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Schreyer, Lothar
2002 0-7734-1364-22003 0-7734-1376-6
Written probably in the late 1940s, this novel (never before published) can be read as a sequel to Der Falkenschrei (Vol. 4). In the introduction, the editor summarizes literary versions of the Konradin legend and analyses the text to reveal the underlying themes and betrayal that governed the fate of this grandson of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Friedrich II. The struggle between successive Popes and Princes for the Kingdom of Sicily in the 13th and 14th centuries, Konradin’s wish to fulfill his grandfather’s plans, and the cruelty needed to secure power are all assessed. A psychological portrait is also built up of a young hero and almost Messiah-figure whose execution was seen as a martyrdom and sign of anti-Germanic forces eager for control over Southern Europe and the Church. This historical novel includes a series of episodes alternating between the would-be Emperor’s friends and the papal court. Dialogues and narrative sequences, formal speeches and dramatic events provide a rich texture that catches an essentially medieval atmosphere in which questions about the authority of the Empire and of the Church are raised.
2001 0-7734-1356-1
2001 0-7734-1358-8
1992 0-7734-1338-3
This previously unpublished work by the Expressionist Lothar Schreyer was written during WWII, an example of literature of `inner emigration'. It was written as one of his spiritual exercises as a lay novice of the Abbey of Maria Laach. It includes a long general introduction about Schreyer's life and work by the author of a monograph on this writer and director of his archives in the Deutsches Lietaraturarchiv, Marbach. An introduction to the text follows. There are chapters on the German character of mysticism in the Alsace as an expression of medieval chivalry; on the Carthusian monastery in Straßburg; on the life of prayer of the nuns (above all the Dominicans, with astonishing details of their extreme practices); on the use of language by the Alsatian mystics; and on the meditative exegesis of the mystic way with major references to sermons and exhorations by Meister Eckehart. With an index and 24 illustrations. Lothar Schreyer Edition, Volume 1
2002 0-7734-1372-3
2004 0-7734-1335-9
This previously unpublished novel, rediscovered by the author’s son, is a compelling account of the conflicts between city and church authorities in a 15th-century Italian state. The story also highlights the fate of an illegitimate girl born inside a convent, the grotesque behavior of a power-crazed abbess, the lack of confidence of the local bishop, the machinations of the mayor and other dignitaries, and the struggle between conscience and rational thinking of the city doctor. Schreyer also takes the opportunity to include a debate between traditional and forward-looking major artists, and to emphasize the misgivings of the Church faced with an epidemic of the plague. This historical extravaganza reveals Schreyer’s concerns at the end of WWII to redefine the role of the Church and to test various moral codes in an age characterized by uncertainty, cruelty and superstition.
1996 0-7734-1346-4
Lothar Schreyer's dramas from the expressionist periodical Der Sturm are collected here for the first time together with twelve previously unpublished earlier works and eleven later dramas. The full extent of Schreyer's development as a dramatist can now be seen from derivative forms, including ancient myth, the Narcissus theme, naturalism and farce, through his experiments in expressionist language, to his later religious works. This collection, with its long introduction, is an essential tool for researchers into early 20th-century German drama. Lothar Schreyer Edition, Volume 2
2002 0-7734-1368-5
2002 0-7734-1370-7
2002 0-7734-1370-7
Included in this volume are 29 previously unpublished texts in mainly narrative prose, ranging from an art nouveau love story to Schreyer’s first attempt to evoke a major historical figure, to single page meditations and short stories. Aspects of his religious faith inform dialogues and texts closer to essay form. The collection shows how Schreyer experimented as a writer of prose before writing his major novels.
