
63. Sidney Hook,
From Hegel to Marx (London, 1936), p. 165.
64. Cesare Luporini,
L’ideologia tedesca (Rome, 1977), pp. xi–lxxxviii.
65. [In Italian the names of eminent men are sometimes preceded by the definite article.—Trans.]
66. Luporini,
L’ideologia tedesca, p. xxiv.
67. Max Nettlau,
Bibliographie de l’anarchie (Paris-Brussels, 1897), pp. 35–36.
68. Georgy Plekhanov,
Anarchismus und Sozialismus (Berlin, 1894), pp. 17–26.
69. Paul Eltzbacher,
Der Anarchismus (Berlin, 1900), pp. 246–66.
70. Dronke,
Berlin, vol. 2, p. 125.
71. Mauthner,
Der Atheismus und seine Geschichte, vol. 4, pp. 201–7.
72. Carl Schmitt,
Ex Captivitate Salus (Cologne, 1950), pp. 80–82.
73. Mauthner,
Der Atheismus und seine Geschichte, vol. 4, p. 215.
14. ON PUBLIC OPINION
1. Karl Kraus,
Die Fackel 167 (26 October 1904): 9.
2. Karl Kraus, “In dieser grossen Zeit” (1914), in
Weltgericht (Munich, 1965), p. 13.
3. G. W. Leibniz, “Drôle de pensée touchant une nouvelle sorte de Représentations,” in
Politische Schriften (Darmstadt, 1931), vol. 1.
4. Karl Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” reprinted in
Beim Wort genommen (Munich, 1955), p. 134.
5. Karl Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo,” reprinted in
Beim Wort genommen, p. 236.
7. Karl Kraus, “Heine und die Folgen” (1910), in
Untergang der Welt durch schwarze Magie (Munich, 1960), p. 205.
8. Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo,” p. 238.
9. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 122.
10. Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo,” p. 284.
11. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 121.
12. Karl Kraus,
Die Sprache (Munich, 1954), p. 381.
13. Karl Kraus, “Der sterbende Mensch,” in
Worte in Versen (Munich, 1959), p. 59.
14. Karl Kraus, “An meinen Drucker,” in
Worte in Versen, p. 463.
15. Karl Kraus, “Herbstzeitlose” (1915), in
Untergang der Welt durch schwarze Magie, p. 413.
16. Kraus,
Die Sprache, p. 341.
17. All quotations from the pre-Socratics are from Diels-Kranz,
Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 11th ed. (Berlin, 1964).
18. Friedrich Nietzsche, “How the ‘True World’ Finally Became a Fable,” in
Twilight of the Idols, in
The Portable Nietzsche, tr. Walter Kaufmann (New York, 1954), p. 486.
19. Karl Kraus, “Warum die Fackel nicht erscheint,” in
Die Fackel, nos. 890–905, end of July 1934, p. 24.
20. Léon Bloy,
Exégèse des lieux communs (1902) (Paris, 1953), p. 11.
21. Kraus,
Die Sprache, p. 438.
22. Léon Bloy,
Exégèse des lieux communs (Nouvelle Série) (1913) (Paris, 1953), p. 333.
23. Kraus, “Warum die Fackel nicht erscheint,” p. 9.
24. This poem, entitled “Über die Bedeutung des zehnzeiliges Gedichtes in der 888. Nummer der Fackel,” was published for the first time in
Stimmen über Karl Kraus (Vienna, 1934), pp. 11–12.
25. Karl Kraus,
Die dritte Walpurgisnacht (Munich, 1952), p. 9.
26. Walter Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” in
Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, tr. Edmund Jephcott (New York and London, 1978), p. 249.
27. Kraus,
Die dritte Walpurgisnacht, p. 20.
28. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 70.
29. Kraus,
Die Sprache, p. 227.
30. Kraus,
Die dritte Walpurgisnacht, p. 280.
15. A CHINESE WALL
1. Robert Scheu,
Karl Kraus (Vienna, 1909), pp. 4–5.
2. Robert Musil,
The Man without Qualities, vol. 1, tr. Sophie Wilkins (New York, 1996), p. 28.
