Aris Fioretos, Royal Library

The project aimed to produce a commented edition of Nelly Sachs' works in four volumes. Tentative publication: fall of 2009, Suhrkamp Verlag.

Volume 1: Stories and Poems 1921-1956 (approx. 800 pages)
Volume 2: Poems 1957-1970 (approx. 800 pages)
Volume 3: Scenic Poems and Prose (approx. 800 pages)
Volume 4: Letters (approx. 800 pages)

All volumes were thought to included an extensive critical apparatus (corresponding to roughly half of each volume's contents), discussing the material conditions, presenting important drafts to individual texts, and giving background information to persons, places, and important contexts.

The porject manager was general editior of the edition. Two additional scholars, financed externally, were invited as volume editors.

In conjunction with the edition, the project manager also planned to publish a 250-page documentation in word and image of Nelly Sachs' life and works. Suhrkamp Verlag wished to publish the volume in conjunction with an exhibition at the Literaturhaus in Berlin. In addition to Berlin, tentatively, parts of the Nelly-Sachs-Room at the Royal Library in Stockholm would be shown together with materials from the literary estate
in Dortmund, Frankfurt, and Marbach between the fall of 2009 and the summer of 2010. The tour was intended to conclude at the Royal Library at around the 40th anniversary of Sachs' death in 1970.

Essentially, the initial plan could be kept. The four-volume critical edition of Sachs' works appeared under the title Werke. Kommentierte Ausgabe within one year, between the spring of 2010 and the spring of 2011. Due to restrictions concerning the literary estate, the material presented had to be regrouped somewhat. Thus we were forced to omit the texts Sachs wrote in her younger years in Berlin, that is, between the 1910s and 1940. Also, the scenic poems and the prose had to be divided into two volumes. Because of restrictions, the planned volume with letters could not be published. Instead, this material was replaced with Sachs' translations, which were included in colume 4. (The letters will be edited sometime in the future; it cannot be excluded that an application for funds may be submitted in the future.) Suhrkamp Verlag in Berlin published the edition according to the following:

Volume 1: Gedichte 1940-1950, 2010 (ISBN 978-3-518-42156-7)
Volume 2: Gedichte 1951-1970, 2010 (ISBN 978-3-518-42157-4)
Volume 3: Szenische Dichtungen, 2011 (ISBN 978-3-518-42189-5)
Volume 4: Prosa ? Übersetzungen, 2010 (ISBN 978-3-518-42190-1)

Dr. Matthias Weichelt was responsible for volume 1, and together with Dr. Ariane Huml also for volume 2. The project manager was solely responsible for volumes 3 and 4, and also collaborated on volumes 1 and 2 (supplying commentaries, an Introduction, as well as managing all bibliographical data). He also had the general responsibility for the entire edition.

In each volume, mention was made of the funds provided by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond; in each case, the RJ logo was reproduced. Two copies of each volume should have been submitted by the press.

The active archival work was mainly (90%) performed at the Royal Library, where the literary estate of Sachs has been deposited. The remaining work in in archives was conducted at the Literaturarchiv in Marbach and the Stadt- und Landesbibliothek in Dortmund. At the Royal Library, a work space as well as great professional competence was provided. The collaboration functioned perfectly and to great content. Thus, by way of a philologically reliable and commented edition, the most important part of Sachs oeuvre (1940-1970) may thus be regareded as made available to a wider audience. At present, only the extensive correspondence remains to be edited.

Work on the edition was conducted in close proximity to work on an exhibition devoted to the life and works of Sachs. Entitled "Flucht und Verwandlung. Nelly Sachs, Schriftstellerin, Berlin/Stockholm" ("Flykt och förvandling. Nelly Sachs, författare, Berlin/Stockholm"), the exhibition was shown at five different venues in 2010-2011:

Jüdisches Museum, Berlin
Judiska Teatern, Stockholm
Jüdisches Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Strauhof, Zürich
Museum für Kunst und Geschichte, Dortmund

In addition to curating the exhibition, the project manager published an illustrated biography of Nelly Sachs. The volume turned out to be not 250 pages (or roughly 300,000 characters) long, as originally planned, but 320 pages (or some 700,000 characters). It also included about 400 illustrations. The volume was given the same title as the exhibition: Flucht und Verwandlung, Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2010 (ISBN 978-3-518-42159-8). Later in the same year it was published in Swedish: Flykt och förvandling, Stockholm: Ersatz, 2010 (ISBN 978-91-86437-13-8). This edition was made possible in part by funds provided by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (F2008-1098:1-E).

In conjunction with each venue, extensive programs were arranged, including talks, seminars, and readings. In addition, the project manager presented both the edition and the exhibition at talks at many other institution, e.g., the Literaturarchiv in Marbach, Södertörn University, the Royal Library, Freie Universität in Berlin, Universität Wien, the Institute for Advanced Study at Universität Freiburg, and Stanford University.

In March 2012 a one-day workshop was arranged at the Center for European Studies at Stanford University, to celebrate the publication of the English edition of the illustrated biography: Nelly Sachs, Flight and Metamorphosis, Stanford University Press, 2012 (ISBN 0-8047-7531-1). A similar conference, this time divided into two days, will be organized at New College, Oxford, in September 2012.

The exhibition project had its own website: www.nellysachs.com. The designers also presented the project at: www.gewerk.com. In addition, all exhibition venues presented the extensive material at their websites. In conjunction with the show in Stockholm, extensive pedagogical work was made in collaboration with some fifty highschools in the area, resulting in a film about exil and language, as well as the Little Nelly Sachs Prize.

Newspapers, periodicals, radio, and television both in the German-speaking countries and in Sweden reported extensivey about Sachs' life and work, especially in regard to the exhibition. The reception was emphatically positive and surprisingly initiated. Reviews of the commented edition have appeared in all important daily newspapers, among them Dagens Nyheter, Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Svenska Dagbladet, and Süddeutsche Zeitung - as well as in journals such as Times Literary Supplement.