European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 15, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                I he Story of a Barefoot homeless boy floating idyllic ally Down the Mississippi River with an escaped slave companion seems the most american of novels. Ernest Hemingway even said that american literature began with the publication in 1885 of a the adventures of Huckleberry finn a but this classic novel May owe its existence to Germany for it was while living in Germany a few years earlier that Mark Twain hurdles a creative Block that had prevented him from finishing the Book. One month before leaving for Germany in 1878, Twain remarked to a family Friend Quot i want to find a German Village where nobody knows my name or Speaks any English and shut myself up in a closet two Miles from the hotel and work every Day without  the result of this stay was a a tramp abroad Quot a Book generally regarded As uneven and not one of Twain a Best works. But Twain a official biographer says it May have prompted his most famous Book which has become one of the most popular of All american novels. In a emr. Clemens and Mark Twain Quot Justin Kaplan says that Twain had finished the 16th chapter of a Huckleberry finn in the summer of 1876, Huck and Jim the escaped slave had just passed Cairo iii., the last free soil outpost when the Teller of the tale could write no More. Two years later Twain was living in a Sci Delberg hotel near the Castle and High above the Neckar River an affluent of the Rhine River. His journals Tell of his pleasure in watching the River pass. He especially wanted to Sec he wrote one of the Many rafts that plied the River crash into the Bridge below his hotel. This is interesting Kaplan notes because Twain a former riverboat Pilot had often confessed to a fear of crashing a boat under his control. In a a tramp abroad a Twain invents a comical raft adventure on the Neckar from Hir Chhom to Heidelberg. He and his passenger encounter various dangers ending with the raft crashing into the Heidelberg Bridge seconds after the two men have stepped ashore. Kaplan claims that in this Way Twain exorcised himself of that Long held fear. It was this phobia that had stopped him when he reached a Point where muck and Jim would wreck their raft. Kaplan wrote Quot he came Back to his Block and slopping Point in a Huckleberry finn a the destruction of the raft in the same Way that the Tongue comes Back to the site of a missing  once past this hurdle the rest of the Story came More easily. Harry Davis an american in Heidelberg who has researched Twain a slay in Germany in 1878 and 1879, says plans is Ere afoot to erect a Monument to Twain in 1910, the year of the author s death. Bui world War i interrupted those plans. Davis save that the on reference in Heidelberg to i Wain a stay is Mark Twain Strasse in Mark 1 Wain Village an american military housing area. In nearby Hirschhorn Mark Twain St be m a local hotel commemorates his stay there. A hotel pub named for Mark Twain commemorates his time in Hirschhorn West Germany. A Many americans know Mark Twain was in Heidelberg but they done to know under what circumstances a says Davis who published a Mark Twain in Heidelberg in 1985. The Book reprints Twain a discussion of Heidelberg from Quot a tramp abroad Quot and includes commentary by Davis. Holger Kersten a student at the University of Kiel West Germany whose doctoral thesis is about Twain a association with germans throughout his life says Twain had Many reasons to travel to Germany. A one was to escape a great embarrassment. In 1877, Twain spoke at a birthday dinner for poet John Greenleaf Whittier. In attendance were Ralph Waldo Emerson Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow All respected american men of letters. T Wain a speech satirized the three As overeating card playing cheaters. Its conclusion was greeted by silence and Twain tossed and turned in bed that night tortured by what he called his Quot hideous  the trip abroad helped distance himself from the embarrassment Kersten says. A if you look at his notebooks he Felt glad to get away from America for a  Twain was also having Money problems and could live cheaper in Europe says Kersten. And having become famous 10 years earlier with the publication of a the innocents abroad a Twain was searching for some peace and quiet. In that Case Germany was a Good Choice since his reputation in Germany was not As great As it was in other european countries. Twain is now Well know n in Germany. Most of his major works have been translated into German although he is most often considered an author of children a books because of the popularity of a Tom Sawyer and a Huckleberry  stories by Ron Jensen photos by l. Emmett Lewis or. Kersten says it should be no mystery that Twain is popular in Europe. He brushes off an notion of Twain As a Quot quintessential american writer.�?�. Quot thais a myth about Twain a he says. A the tried to create this image of himself As a quintessential american  Kersten says Twain was often in the company of europeans including germans throughout his life a the Frontier was not just american country Quot he says. A that was a place where people from All Over the world  when Twain was a Young boy Hannibal mo., his Hometown was on the Frontier and populated by an occasional German among its europeans. As a riverboat Pilot Twain encountered Many foreigners just As he did while a Newspaperman in Nevada and California. A the was exposed to foreign nations while he was in America a says Kersten. A a that a Why he liked the germans i  in fact Twain a major purpose for going to Germany in 1878 was to write another travel Book that would it was hoped match the Success of a the innocents abroad a the satiric tale of his cruise adventures in the Mediterranean sea in 1868. A everybody expected him to write another humorous travel Book a says Kersten. But a a tramp abroad a although funny in places is not filled with the satire or scathing attacks that characterized his earlier Book. Kersten says this May be because Twain respected the germans too much to satirize them. There is evidence of that. Twain s wife Olivia and his daughters continued their study of the German language after they returned to the states. Twain hired German nursemaid to care for his children. Several German words and phrases became commonplace in the Twain household. When 1 Wain a wife died he had a German phrase carved on her Tombstone a Gott Sei Dir Gnadig o Meine Wonne a which Means Quot god have mercy on you in it  Twain actual made no secret of his thoughts about Germany. In a letter to a Friend soon after his arrival he wrote Quot what a Par. Adise this land is. What Dean clothes what Good faces what tranquil Contentment what sunday 15 1990