Günter Peter Straschek: History of the Migration of German-Language Film after 1933 - Statistics: Questionnaire for Vicki Baum
Günter Peter Straschek: History of the Migration of German-Language Film after 1933 - Statistics: Questionnaire for Vicki Baum
Über meine Fehlschläge als Filmautorin kann ich mit demselben inneren Abstand schreiben, mit dem man einer vor fünfundzwanzig Jahren gescheiterten Ehe gegenübersteht.
[I can write about my failures as a screenwriter with the same internal distance with which one confronts a marriage that broke down twenty-five years ago. (ed. trans.)]
Vicki Baum in Es war alles ganz anders. Erinnerungen, S. 530
This exhibit is a questionnaire by the Austrian film-maker and historian Günter Peter Straschek. The document is part of his research archive of exiled film-makers from the National Socialist dictatorship, amongst whom he counted Vicki Baum on the basis of her work for the film industry in Hollywood and the filming of her works.
The answers on the questionnaire provide us with information on the personal circumstances and stages in the professional life of Vicki Baum, e.g., that she was a harpist and an editor at the publishing house Ullstein. From the questionnaire we can also glean biographical details about Vicki Baum‘s parents, other relatives and her husbands. Straschek has obviously consulted various sources, such as Vicki Baum‘s autobiography, but also material which is preserved in other archives. However, the information is predominantly taken from a letter from Wolfgang Lert to the exile researcher Straschek which has come down to us with the questionnaire. On the one hand, then, this document represents bio-bibliographical information on Vicki Baum; on the other, it represents the working methods of a researcher on exile archives who brought together data from various sources in his questionnaires.
(Text: Oscar Mesa)
Further Reading:
Baum, Vicki: Es war alles ganz anders. Erinnerungen. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch 2018.
Bertschik, Julia / Frank, Gustav / Hofeneder, Veronika / Jung, Werner (Hg.): Vicki Baum. München: Richard Boorberg Verlag 2022 (= Text + Kritik, Bd. 235).
Nottelmann, Nicole: Die Karrieren der Vicki Baum. Eine Biographie. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch 2007.
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