Hermann Broch archive

The Hermann Broch Archive contains correspondence; manuscripts of books, plays, poems, articles and essays, book reviews, short stories; writings of others; personal papers; photographs; and videocassettes which document aspects of the life and career of Hermann Broch, Austrian author. The material spans the years 1872 to 1990s, with the bulk falling between 1930 and 1951.

The papers are housed in eighty boxes and are organized into six series. Writings and Correspondence are the largest series. Writings of Others, Personal Papers, Photographs, and Addition make up the rest of the collection. Oversize and Restricted Papers are placed at the end.

Hermann Broch was a prolific letter writer. His correspondence covers many subjects--from very personal matters of the heart to philosophical, political, and psychological concepts. A perusal of his correspondence record from 1945 to 1948 (Box 61, folder 1528) reveals the staggering number of letters he wrote daily. Broch had many friends and acquaintances and wrote to them frequently. In his personal correspondence, he was often open and gregarious and, at times, complained bitterly about his fate as an author. His writing style involved the production of multiple carbon copies for most manuscript drafts, which were later sent out to publishers and friends for comment. This process generated considerable correspondence. Broch had the ability to elicit strong loyalties from his friends--especially from his many women friends. Regular correspondence was vital in maintaining these relationships. When he ran out of typing paper, such as during his lengthy hospital stay in Princeton in 1948-49, Broch frequently wrote on the unused portion of correspondence he had received. Thus, numerous pages of manuscript drafts are written on the verso sides of personal letters.

Series I, Correspondence (Boxes 1-20), covers the period 1907-86 and is organized into three subseries: Correspondence of Hermann Broch, Correspondence of Kahler Family, and Other Correspondence. Correspondence of Hermann Broch consists of letters between the author and family members, friends, associates, publishers, and other organizations. Major correspondents include Emma von Allesch, the Bollingen Foundation, Franziska Broch, Hermann Friedrich Broch de Rothermann, Da?niel and Daisy Bro?dy, Joseph Bunzel, Henry and Marion Canby, Curt von Faber du Faur, Paul Federn, Fischer Verlag, Egon Fritz-Vietta, Christian Gauss, Trude Geiringer, Alvin Johnson, Erich and Alice Lowey Kahler, Edith Jonas Levy, Edith Ludovyk-Gyömröi, Edwin and Willa Muir, the New School for Social Research, Pantheon Books, Rhein-Verlag, the Rockefeller Foundation, Frances Colby Rogers, Irma Rothstein, Hans Sahl, Frank Thiess, Friedrich Torberg, Jean Starr Untermeyer, Hermann Weigand, Willi Weismann Verlag, Kurt and Helen Wolff, and Volkmar von Züllsdorf.

The second subseries, Correspondence of Kahler Family, contains the correspondence of Erich and Alice Lowey Kahler, and to a lesser extent of Erich's mother Antoinette, with friends and colleagues of Hermann Broch concerning the author. Major correspondents include Hannah Arendt, Annemarie Meier-Graefe Broch, Hermann Friedrich Broch de Rothermann, Da?niel Bro?dy, Henry and Marion Canby, Curt von Faber du Faur, Christian Gauss, Trude Geiringer, Alvin Johnson, Edith Jonas Levy, Robert Pick, and Jean Starr Untermeyer.

The third subseries, Other Correspondence, represents third-party correspondence between various friends and colleagues of Hermann Broch other than the Kahler family concerning the author. Major correspondents include Annemarie Meier-Graefe Broch, Da?niel Bro?dy, Joseph Bunzel, Henry and Marion Canby, Curt von Faber du Faur, Alvin Johnson, Erich Kahler, Edith Jonas Levy, Robert Pick, Jean Starr Untermeyer, Hermann Weigand, and Kurt and Helene Wolff.

Some correspondence in Series I is present only in photocopy. When this occurs with well-known individuals, the word "photocopies" is written in parentheses on the folder to indicate the lack of originals. Correspondence is also found in Series IV, Personal Papers. These letters document the formation of the subscription fund for Broch's death mask (Box 62, folders 1530-93) and the recommendation process of Broch for the Nobel Prize for Literature (Box 64, folders 1617-37). Two folders of correspondence record the sale of Broch's personal library after his death (Box 64, folders 1614-15).

