Writing careers: work and the professions in Max Frisch

Abstract

Among major twentieth century German writers there were many whose professional careers were not restricted to literature. Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931), Alfred Döblin (1878-1957) and Gottfried Benn (1886-1956) were qualified and practising doctors, the latter two serving as medical officers in the German army during the First World War, and Benn running a private medical practice after the Second World War in West Berlin. Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who despite his repeated discontent with the occupation of a lawyer spent 14 years with the 'Workers' Accident Insurance Institute' in Prague, was probably locally more recognised as one during his lifetime than he was as a writer. Hermann Broch (1886-1951), a qualified textile engineer, managed his family's factory in Teesdorf for twenty years between 1907 and 1927. Elias Canetti (1905-1994) brought his academic career to a PhD level in Chemistry. Among others who earned their living and gained substantial recognition not only through writing, was Robert Musil (1880-1942), who worked briefly as an instructor for civil engineering at the Technische Universität in Stuttgart in 1902 and 1903, then completed a PhD in philosophy, and achieved a reputation in the field of psychology. Among living writers are Bernhard Schlink (b. 1944), professor of law at the Freie Universität in Berlin and a judge of the constitutional court, and Jakob Hein (b. 1971), a doctor at the Charité, a university clinic in Berlin. Last but not least, there is the Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass (b. 1927), who after the Second World War earned his money as a farm worker, miner, stonecutter and jazz musician, and has achieved distinction also as a graphic artist.