Gustav Landauer gehört als Briefautor zur Briefkultur des späten 19. Jahrhunderts. Er korrespondierte mit Wilhelm Bölsche, Else Lasker-Schüler, Martin Buber, Erich Mühsam, Fritz Mauthner, Hugo von Hofmannsthal und Petr Kropotkin. Der Brief als Medium bürgerlicher »Gesprächskultur« fungiert hier nicht nur als Rettungsnetz der Lebensbewältigung, sondern wird zugleich ein hochproduktives Arbeitsmittel für den Übersetzer, Journalisten, Theatermann und politischen Denker Landauer. Als persönliche Zeugnisse hohen Rangs werden seine umfangreichen Briefschaften zu Dokumenten der Zeitzeugenschaft für eine deutsch-jüdische Briefkultur, die in oppositionelle Zirkel des Kaiserreichs ebenso hineinragt wie in die ästhetische und philosophische Moderne.
Gustav Landauer's letters are part of the letter writing culture of the late 19th century. He exchanged letters with Wilhelm Bölsche, Else Lasker-Schüler, Martin Buber, Erich Mühsam, Fritz Mauthner, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Petr Kropotkin. The letter as a medium of bourgeois "conversation culture" not only serves as a lifeline but also as a highly productive tool for the interpreter, journalist, dramatic adviser and political thinker that he was. These highly treasured personal testimonies are comprehensive witnesses of the German-Jewish letter writing culture, which influenced both the oppositional circles of the German Empire as well as the aesthetic and philosophical modern times.
Gustav Landauers letters are part of the remarkable correspondences of the late 19th century. For the first time they were collected by his friend Martin Buber and published in two volumes "Lebensgang in Briefen" in 1929. After 1945 they became high treasured testimonies of the lost german-jewish culture, which was involved in oppositional circles of the German Kaiserreich as well as in the aesthetic and philosophical modernity. In Landauers correspondences the writing of letters, which was in former times a prominent kind of bourgeois art of conversation, has become a pragmatic medium to preserve life as well as it can be seen as an elaborated work equipment, used by the interpreter, the journalist, the dramatic adviser and political philosopher. Landauers letters are addressed to Wilhelm Bölsche, Else Lasker-Schüler, Martin Buber, Erich Mühsam, Fritz Mauthner, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Petr Kropotkin.
