Dialog International

New Translations of Hilde Domin

      I first encountered the poet Hilde Domin in a poetry seminar in Freiburg where we discussed the anthology Doppelinterpretationen - published by Hilde Domin.  The book consists of individual short poems by some of the most important postwar German poets - Günter Eich, Peter Huchel, Ingeborg Bachmann, Nelly Sachs, and - Hilde Domin.  Each poem is followed by a self-interpretation of the poet and then an interpretation by a literary critic.  Hilde Domin's contribution was Lied zur Ermutigung II ('Song for Encouragement II') followed by her own interpretation and then interpreted by the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer. The short poem is in many ways representative of Hilde Domin's oeuvre.

Lange wurdest du um die türelosen
Mauern der Stadt gejagt.

Du fliehst und streust
Die verwirrten Namen der Dinge
Hinter Dich

Vertrauen, dieses schwerste
ABC.

Ich mache ein kleines Zeichen
In die Luft,
Unsichtbar,
Wo die neue Stadt beginnt,
Jerusalem,
Die goldene,
Aus Nichts

 

This poem contains many of the themes that reoccur in so many of Hilde Domin's poems.  First there is the persecution ("gejagt").  Domin (née Löwenstein) was a Jew, and along with her husband Erwin Walter Palm, was went into exile to flee the Nazi terror ("du fliehst")  leaving behind her German language (for Domin, a kind of Heimat).  Despite losing everything the Lyric-I can learn to trust ("Vertrauen") and evokes the dream home of the Jewish diaspora - Jerusalem.  This sense of optimism in the face of evil and Nothingness ("aus Nichts")  is why Hilde Domin has been called " the poet of "dennoch" ("nevertheless"). 

The book Doppelinterpretationen also has an introductory essay by Domin - Über das Interpretieren von Gedichten - which outlines in abbreviated form some of the ideas in her book on postwar poetics  Wozu Lyrik heute which was in part written as a response - or rejection - of Adornp's famous statement "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric." For Domin, poetry after Auschwitz is absolutely essential.  

HIlde Domin is largely unknown in the US and other English-speaking countries, even though her reputation has only grown in Germany, where today she is recognized as an important postwar poet along with Marie-Luise Kaschnitz and Peter Huchel.  Nelly Sachs is better-known here since her poems were published in English translation after she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958.  Finally, this year we have TWO bilingual English-German collections of Hilde Domin's poem published here: one- With My Shadow: The Poems of Hilde Domin,  by Sarah Kafatou, a writer and translator who knew Hilde Domin, and also The Wandering Radiance: Selected Poems of Hilde Domin, by Maine poet and German Scholar Mark S. Burrows.  I have read Mark Burrows book but not Sarah Kafatou's translations. Julie Enszer has an interesting piece in the Jewish Book Council comparing both translations. I found The Wandering Radiance extremely valuable, not only for the wonderful translations, but also for the foreword by Hilde Domin's biographer Marion Tauschwitz (see my review of her biography) and Mark Burrows' excellent essay about Domin's life and poetic style.  The book also has a translation of a short essay by Hilde Domin on 'Exile and Homeland' - the two poles she synthesizes in so many of her poems. 

Compared to the work of other postwar poets - notably that of her friend Paul Celan - Domin's poems are accessible, even to some extent 'simple' - "Vollkommenheit im Einfachen" as the critic Walter Jens described them. This explains, to some extent, her popularity in Germany. Mark Burrows has some insightful comments on her style:

"What distinguishes her poetic voice is her startling use of metaphor, unexpected twists of diction, and a syntax often compressed to the point of abruptness. She eschewed rhyme and meter in favor of free verse from the the start, and by her third collection (Hier), published in 1964, had abandoned punctuation almost entirely. The temperament of her poems depends on a distinct musicality shaped largely by the rhythm of speech. Plainness? Perhaps, but one carried by a sense of "fullness: that demands readers' attention in "listening" their way into the sound and pace of her voice - and their own."

"Plainness" with a sense of "fullness" - presents some distinct challenges to the translator. Mark Burrows does a superb job in recreating Hilde Domin's unique poetic voice for the English readers:  Here is Burrows' translation of her poem Wie wenig ich nütze bin: However Little Use I Am

However Little Use I Am

However little use I am,

I lift a finger and leave behind

not even the smallest stroke

in the air.

Time smudges my face,

It has already begun.

Behind my steps in the dust

rain washes the street clean

like a housewife.

I was here

I cross over

without a trace.

The elms along the way

nod to me as I come,

a green a blue a golden greeting,

and forget me

before I’ve passed by.

I cross over-

But leave perhaps the small sound of my voice,

my laughter and my tears

and also the trees’ greeting in the evening

on a small scrap of paper.

And in passing,

entirely without intention,

I light one or another

of the streetlamps

In the hearts along the roadside

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vergangenheitsbewältigung - except in Bavaria

The current scandal involving the Bavarian politician Herbert Aiwanger proves Faulker's dictuum that In Germany "The past is never dead. It's not even past."  For Aiwanger, some sins from his youth have finally caught up with him: 

The deputy premier of Bavaria, the German state where Munich is located, is ensnared in a scandal that involves a Nazi pamphlet from his high school years and could affect multiple upcoming elections.

