Bertolt Brecht

  Tales from the Calendar, with translations of the stories and anecdotes by Yvonne Kapp and of the poems by Michael Hamburger, was published by Methuen, London in 1961.

  5 Geschichten and after (1962–1967)

  In 1962, six years after Brecht’s death, Suhrkamp Verlag in Frankfurt put out an anonymously edited selection containing (a) previously uncollected stories, (b) five stories from Tales from the Calendar, (c) ‘The Dispute’ (Poems 1913–1956, p. 324) from the Visions and (d) two further groups of Keuner anecdotes. Under (a) it included ‘Bargan Gives Up’, ‘The Death of Cesare Malatesta’, ‘Before the Flood’, ‘Four Men and a Poker Game’, ‘Letter about a Mastiff’, ‘The Monster’, ‘The Job’, ‘A Mistake’, ‘Gaumer and Irk’ and ‘A Question of Taste’.

  Prosa 1 was published three years later under Herta Ramthun’s editorship as part of Suhrkamp’s hardback collected edition which had begun with the early plays in 1953. It contained the remainder of the uncollected stories, including eighteen of those in our edition, and also the unfinished ‘Life Story of the Boxer Samson-Körner’. The Tales from the Calendar were in Prosa 2.

  In the Gesammelte Werke (GW) of 1967 this material was rearranged by the same editor under the general editorship of Elisabeth Hauptmann in a single volume (GW 11, also confusingly called Prosa 1) in roughly chronological order. The German texts as printed there are the basis of our translations.

  In volumes 16 through 20 of Suhrkamp and Aufbau Verlag’s Grosse kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe (GBFA, 1988–1998), Jan Knopf et al. gathered Brecht’s complete prose (novels, prose fragments, stories, screenplays and film stories) in five volumes called Prosa 1–5. Volume 18 or Prosa 3 includes story anthologies (e.g., Tales from the Calendar) and volumes 19–20 or Prosa 4–5 include other stories.

  Notes on Individual Stories

  The following notes give the German title to each story, with page references to the first prose volume of the German Collected Works (GW 11), the earlier Prosa volumes (Pr. 1 and Pr. 2) and the recent Grosse kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe (GBFA 18, 19, 20). They specify volume and page, and refer to the Suhrkamp (West German) edition. Dates in brackets are those given for each story by Herta Ramthun in GW, except where more precise evidence is available. ‘BBA’ signifies the Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv in Berlin.

  Authorities referred to or otherwise made use of include:

  Arbeitsjournal. Bertolt Brecht: Arbeitsjournal 1938–1956, ed. Hecht, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1972. Referred to also as Brecht’s ‘working journal’.

  Benjamin. Walter Benjamin: Understanding Brecht, New Left Books, London 1972.

  Bestandsverzeichnis. B. des literarischen Nachlasses volume 3, ed. Ramthun, Aufbau Verlag, Berlin and Weimar 1972.

  Diaries. Bertolt Brecht: Diaries 1920–1922, ed. and trs. Willett, Eyre Methuen, London and St. Martin’s Press, New York 1979.

  Letters. Bertolt Brecht: Briefe, ed. Günter Glaeser, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1981.

  Nubel. Walter Nubel: Bertolt-Brecht-Bibliographie in Sinn und Form, Potsdam, Zweites Sonderheft BB, 9 Jahrgang, 1957, nos. 1–3.

  Poems 1913–1956. Ed. Willett and Manheim, Eyre Methuen, London 1976 and Methuen Inc., New York 1979.

  Völker. Klaus Völker: Brecht-Chronik, Hanser, Munich 1971.

  page

  7 Bargan Gives Up. A Pirate Story. Bargan lässt es sein. Eine Flibustiergeschichte. GW 11, 20, Pr. 1, 25, GBFA 19, 24.

  Published in Der neue Merkur, Munich, vol. v no. 6, September 1921, pp. 394–407. A fragment in Diaries for 30 May 1921. Brecht seems to have planned a series of Bargan stories, of which two fragments—‘Bargans Jugend’ and ‘Geschichten von St. Patricks Weihnachtskrippe’—are included in both German collected editions, while another story called ‘Jarrys Mama’ is thought to have been lost after submission to (and acceptance by) the Vossische Zeitung. A retrospective letter of Brecht’s to Professor Ernst Schumacher (12 April 1955) suggests that the present story is not just escapist but somehow anticipates the play Mr. Puntila and His Man Matti (1941).