Series II, Writings (Boxes 21-58), covers the period 1913-88 and is organized into four subseries: Books, Plays, Poems, and Shorter Works. The Books subseries consists of research notes, early studies, manuscript drafts, galley proofs, page proofs, advertisements, publicity, book reviews, scrapbooks, English and French translations, translator's notes, critical synopses and commentaries, radio, television, and film dramatizations, and tape recordings and transcriptions. The majority of Broch's book-length works are well represented from their initial stages through to completion, such as the triology Die Schlafwandler (1930-32), Die unbekannte Grösse (1933), Bergroman (1935-51) with its three incomplete versions and various published formats, Der Tod des Vergil (1945), Die Schuldlosen (1950), and the posthumously published Massenpsychologie (1959), which grew out of several earlier essays. Hofmannsthal und seine Zeit (1948), commissioned as an essay, almost became a book, whereas "Filsmann" (1932) never progressed beyond a fragmentary draft. The epistolary diary, Tagebuch in Briefen an Ea von Allesch, based on correspondence between Broch and Emma von Allesch, was edited by H. F. Broch de Rothermann around 1970. As a lark, Broch, his fiancée, and several of their friends entered into a writing project in 1909, in which each member contributed one chapter toward a novel. Sonja oder ueber unsere Kraft represents Broch's contribution.

Plays consists of works written or adapted for the stage. Die Entsühnung (1934) was the author's most serious attempt at dramatic writing. The work was initially well received, but suffered a short run due to Nazi censure. Box 69, folder 1741 contains a commemorative album of photographs by Trude Geiringer of Die Entsühnung's premiere performance. Late in life, Broch collaborated with his son to produce the light-hearted farce Aus der Luft gegriffen (ca. 1950). The one-woman play Die Erzählung der Magd Zerline (ca. 1983) was adapted from Broch's novel, Die Schuldlosen, by Klaus Michael Grüber and enjoyed considerable success in Germany, France, and Japan during the 1980s. "Es bleibt alles beim Alten: Schwank mit Musik" is a draft of a play that was never completed.

The Poems subseries is composed primarily of Broch's collected poems, compiled and edited in 1953 by Erich Kahler under the title Gesammelte Gedichte for the Rhein-Verlag edition of Broch's works. Loose poems are arranged alphabetically by first line in folders 1013-35. Many exist in multiple typescript copies which were sent to friends and have eventually found their way to Yale.

The Shorter Works subseries is organized into three subseries: "Articles and Essays," "Book Reviews," and "Short Stories." Broch produced over 150 separate articles and essays, covering a wide range of subjects. This section constitutes ninety percent of the subseries. Major topics include authoritarianism, civil rights, civilization, culture, democracy, dictators, ethics, fascism, history, literature, logic, mass psychology, mathematics, metaphysics, philosophy, political exiles, politics, psychology, sociology, values, and the theory of knowledge. Some of the best-known essays are "Adolf Hitler's Farewell Address," "Bemerkungen zur Utopie einer 'International Bill of Rights and of Responsibilities,'" "Geist und Zeitgeist," "Logik einer zerfallenden Welt," and "Proposal for a Law to Protect Human Dignity." The subseries also contains obituaries written by Broch for Antoinette Kahler, Robert Musil, Jacques Schiffrin, and Clotilde Schweiger. "Book Reviews" contains Broch's critical views on selected books by Austrian and German authors, published for the most part between 1919 and 1921. "Short Stories" consists of eight stories by Broch written during the 1930s and '40s.

Series III, Writings of Others (Boxes 59-60), covers the period 1901-89 and is organized into two subseries: Writings about Broch and General. The first subseries consists of articles and essays on Broch or his works by Hannah Arendt, Erich Kahler, Jean Starr Untermeyer, Hermann Weigand, and many more. The second subseries is primarily composed of articles and essays on an assortment of literary topics by various authors, including Paul Federn, Broch's psychoanalyst, and Erich Kahler.