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Hubert Aiwanger, now head of the populist Free Voters party, distributed a pamphlet that mocks victims of the Holocaust when he was 17.

Aiwanger said he did not write the pamphlet, which he called “disgusting and inhumane,” but he admitted to having copies of it in his school bag at one point. The pamphlet called Auschwitz an “entertainment quarter” and proposed a quiz titled “Who is the biggest traitor to the Fatherland?”

Some of his former High School classmates have come forward and recall that Aiwanger was an admirer of the Nazis and had even given the Hitler salute on occasion.  The problem is not so much Aiwanger's teenage pranks- many, if not everyone of us, did some stupid things in our youth.  The problem is that Aiwanger has tried to deflect the blame for the disgusting flyer, and - in Trumpian style - claims that HE is the victim of a defamation campaign by the press.  Also, a broad majority of Germans seem to sympathize with Aiwanger. 

As Eva-Maria Schnurr writes in Der Spiegel, the entire affair points to a bigger problem with how Germans deal honestly with the Holocaust: 

Der Umgang mit dem Fall wird zeigen, wie ernst es dieses Land tatsächlich meint mit der Aufarbeitung von Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust. Kommt Aiwanger durch mit angeblichen Erinnerungslücken (im Vergessen waren die Deutschen schon immer sehr gut), einer floskelhaften späten Entschuldigung und dem Abtun als Jugendsünde?

Dann würde das Flugblatt seine damals wohl beabsichtigte Wirkung tatsächlich entfalten: Es würde nicht nur die Holocaustopfer verhöhnen, sondern auch all jene, die es tatsächlich ernst meinen mit der Verantwortung, die aus Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust erwächst. Es würde Gedenkstättenarbeit ebenso lächerlich machen wie die vielen überregionalen und lokalen Initiativen, die sich für das Erinnern einsetzen.

Kommt Aiwanger damit durch, würde das auch international deutlich machen, dass deutsche Erinnerungskultur doch nicht mehr ist als »Gedächtnistheater« (Michal Bodemann), das, wenn es ernst wird, ohne Konsequenzen bleibt.

Well, Aiwanger will keep his job as Deputy Premier of Bavaria.  And when he showed up at a beer tent outside of Munich the crowd showered him with applause and shouts of support.

 

 

Germany's AfD Party's Fascist Momentum

The photo is of German politician Björn Höcke, a member of the state assembly in Thuringia and leader of the Alternative für Deutschland – AfD - (“Alternative for Germany) — a right-wing extremist party which now polls ahead of all three parties in Germany’s coalition government (Social Democrats, Green Party, Liberals).  A German court determined that it is legally permissible to describe Herr Höcke as “Fascist”.

The other day Dirk Kurbjuweit , Chief Editor of Der Spiegel, sent out a disturbing message to all subscribers: 

Schon seit Jahrzehnten beobachte und beschreibe ich das politische Geschehen in Deutschland. Und ich denke, was wir im Moment erleben, ist die vielleicht größte Bedrohung der Demokratie in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik. Und zwar nicht, weil sie abrupt kommt, mit dramatischen Schritten. Sondern weil es schleichend passiert. Die zumindest in Teilen extremistische AfD kommt inzwischen in Umfragen auf rund 20 Prozent der Stimmen. Sie steht für Hass, für die Verachtung Andersdenkender, für die Ablehnung der EU, sie hat antisemitische Züge. Ihre außenpolitischen Vorstellungen sind abenteuerlich, schlimm wirkt ihre Anbiederung an den Kriegsherrn Wladimir Putin.[...}Sie versuchen auch nicht mehr, die extremistischen Elemente zu verstecken, wie das andere populistische Parteien in Europa machen. Eine neue Truppe ist dort jetzt auch am Ruder, die darauf setzt, das bislang Unsagbare sagbar zu machen, Extremismus zu normalisieren.

(I have been observing and describing political events in Germany for decades. And I think what we are experiencing at the moment is perhaps the greatest threat to democracy in the history of the Federal Republic. And not because it comes abruptly, with dramatic steps. But because it happens slowly. The AfD, which is extremist at least in part, now has around 20 percent of the votes in polls. It stands for hatred, for contempt for those who think differently, for rejection of the EU, and it has anti-Semitic traits. Their foreign policy ideas are adventurous, their pandering to the warlord Vladimir Putin has a bad effect.[...}They no longer try to hide the extremist elements, as other populist parties in Europe do. A new group is now at the helm there, which aims to make the previously unspeakable sayable, to normalize extremism.)

For Höcke and his millions of followers, the Federal Republic of Germany is a “Dictatorship” — an illegitimate vassal-state of America, which must be overturned — either at the ballot box or by “other means”.  Instead of a democracy Höcke envisions a Volksherrschaft — a people’s sovereignty open only to “Biodeutsche” = ethnically pure Germans, disenfranchising refugees, recent immigrants, and even second or third generation legal citizens with Turkish or other ethnic backgrounds.  Virulent anti-Americanism, anti-European Union and anti-NATO sentiment is core to the AfD’s platform. Each week thousands of Germans in the eastern states — especially in Saxony — march through the streets shouting slogans against the government, many waving Russian flags. 

In many respects, the AfD and its millions of followers are a mirror-image of MAGA Republicans in the US, except given Germany’s past even more disturbing.

