Walter Serner: A Handguide for Impostors
02. January 2011 18:07
Dada in Austria? Surely not a chance!
Dada in Austria? Surely not a chance!
And yet - the devotee is struck by the title Dada au Grand Air. Der Sängerkrieg in Tirol (Paris, 1921), the fruit of a recreational summer trip in that year by some of the leading Dadaists to Tarenz near Imst in the Austrian Tyrol (Tristan Tzara, Max Ernst, Hans Arp - Breton and Eluard later came too). Something of interest, after all. A third "congress", which led to the disbanding of the movement, took place here on Austrian soil!
Of course, if we take into account the whole wider Austria-Hungary of 1914, then Lajos Kassák and his journal MA also belong here, as do a couple of other landmark events in Prague: on the first of April 1920 Prague was visited by the scandalous group of Berlin Dadaists (Huelsenbeck, Hausmann and Baader), and further live performances and lectures took place. This is notable, at least, by comparison with the relative silence of Vienna.
Another Dadaist from within the borders of Austria-Hungary is Walter Serner.1
He was born in Karlovy Vary / Karlsbad on 15th January 1889, where his father published a local newspaper, and he attended school. Failure to pass his Abiturprüfung (school leaving certificate) at the Franz-Josephs-Gymnasium inspired his first literary publication, "Ratschläge für Maturanden" ["Advice for school-leavers"], printed in the Karlsbader Zeitung, it was basically a sarcastic piece about the teaching he had received. His second attempt at his certificate having met with success, Walter changed his name from Seligmann to Serner and departed for Vienna. He studied Law and continued to write, admiring the contemporary new art (Adolf Loos, Klimt, Kokoschka) and the journalist author Karl Kraus. But Vienna was not progressive enough for him, he was attracted by Berlin and the young artists who were setting the pace there. Joining the scene in Berlin, he became a doctor of law. At the outbreak of the First World War, with the likelihood of conscription, the pregnancy of a certain young woman, and the threat of prison hanging over him (for making a false statement), Serner hurriedly left Germany and went to neutral Switzerland. In Zurich through his activities in pre-Dada circles he became a person of some notoriety. He contributed to the journal Der Mistral, soon founded his own literature and artistic monthly Sirius, visibly inspired by Expressionism (and not only because of its red cover). Serner published at this time various essays and narratives in which there is as yet no trace of his later Dadaist pugnacity. Even on the subject of the recently opened Cabaret Voltaire he adopted a gloomy stance.
Later, however, in 1918, by which time Sirius had ceased publication, the Cabaret Voltaire had broken up, and Tzara had founded the journal Dada, Serner's views underwent a radical turn - in three weeks he had composed his Letzte Lockerung. manifest dada. Serner now became a Dadaist and soon an associate of the leading Dadaist Tristan Tzara. His public debut took place on the occasion of the eighth Dada Soirée on 9th April 1919, and some of his texts were published in May 1919 in Anthologie Dada (Dada no. 4/5), including an extract from his manifesto Letzte Lockerung [Last Loosening], which belongs amongst the most ground-breaking and brilliant texts of the Dada movement.
In the years 1919-20 Serner published manifestos, poems, polemics and aphorisms in various Dada organs, also gaining considerable renown as a specialist in "happenings". Tzara maintained his contacts with France and Italy, Serner with the German-speaking lands, and his home country. The precise details may be unclear, but he managed to have published a veritable flood of German press reports about the Zurich Dadaists, including items in the Berlin Boersen-Courier, Prager Tagblatt, Bohemia (in Prague), Pester Lloyd and Neue Wiener Journal.
The Austrian press reacted to the Dada movement comparatively late in the day: the first explicit mention of it is in 1918 in the Viennese literary journal Der Friede, which described one Dadaist evening as "the most embarrassing loutishness ever experienced", this being the usual kind of tone adopted in contemporary reports on Dada. From such press reports readers could gain the notion that there was some kind of Dada virus spreading like an epidemic across Europe (and Dr. Serner had some considerable part to play in all this). Austrian newspapers were practically every week manifesting various further Job-like lamentations in the press ("Goethe as a Dadaist", "Spiritual Anarchy", "Artistic Bolshevism", or "Dada in Medical Care"). The behaviour of the Dadaists was universally portrayed as unseemly and shameful, the Zurich soirées as quite unheard-of scandalous occasions. All this was presided over by Walter Serner, who took care to compose effective negative publicity, printing horrified commentaries under another name about the Dadaists' own performances.
In the Viennese press there appeared a review of Anthologie Dada by Paul Busson, entitled "Gugu-dada", comparing the anthology to a book for two-year-old children. The author asserted that he was very sorry, but he had failed despite his best efforts to understand what the Dada movement was actually about.
Serner's joining the Dada movement was accompanied by a radical parting-of-the-ways with his spiritual father Karl Kraus. They confronted and antagonised one another with articles in the press, Serner took care that Kraus should be supplied a copy of Anthologie Dada, Kraus in turn published an essay "Gespenster" ("Phantoms/Spectres"), in which he makes his first mention of Dada. A lively exchange of insults followed thereafter. Karl Kraus even composed a poem on the subject. But six months later he also complimented the originality of the Romanian Jewish lads who waged battles with their own foolishness, bringing nonsense into artistic endeavour and dilettantism to its greatest triumph.
