As a follow-up to my previous post about writers who remained in Germany during the NS-period where I mentioned Erich Kästner in passing, Der Spiegel published a short piece that puts Kästner's particular situation in more complete context. Erich Kästner despised the Nazis, and, for the the most part, the animosity was mutual. Kästner was perhaps the only author of note who was brave enough to attend the Nazi book-burning orgy in Berlin on May 10, 1933. He watched as the fanatical students consigned his own books to the bonfire, shouting "»Gegen Dekadenz und moralischen Verfall« ("Down with decadence and moral decay!") A woman spotted him in the crowd and shouted "»Dort steht ja der Kästner!« ("Kästner is standing right over there!«) so he was lucky to make it out from the horrible event unharmed. What followed were twelve miserable years: his books were banned - except for the beloved children's book Emil und die Detektive. He was arrested several times and interrogated by the Gestapo. Yet he stayed in Germany - unlike so many other talented writers. He was the first to admit that he wasn't a hero - he never participated in any underground resistance activity:
»Ich bin ein Deutscher aus Dresden in Sachsen.
Mich läßt die Heimat nicht fort.
Ich bin wie ein Baum, der, in Deutschland gewachsen,
wenn's sein muß, in Deutschland verdorrt.«("I am a German from Dresden in Saxony. My homeland will not let me go. I'm like a tree that grew in Germany - and, if it comes to that, will wither away in Germany.")
Erich Kästner somehow survived through the Nazi dictatorship. After the war, his career once again took off. Looking back on the dreadful period he wrote:
»Die Ereignisse von 1933 bis 1945 hätten spätestens 1928 bekämpft werden müssen. Später war es zu spät. Man darf nicht warten, bis der Freiheitskampf Landesverrat genannt wird. Man muß den rollenden Schneeball zertreten. Die Lawine hält keiner mehr auf. Sie ruht erst, wenn sie alles unter sich begraben hat … Drohende Diktaturen lassen sich nur bekämpfen, ehe sie die Macht übernommen haben"
("The events from 1933 to 1945 should have been stopped in 1928 at the latest. After that it was too late. You can't wait until the struggle for freedom is labeled as treason. You need to squash the rolling snowball. No one can stop the ensuing avalanche after that. It ends only after everything is ruined. ... Threatening dictatorships can only be stopped before they have taken power.")
In 1930, Thomas Mann gave his famous speech in Berlin - "Appell an die Venunft" ("Appeal to Reason") before a large audience that included Nazi thugs and the writer Ernst Jünger. No doubt Jünger was amused. He knew the Republic - which he hated- was finished.
That same year Erich Kästner published my favorite novel of the Weimar Republic - Fabian: Geschichte eines Moralisten. Towards the end of the novel the protagonist Fabian thinks:
"Vernunft kann man nur einer beschränkten Zahl von Menschen beibringen, und die sind schon vernünftig."
(You can only bring a limited number of people to Reason, and they are already reasonable.)
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