Marie Luise Kaschnitz and ChatGPT

After finishing Dagmar von Gersdorf's biography of Marie Luise Kaschnitz I began reading Kaschnitz's short stories.  One of her strongest and best-known stories is Das dicke Kind (1952) (engl.'The Fat Child').  On a lazy summer afternoon I was curious whether ChatGPT could write an analysis of the story for me.  This was the output:

Die Erzählung "Das dicke Kind" von Marie Luise Kaschnitz ist eine tiefgründige und metaphorische Geschichte über Einsamkeit, gesellschaftliche Normen und den Drang nach Akzeptanz. Durch die Darstellung eines übergewichtigen Kindes in einer Welt, die von Perfektion und Schlankheit geprägt ist, konfrontiert die Autorin den Leser mit der Realität des Andersseins und den damit verbundenen Herausforderungen.

Die Geschichte handelt von einem Mädchen, das aufgrund seines Gewichts von der Gesellschaft ausgeschlossen wird. Es wird als "dick" und "unförmig" beschrieben und muss sich mit dem Spott und den Verurteilungen anderer auseinandersetzen. Das Mädchen sehnt sich nach Zugehörigkeit und versucht verzweifelt, den Erwartungen der Gesellschaft gerecht zu werden. Es unterzieht sich Diäten und strengen körperlichen Übungen, nur um letztendlich zu erkennen, dass es unmöglich ist, den Idealen anderer gerecht zu werden.

Marie Luise Kaschnitz verwendet eine klare und prägnante Sprache, um die Einsamkeit und das Leiden des Kindes darzustellen. Sie beschreibt die körperlichen und emotionalen Schmerzen, die das Mädchen durchmacht, und vermittelt dem Leser so eine starke Empathie. Die Autorin drückt subtil die Kritik an einer Gesellschaft aus, die Schönheitsnormen und oberflächliche Urteile priorisiert, während sie die Individualität und Vielfalt missachtet.

Ein wesentliches Element der Erzählung ist die Symbolik. Das dicke Kind steht metaphorisch für all diejenigen, die aufgrund äußerlicher Merkmale oder anderer Unterschiede ausgegrenzt werden. Es verkörpert die Suche nach Anerkennung und Liebe, die jeder Mensch empfindet. Die Autorin verdeutlicht dies durch die wiederkehrende Darstellung des Mädchens, das sich in Fensterscheiben betrachtet und sehnsüchtig nach einem besseren Selbstbildnis sucht.

Ein weiteres Thema, das in der Erzählung behandelt wird, ist die Frage nach der wahren Identität. Das Mädchen versucht, sich den Erwartungen anderer anzupassen, indem es versucht, seinem Äußeren zu entkommen. Es will jemand anderes sein, jemand, der von anderen akzeptiert und bewundert wird. Doch letztendlich erkennt es, dass die äußere Erscheinung nicht das ist, was einen Menschen ausmacht, und dass wahre Schönheit von innen kommt.

Die Erzählung "Das dicke Kind" regt zum Nachdenken über gesellschaftliche Normen, Schönheitsideale und die Bedeutung von Individualität an. Marie Luise Kaschnitz gelingt es, die Gefühle des Lesers zu berühren und ihm eine neue Perspektive auf Themen wie Einsamkeit, Selbstakzeptanz und die Bedeutung wahrer Schönheit zu geben. Die Geschichte ermutigt dazu, Vorurteile zu hinterfragen und die Vielfalt anzuerkennen, die unsere Gesellschaft bereichert.

Insgesamt ist "Das dicke Kind" eine eindringliche und bewegende Erzählung, die auf subtile Weise wichtige gesellschaftliche Themen.

A nice essay with the theme that inner beauty will win out over physical beauty : the Ugly Duckling metaphor. Only problem is the essay has nothing to do with the story Das dicke Kind. The ChatGPT 'analysis' is something that a clever but lazy undergraduate student would write having just read the title but not the story itself.  The essay starts out correctly - Die Erzählung "Das dicke Kind" von Marie Luise Kaschnitz ist eine tiefgründige und metaphorische Geschichte - but the second half of the sentence does not have anything to do with Kaschnitz's story - Geschichte über Einsamkeit, gesellschaftliche Normen und den Drang nach Akzeptanz.

In Das dicke Kind the narrator - ich-Erzählerin - confronts her child-self and achieves a psychological breakthrough. The fat child appears unexpectedly in the narrator's study which also served as an informal lending library for the neighborhood children.  But instead of books, the child apparently wants food. The narrator at first finds the child repulsive:

"es lag etwas in seinem Wesen, das mich mit Ärger und Abneignung erfüllte.  Ja gewiß, ich habe dieses Kind von Anfang an gehaßt. Alles an ihm hat mich abestoßen."

Nevertheless, the narrator secretly follows the girl as she makes her way to a small lake to go ice skating. The girl moves slowly and awkwardly -like a caterpillar (Raupe) - and eventually breaks through a layer of ice.  The narrator makes no move to help/save the girl, but something begins to stir in her as layers of repressed memories peel away. The ice metaphor recalls Kafka's dictum that literature must act as "an axe for the frozen sea within us" (sie muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns). Finally, as the girl manages to save herself with her force of will to live the narrator recognizes the fat child as her own buried self (ich brauchte ihm nicht mehr zu helfen. Ich hatte es erkannt..."),

Something comforting in the thought that ChatGPT still has much to learn.