Serner remained true to his principle, that "Dadaism is only the pretending of likewise fictional world events with the aim of universal death-dealing paraphrase" (Berliner Börsen-Courier, 31 Dec. 1920), offering his Viennese readers this delicacy: on the 20th September 1919 there appears an "original report" of the Neue Wiener Zeitung signed by M. Gen, giving details of the most recent ninth Zurich Dada soirée: "The ninth Zurich Dada soirée took place before an invited audience, in order to preclude any still more offensive disturbances than those presented to the audience of the previous soirée. The evening passed off relatively calmly, given that thunderous explosions of merriment and excited outbursts are part and parcel of these Dada manifestations and bear witness to their minimal restraint." No such soirée in fact took place, the report is purely invented, so that this time a Dada event took place not in Zurich, but on the pages of the Viennese press!
His attempt at creating an independent Dada branch in Geneva was also successful. One could read in the press of a "first Dadaist congress in Geneva". Prager Tagblatt (7.12.1919): "Serner's proposal to remove all words from Dadaist writings and establish a general seal for the most used conjunctions was accepted with acclamation, as was his further proposal to eliminate conjunctions as much as possible and replace them with touches." Soon afterwards there was reported the "breaking up by the police of the Dadaist world congress", an exchange of fire between Tzara and Serner causing panic, "which was only suppressed in time thanks to the intervention of wise heads" (Neues Wiener Abendblatt, 30.1.1920). There followed a "Geneva verdict in the Dada court case" - a fine of 3,000 franks or three months in prison. Serner stated that "although a spell in prison forms a part of any good biography, he is unfortunately obliged to pay the fine, and is most thankful for this circumstance, as longer solitary confinement would incline him to contemplation and similar inappropriate behaviour" (Wiener Morgenzeitung, 13.1.1920). There followed "An Iconoclast in Geneva", "A Dada Ball in Geneva", and oddly enough also a "First Dada Meeting Without Scandal", in the open air, "at which the leader of the Dadaists Dr. Serner at precisely three o'clock in the afternoon gave the cosmos a kicking" (Prager Blatt, 13.4.1920), and subsequently, after a "bloody brawl in the Tabarin-bar, during which he broke one female dancer's leg", there came Serner's final deportation from Switzerland.
In other words, while staying in Geneva Serner had become bored to the point of rebellion. He had helped the Dada salon into being and organised two exhibitions. The "Grand Bal Dada" mentioned above had indeed taken place. His fellow combatant Christian Schad had produced photograms and wooden Dadaist reliefs. But the activities of their two-member army had evoked little response. Serner was soon heading off to Paris, where Tzara was active and le Mouvement Dada was reaping a triumphal success. He had a long wait for his travel papers, writing to Tzara: "it's catastrophic, I'm so awfully bored".
Dr. Serner was not entirely unknown to the Parisians. With Tzara's help he had participated in several publications (meanwhile - in the reverse direction - supplying the German press with scandalous reports from Paris). When he finally reached Paris in October 1920, Francis Picabia gave him a particularly friendly welcome, and Serner was introduced to readers of the fourteenth number of Revue 391 with a photograph and a Dada portrait by Picabia.2 (Karel Kraus complained that for some unknown reason he had been sent a "Dadaist central organ".)
Tristan Tzara did not share any great enthusiasm for Serner's arrival, but at first did not object to his contributions. The doctor participated in the preparations for Tzara's international Dada anthology Dadaglobe (never issued) and of course informed the press of his changed domicile. On the 19th November the Berliner Börsen Courier wrote of a "second Dadaist world congress in Paris", at which the opening speaker Walter Serner had stated that "Dada after less than two years of sharp struggles has managed to disrupt religion, art and science, and by its telluric efforts has planted the seed of a new, intellectually free, frank and instinct-driven culture." At the end of his speech he requested a Dada patent for his vital discovery, so important for the Dadaist movement: that all prophets, artists and revolutionaries, are impostors. This was unanimously awarded to him, and at the end Serner was officially elected Dada leader for Austria, Czechoslovakia and Russia.
What actually happened in Paris during those weeks is not entirely clear. Christian Schad (the only person to whom Serner spoke of these experiences) says that Tzara evidently felt threatened in his leading role and from the start attempted to distance himself from his former companion. "Although at least Picabia and Breton, who had begun to be sceptical about Tzara's absolute rule, did not show Serner any mistrust, the situation started to be unbearable for him. And when Tzara, noticing this situation, began to act the great master in front of him, and tried to avert suspicion from himself as a usurper of ideas, Serner silently left Paris and the group around Picabia." (C. Schad, Relative Realitäten. In: W. Serner, Die Tigerin München, 1971). Serner's joke about a second world congress rudely disturbing the cultural scene in Paris was followed by a sequel: on 21st December the Börsen-Courier printed a letter from the Parisian Dadaists (signed, in addition to Tzara, by Picabia and Ribemont-Dessaignes), which rubbished Serner's report of a Paris congress and branded him as an outsider afflicted by megalomania. This was clear signal enough, and Serner reacted immediately. He sent an ironic reply to the Börsen-Courier and left Paris. He went on to publish his first short-story collection Zum blauen Affen (At The Blue Ape), the next step in his career as a writer. He later reissued his manifesto dada text in an extended volume with the lengthier title Letzte Lockerung. Ein Handbrevier für Hochstapler und solche, die es werden wollen [Last Loosening. A Handguide for Impostors and Those who would Like to Be One] (1927) - by which time he had replaced the word dada with the word rasta.
translated by Jim Naughton
DADAutriche 1907 - 1970
Thomas Milch - Serner Kraus - Dada
Walter Serner: Ein Handbrevier für Hochstapler [A Handguide for Impostors]
2) English translator's note: a reproduction of the page from Revue 391 showing the photograph and drawing is available on-line at http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/391/14/pages/02.htm