3. Die Fackel, no. 1, April 1899, p. 1.
5. Die Fackel, nos. 232–33, October 1907, p. 43. “I have long sought the means to make myself unbearable to my contemporaries,” wrote Léon Bloy—along with Soren Kierkegaard the most essential reference point in considering Kraus’s relations with the new society—in the first issue of
Le Pal, March 1885, a short-lived publication that constitutes one of the more significant precedents of
Die Fackel. Moreover, both Bloy and Kraus recalled the same publication, Henri Rochefort’s
La Lanterne (1868–69).
6. Karl Kraus, “Nach zwanzig Jahren,” in
Worte in Versen (Munich, 1959), p. 253.
7. Walter Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” in
Reflections, tr. Edmund Jephcott (New York and London, 1978), p. 239.
8. P. Schick,
Karl Kraus (Reinbeck, 1965), p. 28.
9. An der schönen blauen Donau [On the Beautiful Blue Danube]—was a fortnightly publication presenting literature and music, where Hofmannsthal published under the pseudonym of Loris Melikov and Arthur Schnitzler under that of Anatol.
10. Karl Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche” (1909), in
Beim Wort genommen (Munich, 1955), p. 144.
11. Briefwechsel zwischen George und Hofmannsthal (Munich, 1953), p. 7.
13. P. de Mendelssohn,
S. Fischer und sein Verlag (Frankfurt, 1970), p. 195.
14. “Zur Überwindung des Naturalismus” is the title of Bahr’s essay, to which the youthful Kraus replied with the article “Zur Überwindung des Hermann Bahr,” in
Die Gesellschaft, 5 May 1893, pp. 627–36.
15. As Kraus wrote in a review of Hofmannsthal’s
Gestern: “For us in Austria, however, to think of overcoming naturalism would be biting irony, an amusing paradox.
No longer to have the naturalism that
we do not yet have would mean to get rid of something we do not possess”;
Die Gesellschaft, 6 June 1892, p. 800.
16. Quoted in Mendelssohn,
S. Fischer und sein Verlag, p. 195.
17. K. Kraus,
Die demolirte Literatur (Vienna, 1897), p. 37.
18. Hermann Broch,
Hofmannsthal und seine Zeit (Munich, 1964), p. 51.
19. [A reference to Schnitzler’s 1901 novel
Lieutenant Gustl—Trans.]
20. “
Glatte Worte, bunte Bilder, / Halbes, heimliches Empfinden, / Agonies, episodes,” from Hofmannsthal’s introduction to Schnitzler’s
Anatol. The second quotation is taken from a review written in 1892, likewise of
Anatol, that Hofmannsthal never published; it was found among his papers and was published in
Die Neue Rundschau 4 (1971): 795–97. This review ends with a sentence that demonstrates Hofmannsthal’s perfect awareness, from the beginning, of the Viennese syndrome: “Amid the nervous chatter of the figures, the Medusa-like character of life emerges from the shadows: What is senseless, enigmatic, solitary, the deaf and lifeless misunderstanding between those who love; the dark conscience, as of a fault committed; the presentiment at dawn of escaped infinities, of smothered, dissipated wonders; and the many things that fall like frost and rust on overly refined souls.”
21. Broch,
Hofmannsthal, p. 20.
22. Quoted in H. Kohn,
Karl Kraus. Arthur Schnitzler. Otto Weininger (Tubingen, 1962), p. 14.
23. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” p. 253. The sentence was quoted for the first time by Benjamin in his essay on Kraus; it does not appear in Brecht’s writings. Werner Kraft assumes that it was said in conversation.
24. Karl Kraus, “Der Fall Riehl” (1906), in
Sittlichkeit und Kriminalität (Munich [1963]), p. 228.
25. Kraus, “Nachts” (1918), in
Beim Wort genommen, p. 341.
26. Karl Kraus, “Heine und die Folgen” (1910), in
Untergang der Welt durch schwarze Magie (Munich, 1960), p. 191.
27. Adolf Loos, “Ornament und Verbrechen” (1908), in
Sämtliche Schriften (Vienna, 1962), vol. 1, p. 283.
28. T. W. Adorno, “Rückblickend auf den Surrealismus,” in
Noten zur Literatur (Frankfurt, 1958), p. 160.
29. Kraus, “Heine und die Folgen,” p. 191.
30. Hermann Broch, “Einige Bemerkungen zum Problem des Kitsches,” in
Dichten und Erkennen (Zurich, 1955), p. 297.
31. Karl Kraus, “Nachwort zu Heine und die Folgen” (1911), in
Untergang der Welt, p. 217.
