Dialog International

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.

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: 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: 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." 

 

 

 

 

Erich Kästner in the Third Reich

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.)

Review: Anatol Regnier's Jeder schreibt für sich allein: Schriftsteller im Nationalsozialismus

Shortly after the war ended in 1945 Thomas Mann, wrote the following concerning literature published in German during the 12 years of Nazi dictatorship.

"It may be superstition, but in my eyes books that could be printed at all in Germany from 1933 to 1945 are less than worthless and ought not to be touched. They are impregnated with the smell of blood and disgrace. They ought all to be pulped."

Was Mann correct? Was everything published in the Third Reich worthless?  Was it possible to make a living as writer and maintain a shred of integrity?  Of course, I am familiar with the works of the exiled writers - from Mann to Brecht to Lion Feuchtwanger and many others.  But what of the writers who didn't - or couldn't - leave Germany during that terrible period?  That is subject of Anatol Regnier's fascinating book "Jeder schreibt für sich allein" - a riff on Hans Fallada's novel "Jeder stirbt für sich allein" (1947). 

Regnier follows a number of writers starting with the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 to the postwar period.  And things weren't quite as black and white as Thomas Mann saw them.  There were gradations of collaboration with the Nazi regime. There were craven opportunists and mediocre talents such as Hans Johst, who entertained close ties with Goebbels and other Nazi officials as a chance to advance his career.  Others, such as Gottfried Benn - perhaps the greatest lyric poet of his generation - enthusiastically embraced the nationalist-socialist "revolution" as a victory of the German Geist, but quickly became disillusioned and retreated into his medical practice.  More typical, perhaps, was Erich Kästner - a beloved childrens' author - who witnessed his books being burned by the Nazis, but decided to remain in Germany for family reasons.  Kästner managed to publish a couple of apolitical novels and the Nazis permitted him to write the screenplay for a prestige movie production (Münchhausen) under a pseudonym 

Regnier closely follows the career of two writers in particular: the poet and novelist Ina Seidel and bestselling novelist Rudolf Ditzen, whose pen name was Hans Fallada.  Fallada's novel Kleiner Mann, was nun? (1932) depicted the fall of the middle class during the Weimar Republic - and was such a huge success that it was made into a Hollywood feature film.  Fallada's writing was initially denounced by the Nazis and the Gestapo even briefly imprisoned him. But he kept writing and even agreed to certain revisions of his texts required by the Nazi censors.  His 1937 novel Wolf unter Wölfen was a success and caught the attention of Goebbels, who commissioned Fallada to write an anti-Semitic novel (never completed).  Shortly before his death after the war ended Fallada was able to finish what is perhaps the best work of fiction about everyday life under the Nazi dictatorship - "Jeder stirbt für sich allein - which as recently as 2010 was a best seller in the UK under the title of Alone in Berlin. Ina Seidel was a popular novelist and poet during the Weimar Republic and her 1932 novel Das Wunschkind was a huge bestseller. She was a passionate supporter of the Nazis, and was one of 88 writers who signed the Vow of Total Loyalty ("Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft") to the Führer.  Her poem celebrating Hitler's 5oth birthday was widely published in newspapers and magazines.  After the war, Ina Seidel was able to rehabilitate herself and even today there are schools and streets in Germany bearing her name. 

Regnier's coverage of writers during the Third Reich leaves out a number of important writers. Notably, he elected not to write about the brothers Ernst and Friedrich Georg Jünger ("[Sie] sind für sich ein so groβes Thema, dass sie ein eigenes Buch rechtfertigen würden.") Missing also is the modernist novelist Wolfgang Koeppen, the poets Günter Eich and Ricarda Huch, and Peter Huchel.  Entirely missing are also those writers who were forbidden by the Nazis to publish their works.  The poet and novelist Elisabeth Langgässer was deemed a "half Jew" by the Nazis and could remain in Germany but not allowed to publish (Schreibverbot) ; her daughter Cordelia was a "full Jew" and deported to Auschwitz.  In 1933 Elisabeth Langgässer and Ina Seidel published an anthology of women poets (Herz zum Hafen. Frauengedichte der Gegenwart) which included poems by the brilliant Jewish poet Gertrud Kolmar. Kolmar also remained in Germany (to care for her father)  and was forbidden to publish,  and after the Novemberpogrom of 1938 was forced into slave labor at a Nazi munitions plant. In 1943 Gertrud Kolmar was transported to Auschwitz where she was immediately murdered.  There is no record of Ina Seidel making any attempt to intervene with her friend Joseph Goebbels to save the poet Gertrud Kolmar. 

