Svendborger Gedichte
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''Svendborger Gedichte'' ('Svendborg Poems') is a poetry collection by the German poet and playwright
Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
, and the last collection of new poems to be published while he lived. The collection is named after the town of
Svendborg Svendborg () is a town on the island of Funen in south-central Denmark, and the seat of Svendborg Municipality. With a population of 27,616 (1 January 2025), Svendborg is Funen's second largest city.Funen Funen (, ), is the third-largest List of islands of Denmark, island of Denmark, after Zealand and North Jutlandic Island, Vendsyssel-Thy, with an area of . It is the List of islands by area, 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in th ...
, where Brecht lived during his exile from Nazi Germany. During this period,
Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was a German-Austrian composer. He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The ...
stayed several times to set a large group of the poems to music in collaboration with Brecht.


Composition and publication

The first major poetry collection that Brecht wrote in exile was '' Lieder Gedichte Chöre''. This was followed by the ''Svendborger Gedichte'' in 1939. This compilation was preceded by earlier publications, and individual poems followed, such that one can assume a period of origin from 1926 to 1938. Brecht worked on compiling the collection primarily during the winter of 1937-38 while living at Skovsbostrand outside Svendborg, in collaboration with
Margarete Steffin Margarete Emilie Charlotte Steffin (21 March 1908, Rummelsburg – 4 June 1941, Moscow) was a German actress and writer, one of Bertold Brecht's closest collaborators, as well as a prolific translator from Russian and Scandinavian languages. B ...
, almost entirely completing the work by 22 July 1938. The title was initially ''Gedichte im Exil'' ('Poems in Exile'). The intention was to include the work in volume 4 of the edition of Brecht's work to be published by
Wieland Herzfelde Wieland Herzfelde ( Herzfeld; 11 April 1896 – 23 November 1988) was a German publisher and writer. He is particularly known for his links with German avant-garde art and Marxist thought, and was the brother of the photo montage artist John H ...
's press Malik-Verlag, nominally in London but in practice from Prague. Brecht wrote in May 1938: "you can now give me the decisive position that I have not had in emigrant literature so far. And you can simultaneously put the publisher alikat the forefront." By March 1939,
galley proofs In printing and publishing, proofs are the preliminary versions of publications meant for review by authors, editors, and proofreaders, often with extra-wide margins. Galley proofs may be uncut and unbound, or in some cases electronically tra ...
of the whole volume had been sent to Brecht from Prague, with the set type itself being in Prague. But in the wake of the events surrounding the
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...
and the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, Herzfelde had to flee from Prague; the finished set of Svendborg poems was lost. The galley proofs were then passed to Copenhagen, where in May 1939 the Danish printer Universal Trykkeriet printed the ''Gedichte im Exil'' section under the new title ''Svendborger Gedichte'', with Herzfelde named as the publisher and London as the place of publication. The volume was billed as an 'advance printing from ''Brecht: Collected Works'', volume 4'. The publication received significant support from
Ruth Berlau Ruth Berlau (24 August 1906, Charlottenlund – 15 January 1974, East Berlin) was a Denmark, Danish actress, director, photographer and writer, known for her collaboration with Bertolt Brecht and for founding the Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv in Berlin. ...
, the
American Guild for German Cultural Freedom American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
, and apparently the Diderot Society (the latter of which Brecht was working to found around 1936). There are only two copies of the so-called "Prague sequence" known, one of which is in the Brecht Archive, Berlin; the other copy was discovered in 2011 by the Rotes Antiquariat, Berlin, in New York. The poems that comprised section 3, ''Chroniken'' ('chronicles'), were based on stories which Brecht encountered in his reading. For example, "Abbau des Schiffes Oskawa durch die Mannschaft" ("How the Ship 'Oskawa' was Broken up by her own Crew") is a subversive rewriting of an account of life on the ship by
Louis Adamic Louis Adamic (; March 23, 1898 – September 4, 1951) was a Slovene American, Slovene-American author and translator, mostly known for writing about and advocating for ethnic diversity of the United States. Background Louis Adamic wa ...
in his 1931 '' Dynamite: The Story of Class Violence in America'', while "Kohlen für Mike" ("Coal for Mike") was based on an incident in
Sherwood Anderson Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...
's novel ''
Poor White Poor White is a sociocultural classification used to describe economically disadvantaged Whites in the English-speaking world, especially White Americans with low incomes. In the United States, Poor White is the historical classification f ...
''.Michael Morley, 'The Source of Brecht’s “Abbau des Schiffes Oskawa durch die Mannschaft”', ''Oxford German Studies'', 2.1 (1967), 149–62, .


