BOOK REVIEW

_A Tramp in Berlin, New Mark Twain Stories: an Account of Twain's Berlin
Adventures_. By Andreas Austilat. Foreword by Lewis Lapham. Berlinica, 2013.
Pp. 169. Softcover. $13.95. ISBN 978-1-935902-90-4.

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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Kevin Mac Donnell

Copyright (c) 2013 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.


When Twainian contemplations trend toward Mark Twain and Germany the first
thing that usually comes to mind is not the wonderful German city of Berlin.
Instead, Twain's much written about time in Vienna comes to mind, or
writings like his essay "The Awful German Language" which first appeared as
an appendix in _A Tramp Abroad_ (1880). Perhaps Twain's translation of the
German folk tale _Slovenly Peter_ would come to mind, although few would
recall for certain whether it was a product of Twain's Berlin days (it was).
Twain's time in Berlin has been well-documented beginning with James F.
Dickie's _In the Kaiser's Capital_ (1910) which devotes one entire chapter
(17) to Mark Twain. Next follows Albert Bigelow Paine's account in his
biography (II:929-44). Paine was followed much later by Arthur L. Scott's
entertaining account in _Mark Twain at Large_ (1969), pp. 169-75, and Scott
was followed by Robert M. Rodney in _Mark Twain Overseas_ (1993), pp.
139-41. Other works give even briefer treatments of Twain's Berlin days.
Edgar Hemminghaus's _Mark Twain in Germany_ (1939) devotes the first two
chapters to Twain's reception in Germany from 1874-1904, but does not focus
on Berlin, and although Henry W. Fisher's _Abroad With Mark Twain_ (1922,
edited by Merle Johnson) has more to say about Twain in Berlin (where Fisher
met him), it suffers from Fisher's factual errors and Merle Johnson's
unreliable editing. Likewise, Clara Clemens's own memoir reveals an
imperfect memory; in Berlin Susy had been a shy 19 year old, but Clara had
been a flirty 17 year old who upset her father. David Fears's _Mark Twain
Day by Day_ provides the chronological facts of Twain's time in Berlin. Carl
Dometsch's excellent account of Twain in Vienna, _Our Famous Guest, Mark
Twain in Vienna_ (1992) never strays toward Berlin, but does include perhaps
the best bibliography of works covering Twain and Germany. J. C. B. Kinch's
_Mark Twain's German Critical Reception_, 1875-1986 (1989) is a valuable
source as well. At least a dozen other books dealing with Twain's biography,
travel writings, or German associations give even less attention to his
Berlin period. The most recent book to draw some attention to Twain's Berlin
sojourn is Peter Kaminsky's collection of Twain essays, _The Chicago of
Europe and Other Tales of Foreign Travel_ (2009), which includes Twain's
essay on Berlin (pp. 191-203), which was originally published in several
newspapers before being collected in book form as "The German Chicago" in
_The Million Pound Bank-Note_ (1893).

The obvious reason Twain's Berlin days are not given more attention is that
he spent so little time there--barely more than four months, arriving in
October 1891, and leaving the first week of March 1892. He was sick in bed
for one of those months. Although he spent little time in Berlin, Mark Twain
was attracted to Germany because his works had gained early and serious
acceptance there. Both _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ and _Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn_ were published in Germany (in German) the same year they
appeared in America. The first German edition of _Huckleberry Finn_ was the
first to be published with color illustrations. The publisher Bernard
Tauchnitz of Leipzig included Twain's works in his massive series of 5,372
English language editions for European tourists. A collected edition is a
milestone in any author's career, and Twain's collected works appeared in
Germany in 1892 (six volumes in seven parts) and again in 1898 (six
volumes); by comparison, there had been a crude one-volume pirated collected
edition of Twain published in Canada in 1882, and a stalled attempt at a
uniform edition by Harper Brothers in 1896. The first American collected
edition of Twain's works did not appear until 1899, one year after the
second collected German edition. One sure sign of German interest in Mark
Twain was the fact that when Alexandra Gripenberg toured America in 1888,
she dutifully described Niagara Falls, Yosemite, and the major cities she
visited, but she also devoted one chapter to Mark Twain, an honor reserved
for only three other American authors--Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
and Joaquin Miller. Her book appeared in Germany in 1889, but was not
translated into English until 1954. The Germans appreciated Mark Twain and
he admired them, and he admired the city of Berlin, even if the genders of
the German language moved him to tears--the German word for bosom is
masculine, which made Twain laugh until he cried (pp. 68-9).