  25 Story on a Ship. Geschichte auf einem Schiff. GW 11, 44, Pr. 1, 52, GBFA 19, 145.

  (1921.) Published in Vossische Zeitung, Berlin, 12 April 1925. The name of the sailor ‘Manky’ is also that of a character in Brecht’s third play, In the Jungle of Cities, which he started writing in autumn 1921.

  28 The Revelation. Die Erleuchtung. GW 11, 47, Pr. 1, 55, GBFA, 19, 158.

  Josef Apfelböck, the subject of Brecht’s poem ‘Apfelböck, or the Lily of the Field’, was a Munich youth who murdered his parents on 29 July 1919 (see the note in Poems 1913–1956). The paragraph beginning ‘Then he got into bed’ echoes ‘The First Psalm’ (c. 1920) which can be found on p. 43 of the same volume. Note the term ‘psalmodising’ (translated as ‘intoning’) at the end, which echoes the term used by Garga in the 1922 version of In the Jungle of Cities and there means the chanting of Rimbaud-like prose poems.

  30 The Foolish Wife. Die dumme Frau. GW 11, 49, Pr. 1, 58, GBFA, 19, 156.

  Undated MS in BBA, probably written in 1921.

  33 The Blind Man. Der Blinde. GW 11, 52, Pr. 1, 61, GBFA 19, 147.

  (1921.) Published in Magdeburgische Zeitung, 25 June 1927. Like the following story, it was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s 1891 novel The Light That Failed, which treats a blinded painter whose career is ruined. Brecht’s 1917 poem ‘Von einem Maler’ (‘About a painter’, in Poems 1913–1956, p.11) also takes up this theme. Was no. 4 in the duplicated Nine Stories circulated by Block-Erben.

  38 A Helping Hand. Die Hilfe. GW 11, 57, Pr. 1, 67, GBFA, 19, 159.

  On the typescript Lorge was originally Sorge throughout, the name being subsequently amended in Brecht’s hand. Compare the embryonic story in the Diaries for 27 August 1920 about the man who ‘escapes to South America in his forties’ and also goes blind.

  44 Java Meier. Der Javameier. GW 11, 62, Pr. 1, 73, GBFA 19, 135.

  (1921.) The Diaries entry for July 1921 refers to this as a ‘detective story’. Brecht at that time was trying to write such stories for a Munich film company making serials about a detective called Stuart Webbs: for instance ‘The Mystery of the Jamaica Bar’ in Texte für Filme I (GBFA 19, 53).

  56 The Lance-Sergeant. Der Vizewachtmeister. GW 11, 73, Pr. 1, 85, GBFA 19, 152.

  Published in Magdeburgische Zeitung, 3 April 1927. Also known as ‘Der feige Vize’, ‘The Cowardly Lance-Sergeant’. Was no. 9 in Nine Stories. The typescript bears corrections in Brecht’s hand, notably to the last paragraph which originally read:

  That and no other way is how the Jew Bernauer saw it, who used to sing ‘Deutschland über Alles’ in the latrine, which was no mean achievement on his part and put him above many great clerics who speak disrespectfully of alcohol and actually know nothing. But Lance-Sergeant Borg . . .

  and so to the end as before.

  62 Message in a Bottle. Die Flaschenpost. GW 11, 78, Pr. 1, 91, GBFA 19, 166.

  Undated typescript in BBA, probably 1921 or 1922.