Contents

The collection is divided into six sections. It opens with the following '
Motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...
to the Svendborg Poems' and contains the following poems, arranged in six sections.


I Deutsche Kriegsfibel ('German War Primer')

Bei den Hochgestellten; Das Brot der Hungernden ist aufgegessen; Der Anstreicher spricht von kommenden großen Zeiten; Im Kalender ist der Tag noch nicht verzeichnet; Die Arbeiter schreien nach Brot; Die das Fleisch wegnehmen vom Tisch; Die Oberen sagen: Frieden und Krieg; Wenn der Anstreicher durch die Lautsprecher über den Frieden redet; Wenn die Oberen vom Frieden reden; Die Oberen; Mann mit der zerschlissenen Jacke; Auf der Mauer stand mit Kreide; Die Oberen sagen; Der Krieg, der kommen wird; Die Oberen sagen, im Heer; Wenn es zum Marschieren kommt, wissen viele nicht; General, dein Tank ist ein starker Wagen; Wenn der Krieg beginnt; Der Anstreicher wird sagen, daß irgendwo Länder erobert sind; Wenn der Trommler seinen Krieg beginnt.


II

This series of poems begins with the famous
motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...
It contains: Deutsches Lied; Ballade von der Judenhure Marie Sanders; Ballade von den Osseger Witwen; Lied der Starenschwärme; Ulm 1592 (Der Schneider von Ulm); Vom Kind, das sich nicht waschen wollte; Kleines Bettellied; Der Pflaumenbaum; Mein Bruder war ein Flieger; Der Gottseibeiuns; Keiner oder alle; Lied gegen den Krieg; Einheitsfrontlied; Resolution der Kommunarden.


III Chroniken ('Chronicles')

Fragen eines lesenden Arbeiters; Legende von der Entstehung des Buches Taoteking auf dem Weg des Laotse in die Emigration; Besuch bei den verbannten Dichtern; Gleichnis des Budda vom brennenden Haus; Die Teppichweber von Kujan-Bulak ehren Lenin; Die unbesiegliche Inschrift; Kohlen für Mike; Abbau des Schiffes Oskawa durch die Mannschaft; Inbesitznahme der großen Metro durch die moskauer Arbeiterschaft am 27. April 1935; Schnelligkeit des sozialistischen Aufbaus; Der große Mai.


IV

An den Schwankenden; An die Gleichgeschalteten; Auf den Tod eines Kämpfers für den Frieden; Rat an die bildenden Künstler..; Ansprache des Bauern an seinen Ochsen; Bei der Geburt eines Sohnes; Rede eines Arbeiters an einen Arzt; Appell; Verhöhnung des Soldaten der Revolution; Kantate zu Lenins Todestag; Lob des Revolutionärs; Grabschrift für Gorki.


V Deutsche Satiren ('German Satires')

Die Bücherverbrennung; Traum von einer großen Miesmacherin; Der Dienstzug; Schwierigkeit des Regierens; Notwendigkeit der Propaganda; Die Verbesserungen des Regimes; Die Ängste des Regimes; Kanonen nötiger als Butter; Die Jugend und das Dritte Reich; Der Krieg soll gut vorbereitet sein; Die Liebe zum Führer; Was der Führer nicht weiß; Wörter, die der Führer nicht hören kann; Die Sorgen des Kanzlers; Trost vom Kanzler; Der Jude, ein Unglück für das Volk; Die Regierung als Künstler; Dauer des Dritten Reiches; Verbot der Theaterkritik.


VI

This series of poems begins with the motto It contains: Über die Bezeichnung Emigranten; Gedanken über die Dauer des Exils; Zufluchtstätte; Und in eurem Land?; Verjagt mit gutem Grund; An die Nachgeborenen.


Editions and translations

One English translation of most of the ''Svendborger Gedichte'' is Bertold Brecht, ''Poems 1913-1956'', ed. by John Willett, Ralph Manheim, and Erich Fried (London: Eyre Methuen, 1976). The poems are scattered through this anthology; there is a guide to their published order on pp. 506–9. The poems are also translated in Bertold Brecht, ''The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht'', trans. by David Constantine and Tom Kuhn (New York: Liveright, 2018). German editions include: * Bertolt Brecht, ''Gedichte'', 10 vols (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1960–76), IV, 5–142.


References

{{Authority control Works by Bertolt Brecht Compositions by Hanns Eisler German poems