Klemperer, Victor

The son of the rabbi , brother of the surgeon George Klemperer (who participated in councils about Lenin ’s illness in 1922-1923 ) and the cousin of the conductor Otto Klemperer . In 1902 - 1912 he studied Romance and Germanic philology at the universities of Munich , Geneva , Paris and Berlin , after 1905 he worked as a journalist in Berlin, published prose. In 1912 he converted to Protestantism . The dissertation was written by the famous philologist-novelist and language theorist Karl Fossler , defended it in 1914 . In 1914 - 1915 he lectured at the University of Naples , with the outbreak of the First World War he went to the front as a volunteer. Since 1920 - Professor of Romance Philology at the Higher Technical School of Dresden .

When the Nazis came to power, in 1935 he was removed from teaching as a Jew, lost his job, moved to the ghetto , but, since his wife was recognized as a purebred Aryan , he avoided deportation. During the war, he was hiding in the Serbluzhitsky village of Peseci , whose inhabitants, as he wrote, were distinguished by “anti-Hitler sentiment” ^[3] . After February 13, 1945 , when the Nazi authorities decided to deport all the remaining Jews, including those who were “mixed-wed,” Klemperer and his wife took advantage of the confusion of the Allies air raid on Dresden (during which a large number of both ghetto residents and ranks of the Gestapo and the SS), fled and took refuge in Upper Bavaria in the territory soon occupied by the Allied forces.

After the war, Klemperer lived in the German Democratic Republic , lectured in Berlin and Halle , participated in cultural life, was a member of the People’s Chamber from the Kulturbund faction. Member of the SED , member of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR. Two volumes of his writings on the French Enlightenment came out (The Age of Voltaire - 1954 , The Age of Russo - 1966 , posthumously).

After the establishment of the Nazi regime, he began to keep a diary where, day after day, not only as a keen observer, but also as a subtle philologist, noted the change in everyday life, the habits and language of compatriots, the vocabulary and intonations of the media , street ads, etc. He called this newspeak the language of the Third Reich ( lat. Lingua Tertii Imperii, LTI ). In 1968, the publication of his diaries began, which were then published in different parts in many publications, including specially commented ones. Until the 1980s, the name of Klemperer was relatively little known: in Germany - because of his membership in the SED , in socialist countries - because of his detailed analysis of totalitarian linguistic mechanisms (and the general undesirability of the topic of Jewish genocide). In the 1980s and 1990s, the book became a world sensation, has been translated into many languages ​​and is today considered one of the most famous diaries, a monument to the " Holocaust literature."

• LTI Notizbuch eines Philologen. Leipzig: Reclam, 1968 (subsequently repeatedly expanded and reprinted)

• Klemperer W. LTI. The language of the Third Reich: Notebook of the philologist / Per. with him. A. B. Grigoriev. - M .: Progress-Tradition , 1998 .-- 381 p. - 3000 copies.
• Testify to the end. - M .: Progress, 1998.

In 1952 he received the national prize of the GDR, in 1956 he was awarded the Order of the GDR "For Services to the Fatherland." In 1999, a television film about Klemperer was released, and in 2003, a documentary based on his diaries. They more than once became the basis of theatrical and radio shows. In 1995, he was posthumously awarded the Hans and Sophie Scholl Prize .

in Russian

• Altunyan A.G. Victor Klemperer - soldier of the cultural front. Review by V. Klemperer. LTI The language of the Third Reich. Notebook philologist. Per. with him. A. B. Grigoriev. M .: Progress-Tradition, 1998.384 s .; ISBN 5-89493-016-2. (V. Klemperer. LTI. Notizbuch eines Philologen. Berlin, 1947) // Russian Journal , 05.28.199
• Dubin B.V. Language lessons. (Rec. In the book: Klemperer V. LTI. Language of the Third Reich) // New Literary Review . - 1999. - No. 36. - S. 352-356.

in other languages

• Walser M. Das Prinzip Genauigkeit: Laudatio auf Victor Klemperer. - Frankfurt / Main: Suhrkamp, ​​1996
• Heer H. Im Herzen der Finsternis: Victor Klemperer als Chronist der NS-Zeit. - Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1997.
• Victor Klemperer: ein Leben in Bildern. - Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1999.
• Combes A. Didier, H. Identités, existences, résistances: réflexions autour des Journaux 1933-1945 de Victor Klemperer. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Université Charles-de-Gaulle Lille 3, 2000
• Jacobs P. Victor Klemperer: im Kern ein deutsches Gewächs: eine Biographie. - Berlin: Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, 2000.
• Nowojski W. Victor Klemperer (1881-1960): Romanist, Chronist der Vorhölle. - Teetz: Hentrich & Hentrich; Berlin: Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin, Centrum Judaicum, 2004.
• Papp K. Deutschland von innen und von aussen: die Tagebücher von Victor Klemperer und Thomas Mann zwischen 1933 und 1955. - Berlin: WVB, 2006.

• A selection of links on the library website of the Free University of Berlin
• About the Klemperer Documentary
• Page on IMDB website
• Biography (Russian)
• Thrown into Jewry. Victor Klemperer: the Jewish fate of a patriot of great Germany. Article on booknik.ru