Volksgemeinschaft Instead of Democracy in Eastern Germany

The Volksgemeinschaft ("Folk Community") was a utopian ideal embraced by the Nazis in the Third Reich as a racially unified and organized nation devoid of class conflict - a mystical unity, a form of racial soul uniting all Germans.  The idea of the Volksgemeinschaft  also justified the one-party state as all that was needed in a society with a united will, where the Leader (Führer) -  Hitler - implemented the will of the Volk more directly than in a democracy. Of course Jews, foreigners - i.e. non-Aryans - were excluded from the Volksgemeinschaft.

The dream of the Volksgemeinschaft never completely died in Germany.  More recently it has been revived in the rhetoric of the neo-fascist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. The AfD began as a small right-wing populist protest movement - analogous to the Tea Party movement in the US.  But now the AfD polls as the second strongest party in Germany - surpassing the Social Democrat SPD and the Green Party. In eastern states such as Thuringia, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt the AfD is the leading party - recently winning a number of state and local elections. 

Recently the researchers a the Else Frenkel -Brunswik Institute in Leipzig conducted a wide-ranging survey of political attitudes among citizens in the eastern Germany states. What the researchers discovered is widespread dissatisfaction with democracy and longing for an authoritarian state - similar to the one many of the older respondents experience under the communist dictatorship of the GDR:

Jeder zweite wünscht sich eine ‘starke Partei‘, die die ‚Volksgemeinschaft‘ insgesamt verkörpert. Statt pluralistischer Interessensvielfalt wird eine völkische Gemeinschaft gewünscht“,

(Half (of the respondents) long for a 'strong party' that would in large measure embody the Volksgemeinschaft .  Instead of a pluralistic range of interests there is a desire fo a (ethnically pure) folk community.)

What seems to unite the citizens of these states is a universal hatred of foreigners - something of a paradox since there are far fewer foreigners and refugees living in eastern Germany than in the west.  There was widespread agreement that "foreigners" are coming to take advantage of social services that should be reserved for "pure" Germans. 

Antisemitism is also widespread, with nearly hall of all polled believing that Jews have too much power even today: Auch heute noch ist der Einfluss der Juden zu groß - again, with only a minuscule number of Jewish people living in the eastern states. 

Much of this xenophobia, antisemitism and fascist mindset in the east seems to be driven by a widespread resentment against the west - a feeling of inferiority, particularly among the men, in comparison to their western counterparts.  This, even though Germany has invested billions of Euros in the eastern states, improving the infrastructure and subsidizing generous social services.  The standard of living in the east has improved enormously since the collapse of the GDR in 1990.  Still, the east lags far behind the western state in economic development.  And racism only exacerbates the situation, since only an influx of young migrants and refugees can begin to reverse the downward spiral.  The dream of the Volksgemeinschaft in the east has created an economic Teufelskreis ('vicious cycle'):

"Die neuen Bundesländer schneiden da traditionell schlecht ab. Die Spuren der vergangenen Krisen und der Rechtsdrall haben das Potenzial, eine Art Teufelskreis auszulösen. Bis 2050 dürfte die Bevölkerung in Ostdeutschland um weitere zehn Prozent schrumpfen, so die Vorausberechnung des Statistischen Bundesamts , während die westdeutschen Flächenländer weiter leicht wachsen (plus zwei Prozent).

»In fortgeschrittenen Volkswirtschaften kommt Wachstum vor allen Dingen durch Innovation, und das funktioniert besser in toleranten Gesellschaften«, sagt Ökonom Holtemöller. In Ostdeutschland gebe es dabei insgesamt mehr Hindernisse als im Westen.

Rassismus und Ablehnung von Ausländern sind für die neuen Bundesländer sensible, weil schmerzhafte Themen."

Review: Dagmar von Gersdorff's Marie Luise Kaschnitz: Eine Biographie

I always felt I had a good knowledge of postwar German literature, but I knew next to nothing about the work of Marie Luise Kaschnitz (1900-1974), Which is odd, since Kaschnitz was a prolific poet and author - equally admired for her poetry and short stories.  She won every conceivable award in Germany for her work -including the prestigious Georg Büchner-Preis in 1955.  Yet Kaschnitz is not mentioned at all in Peter Demetz's survey Postwar German Literature.  Nor does she appear in Anatol Regnier's Jeder schreibt für sich allein (see my review) - a survey of German authors who remained in Germany during the Third Reich - even thought her first novel - Liebe beginnt - was published in 1933 and was well-received.  I became interested in Kaschnitz after I came across a selection of her late poems translated by the German-American poet Liesel Mueller (1924-2020), whom I very much admire.  I suspect that Kaschnitz is largely passed over today, since her poems- especially her most powerful late ones - are highly personal. 

Liesel Mueller writes in her introduction:

"The switch from "we" to "I" allowed the poet and her persona to come together, as they had not done so before, and to free a lyrical voice that was uniquely hers. Yet there was never any danger of solipsism. She never wavered in her belief that writers must bear witness, nor abandoned her defense of objective values." 

