History and goals
The Ernst Toller Gesellschaft (ETG) was founded in May 1996 in Neuburg an der Donau. Its founding members included John M. Spalek and Dieter Distl – who initiated the society’s foundation and also served as its leader for 25 years. (He is now the society’s honorary chairman.) Distl completed his doctorate on Ernst Toller a few years before the creation of the ETG. As the head of the Neuburg Cultural Office, he established the Toller Prize, among other important contributions to the society’s work.
From the beginning, the ETG has been linked to the wish to edit the complete works of Ernst Toller, as well as to interest researchers in Toller’s life and career and support them in their work.
In a first important step, the society worked to ensure that research conditions in Germany to pursue such work were fundamentally improved. A large part of Spalek’s unique collection, which is the largest corpus of relevant materials on Ernst Toller, was relocated from New York to Neuburg an der Donau as property of the society. This collection includes Spalek’s extensive research library, as well as the work product from his numerous investigations into the author’s life and work. (This includes the first extensive bibliography on Toller’s life and work, which was published in 1968.) Other collections, such as those of Helmut Fries and Wolfgang Frühwald, have been added over the years, and are now resources for new research.
The city archive, which has housed the ETG’s research library ever since its founding, provides optimal conditions for the processing and efficient use of the still growing collection.
In the years that followed its creation, the Ernst Toller Gesellschaft has pursued many major projects to achieve its goals:
- In 1999, the first volume of the Schriften der Ernst Toller Gesellschaft appeared. It has established itself as a platform to disseminate research findings on Ernst Toller and his literary and historical environment in the form of monographs and anthologies.
- Spalek’s extensive bibliography of 1968 was updated, expanded, and published in the ETG series as Michael Pilz: Ernst-Toller-Bibliographie 1968-2012. With addendums to John M. Spalek: Ernst Toller and his critics (1968). Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2016. (It appeared in Schriften der Ernst Toller Gesellschaft, vol. 7).
- Several members of the society collaborated on Ernst Toller: Sämtliche Werke. Critical edition. [5 in 6 volumes]. Edited on behalf of the Ernst Toller Society by Dieter Distl, Martin Gerstenbräun, Torsten Hoffmann, James Jordan, Stephen Lamb, Peter Langemeyer, Karl Leydecker, Stefan Neuhaus, Michael Pilz, Kirsten Reimers, Christiane Schönfeld, Gerhard Scholz, Rolf Selbmann, Thorsten Unger and Irene Zanol. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2015.
- The ETG fulfilled its long-standing aim to create a comprehensive edition of Toller’s letters. This volume appeared in 2018 as Ernst Toller: Briefe 1915-1939. critical edition [in 2 volumes]. Edited on behalf of the Ernst Toller Society by Stefan Neuhaus, Gerhard Scholz, Irene Zanol, Martin Gerstenbräun, Veronika Schuchter and Kirsten Reimers. Göttingen: Wallstein—and it can also be found online at www.tolleredition.de
- A particular concern of the society is its biennial award of a Literature Prize for special literary achievements in the area of Literature and Politics.
The goals achieved thus far do not signal a completion of ETG’s work. The society’s main challenge over next few years will be to digitize the available research data and create a long-term archive. Other projects include providing the published commentary to Toller’s letters as part of the online edition, as well as fully digitizing Toller’s collected works using the latest principles of editorial science. Completing these tasks will make the “whole Toller” freely accessible to researchers and the general public.
In the third decade after its foundation, the society continues to work to ensure that Ernst Toller’s work receives the attention it deserves. The ETG is always seeking new members who support the work and plans of the society with both their ideas and their financial support.
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