Jewish Museum Vienna devotes an exhibition to Friedrich Torberg to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth

Friedrich Torberg

"The Dangers of Versatility"

17 September 2008 to 1 February 2009

The Jewish Museum is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Torberg with an exhi-bition entitled "The Dangers of Versatility" in cooperation with the Vienna City Library, which has in its possession some significant items from Torberg's estate. The wide-ranging documentation on this writer, critic and translator will be shown in Palais Eskeles from 17 September 2008 to 1 February 2009. Torberg, whose polarised political views were amply expressed in his writings and critiques, was born 100 years ago on 16 December and died 30 years ago in 2009: "On paper he was an angry man, in flesh and blood he was delightful," wrote Günter Nenning in 1979 in his obituary of the writer. Opinions remain divided today. For his friends Torberg was a brilliant writer and trenchant critic, a conscious Jew and Zionist, who after his return from exile revived the "good old days" in inimitable fashion in the anecdotes contained in Tante Jolesch. For his enemies he was the initiator of the Brecht boycott and an anti-Communist cultural executioner of the Cold War era. The exhibition in the Jewish Museum Vienna attempts to present a balanced picture. It follows Torberg's footsteps - starting with the untrammelled pre-war world of Tante Jolesch and focuses on the various facets of his life in sections devoted to literature, exile, Cold War, Judaism, Israel, sport and the Nazi legacy. The conflicts surrounding Torberg's controversial public persona in Austria are also examined.

Torberg, born Friedrich Ephraim Kantor, joined the Jewish sports club Hakoah in Vienna as a child and had some success there under the name Schani Kantor. In 1928 he was a member of the Czech national champion water polo team in the parallel Hagibor sports club in Prague. His novel Der Schüler Gerber hat absolviert, in which he describes the nightmare existence of a schoolboy, proved to be an explosive literary debut when it came out in 1930. He lived the life of a Bohemian and freelance journalist, commuting between Vienna and Prague. His book Die Mannschaft in 1935 was one of the first sports novels. In 1938 he fled Prague for Paris via Zurich and joined the Czech army in exile. After the occupation of France by the Nazis he escaped via Spain and Portugal to Palestine. In 1940 he was nominated as one of ten "Outstanding Anti-Nazi-Writers" and obtained a contract with Warner Brothers in Hollywood. In 1944 he moved to New York, where he was in close contact with other émigrés. Mein ist die Rache, his only book written in exile, was published in 1943. This artful short story deals with guilt and reconciliation in the face of the mass exterminations in the concentration camps.

In 1945 he obtained US citizenship but returned in 1951 to Vienna. He published his controversial novel Hier bin ich, mein Vater, the story of a Jewish Nazi spy, in 1948. His various activities in Vienna made him one of the most prominent figures in the Austrian cultural scene for a time: the magazine FORVM published by him from 1954 onwards on behalf of the Congress for Cultural Freedom was highly controversial but also characteristic of its era. He also wrote countless theatre critiques and screenplays. His translations of the works of Ephraim Kishon are not only amusing but also an advertisement for the state of Israel. He acquired further popularity by publishing hitherto forgotten authors like Peter Hammerschlag and Fritz Herzmanovsky-Orlando. In 1965 he resigned as publisher of FORVM to write his last novel Süsskind von Trimberg (1972), spending much of his time until his death in 1979 in Ausseerland.

Although Torberg's archive up to 1938 has been lost, the estate in the Vienna City Library contains more than 50,000 letters, possibly the largest collection of correspondence in post-war Austria. They also form the basis for the research carried out by Marcus G. Patka (Jewish Museum Vienna) and Marcel Atze (Vienna City Library). The exhibition architecture is by Bernhard Denkinger. Atze and Patka are also the editors of a comprehensive illustrated catalogue with articles by Evelyn Adunka, Marie-Theres Arnbom, Marcel Atze, David Axmann, Anne-Marie Corbin, Michael Hansel, Ilse Kantor, Oliver Matuschek and Marcus G. Patka. It is designed by Markus Reuter and published in German by Verlag Holzhausen  (ISBN: 978-3-85493-156-0).

"The Dangers of Versatility - 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Friedrich Torberg" can be seen from 17 September 2008 until 1 February 2009 at the Jewish Museum (1010 Vienna, Dorotheergasse 11). The Jewish Museum, a member of Wien Holding, is open from 10 am to 6 pm Sunday to Friday. Admission is €6.50 / €4.00 reduced. School classes are offered free admission, guided tours and an educational programme: +43-1-535 04 31-311, 312 or kids.school@jmw.at. Further information on the extensive accompanying programme can be found at www.jmw.at and www.wienbibliothek.at.
 

