The Questionnaire (Salomon novel)

Last updated
The Questionnaire
DerFragebogen.jpg
First edition
Author Ernst von Salomon
Original titleDer Fragebogen
Translator Constantine Fitzgibbon
LanguageGerman
Publisher Rowohlt Verlag
Publication date
1951
Publication placeWest Germany
Published in English
1955
Pages807

The Questionnaire (German : Der Fragebogen) is a 1951 autobiographical novel by the German writer Ernst von Salomon. It was published in the United Kingdom as The Answers. It is based on the denazification questionnaire which all Germans with some form of responsibility were forced to take by the military government after World War II. Salomon's detailed answers about his political background, membership of various organisations, and activities before and during the war reflect Germany during the interwar period, World War II and the immediate post-war period.

Contents

The book became a phenomenon in Germany and sold in large numbers. It was a reference point in the public discourse for years and has continued to be in print.

Plot

Salomon answers questions and recounts his time as a cadet in the Weimar Republic and in the Freikorps. He writes about battles in the Baltic states and about his involvement in the assassination of foreign minister Walther Rathenau. Salomon shares his experiences in 1930s France, in the German film industry during the NS era, the end of the war (which he spent in Bavaria with his Jewish girlfriend), and how he supposedly was tortured in an American internment camp.

Publication

The book was published by Rowohlt Verlag in 1951. [1] It quickly became popular in Germany and reached six-digit sales numbers within a few years. It has continuously been reprinted in new editions. [2] An English translation by Constantine Fitzgibbon, The Answers, was published in 1954. The American edition is known as The Questionnaire. [3] [4]

Reception

Frederic Morton of The Saturday Review wrote about the English-language publication: "The publishers' praise on the dust jacket consists mostly of apology; the 'quotes' used attack rather than support the book; the translation, though technically competent and idiomatically accomplished, somehow smothers the brutal elegance of the German original, making it seem like a war documentary done in rainbow technicolor and set to fairytale music." Morton continued: "Yet the book retains its pathogenic significance. ... What distinguishes these retorts is a candor not only unflinching but, one surmises occasionally, not unembellished. Herr von Salomon brandishes his honesty-about-the-past with a braggadoccio piousness." [5] Kirkus Reviews wrote: "A big, sprawling book for the close follower of contemporary history, particularly German, rather than the average reader, this has many flashes of impudence, a sharp wit and a quick sleight of hand to enliven its serious accounting." [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Ernst von Baer</span> Baltic German scientist (1792–1876)

Karl Ernst Ritter von Baer Edler von Huthorn was a Baltic German scientist and explorer. Baer was a naturalist, biologist, geologist, meteorologist, geographer, and is considered a, or the, founding father of embryology. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a co-founder of the Russian Geographical Society, and the first president of the Russian Entomological Society, making him one of the most distinguished Baltic German scientists.

Ernst von Salomon was a German novelist and screenwriter. He was a Weimar-era national-revolutionary activist and right-wing Freikorps member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Klee</span> German journalist and author

Ernst Klee was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concerned with the Action T4 or involuntary euthanasia program. He is the author of "The Good Old Days": The Holocaust Through the Eyes of the Perpetrators and Bystanders first published in the English translation in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolf Holl</span> Austrian writer (1930–2020)

Adolf Holl was an Austrian Catholic writer and theologian. He lived in Vienna, where he was Chaplain of the University of Vienna and a lecturer in its Department of Catholic Theology. Because of conflicts with Church authorities, he was suspended from his teaching and priestly duties. He wrote many books, including Jesus in Bad Company and The Last Christian: A Biography of Francis of Assisi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organisation Consul</span> German terrorist organization (1920–1922)

Organisation Consul (O.C.) was an ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic terrorist organization that operated in the Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1922. It was formed by members of the disbanded Freikorps group Marine Brigade Ehrhardt and was responsible for political assassinations that had the ultimate goal of destroying the Republic and replacing it with a right-wing dictatorship. Its two most prominent victims were the former finance minister Matthias Erzberger and Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau. The group was banned by the German government in 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst von Bibra</span> German naturalist and author

Ernst von Bibra was a German Naturalist and author. Ernst was a botanist, zoologist, metallurgist, chemist, geographer, travel writer, novelist, duellist, art collector and trailblazer in ethnopsychopharmacology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Else Ury</span> German Jewish novelist (1877–1943)

Else Ury was a German-Jewish novelist and children's book author. Her best-known character is the blonde doctor's daughter Annemarie Braun, whose life from childhood to old age is told in the ten volumes of the highly successful Nesthäkchen series.

Ernst Buschor was a German archaeologist and translator.

<i>On the Fortunes and Misfortunes of Art in Post-War Germany</i>

On the Fortunes and Misfortunes of Art in Post-War Germany is a 1990 book-length essay by the German writer and filmmaker Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.

