Fluchtgepäck

Abstract Based on the expansive correspondence of the eminent philologist Eduard Berend (1883–1973), this essay reconstructs the multifaceted history of his exquisite Jean-Paul-collection, which, in 1957, became a cornerstone of the newly established Deutsches Literaturarchiv (DLA) in Marbach. Upon the invitation of the DLA, Berend, a refugee from Nazi Germany who had spent 17 years in exile in Geneva, was able to continue his work on the historical-critical edition of the works of Jean Paul (born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, 1763–1825), one of Germany’s most prolific writers of the Classical-Romantic period. The Prussian Academy of Sciences had commissioned the critical edition in the Weimar era, and Berend had begun work on it in 1927. But, as a result of Nazi racial policy, he had been removed as the editor in 1938. The return of Berend and his Jean-Paul-Archiv mark the beginning of the DLA’s history as an exceptional research center not just for exile literature but also of and for exiled scholars.