Andreas Austilat, a twenty-six year veteran newspaperman for Berlin's
largest daily paper, knows his city and is clearly a devoted Twainian, and
presents his narrative in a easy readable style. Besides his account,
Austilat provides the first book printings of two texts published previously
only in the microfilm edition of the Mark Twain Papers, prints the full text
of a piece only partly published by Paine in 1912, and translates two German
interviews that were referenced by Gary Scharnhorst in _Mark Twain, the
Complete Interviews_. Austilat makes very good use of contemporary newspaper
sources, and makes careful critical use of his other sources. Only one
factual error is apparent--a photograph of Twain writing in bed (p. 119) is
presented as one depicting Twain in 1891-2 when in fact it was taken at 21
Fifth Avenue in 1906. One small connection involving a German from Berlin
was overlooked; a young waiter named Ernst Koppe acted as translator for
Livy Clemens' recently widowed sister, Susan Crane and he did indeed later
visit Susan Crane in Elmira, New York, but no mention is made that he
remained in Elmira as the Langdon family's handyman, gardener, and driver,
retiring shortly before his death in 1956.

Mark Twain being Mark Twain, he did find fault with Berlin. He resented the
income tax imposed on foreigners but admired the efficiency and persistence
of the authorities to collect it fairly. Twain thought dogs should be taxed
instead and said so during an interview that was interrupted by a chorus of
barking dogs in the street below his window. Today, foreign visitors pay no
income tax and dogs are taxed. Twain complained that he could not find
fountain pens for sale, but he marveled at the output of German heaters (he
later kept one on the loggia of his final home, Stormfield) and wrote an
essay praising the technical efficiency and speed of the Berlin post office
which since 1876 had utilized a city-wide fifteen mile network of pneumatic
tubes. Today, fountain pens are readily available, German heaters are still
efficient, and Twain's first address in Berlin, Kornerstrasse 7, later
became a post office. Twain liked the fact that Germans did not seem
preoccupied with royalty like the English and the French, but worried
himself sick over an imagined social faux pas he committed when he had
dinner with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Twain thought he had been too talkative in
the Kaiser's presence, but later learned that the Kaiser had wished he'd
talked more.

Before Twain arrived in Berlin, his wife Livy and her sister Susan Crane had
scouted out a place to live but did not take careful note of the
neighborhood, which included chattering "half-clad" women who carried on
conversations up and down the muddy street from their windows and some
warehouses nearby that drew rag-pickers into the neighborhood. It was a
pleasant enough big-city neighborhood, but not the upscale enclave that
Twain had envisioned. After two months they moved to the Hotel Royal on
Unter den Linden for the remainder of their stay. Twain especially enjoyed
the view of the Brandenberg Gate from his hotel window, and often watched
the activities in the plaza, including carriage excursions and horse rides
by the Kaiser himself in close proximity to his citizens.

The Brandenberg Gate survives today (although the surrounding plaza has been
rebuilt), but little else from Twain's days in Berlin can be seen. Progress
can be blamed for some of the destruction. Twain's original address on
Kornerstrasse was demolished by 1910 and two world wars have taken care of
much of the rest. The book is well illustrated with contemporary photographs
from Twain's time paired with modern photographs that show often dramatic
changes. Although the apartment building on Kornerstrasse is long gone, a
set of floor plans survives. Twain's second residence, the Hotel Royal, is
also gone, although Unter den Linden retains its spacious boulevardian
grandeur. Twain often visited his friend Ambassador William Walter Phelps at
the American Embassy, which in 1891 moved across the street from its old
location. The old location still stands, but the new location where Twain
most likely visited his friend was torn down and the new building today
houses the embassy for North Korea. The Berlin City Castle at the end of
Unter den Linden is also gone, but is being rebuilt on the ruins of its
cellars. Virtually every building associated with Twain during his residence
in Berlin is lost, and the many pairs of before and after illustrations
drive this sad point home, but the book ends on a happy note. Although the
home of General Maximilian von Versen, whom Twain befriended and visited
often in his home for dinner parties, was destroyed by war, descendants of
some of Twain's friends still live in the city, including the
great-great-grandniece of General Versen, a tall leggy blond and gallery
owner whose picture appears opposite the last page of the text that ends
with the comment "So life goes on." Like this reader, Twain would have
smiled as he read those final words.