32. Kraus, “Heine und die Folgen,” p. 188.
34. Sir Thomas Browne,
Hydriotaphia, note e, at end.
35. On Kraus and Wittgenstein: E. Heller, in “Wittgenstein und Nietzsche,” in
Die Reise der Kunst ins Innere (Frankfurt, 1966), pp. 233–63, mentions the connection between the works of these two; his themes are taken up and expanded by W. Kraft in “Ludwig Wittgenstein und Karl Kraus,” in
Rebellen des Geistes (Stuttgart, 1968), pp. 102–34; and then by J. Bouveresse,
La parole malheureuse (Paris, 1971), pp. 18 ff., 32 ff. Wittgenstein had an immense admiration for Kraus: When he decided to entrust Ludwig von Ficker, editor of the magazine
Der Brenner, with the sum of 100,000 crowns to be distributed to writers in difficulty—Trakl, Rilke, Else Lasker-Schüler, and a few others were later chosen—Wittgenstein specified that his decision had been taken “on the basis of words that Kraus wrote about you in
Die Fackel and on the basis of words that you wrote about Kraus”: cf. Ludwig Wittgenstein,
Briefe an Ludwig von Ficker (Salzburg, 1969), p. 12. The first publisher to whom Wittgenstein offered the
Tractatus was Jahoda, publisher of
Die Fackel, and when it was rejected, he wrote to Paul Engelmann, “I should very much like to know what Kraus says about it.” For these and other details, see P. Engelmann,
Letters from Ludwig Wittgenstein with a Memoir (Oxford, 1967), pp. 122–32. It is curious to note that Kraus had had a violent argument with Wittgenstein’s father, Karl, an influential columnist on economics for the
Neue Freie Presse, in the early years of
Die Fackel: cf. no. 65, p. 16; no. 67, pp. 12–16; and no. 71, pp. 11–12.
On Kraus and Schoenberg: Schoenberg wrote this dedication for Kraus, on a copy of Harmonielehre: “I learned from you more than one should if one wants to remain independent”; the text is quoted in Schoenberg’s response to Rundfrage über Karl Kraus (Innsbruck, 1917), p. 21. In Die Fackel, nos. 272–73, p. 34, Kraus printed a letter from Schoenberg challenging a critic; in no. 300, p. 9, he reproduced a page from the manuscript score of Schoenberg’s Buch der hängenden Gärten; in no. 374, pp. 24–25, he defended Schoenberg after a concert that had caused scandal. A comparison between Kraus and Schoenberg was made as early as 1934 by Ernst Krenek, in 23, the music journal edited by Willi Reich and modeled after Die Fackel, in a text later republished, along with two others about Kraus, in Zur Sprache gebracht (Munich, 1958), pp. 172–74, 224–39. Krenek clearly illustrates how the conception of language in Kraus is also valid as a reference point for the musical practice of the composers of the school of Vienna. Kraus, on the other hand, always remained aloof to this music. On Kraus and Freud: The mocking hostility toward psychoanalysis revealed in Kraus’s aphorisms has an interesting factual background. Die Fackel, no. 191, p. 8, carried a positive review by Otto Soyka of Freud’s Three Contributions on the Theory of Sexuality, at a time (1905) when psychoanalysis was still in disrepute; when the brawl broke out with Fliess over priority in the theory of original bisexuality, Freud, in January 1906, wrote Kraus a letter beginning with these words: “The partial coincidence of your conceptions and aspirations with mine must be the reason why I have been able to find my name repeatedly cited in Die Fackel”; Kraus took Freud’s side in the dispute; cf. no. 210, pp. 26–27. In 1908, in the midst of his attack on Harden, Kraus cited a letter of support that Freud had sent him at the time of the Hervay case (1904) [“Leontine von Hervay, accused of bigamy and evil practices”]: “A reader, who cannot be your supporter all that often, congratulates you on the penetration, the courage, and the ability to recognize the large in the small as shown by your article on the Hervay case”; Die Fackel, nos. 257–58, p. 40.
