Hans Lebert: Eine biographische Silhouette by Jürgen Egyptien (review)

For three decades, Jürgen Egyptien has focused on the work of Hans Lebert (1919–1993), and his hundredth-birthday commemoration, honoring a novelist nearly forgotten, could not have been written by anyone else. It is a distinguished biography in two important respects, first in being accessible as much to a general audience as to specialists. Meticulously researched to include an informative chapter about Lebert's career on the opera stage ("Opernsänger im 'Dritten Reich,'" 57–103)—Lebert was also a graphic artist of notable talent (reproductions on 204–5)—Egyptien's study exhibits clarity and focus that can only result from concentrated polishing and revising. It adroitly blends background, literary analysis and criticism, and judicious insight into Lebert's personal and artistic struggles.

The second merit is its forthrightness in addressing the discrepancy between Lebert's present oblivion (this book is practically the only notice taken of the centenary) and his extraordinary esteem. His first novel, Die Wolfshaut, bears comparison with the greatest of Dostoyevsky, Conrad, and Faulkner; it has been rapturously championed by writers as varied as Heimito von Doderer, Elfriede Jelinek, and Robert Menasse. Jelinek called Die Wolfshaut "eins der größten Leseerlebnisse meines Lebens" and "eins der größten Werke der Weltliteratur" (246). She considered Lebert incomparably more significant than Thomas Bernhard (252). Later German-language fiction involving the Holocaust is unthinkable without Die Wolfshaut, as witness Gerhard Fritsch's novel Fasching, for instance. Lebert's second novel is even more audacious; Egyptien calls Der Feuerkreis "eines der radikalsten, gewagtesten und krassesten Werke der deutschsprachigen Holocaust-Literatur" (219), the writing of which Lebert said almost cost him his life (209). Both novels are as densely interwoven as musical works. Lebert paid keen attention to rhythm and balance; he titled his review of Doderer's Die Wolfshaut "Symphonie in einem Satz," ranking it among "[ … ] den noch nicht zehn epischen Werken in deutscher Sprache [ … ] die seit dem Kriege zählen" (153). The novels are religious and mythical within and beyond their frameworks of realism: "Die Wolfshaut verfügte [ … ] zuerst lediglich über eine 'rein mythologische Grundfabel,' über die der Reihe nach eine ethischreligiöse Ebene, eine politische Ebene und als Schale schließlich das Genre des Kriminalromans im ländlichen Milieu wuchsen" (130). Lebert wanted to subtitle this novel "Ein Epos" and Der Feuerkreis (based closely on Wagner's Der Ring der Nibelungen) "Ein Mythos," but his publishers balked (218). He was dismayed by the paradox whereby the religious element in his work was overlooked, especially in the Soviet Union, and hailed mainly for its indictment of Nazism, which Lebert in turn insisted was the attempt by a patriotic Austrian to tell the painful truth (251).

As for the discrepancy, Egyptien spells out at the start his intention "der Strategie der absichtlichen Unterdrückung jeder Erinnerung an Leberts Werk etwas entgegenzusetzen" (7). Deliberate blockage by the widow has prevented publishers from preparing a standard edition, kept Lebert's literary estate sealed, thwarted efforts at translation and republication, and made it impossible to establish an archive. "Dieser Umstand ist der Grund, dass die vorliegende Biographie Hans Leberts nicht mehr als eine 'Silhouette' seines Lebens bieten kann" (7). No mistake, however—while gaps exist, Egyptien has included everything available and admirably expanded our knowledge of the life and work. He is able finally to document, incidentally, that Lebert, whose maternal grandmother had had an affair with emperor Franz Joseph, was not the monarch's grandson (12).

His widow harmed Lebert badly even in his lifetime, forcing him to break offcontact with relatives and friends whose company he found essential to his art and well-being. Here is where Egyptien's adeptness at lucid speculation shows itself to its best advantage. Lebert had not lived alone for decades, and after the death of his mother, who lived with him, and then of his first wife, he apparently panicked and immediately married the woman in grave haste, unable to bear even the thought of managing on his own (236). Egyptien is tactful but...