She alluded to this in her acceptance speech for the Georg Büchner-Preis:

"Den billigen Trost, den manche Leser vom Gedicht erwarten, habe ich nie geben wollen, und wenn meine Verse im Gegensatz zu den sogenannten hermetischen oder surrealistischen eher verständlich waren, so hängt das damit zusammen, daß mein Weg in der Lyrik mich von der Natur zum Menschen geführt hat und daß ich nie ganz vergessen konnte, daß ich mich Menschen mitteilte, freilich solchen, die die Mühe des Ungewohnten und nur langsam zu Begreifenden nicht scheuen."

Dagmar von Gersdorf's straightforward biography of Marie Luise Kashnitz does a good job of illuminating the personal aspects of her poetry, often including snippets of her poems while describing key episodes of the poet's long life. I would have liked to see a more critical assessment of her poetry and prose - what made it unique and still speaks to us today.  What also struck me about the biography is the bibliography, which includes hundreds of names: a  Who's Who of postwar German literature and publishing. Kaschnitz had the gift of friendship. She was an early admirer and friend of Paul Celan and attempted to console him during his plagiarism scandal  - and was devastated by his suicide. Kaschnitz was something of a mother figure to Ingeborg Bachmann and supported her through her bipolar mood swings.  Coincidentally Kashnitz died in Rome close to where Ingeborg Bachmann tragically died in a fire (likely suicide as well). Other close friendships include Theodor Adorno and - late in life - the poet Peter Huchel. 

In her long life, Marie Luise Kaschnitz witnessed the death and destruction of war and lost friends and beloved siblings along the way.  But it was the death of her husband - the archeologist Guido von Kashnitz - that nearly silenced her for good.  Dagmar von Gersdorff describes the centrality of the poet's long marriage to Guido in her life. She was completely devoted to him - despite his infidelities.  And for a long period following the death of Guido she was incapable of writing.  But in 1962 she published perhaps her strongest collection of poems Dein Schweigen - meine Stimme - all dealing with the death of her husband. She somehow found her voice (Stimme) again.  As Liesel Muller writes: "The pull of opposing forces, here represented by the longing for death and her native liveliness and curiosity, became characteristic of her poetry,"

Here is the last stanza of her poem "Ich lebte":

                    Angst zu sterben
                    Und Angst zu leben
                    Hielten sich die Waage noch immer.
                    Natur trug unbekümmert ihr altes Gewand
                    Herzzerreißende Schönheit.
                    Das Leben war noch immer ein Geheimnis,
                    Der Tod ein andres.

Sahra Wagenknecht: The Party Crasher

The Washington Post just published a piece on Russia's efforts to orchestrate a "peace movement" in Germany which features Sahra Wagenknecht - Germany's most famous left-wing politician - who is considering forming a new political party.  The piece began with a scene from several weeks ago.  Wagenknecht had summoned thousands of her admirers to Berlin for a massive "peace" demonstration where she spoke out against NATO and the coalition government of Olaf Scholz for their military support of Ukraine.  

"When 13,000 demonstrators gathered at the Brandenburg Gate on Feb. 25 to call for an end to weapons supplies to Ukraine, the protest was led by Sahra Wagenknecht, a member of parliament for Germany’s far-left Die Linke party and a firebrand with national ambitions. Wagenknecht decried the prospect that German tanks, soon to be delivered to Ukraine, could once again be used to shoot at “Russian women and men.”“We don’t want Germany to be drawn deeper into this war,” she said, as she called for the creation of a new peace movement and condemned the bloodshed in Ukraine, without mentioning Russia’s invasion."

But it wasn't just Wagenknecht's traditional left-wing supporters who enthusiastically cheered her message of 'peace'.  Also in the audience were neo-Nazis and supporters of the far-right AfD party:

"Among the crowd in Berlin was Jürgen Elsässer, editor of a far-right-wing magazine, and dozens of members of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party who cheered Wagenknecht’s calls to cut off Ukraine. Elsässer’s Compact magazine had recently declared on its cover that Wagenknecht was: “The best chancellor — a candidate for the left and the right.”"

There is a tradition in Germany dating back to the Weimar Republic of far-right and left-wing dissidents joining forces in a Querfront ("Cross-Front") in order to fight against democracy and capitalism in favor of some sort of ne0-fascist authoritarian order. The Querfront of the Weimar Republic was eventually subsumed into the national- socialist NSDAP, which used a combination of populist economics and hyper-nationalism to attract working class voters. What a new Querfront-party led by Sahra Wagenknecht would look like an stand for is unclear, but initial polling indicates it could conceivably attract up to 20% of the electorate - and potentially much more in eastern Germany, where Sahra enjoys strong support.

Last week Der Spiegel published a profile of Sahra Wagenknecht and outlined what a Wagenknecht-Querfront political party might look like:

"Wenn alles gut für sie läuft, will Sahra Wagenknecht Ende des Jahres eine eigene Partei gründen und möglicherweise das erste Mal bei der Europawahl 2024 für sie antreten. Die Partei soll Wähler einsammeln, die sich nicht mehr gehört fühlen: nicht von den Linken oder den Grünen, nicht von der Union oder der SPD, Leute, die gegen die Fokussierung auf das Gendern sind und für die Enteignung von Wohnungskonzernen, gegen die Waffenlieferungen an die Ukraine und eine offene Flüchtlingspolitik, für flächendeckende Tarifverträge und eine liberale Coronapolitik. Es wäre eine Partei jenseits der alten Milieus, von der der Politikwissenschaftler Benjamin Höhne sagt, sie »würde den Nationalstaat als entscheidenden Raum betonen, um soziale Gerechtigkeit durchzusetzen«, politisches Neuland also,"

 

(If everything goes well for her, Sahra Wagenknecht wants to establich her own party at the end of the year and possibly stand as candidate for the first time in the 2024 European elections. The party should attract voters who no longer feel heard: not from the Left or the Greens, not from the Union or the SPD, people who are against the focus on gender and for the expropriation of housing groups, against the arms deliveries Ukraine and an open refugee policy, for nationwide collective agreements and a liberal corona policy. It would be a party beyond the old milieus, of which the political scientist Benjamin Höhne says it "would emphasize the nation-state as a decisive area for enforcing social justice", in other words new political territory.