<i>Will O the Wisp</i> (novel) 1931 novel by the French writer Pierre Drieu La Rochelle

Will O' the Wisp is a 1931 novel by the French writer Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. It has also been published in English as The Fire Within. It tells the story of a 30-year-old man who after military service, followed by a few years of cosmopolitan, decadent life, has become burned out, addicted to heroin and tired of living. The author's source of inspiration for the main character was the dadaist poet Jacques Rigaut (1898–1929).

<i>Blue Island</i> (novel) 1988 book by Jean Raspail

Blue Island is a 1988 novel by the French writer Jean Raspail. The narrative is set in Touraine during World War II, where a charismatic boy gathers his friends on an island, where they play war games which become increasingly more interlinked with reality. The book was published in English in 1991, translated by Jeremy Leggatt.

<i>Der tote Preuße</i> Posthumous novel by Ernst von Salomon

Der tote Preuße is an unfinished novel by the German writer Ernst von Salomon, published posthumously in 1973. It has the subtitle Roman einer Staatsidee. The novel was supposed to be in three volumes and explain the concept of Prussia through an epic narrative. Salomon described the project as his "chief work"; however, he only wrote the first volume, which does not go beyond medieval times, and it was published in its unedited manuscript form. The book has a preface by Hans Lipinsky-Gottersdorf.

<i>The Outlaws</i> (novel) 1930 novel by Ernst von Salomon

The Outlaws is a 1930 novel by the German writer Ernst von Salomon. Its German title is Die Geächteten, which means "the ostracised". Set between 1919 and 1922, the narrative is based on Salomon's experiences from the Freikorps, and includes an account of the 1922 assassination of foreign minister Walther Rathenau, in which the then 19-year-old Salomon was peripherically involved. The Outlaws was Salomon's debut novel. It was published in English in 1931, translated by Ian F. D. Morrow.

<i>A Nail Merchant at Nightfall</i> 1949 novel by Mika Waltari

A Nail Merchant at Nightfall is a 1949 novel by the Finnish writer Mika Waltari. It is a fictionalised and humorous account of when Waltari wrote his novel The Egyptian. It was published in English in 1954, translated by Alan Beesley.

<i>A Dangerous Encounter</i> 1985 novel by Ernst Jünger

A Dangerous Encounter is a 1985 novel by the German writer Ernst Jünger. The story is set in Paris in the late 19th century and follows a murder investigation in a decadent aristocratic environment. The book was published in English in 1993, translated by Hilary Barr.

<i>Couples, Passersby</i> Short story collection

Couples, Passersby is a 1981 short story collection by the German writer Botho Strauß. It consists of narrative vignettes and aphoristic sequences divided into six sections: "Couples", "Traffic Flow", "Scribbles", "Dimmer", "By Ourselves" and "Idiots of the Immediate".

<i>Devotion</i> (novella) 1977 novella by Botho Strauß

Devotion is a 1977 novella by the German writer Botho Strauß. It tells the story of a Berlin bookseller in his early 30s who is abandoned by his girlfriend, isolates himself and begins to write literature, convinced that the girlfriend will return.

Hans Schnoor was a German musicologist, journalist and music critic. In the late 1950s, he attracted media attention with his denunciation of Arnold Schönberg's A Survivor from Warsaw.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Salomon-Lindberg</span> German alto singer

Paula Salomon-Lindberg was an internationally renowned German classical contralto before the Second World War. She was specialised in Lied, oratorio and cantata, but occasionally also performed opera.

The Lindauer Psychotherapiewochen (LP) are specialist conferences primarily intended as further training for doctors, psychologists, and child and youth psychotherapists, especially in the field of psychodynamic psychotherapy. These conferences span one-week and have been held annually in April, in Lindau, since 1950. Since 1967, organization of the conference has been run by the Vereinigung für psychotherapeutische Fort- und Weiterbildung.

References

  1. Der Fragebogen. OCLC   614677909 . Retrieved 2015-01-26 via WorldCat.
  2. Fischer, Torben (2007). "Ernst von Salomon: Der Fragebogen". Lexikon der 'Vergangenheitsbewältigung' in Deutschland (in German). Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. p. 113. ISBN   978-3-89942-773-8.
  3. Fragebogen. The questionnaire. OCLC   295923 . Retrieved 2015-01-26 via WorldCat.
  4. The answers of Ernst von Salomon to the 131 questions in the Allied Military Government 'Fragebogen'. OCLC   1509800 . Retrieved 2015-01-26 via WorldCat.
  5. Morton, Frederic (1955-01-01). "One Prussian's Story". The Saturday Review . p. 54.
  6. Staff writer (1954-01-03). "Fragebogen by Ernst von Salomon". Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved 2015-07-05.