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A Trip to Klagenfurt: In the Footsteps of Ingeborg Bachmann
A Trip to Klagenfurt is the story of a pilgrimage. Only days after the burial of Ingeborg Bachmann, writer Uwe Johnson journeyed to her gravesite in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt, where Bachmann had grown up. Johnson meticulously observes the landscape of the city by layering its cultural, physical, and historical background with Bachmann'' own letters, interviews, and largely autobiographical writings. The result is a personal consideration of a life and a friendship, which Johnson uses to illuminate his entire generation--one haunted by a history buried in the hope that it will be forgotten. Eccentric, brooding, and innovative, A Trip to Klagenfurt invites the reader to consider the vast forces behind a single extraordinary life, and to mourn that life's passing.
- GenresGerman Literature
376 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Uwe Johnson
102 books63 followersUwe Johnson was a German writer, editor, and scholar.
Johnson was born in Kammin in Pomerania (now Kamień Pomorski, Poland). His father was a Swedish-descent peasant from Mecklenburg and his mother was from Pommern. At the end of World War II in 1945, he fled with his family to Anklam (West Pomerania); his father died in a Soviet internment camp (Fünfeichen). The family eventually settled in Güstrow, where he attended John-Brinckman-Oberschule 1948–1952. He went on to study German philology, first in Rostock (1952–54), then in Leipzig (1954–56). His Diplomarbeit (final thesis) was on Ernst Barlach. Due to his lack of political support for the Communist regime of East Germany, he was suspended from the University on 17 June 1953 but was later reinstated.
Beginning in 1953, Johnson worked on the novel Ingrid Babendererde, rejected by various publishing houses and unpublished during his lifetime.
In 1956, Johnson's mother left for West Berlin. As a result, he was not allowed to work a normal job in the East. Unemployed for political reasons, he translated Herman Melville's Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile (the translation was published in 1961) and began to write the novel Mutmassungen über Jakob, published in 1959 by Suhrkamp in Frankfurt am Main. Johnson himself moved to West Berlin at this time. He promptly became associated with Gruppe 47, which Hans Magnus Enzensberger once described as "the Central Café of a literature without a capital." [1]
During the early 1960s, Johnson continued to write and publish fiction, and also supported himself as a translator, mainly from English-language works, and as an editor. He travelled to America in 1961; the following year he was married, had a daughter, received a scholarship to Villa Massimo, Rome, and won the Prix International.
1964 - for the Berliner Tagesspiegel, Reviews of GDR television programmes boycotted by the West German press (published under the title "Der 5. Kanal", "The Fifth Channel", 1987).
In 1965, Johnson travelled again to America. He then edited Bertolt Brecht's Me-ti. Buch der Wendungen. Fragmente 1933-1956 (Me-ti: the Book of Changes. Fragments, 1933-1956). From 1966 through 1968 he worked in New York City as a textbook editor at Harcourt, Brace & World and lived with his family in an apartment at 243 Riverside Drive (Manhattan). During this time (in 1967) he began work on his magnum opus, the Jahrestage and edited Das neue Fenster (The new window), a textbook of German-language readings for English-speaking students learning German.
On 1 January 1967 protesters from Johnson's own West Berlin apartment building founded Kommune 1. He first learned about it by reading it in the newspaper. Returning to West Berlin in 1969, he became a member of the West German PEN Center and of the Akademie der Künste (Academy of the Arts). In 1970, he published the first volume of his Jahrestage (Anniversaries). Two more volumes were to follow in the next three years, but the fourth volume would not appear until 1983.
Meanwhile, in 1972 Johnson became Vice President of the Academy of the Arts and was the editor of Max Frisch's Tagebuch 1966-1971. In 1974, he moved to Sheerness on the English Isle of Sheppey; shortly after, he broke off work on Jahrestage due partly to health problems and partly to writer's block.
This was not a completely unproductive period. Johnson published some shorter works and continued to do some work as an editor. In 1977, he was admitted to the Darmstädter Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (Darmstadt Academy for Speech and Writing); two years later he informally withdrew. In 1979 he gave a series of Lectures on poetics at the University of Frankfurt (published posthumously as Begleitumstände. Frankfurter Vorlesungen).
In 1983, the fourth volume of Jahrestage was published, but Johnson broke off a reading tour for health reasons. He died on 22 February 1984 in Sheerness in England. His body was not found until
Johnson was born in Kammin in Pomerania (now Kamień Pomorski, Poland). His father was a Swedish-descent peasant from Mecklenburg and his mother was from Pommern. At the end of World War II in 1945, he fled with his family to Anklam (West Pomerania); his father died in a Soviet internment camp (Fünfeichen). The family eventually settled in Güstrow, where he attended John-Brinckman-Oberschule 1948–1952. He went on to study German philology, first in Rostock (1952–54), then in Leipzig (1954–56). His Diplomarbeit (final thesis) was on Ernst Barlach. Due to his lack of political support for the Communist regime of East Germany, he was suspended from the University on 17 June 1953 but was later reinstated.