One aspect of Sahra Wagenknecht was mostly left out of the Spiegel profile: her animosity towards America (and NATO).  For Wagenknecht and her followers on the left and right, Germany is a vassal state of the United States.  In her view, in terms of culture and values, Germany has much more in common with Russia.  Putin and the strategists in the Kremlin see an opening here:

"In early July, Putin declared that “even in the countries that are still satellites of the United States, there is a growing understanding that their ruling elites’ blind obedience to their overlord, as a rule, does not necessarily coincide with their national interests, and most often simply and even radically contradicts them.”

If Sahra Wagenknecht does follow through with her idea of establishing a new Querfront party it could become overnight the largest opposition force in the Bundestag - surpassing the AfD and the Left Party (Die Linke). How this would impact Germany's position in NATO and its strategic alliance with the United States is unknown

Review: Uwe Wittstock's Februar 33: Der Winter der Literatur

This is a terrific book that should be read along with Anatol Regnier's Jeder shreibt für sich allein (see my review).  Whereas Regnier's book covers the fate of German writers who remained in Germany during the NS-period (1933-1945), Wittstock writes about how writers reacted to the Nazi seizure of power, covering the the first six weeks of Hitler's chancellery - from January to early March 1933. Wittstock describes the dilemma of many of the greatest 20th century writers during those short weeks - day by day, sometimes hour by hour.  It is an amazing feat of research drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, interviews with surviving relatives - every source available.  During that short 6-week period Germany was transformed from a liberal democracy to a barbaric dictatorship, and any writer who opposed the new regime faced an existential crisis: to go, to stay, to wait and see.  Few could have imagined in January 1933 that as respected public figures, whose books and plays were enjoyed by millions of Germans, they could within weeks be detained and, in many cases, tortured and sent to concentration camps.  Even a Nobel Prize - as in the case of Thomas Mann - was no guarantee of safety, for Mann was a vocal supporter of the Republic and therefore persona non grata to the Nazis.

Yet there were some who could see exactly what was happening and going to happen.  Joseph Roth, whose Radetzkymarsch is on my list of the Ten Greatest German Novels, got on the next train to Paris as soon as he heard the news that Hitler was the new Reichskanzler.  As he wrote to his his friend Stefan Zweig:

"...unsere literarische und materielle Existenz ist ja vernichtet... Es ist gelungen, die Barbarei regieren zu lassen. Machen Sie sich keine Illusionen. Die Hõlle regiert."

As a Jew, Roth knew he was especially vulnerable. Yet some Jewish writers hesitated to leave.  The novelist Herman Kesten, a Jew, was fully aware of the danger, but his family was sick with the flu and he couldn't leave them. Still, he ran to the French Embassy in Berlin to obtain a visa as preparation to flee Germany.  The Jewish poet Elsa Lasker-Schüler was about to have her drama Arthur Aronymus staged in Darmstadt by the respected director Gustav Hartung - a triumph that would have revived her career and provided some deserved financial security. But the Nazis intervened, and ordered Hartung to fire all Jews associated with his theater. Elsa Lasker-Schüler eventually did make it out of Germany and ended up in Israel. 

Bertolt Brecht also had several plays in various stages of production but he knew he was close to the top of the list of writers to be arrested.  He checked himself into a hospital for a hernia operation that he needed anyway.  Hospitals at that time were not required to divulge the names of their patients. Brecht was able to make his way to Denmark and eventually to the United States.

Some writers and artists were fortunate enough to be outside of Germany during the Nazi seizure of power. Eric Maria Remarque, whose anti-war novel Im Westen nichts Neues was hated by the Nazis, had already moved to Switzerland. Best-selling author Vicki Baum was in the US.  Nazi thugs raided the Berlin studio of the painter Georg Grosz, but he was already working as an art teacher in New York. Thomas Mann and his wife were enjoying a restful stay in the Swiss Alps following a lecture tour.  Mann wanted to return to Munich to retrieve his manuscript for Joseph und seine Brüder, but his children Klaus and Erika warned him to stay out of Germany. The Nazis did raid his house but the manuscript was fortunately rescued.

