Weimar, 18-21 March 2010

International and interdisciplinary conference of the Anna Amalia and Goethe-Academy, Weimar

In collaboration with
University of Leipzig Centre for Women’s and Gender Research
The Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Bauhaus-University Weimar – Media Faculty
European Information Centre of Thuringia in the Thuringian Minister President’s Office

Deadline for handing in of papers: 1 September 2009

Gertrud Kolmar, family name Gertrud Käthe Chodziesner, was born on 10 December 1894 in Berlin and died in March 1943 in Auschwitz. She came from an integrated middle-class Jewish family. She has gone down in literary history as a poet, playwright, and storyteller. The sheltered, animal-loving daughter of a middle-class family, who, with dedication, cared for disabled children, wrote initially for herself and made hardly any impact. Her feelings ran deep. Humiliated by Germans and isolated, she questioned, warned, screamed, suffered, and rebelled, but found no public response. But even in this situation she grew into an aware Jewish poet. She produced work of rousing modernity – with regard to the questions she asked, the imagery, and the strict, almost classical sense of form. She expressed herself with passion in poems which were often highly erotic, full of desire and unfulfilled longing for childhood. She was committed to the cause of women, almost revolutionary in her quest, and strong in her sense of social justice. Finally, she is Jewish through and through, especially in her later work, in which she took up traditions of the Tanach and the Chassidic east. She is often full of fight – as a result of growing persecution – most noticeably in ‘Wir Juden’ – a poem in free rhythms. In March 1943 she was deported to Auschwitz and died in the gas chambers. The exact date is unknown.

More than sixty-five years after her death, her life and work are to be studied and interpreted in the context of an interdisciplinary and international conference. It is hard to believe that the work of such an accomplished poet has remained virtually unknown to the German and international literary public. It was certainly due to education policy, unsatisfactory editions and interpretations, and to the lack of performances and readings. German society as a whole could not relate to this woman – this Jewish woman – and her work. In any case, we are confronted with the phenomenon of an unknown modern classical writer. We are astounded to read in academic essays that she is ‘one of the most important and best German language female poets of the twentieth century’. She is seen not only to be on the same level as Annette von Droste-Hülshoff – according to Walter Benjamin, her cousin – but also as Nelly Sachs, Else Lasker-Schüler and Rose Ausländer.

This Call for Papers focuses on interpretations of her poetry, drama, and prose; new biographical research, including the social, artistic, and cultural context; her Jewish background or her life as a Jew assimilated into German society; her themes and ideas; religious elements – despite her otherwise secular Jewishness –; traces of the Torah and other writings of the Tanach in her work; also Jewish motifs. Contributions are invited from disciplines such as Literary History, History, Jewish Studies, Media Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology or Psychoanalysis, Sociology, Theatre Studies, and the History of Science. It is envisaged that the conference will be accompanied by readings and theatre productions.

Lectures of 30 minutes duration are envisaged, followed by discussion. Submissions for lectures in German or English (Abstracts), together with details of technical equipment required, are invited from all disciplines and should be sent by 1 September 2009 to post@AnnaAmalia-Goethe.de. Acceptance will be promptly notified.

Chaired by
Prof. Dr. Ilse Nagelschmidt, Leipzig
Prof. Dr. Jochanan Trilse-Finkelstein, Berlin
Prof. Wolfgang Kissel, Weimar

Conference organizers
Dr. Martin Borowsky, Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft Erfurt
Keren Sagi, The Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center, Jerusalem
Dr. Dr. Dietmar Görgmaier, Europäisches Informations-Zentrum Thüringen in der Thüringer staatskanzlei
Dr. Ettore Ghibellino, MJur (Oxford), Anna Amalia and Goethe Akademie Weimar