On Kraus and Loos: Alone among the great Viennese language figures, Loos was always a great friend of Kraus. Together with the lovable and incorrigible Peter Altenberg, they formed a diversified trio united by immense mutual esteem. From the beginning of Die Fackel, Kraus speaks in Loos’s favor; cf. issue 29, p. 19. In the first volume of aphorisms and in “Heine und die Folgen,” the affinities of substance and intention between the two are clearly stated, and they are mentioned continually in all the following years. In 1930, Kraus dedicated his book of Zeitstrophen to Loos with these words: “To Adolf Loos, pure counterimage of the world here depicted.” Finally, it was Kraus who spoke at Loos’s grave: The famous issue 888 of Die Fackel, the thinnest, contained, besides the three pages of the speech, only Kraus’s marvelous last poem, an allusion to his silence in the face of Nazism: “Man frage nicht, was all die Zeit ich machte.” As for Loos, he had saluted Kraus in Rundfrage über Karl Kraus, published by Ficker in Innsbruck in 1917, with praise that is general but that corresponds to his absolute faith in his friend: “He stands on the threshold of a new epoch, and to humanity, so long separated from God and nature, points out the path.”
36. Leo Spitzer, “Das synthetische und das symbolische Neutralpronomen im Französischen,” in
Stilstudien (Munich, 1961), vol. 1, p. p. 202.
37. Karl Kraus, “Es” (1921), in
Die Sprache (Munich, 1954), p. 77.
38. Gottfried Benn, “Nietzsche—nach füfzig Jahren,” in
Gesammelte Werke, vol. 1 (Wiesbaden, 1962), p. 492.
39. Karl Kraus,
Die chinesische Mauer (1909) (Munich, 1964), p. 279.
40. Kraus, “Maximilian Harden” (1907), in
Die chinesische Mauer, p. 56.
41. Kraus, “Der Löwenkopf” (1913), in
Untergang der Welt, pp. 186–87.
42. Kraus, “Girardi” (1908), in
Die chinesische Mauer, p. 138.
43. Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo” (1912), in
Beim Wort genommen, p. 238.
44. Maurice Blanchot,
L’entrerien infini (Paris, 1969), p. 229.
45. Jean Paul,
Vorschule der Aesthetik, para. 45.
46. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 161.
47. Karl Kraus, “Meine Wiener Vorlesung,” in
Die Fackel, nos. 303–4, May 1910, p. 37.
48. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 117.
49. Meng Tien was the general to whom the emperor Huang-ti entrusted the completion of the Great Wall. His words, to be taken in a geomantic sense, are reported by Sseu-Ma Ts’ien,
Shih-chi, chap. 88. On Meng Tien, see J. J. L. Duyvendak,
De grote chinese muur (Leiden, 1953), pp. 15, 33–34; O. F. von Möllendorf, “Die Grosse Mauer von China,”
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 35(1881): 92–97.
50. Elias Canetti, “Karl Kraus: The School of Resistance,” in
The Conscience of Words, tr. Joachim Neugroschel (New York, 1979), p. 35.
51. Quoted by S. von Radecki in
Wie ich glaube (Cologne, 1953), pp. 23–24.
52. Canetti, “Karl Kraus,” p. 36.
53. Kraus, “Druckfehler” (1920), in
Die Sprache, pp. 52–53.
54. Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo,” p. 279.
55. Kraus, “Nachts,” p. 433.
56. Karl Kraus, “Rechenschaftsbericht,” in
Die Fackel, nos. 795–99, December 1928, p. 3.
57. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 45.
59. T. W. Adorno, “Sittlichkeit und Kriminalität,” in
Noten zur Literatur III (Frankfurt, 1965), p. 77.
60. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” pp. 44–45.
61. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” p. 258.
63. Kraus, “Prozess Veith” (1908), in
Die chinesische Mauer, pp. 13–14.
64. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 48.
65. Friedrich Nietzsche,
Beyond Good and Evil, tr. R. J. Hollingdale (Harmondsworth, Eng., 1990), para. 75, p. 92.
66. Kraus,
Die chinesische Mauer, pp. 280–81.
69. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 71.
70. Kraus,
Die chinesische Mauer, pp. 286–87, 289.
71. Kraus, “Nachts,” p. 427.
72. “Du bleibst am Ursprung: Ursprung ist das Ziel.” Kraus, “Der sterbende Mensch,” in
Worte in Versen (Munich, 1959), p. 59.
73. William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan,
Patience, in
Treasury of Gilbert and Sullivan, ed. M. Green (New York, 1961), p. 225.
75. Kraus, “Nachts,” p. 328.
76. Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo,” p. 291.