  64 A Mean Bastard. Ein gemeiner Kerl. GW 11, 81, Pr. 1, 94, GBFA 19, 38.

  Published in Der Feuerreiter, Berlin, Jg. 1, Heft 4/5, April 1922, under the editorship of Heinrich Eduard Jacob (see biographical note at the end of the Diaries). Thought to have been conceived in the first place in 1919 as a one-act play under the title Der Schweinigel (‘The Whole Hog’). This has not survived.

  72 The Death of Cesare Malatesta. Der Tod des Cesare Malatesta. GW 11, 91, Pr. 1, 105, GBFA 19, 183.

  Published in Berliner Börsen-Courier, 29 June 1924, some two months before Brecht’s arrival to work as a dramaturg in Berlin. Was no. 3 in Nine Stories.

  79 The Answer. Die Antwort. GW 11, 96, Pr. 1, 111, GBFA 19, 196. (c. 1924.) Published in Magdeburgische Zeitung, 17 August 1927.

  83 Before the Flood (‘Considerations in the Rain’ and ‘Fat Ham’). Vor der Sintflut (‘Betrachtungen bei Regen’ and ‘Der dicke Ham’). GW 11, 101, Pr. 1, 116, GBFA 19, 200.

  Published in Frankfur
ter Zeitung, 27 July 1925. The first of these short pieces occurs in slightly different form as a monologue at the end of scene 1 of the 1926 version of Baal (where there is more Flood imagery in scene 3). The typescript shows a number of changes and additions in Brecht’s hand. The Frankfurter Zeitung gave the title as ‘Von’ der Sintflut—‘About’ the Flood—and this misprint was copied in Prosa 1.

  85 Conversation about the South Seas. Gespräch über die Südsee. GW 11, 104, Pr. 1, 11 GBFA 19, 252.

  Dated 1924 by Elisabeth Hauptmann and published in Die Dame, Berlin, no. 18, May 1926. Was no. 6 in Nine Stories.

  87 Letter about a Mastiff. Brief über eine Dogge. GW 11, 108, Pr. 1, 121, GBFA 19, 189.

  (c. 1924.) Also known as ‘Erlebnis mit einer Dogge’ (‘Experience with a Mastiff’). Published in Berliner Börsen-Courier, 13 August 1925. Was no. 1 in Nine Stories. The typescript leaves blank the date of the San Francisco earthquake (p. 67) and omits the two sentences following, from ‘on that day’ to ‘not to be’, which were added on a new page.

  95 Hook to the Chin. Der Kinnhaken. GW 11, 116, Pr. 1, 130, GBFA 19, 205.

  Published in Scherls Magazin, Berlin, no. 1, January 1926. Brecht’s ‘Life Story of the Boxer Samson-Körner’ (p. 207) and his essay ‘Emphasis on Sport’ (‘Mehr guten Sport’) were also published that year.

  100 Müller’s Natural Attitude. Müller’s natürliche Haltung. GW 11, 145, Pr. 1, 161, GBFA 19, 285.

  (1926.) Published in Ikarus, Berlin, no. 9, September 1927. Elisabeth Hauptmann recalled its publication in the later 1920s, but could not give details. This was no. 8 in Nine Stories. The story misplaces the Taunus mountains, which in fact are north of Frankfurt.

  107 North Sea Shrimps. Nordseekrabben. GW 11, 153, Pr. 1, 169, GBFA 19, 267.

  (c. 1926.) Subtitled ‘oder die moderne Bauhauswohnung’ (‘Or the Modern Bauhaus Apartment’). Published in the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten of 9 January 1927, though Elisabeth Hauptmann dated it three years later. Was no. 5 in Nine Stories.

  118 Bad Water. Schlechtes Wasser. GW 11, 163, Pr. 1, 180, GBFA 19, 235.

  Published in Simplicissimus, Munich, no. 19, 9 August 1926.

  125 A Little Tale of Insurance. Eine kleine Versicherungsgeschichte. GW 11, 170, Pr. 1, 187, GBFA 19, 241.

  Published in Uhu, Berlin, 12 September 1926 under the title ‘Eine Pleite-Idee’ (‘A Bankrupt Notion’).

