Paul Celan

Paul Celan was the most frequently used pseudonym of Paul Antschel (the pseudonym adopts an anagram of his surname in Romanian, Ancel) (November 23, 1920 – approximately April 20, 1970), who is considered one of the few major poets of the post-World War II era. He was born in Romania, lived in Austria and later in France, and wrote in German. In additional to the composition of his poetry, he was an extremely active translator, translating literature from Romanian, French, Portuguese, Russian, and English into German.

Germany and german guilt

He visited Germany periodically. This included a lecture at the University of Freiburg on July 24, 1967, which was attended by Heidegger, who gave him a copy of Was heißt Denken? and invited him to visit his hut at Todtnauberg the following day and walk in the Schwarzwald, where Heidegger spoke of the interview "Only a God can save us now", which he had just given to Der Spiegel on condition of posthumous publication. Celan had read Heidegger beginning in 1951 and exclamation marks in his margin notes testify to his awareness that Heidegger had allowed his remarks on the "greatness" of National Socialism in the 1953 edition of Introduction to Metaphysics to stand without further comment. (Celan may have refused to be photographed with Heidegger after the Freiburg lecture because Heidegger still had not commented over a decade later.) "Todtnauberg" was written shortly thereafter and sent to Heidegger in the first copy of a limited bibliophile edition. Heidegger responded with no more than a letter of perfunctory thanks. Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe reproaches Heidegger's silence on the extermination after 1945 as an "irreparable offense" and "unforgivable", making particular reference to Celan's pointed expression of:

Related Topics:
University of Freiburg - July 24 - 1967 - Schwarzwald - Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

einer Hoffnung, heute

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

auf eines Denkenden

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

kommendes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wort

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

im Herzen,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

[a hope, today,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

of a thinker's

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

coming

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

word

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

in the heart]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~