Hugo Frederick Garten papers

Scope and Content

Papers of Hugo Frederick Garten (formerly Hugo Friedrich Königsgarten) (HFG), including correspondence with the expressionist playwright Georg Kaiser (GK) and his wife Margareta from the 1920s to 1940s; typescripts of work by GK; periodicals, programmes and photographs relating to productions of GK's plays; correspondence from the German playwright Gerhart Hauptmann (GH) and members of his family to HFG; newspaper cuttings on GH and his plays written on centenary of his birth in 1962; photographs of GH and letters from GH to the German Studies scholar Hermann Georg Fiedler; and letters from Stefan Zweig, Fritz von Unruh, Jakob Wassermann and his wife, Martha Wassermann-Karlweis, Robert Neumann, Friedrich Gundolf, and Alfred Weber to HFG. Also includes five metal plate prints of letters by and portraits of Gerhart Hauptmann.

Administrative / Biographical History

Hugo Frederick Garten: born Hugo Friedrich Königsgarten, Brünn [now Brno], Moravia, 13 April 1904, into a Jewish family. Educated at a Gymnasium in Berlin, and the Universities of Jena (1923), Vienna (1923-1924), Berlin (1924-1926) and Heidelberg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1930; free-lance writer in Berlin, 1928-1933; moved to Vienna, 1933 and London, 1938; teacher at New College School, Oxford, 1940-1945, and member of staff of 'Die Zeitung', London, 1941-1944; DPhil, Oxford, 1944; taught modern languages at Westminster School, 1946-1965; Lecturer at the Universities of Surrey and London 1965-. He was a member of the International PEN Club, the English Goethe Society and the Gerhart Hauptmann-Gesellschaft.

Married Anne Leonard Smith, 1952, no children.

Access Information

Open. At least 48 hours' notice is required for research visits.

Acquisition Information

Given by Mrs Garten, 1976

Other Finding Aids

Catalogued online (click on the "contains" icon below). A pdf copy is attached to this description.

Conditions Governing Use

Photocopies may be made, although this is at the discretion of the Librarian and is dependent on the nature and condition of the material.

Related Material

The Institute holds a number of collections relating to German theatre and drama including the papers of Friedrich Gundolf (Ref FGU), and the papers of Bertold Auerbach / Archive of German Theatre (Ref BAA). There is an extensive collection of George Kaiser's papers at the University of Alberta, Canada, including copies of 19 letters to Letters H F Koenigsgarten [Garten], 1936-1939. The Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes in Vienna also holds 6 folders of Garten's personal papers: see http://aleph23-prod-acc.obvsg.at/F/NQXJE5EKARG6YPL2J5TTIH1J5NCBFBH2IQGGVQXNMV61242VX5-06722?func=find-b&find_code=WRD&request=k%C3%B6nigsgarten&x=0&y=0.

Geographical Names