New Lives (87 page)

94. T. had already noted in his letter to N. H. that the neck support had been removed.
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95. T. and N. H. knew each other for only a few hours, and those were full of misunderstandings and accidents. The fact that N. H. came from the Federal Republic of Germany must have played a major role in T.'s attraction to her. T. is explaining and justifying himself for a Western audience here, a quite typical stance in East Germany at the time.
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96. These words remind one more of the opening of a novel than of a letter. It remains unclear for whom this “painful story” is intended, for whom it is supposed to serve as a “cautionary tale.”
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97. An oilclothlike material that could be wiped off.
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98. T. doesn't explain who lies concealed behind this
we.
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99. It was quite common for people to give their cars names. One explanation might be that you drove, or better, had to drive, “your car” for ten years or more.
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100. Approximately one thousand very valuable volumes were removed from the Altenburg Council Library under the pretext of their needing repair, but were then sold in the West under the aegis of Schalck-Golodkowski's Commercial Coordination.
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101. There were a good number of cases in which school principals were either demoted or fired.
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102. Presumably broken off because Barrista had appeared.
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103. The heroine in
Rusalka
had broken her leg. She continued to sing, but Michaela Fürst had to stand in for her onstage for several performances.
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104. The talking car from the TV series
Knight Rider
was named KITT.
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105. No literary work by Johann Ziehlke has been found among T.'s papers.
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106. More details of the argument between N. H. and Barrista can be found in later letters to N. H.
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107. The Alliance 90 (New Forum, Democracy Now, Initiative for Peace and Human Rights) received only 2.9 percent of the votes. That put the Citizens' Movement out of the running for good. The Alliance for Germany (Christian Democratic Union, German Social Union, and Democratic Awakening) received 48 percent, the CDU taking 40.6 percent of that; German Socialist Party, 21.8 percent; Party of Democratic Socialism, 16.3 percent. Voter participation was 93 percent.
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108. For self-employed people like Piatkowski a position with the LPDP (German Liberal Democratic Party) would have offered a more likely “refuge” than the CDU.
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109. Nicoletta had sent T. some newspaper articles about Clemens von Barrista and marked up several paragraphs.
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110. Of course the correct verb at this point ought to be “read,” not “hear.”
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111. In Intershop stores Western goods could be purchased with foreign currency. The potpourri of odors from soap, detergent, coffee, chocolate, perfume, etc., created a special fragrance that no longer exists, but that at the time pervaded the immediate vicinity of these stores and was perceived by many as a promise of the “Golden West.” At no point, however, does Türmer consider the moral and social implications of such Intershop stores for the populace of the GDR.
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112. The painter Gerhard Ströch, born 1926 in Rödichen-Schnepfenthal, lived in Altenburg and in 1956 adopted the name Altenbourg; he died on Dec. 29,
1989,
in a car accident near Meissen.
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113. A tar-processing factory in Rositz.
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114. In 1806, at the battle of Jena and Auerstadt, Napoleon's troops defeated the armies of Prussia and Saxony. At Jena the French forces were larger, whereas at Auerstadt—to which Barrista was obviously referring—they were only about half as strong as those of their foes.
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115. According to information provided by V. T., the children first heard Frau Nádori use the word “Mamus” for Mother/Mama, which they then adopted.
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116. This sort of barter was customary inasmuch as citizens of the GDR could exchange their marks for only a limited number of forints.
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117. Since the family had previously always taken this trip during spring break, T.'s last trip to Budapest had occurred before his “Awakening.”
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118. Ibrahim Böhme, the chairman of the East's sister party to the West German SPD. Both he and, prior to him, the lawyer Wolfgang Schnur, one of the cofounders of “Democratic Awakening,” which then later became part of the CDU, had been denounced as spies of the former State Security.
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119. T. is perhaps too hasty here in insinuating a suspicion.
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120. It is difficult to recapture the provocation that T.'s election editorial is said to have represented in March 1990. T. concluded his hardly original commentary: “Certainly more important than the results is the fact that it was possible to hold an election at all.”
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121. The “illustrated volume” in question is Robert Oertel,
Frühe italienische Malerei in Altenburg
[Early Italian Painting in Altenburg] (Berlin, 1961). “The two centuries whose course we can survey in the Altenburg Collection were decisive not only for the future of Italian art, but also for the artistic spirit of Europe itself,” p. 50.
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122. At the time, twelve hundred D-marks were worth approximately three to four thousand East-marks. A comparable profit would have required an increase in sales of at least four if not five thousand additional copies.
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123. He is referring to the vespers sung by the choir of the Dresden Kreuzkirche.
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124. This is a misleading statement, since one of T.'s manuscript pages contained barely half the number of words found on a standard typed page.
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125. A consolidated high school (with grades nine to twelve) whose pupils also included the boys and young men of the Kreuzkirche choir (so-called
Kreuzianer
).
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126. The setting for the stories and novels of Hermann Hesse, who in 1892 fled from Maulbronn after only seven months there.
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127. Incorrectly quoted. “To the
honor
of God, in
memory
of its founders, and for the benefit and
profit
of the young.”
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128. The town in the Swiss canton of Tessin where Hesse lived from 1919 until his death in 1962.