77. “Ich bin nur einer der Epigonen / die in dem alten Haus der Sprache wohnen.” Kraus, “Bekenntnis,” in
Worte in Versen, p. 79.
78. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” p. 258. [Translation slightly altered.]
79. Kraus, “Perversität” (1903), in
Sittlichkeit und Kriminalität, p. 302.
80. Kraus, “Nestroy und die Nachwelt” (1912), in
Untergang der Welt . . . , p. 226.
81. Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo,” p. 297.
82. Walter Benjamin, “Einbahnstrasse” (1928), in
Gesammelte Werke, vol. 4, book 1, Frankfurt, 1972, p. 138.
83. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” p. 250.
84. There were more than seven hundred of these readings; they were held, between 1910 and 1936, primarily in Vienna but also in various German cities, in Czechoslovakia, in Paris, and twice in Trieste. They took place mostly in regular theaters: Kraus read from his own works or those of other writers he liked. In his last years, he recited, always alone and at a reading desk, whole operettas by Offenbach and whole plays by Shakespeare. A complete list of readings appears in O. Kerry,
Karl-Kraus-Bibliographie (Munich, 1970), pp. 78–83.
85. Canetti, “Karl Kraus,” p. 30.
86. “For the incomprehensible and unforgettable thing (unforgettable to anyone who experienced it, even if he lived to be three hundred) was that this law
glowed: it radiated, it scorched and destroyed”; ibid., p. 31.
88. Benjamin, “Einbahnstrasse,” p. 121.
89. Karl Kraus, “Sakrileg an George oder Sühne an Shakespeare,” in
Die Fackel, nos. 885–87, December 1932, p. 46.
90. Kraus, “Todesfurcht,” in
Worte in Versen, pp. 375–76, 11. 31–32.
91. “Doch hängen in blutig gespürter Verkettung / an meiner Gestalt die vielen Gestalten / die du zu bewahren mir vorbehalten, / und in dem schmerzbeseligten Bund / unzählige Stimmen an meiner Mund”; Kraus, “Bange Stunde,” in
Worte in Versen, p. 239.
92. H. Kann, “Erinnerungen an Karl Kraus,” in
National-Zeitung, 23 April 1944, Sunday supplement.
93. Walter Benjamin, “Goethes Wahlverwandtschaften,” in
Gesammelte Schriften (Frankfurt, 1978), vol. 1, bk. 1, p. 139.
94. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” p. 259.
95. “Gebannt steh’ich auf diesem Fleck / und kann nicht zurück und kann nicht weg”; Kraus, “Bange Stunde,” in
Worte in Versen, p. 238.
96. Walter Benjamin, “On the Mimetic Faculty,” in
Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, tr. Edmund Jephcott (New York and London, 1978), p. 333.
97. Karl Kraus, “In dieser grossen Zeit” (1914), in
Weltgericht (Munich, 1965), p. 9.
99. Kraus, “Apokalypse” (1908), in
Untergang der Welt, p. 11.
100. Kraus, “Girardi,” p. 137.
101. To quote Robert de Montesquiou’s phrase in
Les Chauves-souris (Paris, [1892]), p. 31.
102. Karl Kraus, “Maximilian Harden,” pp. 60–61.
103. Karl Kraus, “Die Einacter,” in
Die Fackel, no. 1, April 1899, p. 25. The history and nature of the incompatibility between Kraus and Hofmannsthal are complex questions that bear thinking about. A description of their relations can be found in Arntzen, “Karl Kraus und Hugo von Hofmannsthal,”
Sprache im technischen Zeitalter 26 (1968): 147–63.
104. Karl Kraus, “Maximilian Harden. Ein Nachruf,” in
Die Fackel, nos. 242–43, January 1908, p. 24.
105. Karl Kraus, “Aus der Branche” (1911), in
Literatur und Lüge (Munich, 1958), p. 69.
106. Karl Kraus, “Literatur oder Man wird doch da sehn” (1921), in
Dramen (Munich, 1967), p. 13.
107. “Der Lächler,” in
Die Fackel, nos. 557–60, January 1921, p. 17. Kraus’s attitude toward German-language writers of the avant-garde became stinging only with the war and was especially so afterward. Indeed, it is clear today that the war, except in rare cases, either killed those writers or spared them to reveal their hitherto-disguised banality. But as far as Kraus is concerned, one should note that, before 1911, he had published pieces by Jacob van Hoddis and Albert Ehrenstein in
Die Fackel, His great admiration for Else Lasker-Schüler and Georg Trakl always remained unchanged.