The Stories of Franz Fühmann

I've read many of the leading (and not so leading) East German writers of the DDR era, but was not familiar with Franz Fühmann, who was known primarily for his essays and popular children's books.  Fühmann was also a mentor to many more famous writers such as Christa Wolf and Wolfgang Hilbig, a writer I very much admire (see my review of Hilbig's novel "Ich"). Recently Fühmann's centenary was noted in Die Zeit and other publications, so I decided to pick up a copy of his short stories. 

Fühmann was born in the Sudetenland and at a young age was enthralled by the Nazis.  At the age of 16 he participated in the destruction of Jewish-owned property during the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom.  He joined the Wehrmacht at 17 trained as a Funker (radio operator) and was later part of the occupation force in Ukraine and Greece.  He later said that he had not committed any atrocities - but only by luck since he was never ordered to.  Fühmann was taken prisoner by the Soviet forces an it was in the POW camp that he learned about the Holocaust and the death camps.  It was here that he underwent a "conversion" and became a committed socialist.  The only answer to Auschwitz, he felt, was to establish a socialist society.

„Ich bin gleich Tausenden andren meiner Generation zum Sozialismus nicht über den proletarischen Klassenkampf oder von der marxistischen Theorie her, ich bin über Auschwitz in die andre Gesellschaftsordnung gekommen. […] Die neue Gesellschaftsordnung war zu Auschwitz das Andere; über die Gaskammer bin ich zu ihr gekommen […].“

For the rest of his life Fühmann wrestled with the question "How could I have been a Nazi?"  And he dealt with his past head-on and openly, unlike Günter Grass, who concealed his joining the Waffen SS as a teenager until towards the end of his life.  In the short stories I picked up Fühmann attempts to transport himself into the mindset of not just his own youth, but that of his friends and the adults who were in charge. 

In Das Judenauto ("The Jew Car") A group of 9-year old kids are transfixed when a classmate tells them about a yellow car with 4 Jews inside that roams the countryside looking to abduct young girls in order to use their blood in a ritual: "Und dann rühren sie das Blut mit Nullermehl an und backen draus Brot!"  While walking home from school, the young narrator sees a car passing by. He assumes its the "Jew Car" and runs for his life. The next day he tells his classmates about his narrow escape from certain death at the hands of the Jews. A girl, however, reveals that the car he described belongs to her family - not the Jews - and therefore his story is just a made-up lie.  Humiliated, the boy runs off in shame, but he knows the source of his humiliation: the Jews!

"Sie waren daran schuld!  Sie hatten alles Schlechte gemacht, das es auf der Welt gibt, sie hatten meinem Vater das Geschäft ruiniert, sie hatten die Krise gemacht [...] sie zogen mit ihren gemeinen Tricks den ehrlichen Leuten das Geld asu der Tasche, und auch mit mir hatten sie einen ihren hundsgemienen Tricks gemacht, um much vor der Klasse zu blamieren. Sie waren schuld an allem!"

In Die Verteidigung der Reichenberger Turnhalle ("The Defence of the Reichenberg Gymnasium") which takes place in the Sudeten town of Liberec  a group teenage boys gather to "defend" the local gymnasium from Czech-Jewish-Marxist cutthroats who, according to the German radio broadcasts were set on taking over the building and killing any German-speakers who resisted them. The teenage narrator  recounts how just a few weeks before, he had attended the huge Nazi sports gathering, the Sport- und Turnfest held in the German-Silesian capital, Breslau, in July 1938. He had even caught a glimpse of the Führer himself:

"Und da war auf der Tribüne der Führer gestanden, ganz nah vor uns im gleissenden Scheinwerferlicht, ganz nah und gross und allein, ein Gott der Geschichte, und er hatte die Hand über uns erhoben, und sein Blick war unsre Reihen entlanggeglitten.  Ich hatte geglaubt, mein Herz würde stillstehen, wenn der Führer mich ansehen würde, und da hatte ich jäh gewusst, dass mein Lben dem Führer geweiht war für immerdar."

