The Stiftung Fürstl. Kommerzienrat Guido Feger has donated a valuable collection of documents, letters and papers relating to “Atemkristall” to the Liechtenstein National Library. This comprises a cycle of poems by Paul Celan accompanied by eight etchings by Gisèle Celan-Lestrange, which was published in 1965 in a small print run by Robert Altmann’s Edition Brunidor.

With this collection, which came onto the market via a Parisian art dealer and a Viennese antiquarian bookseller, the National Library has made a significant addition to its Brunidor collection. The editions published by Brunidor Verlag were donated to the State Library by Robert Altmann (1915–2017) from 1968 onwards, in a rare degree of completeness. Without the dedication of the art-loving publisher and patron Robert Altmann in Paris and Vaduz and without his friendship with the poet Paul Celan and his wife, the artist Gisèle Celan-Lestrange, the unique book “Atemkristall” in the Brunidor edition would scarcely have come into being. The collection, which includes, amongst other things, the original contract between the publisher, the poet and the artist for “Atemkristall”, is supplemented by a letter from the 1966 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Nelly Sachs, to Robert Altmann. Like René Char, she had acquired a copy of “Atemkristall”. The collection thus underscores the stature of the Brunidor edition.

The cycle of poems “Atemkristall” was written between 1963 and 1965 and was published in 1965 in a limited edition of 70 copies, featuring eight etchings by Gisèle Celan-Lestrange, by Edition Brunidor. The poems were later included in Celan’s collection “Atemwende” (1967).

The Stiftung Fürstl. Kommerzienrat Guido Feger has presented the National Library with the collection ‘Paul Celan – Robert Altmann – Atemkristall’. The handover took place recently at the Foundation’s premises in Vaduz. The book artist Hansjörg Quaderer praised the collection, which combines Paul Celan’s poetic work “Atemkristall” with etchings by Gisèle Celan-Lestrange, as a major and brilliant stroke of luck for the art of bookmaking. The National Library thanks the Stiftung Fürstl. Kommerzienrat Guido Feger for its generous donation and ongoing support. The funds will be used to further expand the collections, for example to acquire bibliophile and antiquarian works, as well as to incorporate literary estates into the Liechtenstein Literary Archive.