Todesfuge

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Todesfuge (Death Fugue) is a German language poem written by Paul Celan and first published in 1948. It describes the incidents in a German concentration camp.

Contents

[edit] Meaning of the title

The structure of the poem is similar to the one of a fugue: The phrases are recombined, this is typical for a fugue.

Furthermore, the title can be seen as a reference to "death music" (Todesmusik): Prisoners in concentration camps were forced to play music to other prisoners waiting for their death in gas chambers.

[edit] Interpretation

The poem begins with an oxymoron: “schwarze Milch” (Black milk).

Possibly Celan referred here to the Book of Lamentations of the Old Testament. A quote: "Their Lords were purer as the snow and cleaner as the milk ... now their habitus had became black by the darkness".

The "black milk" is a synonym for something which is good and bad at one time. In this case it is the life in a concentration camp. Life itself is positive (milk). But through oppression, torture and murder in the KZ life becomes an object which is controlled by others and no longer by the individual himself (black). So the milk gets its fatal black color. Life is poisoned by the omnipresent threat of death.

The "grave in the clouds" stands for the cremations of the people killed in the gas chambers. There is not enough room in the ground for all the bodies, but "in the clouds", there is ("you won't lie too cramped").

The man who lives in the house is the task master in the concentration camp. Instead of living in a poor barrack with hundreds of others, the guard lives in a noble house. He is a stereotypical Aryan: He has blue eyes and his wife has blond hair ("your golden hair Margareta"). The contrast to her is the Jewish woman called Sulamith, who has ashgrey hair.

The man lives like a normal person while he is in the house, he even writes love letters to Margareta. But as soon as he leaves it, he becomes a mass murderer and commander.

The text part "steps out of doors and the stars are all sparkling, he whistles his hounds to come close // he whistles his Jews into rows has them shovel a grave in the ground // he commands us to play up for the dance" represents the Nazi's self-conception as master race. For the guard, dogs and Jews are the same level of race hierarchy.

[edit] „Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland“

The most famous quote from the poem is der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland.

der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland sein Auge ist blau

er trifft dich mit bleierner Kugel er trifft dich genau

 Death is a Master craftsman from Germany his eye is blue

he hits you with a leaden bullet he hits you precisely

The quote is often used in antifascist context, and found in graffiti and posters. It us also used in music, often in altered form, eg. by the Dark Metal-Band Eisregen (their Hexenhaus contains "Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Thüringen"). The poem is used in a song by seminal German punk band Slime, "Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland."

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

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