Writer’s Wardrobe: The Blue Cloak of Romanticism

ADisposing of a deceased person’s worn-out clothing is now a task faced by millions of baby boomers as they clean out their parents’ apartments and homes. The Arno Schmidt Foundation, founded forty-three years ago by Jan Philipp Reemsma and Alice Schmidt, the widow of the writer who died in 1979, takes the opposite approach. She continues what this outstanding couple of storage artists have achieved and preserves every item of clothing that was stored in the tiny cottage along with the annex and caravan in Bargfeld.

The result of this conservation is now in the Augsburg Textile Museum under the title “Clothing. Stories.” It may seem that this is a somewhat far-fetched exhibition about the “textile estate of Alice and Arno Schmidt”: gaining knowledge by looking at carefully folded underwear? The collection contains more than a thousand items: from blouses to coats, from socks to winter boots. Today’s dream followers of an ancient religion, a treasure trove for cultural historians and a philological mystery for literary scholars.The first, smaller version of the exhibition was exhibited at the Boman Museum in Celle about two years ago.

The foundation’s chairman, Jan Philipp Reemtsma, came to the opening. Two years before his death, he offered Schmidt 350,000 marks so that he could write without worrying about money. The amount corresponded to the then Nobel Prize in Literature. However, the patron could not remember what the shy Schmidt was wearing when they first met. They must have been the usual baggy, worn-out clothes, because Schmidt had no taste for fashion. While inventorying the clothing, they discovered how surprisingly intact and well-preserved this part of the estate was, Reemtsma said.

In a darkened room on the top floor, you can walk through the couple’s clothing store on deep-pile blue carpet. The right side of the wall is designed as an open wardrobe. Coats, dresses, trousers, jackets and jackets hang at a height of twenty meters. Women’s clothing takes up most of the hanger. Underneath are dozens of pairs of shoes, and the compartments contain sweaters, shirts (some still in their original packaging), socks and underwear. Some items look like new, suggesting that due to the couple’s secluded lifestyle, they rarely had the opportunity to wear them.

Wool blanket coat

“Text and textiles” is a line that, in the case of Arno Schmidt, began with his apprenticeship in the 1930s. While working as a warehouse accountant at Greiff-Werke in Greiffenberg, Silesia, he was introduced to the world of textiles; many types of fabrics later appeared in his books. He defines his literary work in relation to literary models as “connecting with the Great Web.”

Many items date back to times of scarcity, such as the wool blanket coat, which is used as a robe and also as a cover at night; Schmidt’s painted military uniform – after the war, wearing parts of the uniform was prohibited – which he brought with him from Norway. The plank sandals that Schmidt carved were more bad than good. Alice Schmidt, in the style of her husband, notes: “Arno makes me wonderful cutlets from wooden planks and old scraps of shoe leather, usually with a pocket knife, and in the process tears his finger until it bleeds.”

As usual in the post-war period, what was still usable was preserved. The designer’s sheep’s wool sweater was darned as often as possible. While recording an interview with Der Spiegel, Schmidt apparently forgets that he is wearing a torn dress. He doesn’t care what the world thinks about his appearance: “Perhaps my torn clothes were considered an original stroke of genius.”