Wittstock writes about the sad fate of the Prussian Academy of Arts.  Thomas Mann's brother Heinrich Mann was president of the Dichtung (Poetry)  division of the academy, which included many of the best known writers of the Weimar Republic.  After Heinrich Mann and artist Käthe Kollwitz signed a declaration calling the new regime "barbaric" the members conspired to expel Mann from the academy without having the courtesy to inform him in person - an act of pure cowardice.  Only one member - Ricarda Huch - acted honorably and immediately resigned in protest.  The poet Gottfried Benn was one of the members who did not resign. Wittstock provide a plausible explanation for Benn's initial enthusiasm for the Nazis: resentment.  Wittstock compares the careers of Benn with Alfred Döblin.  Both were medical doctors.  But the prolific Döblin achieved fame with the publication of the novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (also on my Top Ten list) which was made into a successful feature movie.  Döblin was able to shut down his medical practice and devote his time to writing.  Benn's medical practice was primarily treating prostitutes and down-and-out patients in the working class district where he lived.  That practice paid poorly.  Yes, his lyric poetry was admired by many - but poetry also paid poorly. So his position on the Prussian Academy of Arts was a vindication of sorts:

"Nun endlich bekam er did offizielle Anerkennung, die ihm so fehlte, endlich gestand man ihm seinen Platz in der literarischen Elite des Landes zu. Jetzt war er kein ärmlicher Prostituiertenartz mehr, der fürseine Gedicthe kaum mehr als ein paar gute Kritiken bekam, sondern nahm er seinen Sitz ein in der Tafelrunde der berühmtesten deutschsprachign Schriftsteller der Zeit." 

Besides famous writers like Gottfried Benn and Alfred Döblin, Wittstock writes about the fates of many lesser-known writers.  One of my favorites - the Berlin poet Mascha Kaléko - makes a cameo appearance as she encounters the satirical writer Walter Mehring on the street and warns him that some SA-men are on the next block looking to arrest him.  Mehring immediately rushes to station to get on the next train to Prague.

Not everyone made it out of Germany.  Some, like Erich Kästner remained by choice.  The publisher of Die Weltbühne, Carl von Ossietzky was urged to leave by his friends but stubbornly refused.  He was arrested and sent to a concentration camp where he died, despite being honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1936.  The anarchist poet and essayist Erich Mühsam was arrested immediately after the Reichstag fire and was tortured to death at the Oranienburg concentration camp. Looking back, it is hard to imagine how these writers coped with the life and death decisions that confronted them in those terrible few weeks in 1933.   Many of those who fled the Nazi terror thought it would be only for a few months.  Surely the German people would not tolerate living under a Nazi dictatorship for long.  Many would never set foot in their homeland again for the rest of their lives.

Review: Brigitte Reimann's novel Die Geschwister

I became interested in the East German writer Brigitte Reimann (1933-1973) after reading this recent piece by Kate Connelly in The Guardian. I have read most of the famous DDR writers - from Anna Seghers to Christa Wolf - as well as a few not so famous, but knew virtually nothing about Brigitte Reimann, who evidently was something of a cult figure in the DDR.  Connelly writes:

Reimann, who has been compared to the writers Carson McCullers and Edna O’Brien and who counted Anna Seghers and Ernest Hemingway among her literary heroes, became a cult figure with a reputation similar to that of a beatnik poet.

Die Geschwister ("Siblings") is about to be published in English translation, so I started with that short novel (the DTV version I have called it an Erzählung (story).  The first person narrator - Elisabeth Arendt - a 24-year-old painter and art instructor at a coal mining plant (Braunkohlenkombinat) somewhere in the eastern DDR.  Elisabeth (or "Betsy") has two brothers: a much older brother Konrad - who left the DDR for the West ("das andere Deutschland") and Ulrich - just slightly older that then narrator.  Most of the story is about her relationship with "Uli" - the novel begins and ends with a heated argument between Besty and Uli , but the reader doesn't learn why they are fighting until the last part of the novel.  What struck me most about the novel is the almost incestuous relationship between bother and sister: the two can't keep their hands off each other. Uli admits he has difficulty maintaining relationships with other girls because none seems to measure up to Betsy.

Between the bookends of the sibling's argument, Reimann writes beautifully about the sibling's childhood during the war and the hardships just after the war, as her father returned as a diminished man from years in a POW camp.  Towards the middle of novel Betsy and her mother have a reunion of sorts with Konrad - now a "Wessie" - in West Berlin.  It does not go well.  Betsy despises her older brother for "abandoning" the country that trained him as an engineer. 

"Du haβt die Republik so blind und dumm, wie man einen Gläubiger haβt.  Du wirst es ihr nie verzeihen, daβ du ihr deine Ausbildung und deinen Beruf verdanken.  Das ist es. Deinen Beruf", fügte ich hinzu, " mit dem du Westmark verdienst."

Later she nearly accuses Konrad of being a Nazi and storms off, wandering the streets of Berlin, totally lost until she sees a welcoming sign that she is leaving the "west sector". 

Towards the end of Die Geschwister we learn the reason behind the heated argument between Besty and Uli: her beloved Uli has also made plans to flee to the "other Germany."  For Betsy, this is an existential crisis, and she betrays her brother's plan to her fiance Joachim - the manager of a VEB steel plant and party stalwart.  Here is where the novel breaks down, for the efforts of Betsy and Joachim to convince Uli to stay - the back and forth to stay or leave - becomes tiresome. Also, Betsy admits that - although she remains committed to the socialist ideals of her beloved DDR and could never consider leaving, she could also never be a true Party member: her family background is "bourgeois" (bürgerlich).  And because of this innate orientation she can never be a true proletariat:

"Was wir gelernt haben haben und was unser Kopf begriffen hat, das it bloβ die Oberfläche, die Haut ... Aber innen, im Herzen, wenn du es so nennen willst, in einem letzten Gehirnwinkel, denken und fühlen wir noch als Bürgerliche."