Series IV, Personal Papers (Boxes 61-68), covers the period 1886-1990 and is organized into two subseries: Hermann Broch and Other. The first subseries contains biographical and bibliographical information. To be found here are documents relating to Broch's birth, education, activity as a textile manufacturer, engagement, wedding, military service, release from prison, emigration, hospitalization, and death. Also included here are Broch's reading notes from the courses he took at the university in Vienna, a notebook recording his correspondence for the years 1945-48, and various sorts of financial records. Other files relate to the sale of Broch's library, efforts to have him nominated for a Nobel Prize, and the solicitation of funds for a death mask of Broch. The second subseries contains materials on various family members and friends, such as biographical sketches of Emma von Allesch, H. F. Broch de Rothermann, Trude Fleischmann, and Ruth Norden, death announcements for Franziska Broch von Rothermann, Da?niel Bro?dy, Marion Canby, Victor Polzer, and Willi Weismann, various personal identification documents from the Nazi period, an interview with Jean Starr Untermeyer concerning her translation of Der Tod des Virgil, and a lecture by H. F. Broch de Rothermann.

Series V, Photographs (Boxes 69-72), covers the period 1872-1986 and is organized into two subseries: Hermann Broch and Other. The first series contains photographs of Hermann Broch in single and group shots from early childhood until shortly before his death, photographs of Broch by Annemarie Meier-Graefe Broch, Trude Fleischmann, and Trude Geiringer, photographs of drawings of Broch, Broch residences, and various Broch memorials, including six busts, one death mask, two monuments, and three tablets. There are also photographs of the dedication of the Broch Museum in Teesdorf, Austria, in February 1967, and stills from productions of two of Broch's plays, Die Entsühnung (in 1934) and Aus der Luft gegriffen (in 1981). The second subseries contains photographs of various family members and friends, including Broch's parents, Josef and Johanna Broch, his first wife, Franziska Broch von Rothermann, his son, Hermann Friedrich Broch de Rothermann, Alvin Johnson, Antoinette, Erich, and Alice Lowey Kahler, and Jean Starr Untermeyer.

Series VI, Addition (Boxes 75-80), contains materials dated 1925-1990s and is organized into five subseries, paralleling organization of Series I-V. Correspondence, subdivided into Correspondence of Hermann Broch and Correspondence of Kahler family, contains several hundred letters from Broch to Annemarie Meier-Graefe Broch; correspondence with people also represented in Series I, including Da?niel Bro?dy, Paul Federn, Alice Loewy Kahler, Erich Kahler, Hanna Loewy, Suhrkamp Verlag, and Jean Untermeyer; and some additional correspondents and unidentified letters. Writings contains Broch's autobiographical "Psychische Selbstbiographie" and "Nachtrag zu meiner Psychischen Selbstbiographie," two autograph manuscript poems, and materials supplementing works represented in Series II, including a videocassette and posters relating to productions of Die Erzählung der Magd Zerline, corrected proofs for Die Schlafwandler and Die Schuldlosen, and papers relating to Tagebuch in Briefen an Ea von Allesch. Writings of Others, subdivided into Writings about Broch and General, includes writings about Broch by Erich and Alice Lowey Kahler as well as academic dissertations and other scholarly articles about Broch, circa 1960s-1990s. Personal Papers includes an autograph book with inscriptions to Broch, 1925-1926, a photocopy of Broch’s death certificate, and clippings and ephemera relating to him, most 1980s-1990s. Photographs, subdivided into Hermann Broch and Other, includes Broch family photographs, a photograph of Erich and Alice Lowey Kahler, and unidentified images. The Addition Series incorporates formerly restricted materials opened to researchers in 2000.

Oversize (Boxes 73-74, 79 roll) covers the period 1906-87 and contains materials from Series II, III, IV, and VI. It includes dust jackets, book reviews, a scrapbook, galley proofs, posters, clippings, patents, a drawing of Broch by Rudolph von Ripper, and a list of subscribers for Hermann Broch's death mask.