Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
April 2021
Notebook / Manuscript (and Typescript), 1990s
for National Poetry Month (USA)
© Collection Deutsches Auswandererhaus
© Collection Deutsches Auswandererhaus
Historical Context
At the age of 29, Lisel Mueller began writing poetry and received many important awards for her work during her life, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1997 for her poetry collection Alive Together: New and Selected Poems. In this book, she gathers new and selected poems from all phases of her creative life. Unlike in the USA, she was never known in Germany. Together with taz reporter Benno Schirrmeister, the Deutsches Auswandererhaus dedicated the special exhibition ‘So far, so good.’ The forgotten Pulitzer Prize winner Lisel Mueller in 2019 to her life and work.
Mueller opens her Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection with her poem Curriculum Vitae. This poem, written in the form of a numbered CV, formed the basis of the exhibition and was made ‘walkable’: based on the stations she identified in the poem, visitors learned more about Mueller’s biography and family history: Who were the ‘monsters’ that her father had to escape? Who made English the ‘language of love’? Other poems of hers were also presented, which deal intensively with these stations: migration to the USA, for example, life during a war, or the births of children.
The German Emigration Center was able to approach the life and work of Mueller in two distinct ways. On one hand, through her migration biography, and on the other through her poetry, which also reflects migration-specific themes such as experiences of strangeness, language acquisition, wishes to return, or memories of the country of origin.
Short Biography of Lisel Mueller
Lisel Mueller is born in 1924 as Elisabeth Annelore Neumann in Hamburg. Her father is the politically active reform pedagogue Fritz C. Neumann, who is dismissed from the teaching profession after the National Socialists come to power. In 1937, he travels to the USA for a temporary position. At Evansville College in Indiana, he secures a permanent position in 1938 – Elisabeth Annelore Neumann, her mother Ilse, and her sister Ingeborg follow him.
Elisabeth begins studying sociology in the USA and meets her future husband, Paul E. Mueller, on campus. A few years later, she enrolls at Indiana University in Bloomington, studying comparative literature. The explorations of narrative and fairy tale research will later become evident in her poetry. When her mother passes away in 1953, she moves in with her widowed father along with her husband Paul. She often cites her mother’s death as the starting point for her poetic work. She self-studies the craft of writing. In her essay “Learning to play by ear,” she describes the beginnings:
“But now I began my training, which consisted of reading all the volumes of poetry and little magazines I could lay my hands on, teaching myself to read for instruction as well as pleasure, and setting myself exercises. There were no creative writing classes and few handbooks on craft then. My apprenticeship at this stage was a matter of hit-and-miss, lucky hunches and wild goose chases, a game of hide-and-seek with the masters I was looking for.”
Four years later, she publishes her first poem. In 1958 and 1962, her daughters Lucy and Jenny are born. She begins working as a poetry reviewer and co-founds the Chicago Poetry Center. In 1976, her father also passes away. A few years after his death, and as the last of her family, Lisel Mueller travels to Germany. In her essay Return, she records her impressions:
“I am moved by the Alster, but when I stand in front of the red brick apartment building I lived in for six years, I feel only strangeness.”
Lisel Mueller passed away on February 21, 2020, in Chicago.
Significance of the Object
Through Mueller’s manuscript – and also the typescript – we can trace part of the development of one of her poems. The piece titled An extended question, speaking of forced migration, colonialism, and experiences of alienation, later transforms here in her typescript into An unanswered question. At the same time, we become aware, through the pressure that becomes increasingly strong on advancing pages of the notebook, of how Mueller’s eye condition affected her vision.
“Dear Ms. Mueller: I am delighted to confirm the award to you of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry”
(Excerpt from the congratulatory letter by George Rupp, President of Columbia University New York, 7.4.1997)
More than 30 years after the publication of her first poetry collection, Lisel Mueller becomes the only poet born in Germany to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection. Previously, she was also honored with the National Book Award, the Lamont Poetry Prize, and the Carl Sandburg Prize. In 2002, she received the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize for her lifetime achievement. Mueller has published seven poetry volumes in addition to translations into German.
Have you…
… to tell a story of emigration or immigration from your family and would like to pass it along with the related objects and documents to the Deutsches Auswandererhaus for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau at the phone number 0471 / 90 22 0 – 0 or by email at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de
Archive: Previous Objects of the Month
Show all objectsDo You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de