2003 0-7734-1378-2
In the introduction, the editor analyses several of Schreyer’s cycles of poetry, including early works close to the traditions of ‘Jugendstil’ (art nouveau), religious cycles, and the long series of prose-poems Die menschliche Elegie that Schreyer recited in public after 1945. The texts are arranged as far as possible chronologically into published and previously unpublished sections. Several manuscripts cannot be dated, so a large collection of ‘Vermischte Gedichte’ is arranged thematically. For the most part these are the result of private reflection and reveal a sensitive, suffering and enquiring mind. These texts show years of experiments with poetic forms, and prove that the expressionist works by which he is best known during the Sturm-period formed only a small part of his overall output. Occasionally different versions are included that give interesting insights into a poet that was never satisfied with his writing.
2006 0-7734-5795-X
This book includes a remarkable mix of personal documents, most of them previously unpublished. The selection ranges from an early school essay, quotations from his dissertation, reminiscences of friends, Der Stern (a series of privately circulated documents), extracts from diaries at the end of the Second World War, denazification documents, an autobiographical text, reflections on art and artists, aphorisms, his spiritual testament and a short obituary. This collection, partly available in the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach, is essential to an understanding of Schreyer’s eccentricity, naivety, productivity, obstinancy and openness to others. The previous nineteen volumes of the edition are given an extra dimension with this new view into his personal thoughts and life. The editor’s introduction places these in context and gives an account of collections of Schreyer’s letters (e.g., with Herwarth Walden, Maximilian Tischler, P. Theodor Bogler, the Herder publishing house, and the former Director of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Bernhard Zeller. Also included is a 130-page selection of Schreyer’s mainly unpublished letters that close this first collected edition of Schreyer’s works.
2002 0-7734-1366-9
In Carthage AD 200, Perpetua, a young mother, and her slave Felicitas, are martyred for their Christian faith. Schreyer tells their story against the background of a regime whose days are numbered, propped up by observing the Roman imperial legal order and belief in pagan Gods.
2001 0-7734-1362-6
The mainly dialogue form of Lothar Schreyer's unpublished novel as edited by Dr. Keith-Smith, reveals insights into the humor of human foibles, a central love story and continual references to animal and bird life, producing a work that is totally different from Schreyer's more serious historical novels. It reveals a caring quality in Schreyer's psyche that is generally thought to have developed after the Second World War through his efforts for the Christian charity 'Caritas'.
2006 0-7734-5771-2
This book includes introductions and texts that show the writer’s developing understanding of his faith. The analyses of Jakob Böhme, German mystics and Meister Eckehart were essential to his visionary beliefs, without which the series of ‘Schau- und Lesebücher’ on Angels, the Holy Spirit, St. Elisabeth, the Mother of God, the Conqueror of Death and the Devil (including an extra dimension of Schreyer’s prayers), and his book on the Catechism cannot be fully appreciated. Inspired by the reform of the Roman Catholic Liturgy, they point towards theological insights of the Second Vatican Council. The final collection of discussions and reminiscences on Abstract Christian Art in 1962 emphasizes the role of dialogue as an exploratory form of education. Although it was not possible to include the illustrations and detailed comments on these that formed an integral part of the original publications, the introductory texts and selections by themselves reveal a process of active commitment and searching independence characteristic of Schreyer’s life and style. Some illustrations characteristic of his interests as a writer and artist are included, together with an introduction on the texts, and notes on the illustrations.
2000 0-7734-1354-5
Volume 3 of the Schreyer edition assembles for the first time all of the expressionist’s published essays on the theatre and includes his general moral tract Verantworthch (1922). Reactions to the repertoire and traditions of bourgeois theatre before the First World War precede accounts of the Berlin Sturm- and Hamburg Kampfbühne. His work at the Weimar Bauhaus and hopes for youth theatre in the 1920s and 1930s are recorded with post-1945 interpretations and reminiscences. Among the extensive unpublished documents are the two-volume Die Befreiung der Bühnenkunst (1916) analysing in detail the tasks of a director of theatre communities (an extension of earlier published statements), more on Schreyer’s productions, also his plans for a history of marionettes. This illustrated companion volume to his dramas includes a long introductory essay in German and is an essential research tool for scholars in 20th-centiury, expressionist theatre. In German.