Beginning in 1953, Johnson worked on the novel Ingrid Babendererde, rejected by various publishing houses and unpublished during his lifetime.
In 1956, Johnson's mother left for West Berlin. As a result, he was not allowed to work a normal job in the East. Unemployed for political reasons, he translated Herman Melville's Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile (the translation was published in 1961) and began to write the novel Mutmassungen über Jakob, published in 1959 by Suhrkamp in Frankfurt am Main. Johnson himself moved to West Berlin at this time. He promptly became associated with Gruppe 47, which Hans Magnus Enzensberger once described as "the Central Café of a literature without a capital." [1]
During the early 1960s, Johnson continued to write and publish fiction, and also supported himself as a translator, mainly from English-language works, and as an editor. He travelled to America in 1961; the following year he was married, had a daughter, received a scholarship to Villa Massimo, Rome, and won the Prix International.
1964 - for the Berliner Tagesspiegel, Reviews of GDR television programmes boycotted by the West German press (published under the title "Der 5. Kanal", "The Fifth Channel", 1987).
In 1965, Johnson travelled again to America. He then edited Bertolt Brecht's Me-ti. Buch der Wendungen. Fragmente 1933-1956 (Me-ti: the Book of Changes. Fragments, 1933-1956). From 1966 through 1968 he worked in New York City as a textbook editor at Harcourt, Brace & World and lived with his family in an apartment at 243 Riverside Drive (Manhattan). During this time (in 1967) he began work on his magnum opus, the Jahrestage and edited Das neue Fenster (The new window), a textbook of German-language readings for English-speaking students learning German.
On 1 January 1967 protesters from Johnson's own West Berlin apartment building founded Kommune 1. He first learned about it by reading it in the newspaper. Returning to West Berlin in 1969, he became a member of the West German PEN Center and of the Akademie der Künste (Academy of the Arts). In 1970, he published the first volume of his Jahrestage (Anniversaries). Two more volumes were to follow in the next three years, but the fourth volume would not appear until 1983.
Meanwhile, in 1972 Johnson became Vice President of the Academy of the Arts and was the editor of Max Frisch's Tagebuch 1966-1971. In 1974, he moved to Sheerness on the English Isle of Sheppey; shortly after, he broke off work on Jahrestage due partly to health problems and partly to writer's block.
This was not a completely unproductive period. Johnson published some shorter works and continued to do some work as an editor. In 1977, he was admitted to the Darmstädter Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (Darmstadt Academy for Speech and Writing); two years later he informally withdrew. In 1979 he gave a series of Lectures on poetics at the University of Frankfurt (published posthumously as Begleitumstände. Frankfurter Vorlesungen).
In 1983, the fourth volume of Jahrestage was published, but Johnson broke off a reading tour for health reasons. He died on 22 February 1984 in Sheerness in England. His body was not found until
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 9, 2014
this is a striking book. It is written on the occasion of Ingeborg Bachmann's death, though this is never clearly said - in fact, apart from the brief description of her life at the start of the book, I think her own name is mentioned in the text only once, and the subtitle is not in the German original. What makes this so fascinating is the style: Johnson presents a collage between Ingeborg Bachmann's own work (most importantly, not important, her 'Youth in an Austrian Town' and her letters, with seemingly dispassionate information (whole lists of renamed streets and places in Klagenfurt) and quotes from mediocre texts like tourist guides. Johnson himself describes with his usual slight irony. To be fully understood, the book requires a lot of background knowledge - about Ingeborg Bachmann (the book is written on the occasion of her death, but this is never openly mentioned,, her relation with Uwe Johnson (who was one of the two lectors of her major novel Malina) and theirs with others (like Max Frisch, her sometime lover), her family's decision to have her buried in her native Klagenfurt rather than Rome which she much preferred (much of the book is written about cemeteries of Klagenfurt and Rome, respectively), and so forth. Even without such knowledge, however, the book is effective - its style, seemingly cold and matter-of-fact, as a very effective way or mourning.
November 4, 2018
Lovely and strange oblique little tribute to Ingeborg Bachmann, the brilliant Austrian writer. Johnson, a friend of Bachmann, interweaves snippets of Bachmann's writing along with travel brochures and other observations and meditations on Klagenfurt (Bachmann's birthplace) and Rome (where she eventually lived and also died).
This is a fine early example of the sort of genre-bending/mixing (memoir, poetic meditation, travelogue, etc) that Sebald, Bellamy, Kraus, and others would later deploy. So also worth a look if that's something that interests you.
It's bent me back toward Bachmann, too. Time to revisit her stories, it seems...
This is a fine early example of the sort of genre-bending/mixing (memoir, poetic meditation, travelogue, etc) that Sebald, Bellamy, Kraus, and others would later deploy. So also worth a look if that's something that interests you.
It's bent me back toward Bachmann, too. Time to revisit her stories, it seems...
March 1, 2010
Only for Bachmann Maniacs like myself. There are more insightful accounts of her life.
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June 6, 2024ich muss mir noch überlegen, ob die Wahrheit essbar ist
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews