From chests, suitcases and boxes
From chests, suitcases and boxes
The story of how Ulrich Becher’s estate was handed down is quite unusual. Part of the estate has been located at the German National Library’s German Exile Archive 1933–1945 since 1985, another part in the Swiss National Library’s Swiss Literary Archives since 1993.
The holdings of both Archives contain correspondence, personal documents, manuscripts of Ulrich Becher’s poems, novels and plays, pictures and drawings. Only when viewed together do the two partial estates constitute a reliable basis for researching and presenting Ulrich Becher's life and work.
This is apparent for example in the excerpt from the correspondence between Ulrich Becher and Lion Feuchtwanger presented in this chapter. This correspondence illustrates the important role played by Lion Feuchtwanger, who was twenty-six years older, as a supporter and mentor of Ulrich Becher, who was born in 1910. Becher’s letter to Feuchtwanger is kept in the German Exile Archive, while Feuchtwanger’s reply is stored in the Swiss Literary Archives.
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