The Friedrich Torberg exhibition - a brief tour

The exhibition starts with an audio installation in a coffee house: while visitors sit in original 1930s furniture from the former Café Museum, they can listen to Torberg reading from Tante Jolesch. The chronicle of the author's life and the sport section in the next room feature some hitherto unseen photos from Torberg's childhood and youth donated to the Jewish Museum Vienna for the exhibition by his last surviving relatives in Israel. They include two humorous coloured portrait drawings of Torberg's sister Ilse by Peter Hammerschlag. The room is dominated by a photo installation and two pennants from the Hakoah sports clubs, to which Torberg devoted much of his youthful energies. Other prize items from the Museum's Hakoah collection will also be on show, such as a Hakoah-blue cigarette case belonging to Arthur Baar engraved with the names of all the members of his football team.

The section on Torberg's books features first editions and documents on the origins and reception of his works. They include letters to and from Torberg to Hermann Broch, Max Brod, Martin Buber, Fritz Grünbaum, Michael Guttenbrunner, Peter Handke, Hermann Hesse, Ephraim Kishon, Walter Landauer (Allert de Lange Verlag), Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Soma Morgenstern, Robert Neumann, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Arnold Schönberg, Nelly Sachs, Manès Sperber, Franz Werfel, Alma Mahler-Werfel, Simon Wiesenthal and Paul von Zsolnay. In addition there are rare items such as forthcoming book announce-ments, translations and personal documents from Torberg's exile in Paris, Hollywood and New York. The walls of the room dedicated to his literary works are framed with large paintings by the contemporary artist Richard Jurtitsch. These pictures are part of his series "At home with ..." and show Torberg's study in Breitenfurt and Altaussee as seen by the artist.

Works by other artists can be seen in the Cold War room including two Indian ink drawings by Kurt Moldovan and a micrograph by Paul Flora using a text by Torberg. They were all given to Torberg on the occasion of significant birthdays. To give a flavour of the time, the room also contains a street sign for Stalin-Platz in Baden and a border sign at the Iron Curtain between Austria and Czechoslovakia, which cut Torberg off from his former "second home" in Prague. Finally, there are numerous caricatures from FORVM, which commented on the political tensions of the day, often in the form of brutally ideological illustrations.

Torberg's criticism of the response by the Austrian judiciary to the crimes committed by the Nazis is dealt with in the next room. It contains some drawings by Georg Chaimowicz of the trial of Franz Murer and other drawings by the artist criticising the spirit of the old and new Nazis in Austria. There are also hitherto unseen photos of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem and - in another context - the Jewish Central Museum set up by the Nazis in Prague, the subject of a short story by Torberg.

The outstanding object in the section on Judaism is a coloured drawing by Max Fleischer of the interior of the synagogue designed by him in Müllnergasse, in which Torberg celebrated his bar mitzvah. The section on Israel starts with a handwritten score by Arnold Schönberg for an unfinished "anthem", for which Torberg wrote the words in 1948. There are also two audio visual information stations with excerpts from radio and TV programmes, which the author graced with his distinctive voice and presence.

Friedrich Torberg - biography

1908
Friedrich Ephraim Kantor was born on 16 September as the second of three children of Alfred and Therese Kantor, née Berg, in Vienna.

1919-1921
Secondary school in Vienna.

1921
Move to Prague and attendance at the German secondary school there.

1924
Czechoslovakian nationality.

1927
Kantor failed his school leaving examination ("Matura").

1927
First poems appeared in Prager Tagblatt under the pseudonym Torberg.

1928
Kantor passed his "Matura". Czech national champion in water polo with Hagibor Prague. Enrolled as a student of law in Prague but left after a few semesters.

1929
Der ewige Refrain. Lieder einer Alltagsliebe (Vienna: Saturn-Verlag).

1930
Der Schüler Gerber hat absolviert. Roman (Vienna: Zsolnay).

1932
- und glauben, es wäre die Liebe (Wien: Zsolnay). Torberg received the Julius Reich Prize for literature and became a member of the Austrian PEN club.

1933
In November Torberg created a furore with a speech given in Vienna entitled Blamage des Geistes, criticising authors who still published their works in Germany.