This and other nods to Leninist orthodoxy - perhaps necessary to get published in the DDR - put me off somewhat. So, on balance, I wasn't a huge fan of Die Geshwister, despite Brigitte Reimann's obvious writing talent.  So I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle her unfinished novel Franziska Linkerhand (600+ pages!).

For anyone interested in reading a lesser-known but brilliant DDR novel I strongly recommend Rummelplatz by Werner Bräunig.

Review: Lion Feuchtwanger's DIe Geschwister Oppermann

Many years ago I read Lion Feuchtwanger's two-part novel Erfolg (1930), a roman à clef that dealt with the rise of Hitler and the Nazi movement in Bavaria.  Hitler is represented in the comical figure Rupert Kutzner, and various other luminaries of the late Weimar Republic  appear as recognizable characters. Feuchtwanger wrote himself into the novel as the writer Tüverlin. The novel - one of the great Weimar  Zeitromane - is even today a highly entertaining read but was also a serious warning at the time about Hitler and fascism.  For some reason I never read Feuchtwanger's follow-on novel Die Geschwister Oppermann (1933) even though I had a copy in my personal library.  A recent review in the New York Times of a new translation of the novel compelled me to finally read it. 

The tone of Geschwister is much different than Erfolg.  It is no longer just a warning about a fanatical nationalist, who seems more clown-like than threatening. In Geschwister the red lights are flashing and sirens blaring: the story moves from Bavaria to Berlin - the seat of the government - and Hitler is chancellor.  The Oppermanns of the books title are a prominent, - well to do -  Jewish family in Berlin.  The three Oppermann brothers are all respected professionals; they each served honorably in the Great War for Germany, and, if asked, considered themselves to be loyal Germans.  The idea that they could somehow be persecuted in a modern, civilized society seemed preposterous. Yes, they see the new chancellor and the regime as a threat, but only a temporary one.  They have faith that the German people will come to reject the violence and excesses of the Nazis (called "Landesknechte") and a sane, liberal government will be restored.  Only one child - Ruth, the Zionist daughter of Edgar Oppermann - sees the writing on the wall and makes preparations to emigrate to Palestine.

The central figure in Die Geschwister Oppermann is the writer and intellectual Gustav Oppermann.  Gustav is a bachelor and bon vivant who enjoys fine wine, cigars and dining at his club. He considers himself an intellectual and scholar and works intermittently on a biography of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing - the 18th century proponent of German Aufklärung ('enlightenment').  Gustav embodies the "free-floating intelligentsia" ("freischwebende Intelligenz') described by the sociologist Karl Mannheim in his study Ideologie und Utopie (1929). The intellectual, Mannheim posited, operates outside the social classes and above the political fray. Gustav is more interested in his girlfriends and the arts rather than politics, but he has nothing but contempt for the crude language and actions of the Nazis. So he unthinkingly signs a petition attacking the new regime in Berlin.  This act puts Gustav in danger of arrest and torture at the hands of the Landesknechte and he is forced to leave leave Germany once the Reichstag burns.  Gustav, with his financial means, could lead a comfortable exile existence in Switzerland and the South of France, but he is haunted by reports of repression and barbaric torture in his homeland.  When he receives news that his friend, the Jewish professor Johannes Cohen, died "unexpectedly" in a Nazi concentration camp, Gustav decides he must return to German incognito to see with his own eyes what is happening. Eventually he falls into the hands of the Gestapo and is detained at the Moosbach concentration camp. This is the most difficult section of the novel to read, for Gustav's treatment - as well as the that of the other inmates - is barbaric.  He does survive - barely- and is released from the camp.  But his health so badly compromised by the harsh beatings and labor that his body fails.  On his deathbed he dictates what he saw and experienced at Mossbach to his friend Dr. Frischlins.  He realizes that his Lessing biography was useless against Hitler; he can use what remains of his talents to bear witness to the crimes against humanity he experienced at the hands of the Nazi.  Dr. Frischlin describes his last moments:

Oppermann bat mich, ihm eine Frage zu beantworten, die ihn beunruhigte: ob ich nämlich ihn und sein Leben für unnützlich hielte. Ich erwiderte ihm, er habe under sehr gefährlichen Umständen seine Bereitschaft gezeigt, für das Richtige und Nützliche einzutreten. Er habe indes nuch gesehen, was ist, und keinen nützllichen Rat gewußt, was zu tun sei.  Er habe einen Marathonlauf gemacht, un eine Meldekapsel zu überbringen: leider nur sei kene Botschaft in der Kapsel gewesen.

Feucthwanger wrote Die Geschwister Oppermann as a warning to the German people: there can be no appeasing the forces of Nazism.  Unfortunately, the book was published outside of Germany, so very few Germans could actually read it at the time.  But Feuchtwanger's warning is relevant for us today in the United States as a growing sector here embrace fascist conspiracies and ideas.  What is astonishing is that Feuchtwanger had clear knowledge of the Nazis network of concentration camps, just months after the 1933 seizure of power.  Of course, he could not imagine - nor could anyone in 1933 - the horror of the "Final Solution."