In this spirit the boys occupied the gymnasium - ready to defend it to death, if need be, from the  Czech-Jewish-Marxist hordes.  But the hordes fail to show up, and the boys become increasingly bored and hungry. Finally a Czech constable shows up and tells the boys it's time to go home - to which they sheepishly comply.  The next morning however the radio broadcast from Germany reports that murderous Czechs had attacked the gymnasium, killing and injuring a number of brave German boys.  The Reich could not simply stand by and allow this atrocity to go unpunished.  Rather than laughing at this blatantly absurd propaganda, the boys are quite impressed:

"Mensch, der versteht sich auf Propaganda, der kleine Goebbels", sagte Karli, mein Stosstruppführer, und boxte mich in die Rippen. [...] kein anderes Land als das Reich könne so eine grandiose Propagand aufziehen.

Two weeks later, the Munich Agreement granted Hitler nearly a quarter of Czechoslovakia’s territory.

In Die Schöpfung ("Creation") a young Wehrmacht conscript in Nazi-occupied Greece is given the order to search and kill  partisans in the area. On patrol, he stumbles upon an impoverished old woman on her deathbed.  He orders her to get up and walk, but she is too week.  The young soldier then recalls the words he learned from Der Führer about "inferior races":

"Untermenschen! dachte er, das war es, Untermenschen, das war das richtige Wort. Man muss sie ausrotten, diese Untermenschen [...]die sich wie Schimmel und Krãtze in den gesunden Volkskörper niste und die man gnadenlos vertilgen werde.."

But before the young soldier can aim his rifle to "extinguish" (vertilgen) the poor woman he is surprised and shot by a partisan. 

There is a sense of shame in these stories of Franz Fühmann ... shame for his past embrace of Naziism and his participation in Hitler's war.  And shame for the pervasive psychosis of the society that formed him and that infected millions of Germans.  Writing, for Fühmann was an act of expiation, of atonement for his past self. As he stated once, when receiving a prize for his writing, „Du kannst tun, was du willst, du kommst von Auschwitz nicht mehr los“. ("Whatever you do, can never get beyond Auschwitz.)

 

Anti-Vaxxers in Germany: Querdenker, Anti-Semites, Neo-Nazis

The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in Germany has been slower than in the US, but in the meantime Germany has caught with and surpassed the US in terms of the percentage of fully vaccinated adults.  Still, like in the US, there is a large anti-vaxx movement that is closely connected to right-wing extremist organizations.  In the US, vaccine hesitancy is driven by disinformation seen on right-wing media outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax.  In Germany anti-vaccine conspiracies are found primarily on online social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Telegram - much of it originating in Russia.  One other difference: in the US, blame for the coronavirus has been directed at Asian Americans - thanks to former President Trump and his labeling Covid as "the China Virus".  In Germany, we have seen a reversion to historical anti-Semitic tropes:  many blame "the Jews" for originating the virus and also for the lock-down measures that have disrupted normal life.  The  American Jewish Committee Berlin Ramer Institute found more that 560 anti-Semitic incidents in connection with Corona demonstrations in Germany between March 2020 and March 20201:

"Seit dem Beginn der Coronapandemie erlebten antisemitische Verschwörungsmythen demnach eine starke Konjunktur. Juden wurden verantwortlich gemacht für die Pandemie oder auch für staatliche Eindämmungsmaßnahmen."

Beyond that, many Jews living in Germany report being verbally assaulted in supermarkets and other public venues and accused of setting the virus loose into world.