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129. The nickname given Johann Ziehlke, although it is not quite clear just why. Apparently in the sense of “the last honest man standing.” The historical Geronimo (1829–1909) was the chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, who did not surrender until 1886, i.e., very late.
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130. Türmer was born on Nov. 29, 1961, and was fifteen years old that autumn (1977).
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131. In publishing this I am, willy-nilly, opening myself to the charge of being the enabler of T.'s conceit. I wholeheartedly reject any such an interpretation of my actions and wish to point out that what I am offering here is a critical account of T.'s life, intended to serve as a cautionary tale.
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132. Crossed out: squander.
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133. Since I myself participated in these same gym classes, I can only assert that T.'s descriptions are inaccurate.
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134. Both the original and the carbon copy of this “letter” end without complimentary close or signature. Caught up in telling his story, T. had evidently completely forgotten N. H.
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135. On May 5, 1990, that is, barely five weeks away.
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136. Although perhaps a perfectly acceptable idiom in English, T. has mixed his German idioms here: “burned our ships” and “destroyed our bridges.”
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137. There are things about this narrative that arouse suspicion. How, for example, could four such packages have been stuffed into one slim attaché case?
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138. Apparently Barrista had paid on a 1:1 East-mark, D-mark basis.
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139. T. means a New York Yankees baseball cap, whose logo is an interlinked N and Y.
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140. Jörg and Georg were fifty-fifty co-owners of the company according to civil code.
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141. It is inexplicable why they are so secretive around Robert.
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142. CDs were hardly known in the East at that point.
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143. In his letter of March 15, 1990, he mentions that Barrista has two children.
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144. T. did not have a bad voice, but he couldn't carry a tune on his own. Every attempt at a round fell apart when it was time for him to enter. He always needed someone singing in his ear.
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145. Respect for rights of privacy preclude mention of his name.
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146. In creating the category of a German Democratic Republic face, T. evidently was unaware of just how problematic the notion of a national and/or state physiognomy really is.
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147. Publication evidently never occurred.
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148. Neustadt and Loschwitz are two neighborhoods in Dresden inhabited by a relatively high percentage of artists.
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149. T. constantly let opportunities to take action pass him by. Particularly when one assumes that these letters are his attempt at a critical self-accounting, it is amazing that he never condemns his own temporizing.
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150. What the latter has to do with the former remains T.'s secret.
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151. A somewhat too offhanded mention of a truly remarkable offer.
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152. In view of T.'s immense correspondence, this statement may seem surprising. And yet both Johann and V. T. were too much a part of his memories, which is evidently why only Nicoletta Hansen was considered as the addressee for his description of “the path that led him astray.” Cf. note 2, The Letters of Enrico Türmer.
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153. T. felt like an “amputee” once before, when he was describing to Johann Ziehlke what it was like to lose his car. Cf. the letter of March 13, 1990.
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154. Upon completing preparatory seminary, Johann Ziehlke had only one choice: to study theology at a church college, since admission to a university required a high school diploma.
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155. Such candor when dealing with N. H. is surprising.
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156. Due to its dilapidated state the building was torn down three years ago.
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157. Overgrown lots that had been left unused after several buildings were torn down in 1988–89.
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158. The previous letter was written on Sunday morning. The discrepancy between the “strange sense of joy” mentioned in it and the “nightmare” described here remains unexplained.
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159. This letter was sent to V. T. by fax.
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160. Imposing on Georg.
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161. Picasso, Fassbinder, Schygulla.
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162. He is referring to the theater in Rudolstadt.
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163. The inaccuracy of this characterization of N. H. says a great deal about T.
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164. By his own admission, T. usually awoke around four in morning.
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165. T.'s last letter to Johann was dated three days previous.
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166. There is no explanation for why T. fails to mention Michaela's miscarriage.
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167. This is the first time that T. uses the word “confession,” but from this point on he almost always uses the term for these chronicles.
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168. According to V. T., she was never subjected to a “Berlin embargo.”
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169. Apparently an allusion to poems by “precocious wunderkinder.”
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170. Schulpforta—among the famous students of the boarding school there were Klopstock, Fichte, Ranke, and Nietzsche. Röcken—Friedrich Nietzsche's birthplace; the philosopher's childhood home, the church where he was baptized, and his grave are located there.
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171. Bernardo Bellotto, (called Canaletto), 1721–80, painted many views of the city of Dresden. T. evidently means the famous painting
Dresden From the Right Bank of the Elbe Below the Augustus Bridge
(1748).
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172. Heinrich Böll had given a speech in praise of Reiner Kunze on the occasion of his being awarded the Büchner Prize in 1977, the same year in which he left the GDR.
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173. Figures in Homer's
Iliad.
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174. This letter was sent to V. T. by fax.
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175. Refugee camps near Beirut. In 1982, after the invasion by the Israeli army, massacres of Palestinian refugees were carried out by the Christian militias.
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176. Countries that had had military dictatorships.
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177. The putsch by Chilean General Pinochet on September 11, 1973, led to mass arrests. Many of those arrested were tortured and murdered; about three thousand died. The singer and songwriter Victor Jara's hands were crushed, but not hacked off, before he was shot.
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