Critical Edition of the Works of Ernst Toller

Ernst Toller, born in 1893, is regarded to be one of the few internationally acclaimed dramatists in German language. Next to Bertolt Brecht und Ödön von Horvth, he was the most influential playwright of the `Weimar Republic`. After his suicide in 1939 he was almost forgotten, a development, which had been initiiated by the policy of cultural `cleaning` of the national socialist movement long before. His jewish origin and his political involvement in the `Räterepublik` are two of the reasons why it took a long time for his work to be rediscovered in the German-speaking countries; and it still is far away from being as prominent as it was. Ernst Toller`s Collected Works in five volumes, edited in the 1970ies by Wolfgang Frühwald und John M. Spalek, made the most important works of Toller available and it included some of the less known texts as well. The edition represents the state of the research on Toller in its time. Together with Spaleks most impressive bibliography "Ernst Toller and his Critics" from 1973 it has to be the starting point for any serious work on Toller. But since then manuscripts with unknown versions and different prints have been discovered, as well as unknown texts; and there are, especially in Spalek`s bibliography, a lot of less known texts which have never been reprinted, existing only in very few copies in libraries. The planned new edition of Tollers works would include a wide choice of this material. The critical edition would also comment on the emergence, the tradition and especially on the reception of Tollers work. The edition would contain five volumes: Vol. 1: Plays I. Vol. 2: Plays II. Vol. 3: Poems, Stories and Film. Vol. 4: Autobiographical Writings. Vol. 5: Critical Writings. The proposed research unit would coordinate communication between the editors of the volumes, it would supply them with all material needed; it would undertake research in archives, it would make the collection of the Ernst Toller Society accessible and it would help with editing the chosen texts.

Ernst Toller, born in 1893, is one of the few internationally acclaimed authors of German tongue of his time and he was the probably most influential playwright of the Weimar Republic. After his suicide in 1939 he was almost forgotten, mainly because he was a jew and a left-wing democrat.Ernst Tollers Collected Works in five volumes, edited in the 1970ies, made the most important works of Toller available and they included some of the less known texts as well, but only offer a selection of what has or has not been printed before. The material collected for the new edition in five volumes is more extensive and includes many more texts, from different versions of the famous plays to articles in less-known newspapers and not yet printed manuscripts. In addition and with help from his colleagues, Michael Pilz could put together a second bibliography as an important addition to the one by John M. Spalek from 1973.The new critical edition also comments on the emergence, the tradition and especially on the reception of Tollers work. The edition contains five volumes:Vol. 1: Plays I: 1919-1925Vol. 2: Plays II: 1926-1939Vol. 3: Autobiography and JusticeVol. 4: Journalism and Speeches (maybe this volume will be split in two)Vol. 5: Poetry, Stories, Broadcasts, FilmThe funded research unit coordinated communication between the editors of the volumes, it supplied them with all material needed, it undertook research in many archives, it made the collection of the Ernst Toller Society accessible to research, organised workshops, developed annotation guidelines together with the editors, and it helped with editing the chosen texts, especially in Vol. 4 and 5.The edition is scheduled to appear in with Wallstein publishers in Göttingen in winter 2013/14 or spring 2014, depending on funding. The research unit organised a meeting with all participants in the edition and a contract between the Toller society and the publisher was agreed. Further tasks such as communication to complete and edit the manuscripts of the volumes have not been part of the project, so they have been handed on to the editors of these volumes.