Clara Viebig

Clara Viebig, Berlin, 1890

Clara Emma Amalia Viebig (July 17, 1860–July 31, 1952) was a German author. She was born in the German city of Trier, the daughter of a Prussian civil servant. She was related to Herman Goering. At the age of eight, the family moved to Düsseldorf where Clara attended school. At the age of twenty, after her father died, Clara moved to Berlin with her mother. She was married to the Jewish publisher Fritz Theodor Cohn in 1896. The following year, Clara began a successful career as a writer and her works became much admired.^[1]

Life and work

In her novel the Dormant Army/Sleeping Army (original title Das Schlafende Heer), published in 1903 Viebig praised conquest of Polish territories by German settlers, and warned of "dangers" posed by Polish minority in Germany, which she characterised as "disloyal" and "uncultured", left unchecked, she warned—Poles would overwhelm Germany and thus need to be controlled, repressed and assimilated.^[2] Viebig's viewpoint was a characteristic of German attitudes at the time,^[3] and her work formed part of the German Heimatkunst (regionalism) literary movement during this period. This novel became a bestseller in German Empire in 1904 and 1905, and besides Die Wacht am Rhein was her most read novel.^[4]

In the Sleeping Army she depicted the alleged racial division between Poles and Germans, focusing on character of Polish women, obsessing with distinction between blonde and black, white and dark and portraying them as plotting demise of German men, who need to be warned in advance.^[5] The Poles were living according to Viebig in a state of "animalistic and barbaric state", from which only German "civilizing mission" could save them, the solution to this "Polish problem" was exclusive colonization(preferably combined with expulsions), Viebig warned that "polish degeneracy" was "contagious".^[6] Kristin Kopp from University of Missouri writes that Viebig's novel represents a "prominent example" of narrative strategy that presents Polish characters whose external "whiteness", conceals hidden "blackness", which allows them to infiltrate German culture and undermine German colonial projects.^[7]

As her fame faded, in 1933 she published Insel der Hoffnung which condemned Weimar Republic and praised colonization of border with Poland.^[8]

However, in 1936 her publications became forbidden by the Third Reich because her husband was Jewish.^[1] As Viebig was related to Hermann Goering she herself wasn't persecuted.^[9] She moved in 1937 to Brazil for a year, but returned a year later and tried to accommodate herself in Nazi Germany.^[10] Her work continued to be published, albeit with less regularity; eventually in 1940 she was celebrated by the press and Nazis for her work on her eightieth birthday, with the "Dormant Army" being praised by Nazi critics as the first "Volksdeutsche novel" and important document of "national fight".^[11] While her works differ from racist Blut and Boden literature and correspondence shows distance to Nazism, they have been filled with nationalist spirit and show some similarities to volkisch thinking.^[10]

Works

Novels

• Dilettanten des Lebens, 1897 (online copy)
• Rheinlandstöchter, 1897
• Vor Tau und Tag, 1898
• Dilettanten des Lebens, 1899 (online copy)
• Es lebe die Kunst, 1899
• Das Weiberdorf, 1899 (online copy)
• Das tägliche Brod, 1900
  • English edition: Our Daily Bread, 1909 (online copy)
• Die Wacht am Rhein, 1902 (online copy)
• Vom Müller Hannes, 1903
• Das schlafende Heer, 1904 (online copy)
  • English edition: The Sleeping Army, 1929
• Einer Mutter Sohn, 1906 (online copy)
  • English edition: The Son of his Mother, 1913 (online copy)
• Absolvo te!, 1907
  • English edition: Absolution, 1908 (online copy)
• Das Kreuz im Venn, 1908 (online copy)
• Die vor den Toren, 1910
• Das Eisen im Feuer, 1913
• Eine Handvoll Erde, 1915 (online copy)
• Töchter der Hekuba, 1917
  • English edition: Daughters of Hecuba, 1922
• Das rote Meer, 1920
• Unter dem Freiheitsbaum, 1922 (online copy)
• Menschen und Straßen, 1923
• Der einsame Mann, 1924
• Die goldenen Berge, 1928
  • English edition: The Golden Hills, 1928
• Charlotte von Weiß, 1929
• Die mit den tausend Kindern, 1929
  • English edition: The woman with a thousand children, 1930
• Prinzen, Prälaten und Sansculotten, 1931
• Menschen unter Zwang, 1932
• Insel der Hoffnung, 1933
• Der Vielgeliebte und die Vielgehaßte, 1935

Short stories & novellas

• Kinder der Eifel, 1897 (online copy)
• Vor Tau und Tag, 1898
• Die Rosenkranzjungfer, 1900
• Die heilige Einfalt, 1910
• Heimat, 1914
• West und Ost, 1920
• Franzosenzeit, 1925

Plays

• Barbara Holzer, 1896
• Die Pharisäer, 1899 (online copy)
• Kampf um den Mann, 1903 (online copy)
• Das letzte Glück, 1909
• Pittchen, 1909

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Chambers, Helen (2007). "Clara Viebig (1860–1952)". Humor and irony in nineteenth-century German women's writing: studies in prose fiction, 1840-1900. Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture. Camden House. pp. 137–138. ISBN 1571133046. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AbcOBKPPaswC&oi=fnd&pg=PA137. Retrieved 2011-04-02. 
2. ^ McCook, Brian Joseph (2011). The Borders of Integration: Polish Migrants in Germany and the United States, 1870-1924. Polish and Polish American Studies. Ohio University Press. pp. 130–132. ISBN 0821419269. http://books.google.com/books?id=MsI_io3FQMAC&pg=PA130. 
3. ^ Perraudin, Michael; Zimmerer, Jürgen (2009). German Colonialism and National Identity. Routledge studies in modern European history. 14. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0415964776. http://books.google.com/books?id=yEFLK-BwHn4C&pg=PA38. 
4. ^ Tanz der Feder: künstlerische Produktivität in Romanen von Autorinnen um 1900, page 111, Sonja Dehning, 2000,Königshausen & Neumann
5. ^ Germany's colonial pasts,Eric Ames, Marcia Klotz, Lora Wildenthal, page 86-88, University of Nebraska Press 2005
6. ^ Germany's colonial pasts,Eric Ames, Marcia Klotz, Lora Wildenthal, page 89-90, University of Nebraska Press 2005
7. ^ German Colonialism and National Identity Michael Perraudin, Jürgen Zimmererm,page 38, Routledge 2010
8. ^ Literatura niemiecka o Polsce w latach 1918-1939, Jan Chodera,page 49,Wydawnictwo Śląsk, 1969
9. ^ Heimat - A German Dream Regional Loyalties and National Identity in German Culture 1890-1990, Elizabeth Boa and Rachel Palfreyman,page 43, 2000
10. ^ ^{a b} Kuno Francke's Edition of The German Classics (1913-15) A Critical and Historical Overview Series: New Directions in German, page 263, 2009
11. ^ Naturalismus und Heimatkunst bei Clara Viebig:darwinistisch-evolutionäre Naturvorstellungen und ihre ästhetischen Reaktionsformen, Barbara Krauss-Theim,page 240, P.Lang, 1992

External links

• Clara Viebig Gesellschaft - website of the Clara Viebig Society with information on Viebig's life and works, scholarly literature, exhibitions and local museum
• Clara Viebig Zentrum - museum at Eisenschmitt

Texts by Clara Viebig being available online

• Kindheit in Düsseldorf (University of Düsseldorf)
• Drei Brauten (University of Düsseldorf)
• Mein Eifelland (University of Düsseldorf)
• Clara Viebig at archive.org

Persondata
Name	Viebig, Clara
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1860
Place of birth
Date of death	1952
Place of death