  131 Four Men and a Poker Game, or Too Much Luck is Bad Luck. Vier Männer und ein Pokerspiel, oder Zuviel Glück ist kein Glück. GW 11, 175, Pr. 1, 193, GBFA 19, 245.

  Published in Simplicissimus, Munich, no. 5, 3 May 1926. This issue had a cover drawing by Th. Th. Heine showing ‘Caesar Mussolini’ giving the Fascist salute and acknowledging God on condition that he became an Italian. The story seems to carry anticipations of Brecht’s libretto for Mahagonny, notably the names ‘Johnny’ (name of the Ur-hero of that work) and ‘Jenny Smith’, as well, of course, as the American mythology and the Caribbean location. Was no. 7 in Nine Stories.

  140 Barbara. Barbara. GW 11, 184, Pr. 1, 203, GBFA 19, 280.

  Published in Magdeburgische Zeitung, 16 March 1927. The description of Eddy as a ‘ball of fat’ recalls Mjurk’s words to Baal in the nightclub scene of Baal, also the picture of Galgai (or Galy Gay) given in the Diaries.

  145 The Good Lord’s Package. Das Paket des lieben Gottes. GW 11, 189, Pr. 1, 208, GBFA 19, 276.

  Published in Magdeburgische Zeitung, 25 December 1926.

  149 The Monster. Die Bestie. GW 11, 197, Pt. 1, 217, GBFA 19, 294.

  Published in Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, Berlin, no. 50, 9 December 1928 after winning first prize in that magazine’s short story competition. Was no. 2 in Nine Stories. In 1934 when Brecht was in London working on a film project (Semmelweis) with Leo Lania, the latter submitted an English translation to Lovat Dickson, who rejected it for magazine publication as having been written ‘without a perfect knowledge of English’.

  One of the surviving typescripts sets the story in the Paramount Studios and gives the actor’s name as Murphy, while another misspells the studio’s name as ‘Moszropom’. It is supposed to have been based on a true incident at the Mezhrabpom studios in Moscow in 1928 when Jacov Protazanov was directing the actors Giarov, Sistiakov and Anna Sten in The White Eagle, a film based on Andreiev’s story ‘The Governor’. These studios, responsible ultimately to Willi Muenzenberg’s IAH or International Workers’ Aid, employed a number of German directors and actors in the 1930s.

  156 The Job, or By the Sweat of Thy Brow Shalt Thou Fail to Earn Thy Bread. Der Arbeitsplatz, oder Im Schweisse deines Angesichts sollst du kein Brot essen. GW 11, 224, Pr. 1, 245, GBFA 19, 345.

  (c. 1933.) This story is based on a real-life episode reported from Mainz in 1933 (allegedly in the first issue of Ein Buch für Alle that year). How and when it reached Brecht is uncertain. Anna Seghers wrote two fictionalised versions of the episode under the title ‘Der Vertrauensposten’ (‘The Responsible Job’) which she sent to Brecht’s collaborator Margarete Steffin that summer and which finished up among Brecht’s papers; but it also seems that Elisabeth Hauptmann must have written it up independently before leaving Germany at the beginning of 1934, since on 1 September she wrote to Brecht from St. Louis, Missouri, asking ‘Have you every used your Mrs. Einsmann story? If not I’d like to try and rework my version for here. I’ve got . . . notes on the real case and about the transitory nature of sex distinctions.’

  It was filmed for East German TV in 1977 by Christa Mühl with a script by herself and Werner Hecht, under the title Tod und Auferstehung des Wilhelm Hausmann (Death and Resurrection of W. H.).

  163 Safety First. Safety First. GW 11, 210, Pr. 1, 230, GBFA 19, 350.

  Dated about 1933 by BBA. Also called ‘Der Feigling’ (‘The Coward’). Herta Ramthun thinks that Brecht or one of his friends came across a report of some such incident in a shipping magazine and thought that it might make a film story. It was possibly inspired by Gustavus Myers’s The History of the Great American Fortunes (1907), which Brecht had read as early as 1926. He evidently showed the finished story to Lania, since the latter in 1935 wrote suggesting various additions to it. The names and the setting recall the world of the Threepenny Novel, on which Brecht was working during much of 1934, while the insurance swindle is akin to that in Traven’s novel The Death Ship.

