Karl Otten fought in the Spanish Civil War. From his experiences of the war, he wrote Torquemadas Schatten.
It's Saturday, the 18th of July. A hot day The heat rises through the houses in the village. No shadow, except among the old fig trees. The sea shines motionless in the infinite blue.
The pyramid of Cap Vermell shines black in the gray haze.
All the bushes are white from dust. The skin of the earth wrinkles and explodes.
On the farm of Don Juan, called Verga, the engine that pumps the water over the burning earth sounds. All the windmills creak over the wells, freeze helplessly, paralyzed by the shining sun. Then the mules pull the noria. The little water they get out evaporates along the path between the rows.
Torquemadas Schatten, 1938
Translated by Rachel Waters.
(Oberkrüchten, Germany, 1889 – Muralto, Switzerland, 1963). Karl Otten, a German expressionist writer and broadcaster, was an anti-militarist activist during the First World War, arrested on several occasions for his activities. In 1930, he met the translator, Ellen Kroner, and went to live with her, among other places in Mallorca. They always worked in close collaboration and were married in 1939.
Karl Otten’s writings include travel books, poetry manifestos, biographies and some screenplays for films. When the Nazis came to power, Otten travelled to Spain for the first time and took part in the Spanish Civil War. He wrote Torquemadas Schatten (Torquemada’s Shadow, 1938), based on his experiences of the Civil War. The social types featured in the novel reflect the reality of the situation. Although it did not aspire to be a faithful account of events, through its reflections, it is an important testimonial.
Karl Otten and Ellen Kroner went to live at Cas Bombu on March 27th 1933, remaining there until 1936. Writers, painters, philosophers and a long list of other people settled in Cala Rajada, leaving behind testimonials of 1930s Mallorca. After the Spanish Republicans’ defeat, Otten went to London, where he wrote 120 radio programmes for the BBC.
Cala Rajada was originally a fishing village that gradually changed with the arrival of tourism and summer visitors. European intellectuals, writers, artists and business entrepreneurs settled in this coastal village, above all in the 1930s, founding businesses and companies and coming to constitute a large part of the population. In 1964, work began on the enlargement of the harbour and dock, leading to the social, economic and commercialgrowth of the village, which became a tourist resort in the 1950s and 60s. The commercial changes and burgeoning hotel trade led to the creation of new establishments that became very well known to visitors and the local population alike.
