Erzählen und Zuhören, Lesen und Schreiben – Zur Konstitution von jugendbewegter Gemeinschaft am Beispiel des Zimmritzer Nestbuches von Kurt Kläber (1916–1919)

Zusammenfassung

Kurt Kläber’s (1897–1959) statements about his family and upbringing are contradictory: for example, it is not known which level of schooling he completed or to which youth organisations he belonged. Historically, Kläber’s youth coincided with a period of time when ambitious, working-class parents in Jena were supporting closer contact with youth groups influenced by the Wandervogel. During World War I, Kläber became interested in socialist politics. With his first printed poems in the volume Neue Saat (New Seed), Kläber expressed solidarity with the working class and declared himself a member of it. However, an ego-document, i. e. the guest book of the Zimmritz Landheim (country home) contradicts this affiliation since this document attests to Kläber’s intense engagement with the bourgeois youth movement of those years. Moreover, the guest book shows Kläber’s continuing involvement with the so-called ‚Abstinent Youth‘ movement during his high-school years as well as his engagement with the Freideutsche Jugend in later years. As a result this essay argues that, based on a reading of the „Zimmritzer Nestbuch“, Kläber’s years in the bourgeois youth movement were more than just an episode which could shed new light on the interpretation of his early literary works.

Unsre Arbeit. Gedichte, Fahrten, Mären, Lieder und Sagen gesammelt im Landheim aus aller Munde

Auf!

Auf zur Fahrt ins Land der wogenden Gedanken.

Auf zur Tat ins Leben, auf zum Streit

Vorwärts, keinen halten Schranken

Und des Geistes Wellenringe fliegen weit.

Nicht die Faust auch nicht des Schwertes Schneide

Worte sind’s und doch sie sagen’s frei.

Ob der Mensch der da sein Streben kleide

Rein, und wessen Geistes Kind er sei.

(Zimmritz 1919, 3r)