  178 The Soldier of La Ciotat. Der Soldat von La Ciotat. GW 11, 237, Pr. 2, 73, GBFA 18, 407. In Tales from the Calendar.

  (1935.) Published as ‘L’homme statue’ in Internationale Literatur, Moscow, 1937, no. 2. Originally called ‘27 September’, the date in 1935 when Brecht read in a Danish paper of Mussolini’s impending invasion of Ethiopia. The first version of the story started:

  Today’s Politiken says that the Italian troops of Eritrea are enthusiastic for the war and plagued by epidemics. Once again there loomed up before my eyes that strange sight which I first encountered years ago and have often seen of late: the poilu of La Ciotat.

  La Ciotat is between Marseilles and Toulon, not far from Sanary-sur-Mer, where Brecht visited Lion Feuchtwanger in September 1933.

  181 A Mistake. Ein Irrtum. GW 11, 241, Pr. 1, 263, GBFA 19, 399. Typescript dated 17.6.38 by Margarete Steffin.

  187 Gaumer and Irk. Gaumer und Irk. GW 11, 247, Pr. 1, 270, GBFA 19, 418.

  (c. 1938.) Walter Benjamin’s conversations with Brecht about Kafka took place in September 1934.

  191 Socrates Wounded. Der verwundete Sokrates. GW 11, 286, Pr. 2, 76, GBFA 18, 410. In Tales from the Calendar.

  Typescript dated December 1938 by Margarete Steffin. Mentioned as a finished Novelle in Brecht’s working journal for 12 February 1939. In 1955 Liselot Huchthausen, an East German teacher, wrote to ask why Brecht had turned the battle of Delium (where Socrates did indeed distinguish himself) from a defeat by the Spartans into a victory over the Persians. This, she said, ‘must surely detract somewhat from the internal credibility of the story, or mustn’t it?’. Brecht replied (letter no. 81
7) that he must have been writing from memory, without reference books, but would see if it was feasible to make an amendment in the next edition. The amendment was not made.

  211 The Experiment. Das Experiment. GW 11, 264, Pr. 2, 28, GBFA 18, 362. In Tales from the Calendar.

  (1939.) Also called ‘Der Stalljunge’ (‘The Stable-Boy’). It may have been Brecht’s concern with the ideas of Aristotle, particularly in connection with the writing of Galileo, that drew him to Bacon, whose anti-Aristotelian Novum Organum was later a model for the ‘Short Organum for the Theatre’, Brecht’s own major theoretical work.

  A film project of about 1942 also bears the title ‘The Experiment’ but appears to have no other link with this story.

  225 The Heretic’s Coat. Der Mantel des Ketzers. GW 11, 276, Pr. 2, 41, GBFA 18, 374. In Tales from the Calendar.

  (1939.) Likewise mentioned as a finished Novelle in the journal for 12 February 1939. Published in Internationale Literatur, Moscow, 1939, no. 8 under the title ‘Der Mantel des Nolaners’ (Nolaner means a man from Nola). Giordano Bruno is referred to in Galileo, whose first version Brecht was revising at the start of that year. Story and play reflect similar thinking.

  236 Lucullus’s Trophies. Die Trophäen des Lukullus. GW 11, 304, GBFA 19, 425.

  (1939.) Third of the finished Novellen mentioned in journal for 12 February 1939. Brecht’s radio play The Trial of Lucullus followed after the German invasion of Poland that autumn; it took two weeks to write and was completed by 7 November. Its picture of Lucullus is much less tolerant. Lucretius’s De rerum natura was the model for the vast unfinished ‘Didactic Poem on the Nature of Man’ which occupied Brecht in America around 1945 and was to have included his version of the Communist Manifesto in hexameters. The second, ‘deleted’ passage quoted by Lucretius in the story forms part of this. The first is from De rerum natura 3, lines 830 and 870–887.