1934
Torberg became a journalist with Prager Mittag for a short time.

1935
Die Mannschaft. Roman eines Sportlebens (Leipzig, Mährisch-Ostrau: Julius Kittl's Nachf.). Torberg's collected works were included on the list of banned books Liste 1 des schädlichen und unerwünschten Schrifttums (October 1935).

1936
A list of banned authors Liste der deutschfeindlich tätigen Journalisten und Schriftsteller issued by the Reich Security Central Office included Torberg.

1937
Abschied. Roman einer ersten Liebe (Zurich: Humanitas). Torberg wrote the screenplay to the film Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld under the pseudonym Hubert Frohn.

1938
On 13 March Torberg remained in Prague as the Germans occupied Austria and escaped arrest in this way.

1938
On 20 June Torberg left Prague by plane for Zurich.

1939
On 1 June Torberg was obliged to leave Switzerland and went to Paris. There he completed a novel about the downfall of Vienna, published for the first time in 1984 under the title Auch das war Wien.

1939
After the war broke out in September Torberg enlisted in the Czech army in exile in France and was stationed for seven months in Agde in the south of France.

1940
In May he was discharged for health reasons.

1940
On 12 June Torberg left Paris, two days before its occupation by German troops, for Bordeaux and from there through Spain to Portugal.

1940
On 11 September Torberg obtained a visa for the USA with the aid of the Emergency Rescue Committee - at the suggestion of Erika Mann. He obtained a year's contract from Warner Brothers in Hollywood as one of "Ten Outstanding German Anti-Nazi Writers". On 9 October he left Lisbon on the steamship Exeter, arriving in New York on 18 October. He continued from there by train to Los Angeles.

1941
In March Torberg crossed the border to Mexico so as to return to the USA as a regular immigrant.

1941
On 3 November Torberg's mother was deported from Prague to the ghetto in Lodz.

1943
Mein ist die Rache (Los Angeles: Pazifische Presse). Torberg gave German lessons to members of the US Army and worked as a translator for the Office of War Information.

1944
Torberg wrote the screenplay for the film Voice in the Wind. He moved to New York, where he worked temporarily for Time magazine.

1945
Torberg became a US citizen.

1945
In December Torberg married Marietta Bellak from Vienna.

1947
In autumn the first European edition of the short story Mein ist die Rache was published (Vienna: Bermann-Fischer).

1948
Hier bin ich, mein Vater. Roman (Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer), Zehnjahrbuch 1938-1948 (Vienna, Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer).

1951
In April Torberg returned to Vienna where he worked as a freelance journalist for Wiener Kurier and the radio station Rot-Weiss-Rot.

1952
Die zweite Begegnung (Frankfurt/M.: S. Fischer). Through Torberg's intervention, Fischer-Verlag obtained the rights to Franz Kafka's works from Salman Schocken.

1953-58
Torberg worked as Vienna correspondent for Süddeutsche Zeitung.

1954
Founding of the magazine FORVM.

1956
Torberg played a major role in the boycott of plays by Bert Brecht in Austria, which lasted until 1962.

1958
Lebenslied. Gedichte aus 25 Jahren (Munich: Langen Müller). Awarded the title of professor.

1960
Torberg started to translate the works of Ephraim Kishon.

1962
Divorce from Marietta. Start of Gesammelte Werke (collected works) in Verlag Langen Müller.

1963
Torberg completed a four-volume edition of the works of Fritz Herzmanovsky-Orlando.

1964
PPP. Pamphlete, Parodien, Post Scripta (Munich, Vienna: Langen Müller). Enrolment in the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung in Darmstadt.

1965
Torberg resigned as publisher of FORVM.

1966
City of Vienna Journalism Prize.

1966/67
Torberg's collected theatre critiques appeared in the two-volume Das fünfte Rad am Thespiskarren (Munich: Langen Müller).

1968
Golems Wiederkehr und andere Erzählungen (Frankfurt/M.: S. Fischer).

1972
Süsskind von Trimberg (Frankfurt/M.: S. Fischer).

1974
Trial of the writers Klaus Hoffer and Alfred Kolleritsch, whom Torberg had described in the magazine manuskripte as "CIA protégés".

1975
Die Tante Jolesch oder Der Untergang des Abendlandes in Anekdoten (Munich, Vienna: Langen Müller)

1978
Die Erben der Tante Jolesch (Munich, Vienna: Langen Müller).

1979
On 16 October Torberg received the Austrian Grand Prix for Literature.

1979
Torberg died on 10 November in Vienna.

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