Entscheidungen erzählen

In her archive-based study, Sarah Alice Nienhaus demonstrates how decisions become autobiographically relevant. Autobiographies are often seen as the product of spontaneous recollection. However, a look into the contexts of their creation surprises and fundamentally destabilizes this powerful notion. Through rich analyses, Nienhaus illustrates how Fanny Lewald-Stahr, Paul Heyse, and Arthur Schnitzler deliberately prepared the archival value of their future legacies and engaged in a sophisticated memory politics. Instead of retreating into a writing seclusion to nostalgically capture their memories on paper, they shaped their private archives into a form suitable for posterity. They linked their decisions regarding works and legacies to life-defining decision-making processes by publishing previously withheld documents. This preventive publication approach points to archival, editorial, and curatorial expertise, which collectively documents the professionalization of the writing profession. The study expands the theory-oriented research on autobiography by introducing a practice-sensitive perspective, as it systematically explores the value of knowledge between autobiography and archive for the first time.