The association of vaccines with Jews has a long history in Germany.  Bismarck had instituted mandatory vaccinations against smallpox (Reichsimpfgesetz), but this was rejected by the Nazis, who viewed viruses as a convenient tool for culling the Volk of weaker genes.  Moreover, vaccines were considered a Jewish invention that should never be allowed to "contaminate" the German people. The Nazi publisher of the rabidly anti-Semitic "Der Stürmer" called vaccines a "defilement of the race" (Rassenschande). 

Die Idee einer Immunisierung der Massen widersprach indes dem Gedanken von Auslese und Abhärtung. Dass der "Herrenmensch" mit einer Impfung den "Untermenschen" schützt und vice versa, das war offenbar ein unerträglicher Gedanke. Julius Streicher schrieb im Jahr 1935: "Die Impfung ist eine Rassenschande". Hinter einer gesetzlichen Impflicht aus dem Jahr 1874 verortete Streicher jüdische Abgeordnete. Streichers Hetzblatt "Der Stürmer" illustrierte den Zeitgeist in einem Sujet: Ein Arzt mit Hakennase, er lächelt verschlagen, hält eine Spritze in der Hand. Seine Patientin hat ein Kind im Arm, sie sieht sehr deutsch aus und äußert Bedenken: "Mir ist so komisch zu Mut, Gift und Jud tut selten gut."

The Nazis' resistance to vaccine shifted later during war, when German troops in on the East Front were dying of typhus.  Desperate to stem the spread of the deadly disease the Nazis turned to a group of Jewish doctors incarcerated in the Buchenwald concentration camp to produce an effective vaccine. 

Germany's Nazis Embrace Donald Trump

Two weeks ago a mob of Nazis stormed the Reichstag in Berlin after one of the leaders announced that “Trump has landed in Berlin!”.  That was the signal they had been waiting for; only the brave intervention of three police officers prevented them from gaining entrance to the building and trashing the seat of the nation’s parliamentary democracy.  The scene brought up uncomfortable memories for Germans.  After all, it was the burning of the Reichstag in 1933 that was used by Hitler as a pretext for abolishing the democratic constitution of the Weimar Republic and arresting or murdering leaders of the German Social Democrats (SPD)  and the Communist Party (KPD). 

The New York Times has an excellent piece on how Donald Trump is an inspiration to German Nazis and other right-wing extremist groups in Germany.

“Trump has become a savior figure, a sort of great redeemer for the German far right,” said Miro Dittrich, an expert on far-right extremism at the Berlin-based Amadeu-Antonio-Foundation.

Germany — a nation generally supportive of a government that has handled the pandemic better than most — may seem an unlikely place for Mr. Trump to gain such a status. Few Western nations have had a more contentious relationship with Mr. Trump than Germany, whose leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel, a pastor’s daughter and scientist, is his opposite in terms of values and temperament. Opinion polls show that Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular among a broad majority of Germans.

But his message of disruption — his unvarnished nationalism and tolerance of white supremacists coupled with his skepticism of the pandemic’s dangers — is spilling well beyond American shores, extremism watchers say.

The Nazis’ embrace of Trump coincides with the growing popularity of the “QAnon Conspiracy” in Germany. It is estimated that there are more than 200,000 QAnon followers in Germany — second only to the United States.  The most influential QAnon leader is the celebrity chef and rabid anti-Semite Attila Hildmann:

“Trump is someone who has been fighting the global ‘deep state’ for years,” Mr. Hildmann said in an interview this past week. “Trump has become a figure of light in this movement, especially for QAnon, precisely because he fights against these global forces.”

“That’s why the hope for the German national movement, or the liberation movement, lies basically with Q and Trump, because Trump is a figure of light because he shows that you can fight these global powers and that he is victorious,” Mr. Hildmann said.

“The Germans hope that Trump will liberate Germany from the Merkel corona regime,” he said, so that “the German Reich is reactivated.”

The Nazis and other extremist groups look to Trump — and to a lesser degree, Putin — because they share the values of the US and Russian presidents: contempt for democratic institutions, hatred of people of color and immigrants, hatred of the Free Press — called Lügenpresse or Fake News. 

You may think that these German Trumpists are just a small fringe group that doesn't merit much attention.  But last month a national poll revealed that one third of Germans believe in conspiracy theories.