108. T. W. Adorno,
Minima Moralia, tr. E. E N. Jephcott (London, 1974), p. 144.
109. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus,” p. 247.
110. Quotation printed in
Die Fackel, nos. 852–56, May 1931, p. 60.
111. Benjamin, “Einbahnstrasse,” p. 121.
112. Kraus,
Die chinesische Mauer, p. 290.
113. Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo,” p. 284.
114. The episode is related by Kurt Wolff in
Autoren / Bücher / Abenteuer (Berlin, 1969), pp. 86–87, and gave rise to Kraus’s essay “Schändung der Pandora,” in
Die Sprache, pp. 54–59.
115. Marcel Granet, “Quelques particularités de la langue et de la pensée chinoises,” in
Études sociologiques sur la Chine (Paris, 1953), p. 146 note.
116. Marcel Granet,
La pensée chinoise (Paris, 1934), p. 329.
117. Marcel Granet,
Danses et légendes de la Chine ancienne (Paris, 1959), vol. 2, p. 593.
118. Walter Benjamin, “Über den Begriff der Geschichte,” in
Gesammelte Schriften (Frankfurt, 1974), vol. 1, bk. 2, p. 694.
119. Karl Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (Munich, 1957), pp. 681, 9, 10.
120. “Wie leer ist es hier / an meiner Stelle. / Vertan alles Streben./ Nichts bleibt von mir / als die Quelle, / die sie nicht angegeben”; Karl Kraus “Grabschrift,” in
Worte in Versen, p. 516.
121. Kraus, “In dieser grossen Zeit,” p. 11.
122. Max Brod,
Streitbares Leben (Munich, 1960), p. 154.
123. Kraus, “Pro domo et mundo,” p. 274.
124. Kraus, “In dieser grossen Zeit,” p. 11.
125. David Hilberts Gesammelte Abhandlungen (Berlin, 1935), vol. 3, p. 163.
126. G. Goblot, “Les parents de Karl Kraus,”
Études Germaniques 5, no. 1 (1950): 47.
127. Kraus, “Grimassen über Kultur und Bühne” (1908), in
Die chinesische Mauer, pp. 149–50; partially reprinted in “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 98.
128. T. W Adorno, “Hoffmanns Erzählungen in Offenbachs Motiven,” in
Moments musicaux (Frankfurt, 1964), p. 47.
129. Karl Kraus, “Offenbach-Renaissance,” in
Die Fackel, nos. 757–58, April 1927, p. 47.
130. Kraus,
Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, p. 9.
131. Karl Kraus, “Vorwort” (to
La Créole), in
Die Fackel, no. 916, November 1935, p. 6.
132. Kraus, “Offenbach-Renaissance,” p. 46.
133. Benjamin, “Karl Kraus liest Offenbach,” in
Gesammelte Werke, vol. 4, bk. 1, p. 517.
134. “Denn die hat nach jenem Duft gerochen / womit Eros meinen Traum gesegnet”; Karl Kraus, “Frauenlob,” in
Worte in Versen, p. 497.
135. Kraus, “Sprüche und Widersprüche,” p. 97.
136. Kraus, “Frauenlob,” in
Worte in Versen, p. 497.
137. Kraus, “Nachts,” p. 338.
16. THE PRACTICE OF PROFANE ILLUMINATION
1. Walter Benjamin, “Surrealism,” in
Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, tr. Edmund Jephcott (New York and London, 1978), p. 190.
17. BRECHT THE CENSOR
1. Walter Benjamin, “Conversations with Brecht,” in
Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, tr. Edmund Jephcott (New York and London, 1978), p. 212.
2. Bertolt Brecht, “Difficult Times,” translated by Michael Hamburger, in
Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913–1956, various translators, ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim (New York: Methuen, 1976), p. 449.
19. THE SIREN ADORNO
1. [
Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life was finally published in an English translation by E. F. N. Jephcott in 1974. Since 1978 it has been reprinted several times by Verso Editions, London and New York.—Trans.)
20. AN APOCRYPHAL GRAVE
1. Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” in
Illuminations, tr. Harry Zohn (New York, 1969), p. 253.
6. Quoted in Gershom Scholem,
Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship, tr. Harry Zohn (New York, 1988), p. 226.