1st International Paul Adler Conference
Update: The conference proceedings have been published.
'(Re-)discoveringPaul Adler - Balances and perspectives'
(Dresden, September 27-29, 2018)
Directly to the program[Download][Program booklet]
[Poster]
Please note the program changes on 28/29 September!
Paul-Adler-Sonderheft, 1916
The German-Jewish poet Paul Adler (1878-1946) is one of the most fascinating figures of classical modernism. His 140th birthday is an occasion for us to bring together researching, editing and experiencing Adler's work for the first time with a conference and readings. In Dresden and Hellerau, where Adler lived and worked for almost 20 years until his expulsion in March 1933, this unusual author will be remembered.
Almost forgotten today, the Prague-born bohemian quickly made a name for himself in the 1910s: as an uncompromising pacifist during the First World War, as a 'socialist intellectual worker', equally as a contributor to the Berlin "Aktion" and as the author of disturbingly modern texts such as the legends of the "Elohim" (1914), the first-person narrative of a schizophrenic, "Nämlich" (1915), and the absurd novel of human history, "Die Zauberflöte" (1916), which takes up Mozart's famous fairy-tale opera.
The conference aims to create the scientific conditions for a rediscovery of Paul Adler. It will therefore bring together the results of Adler research to date and discuss the progress of the critical edition of the author's collected works, which was launched last year. Contributions from various disciplines such as history, philosophy, Jewish studies, musicology and political science open up new perspectives. This interdisciplinary approach will correct and readjust the image of Paul Adler and his work. The conference will then explore the conditions of fame and oblivion of the avant-garde.
Advisors from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and the USA will be speaking.
The academic part of the event will be accompanied by readings from Adler's texts as well as from current literary responses to these texts. Readings will be given by Durs Grünbein, Angelika Meier and Annette Teufel.
Readings and conference are open to the public, guests are welcome.
For the reading with Durs Grünbein, we recommend booking in advance at the Literaturhaus.
For further information, pleasecontact Dr. Annette Teufel(contact)
The event is a joint project of the MitteleuropaZentrum of the TU Dresden with the "Literaturhaus Villa Augustin" and "HELLERAU - European Center for the Arts". The conference is kindly supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
Program
Thursday, September 27, 2018 [TU Dresden, Faculty SLK, Room 0.16]
15:00 Welcome address by the Dean of the Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies
Christian Prunitsch
15:10 Opening and welcome
15:30 Opening lecture: Walter Schmitz (Dresden): 'Enigmatic Education'. Paul Adler's
Creation of a linguistic counter-world
16:00 Discussion and coffee break
I Basics
16:30 Annette Teufel (Dresden): "... a poetic formula of the whole of nature and
history" - Paul Adler: work and edition of works
16:50 Frank Almai (Dresden): Paul Adler and Dresden Expressionism
17:10 Discussion
19:00 Reading ["Literaturhaus Villa Augustin"]
Durs Grünbein: "Die Jahre im Zoo"/Paul Adler: "Nämlich"
(Reading and discussion with Durs Grünbein and Annette Teufel)
We recommend that all guests book in advance at the Literaturhaus.
Friday, September 28, 2018 ["Literaturhaus Villa Augustin"]
9:30 Ludo Abicht (Antwerp): The discovery of Paul Adler in the intellectual climate of the
1960/70s in Prague
10:00 Discussion
10:20 Moritz Baßler (Münster): Legends, Lyrisms, Historicism - On the Texture of Paul
Adler's "Elohim"
10:40 Daniel Hoffmann (Lucerne): Jewish tradition in Paul Adler's "Magic Flute"
11:00 Discussion and coffee break
II Perspectives
Texts
11:45 Stefan Nienhaus (Salerno): "External Mysticism" or "Compensation for the Age of Spiritlessness"?
Age of Spiritlessness"? Paul Adler and Carl Schmitt read Theodor Däubler
12:15 Fabian Lutz (Freiburg i.Br.): Delusion and cognition. Paul Adler's "Nämlich" and
the expressionist reflective prose
12:45 Discussion and lunch break
14:15 Michael Heinemann (Dresden): "A musician with words?" - Adler, Mozart and
"The Magic Flute"
14:45 Discussion
15:00 Ulrike Schneider (Potsdam): Paul Adler in the context of German-Jewish
self-understanding around 1900
15:30 Siegbert Wolf (Rodgau): Paul Adler and Gustav Landauer - social concepts
in the context of the 1918/19 revolution
16:00 Discussion and coffee break
Phases of authorship: constellations and contexts
16:45 Michal Topor (Prague): Paul Adler and the "Prague Press" of the 1920s/30s
17:15 Justus H. Ulbricht (Dresden): "Schmulchen Hakenkreuz" as a neighbor
Adler's neighbor in the environment of the völkisch Hellerauer
17:45 Discussion and dinner
19:30 Angelika Meier: "England" (reading and discussion), moderated by Tim Preuß
Saturday, September 29, 2018 [HELLERAU - European Center for the Arts, Studio West]
III Avant-garde and oblivion - On the limits of work politics
Keynote speeches
10:00 Simone Zupfer (Berlin): Paul Adler - mediation strategies of the avant-garde
10:30 Paul Reitter (Columbus, Ohio): Dealing with forgotten authors: the
example of Anton Kuh
11:00 Discussion and coffee break
Panel: On the road to fame? Strategies and determinants
11:30 Frank Almai, Moritz Baßler, Paul Reitter, Walter Schmitz, Annette Teufel, Simone
Zupfer
12:30 Final discussion
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Guided tour through the garden city of Hellerau