29 January 2025

On 4 June 1960 the Herzog August Bibliothek acquired a slim booklet by Saul C. Colin titled  Naturalisme et mysticisme chez D. H. Lawrence. It was printed in Paris in 1932 and was probably a labour of love fuelled by the author’s admiration for this renowned literary figure. Colin (who was born in Bucharest in 1898 and died in New York in 1967) was a French citizen of Jewish descent who had received an MA in Lyon in 1929 and a doctorate in philosophy in Paris in 1931. Prior to that, his writings had mainly focused on theatre criticism. He remained connected to the performing arts his whole life long as a playwright, assistant director, drama teacher and producer for theatre and film.

In the early 1930s, Colin worked with René Sti as an assistant director on the production of Le Testament du docteur Mabuse, the French version of Fritz Lang’s (1890–1976) renowned masterpiece. The script was written by Thea von Harbou (1888–1954). Lang and Harbou, married to one another since 1922, had been separated for some time, but their productive working relationship kept them connected until their divorce in April 1933.

Colin’s work with these two individuals must have made a deep impression on him. Whether or not he was aware of the true status of their relationship, he dedicated an edition of his booklet on D. H. Lawrence’s natural philosophy to the couple – the same work that is now held by the HAB today. On its title page we find the following handwritten dedication: ‘A Madame et Monsieur Fritz Lang avec mes hommages et mon entière admiration et tout dans la foie de notre proche collaboration. SaulCColin Paris le 18 Sept. 1932’. The fact that Colin addressed them as ‘Madame et Monsieur Fritz Lang’ – a traditional image of marital roles that was apparently still current in Paris’s famously emancipated cultural scene in the 1920s and 30s – seems rather curious today. Perhaps he was unaware of the name of Lang’s spouse when he penned his dedication, leading him to select this ‘euphemism’.

There is some uncertainty as to whether the book belonged to Fritz Lang or his then-wife. Lang, whose cinematic art was held in high esteem by the Nazis and admired by Joseph Goebbels, who would love to have employed Lang’s services, avoided falling under the influence of the new regime by commuting between the European capitals of Paris, Berlin and London. The last feature film he made in Europe was Liliom, produced together with Eric Pommer in the French capital in 1934, just before he emigrated to the United States in that same year. The director refused to adapt his art to fit with Nazi ideology and would undoubtedly have found himself faced with an employment ban and probably much worse. His timely move to the US allowed him to leave Germany without giving up his assets. It is unknown whether any of his property was seized as a result of Nazi persecution.

Unlike Lang, Harbou decided to work for the Nazis. In 1933 she was made chairwoman of the official ‘Association of German Talking-Picture Authors’, which had been brought into line with Nazi ideology, and later joined the Nazi Party. As an actress, screenwriter, director and author, she became one of the most prominent and influential female members of the Nazis’ cultural industry. When the regime fell, she was initially imprisoned during the denazification programme that ensued but later took up work in the film industry again, dubbing foreign films for the German market. The book was probably in her possession in 1954, when she died after suffering an accident in her adopted home city of Berlin, and was transferred to the Rosen Gallery as a part of her estate. Six years later it was acquired by the Herzog August Bibliothek.

PURL: http://diglib.hab.de/?link=201