Nr. 2 / 2021 – Literatur, Sprache und Kultur der Weimarer Republik. Herausgegeben von Ioana Crăciun und Alexandra Nicolaescu
Heft Nr. 2 / 2021 herunterladen.
Alexandra Nicolaescu – Das Panorama der Weimarer Republik im Roman Drei Kameraden von Erich Maria Remarque
Abstract: The novel Drei Kameraden (Three Comrades) by Erich Maria Remarque could be considered as the third and last volume of a trilogy which also includes Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) and Der Weg zurück (The Road Back). However, because of the political changes in Germany in the 1930s, the book was published much later than originally planned and for this reason neither readers, nor literary critics acknowledged the book as part of the trilogy at that point in time. Nevertheless, in all three novels the author discusses the problem of the so-called Lost Generation and depicts the collective psychological state of young men, who inherited values that were no longer relevant in a post war world. Erich Maria Remarque depicts the reality of The Weimar Republic revealing the financial and social crisis that dominated everyday life. He raises questions about surviving in a post war era, and it is therefore that Drei Kameraden can be interpreted as a literary chronicle of those troubled times in German history.
Keywords: cultural memory, World War I, Weimar Republic, World War I trilogy, Erich Maria Remarque.
Lúcia Bentes – Der Großstadtroman der Weimarer Republik: Die Bedeutung der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung in Hans Falladas Roman Wolf unter Wölfen (1937)
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine sensory spaces and how social unrest can be caused and strengthened through odours, sounds, and looks. The city of Berlin and the bodies of the characters Wolfgang Pagel, Petra Ledig, and Joachim von Prackwitz-Neulohe during the Weimar Republic, described in the novel Wolf unter Wölfen (1937) by Hans Fallada, are examples of sensory spaces. The analysis focuses on how life and behaviour of these three characters are influenced by different sensorial perceptions and how their physical and emotional relationships with themselves and their relationships with the other characters and with the city develop through their sensory relationship to the world. Ultimately, the paper aims at showing that the Weimar Republic could be considered as an intervening period in which unpleasant smells, noises and looks arise and accumulate. This contributes to a greater understanding of the social and political unrest during the Weimar Republic.
Keywords: Weimar Republic, Hans Fallada, social and political unrest, sensory spaces, odours, sounds, looks.
Fabian Wilhelmi – Literarischer Antisemitismus in Fritz Namenhauers Untergang
Abstract: Antisemitism was a widespread phenomenon in the society of the Weimar Republic. This had an impact on literary texts. Based on the analysis of specific aspects of Fritz Namenhauersʼs historical fiction novel Untergang, this paper will show how antisemitism is effective in literary texts. The paper offers at first a short overview of how antijudaistic and antisemitic elements are presented in historical fiction about the First Roman-Jewish War. The analysis then focuses on the role of the Essenes and early Christianity as well as on the literary representation of the end of the war. It concludes with an evaluation of how antisemitism operates in the text.
Keywords: Literary antisemitism, antijudaism, historical fiction, First Roman-Jewish war, Flavius Josephus.
Bernd Braun – Joseph Roth als Chronist der Weimarer Republik
Abstract: The Austrian author Joseph Roth, with his novels and stories, is now regarded as a classic of the modern age. He is defined first and foremost as the chronicler of the defunct Habsburg monarchy, the singer of Kakania, as Robert Musil described the reign of Emperor Franz Josef in his novel Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The Man without Qualities). In most cases it is overlooked that Roth was mainly a journalist and indeed one of the most influential and highest paid ones of his time. A major part of his journalistic work is written between 1918 and 1933, which is why Joseph Roth could be called with some justification a chronicler of the Weimar Republic. Based on five selected articles by Joseph Roth, this essay deals with the question of whether his journalistic work could represent an important source of information about historical events or mentalities for historians. Are these articles rooted strictly in their epoch or at least partly of timeless relevance? The question is therefore not of a Germanic-aesthetic, but of a literary-historical nature.
Keywords: Joseph Roth, Weimar Republic, Chronicler of the first German democracy, feature articles, historical source, timelessness of statement.
Mario Huber – Das Material ordnen und ohne Ambitionen aufzeichnen. Hermann Ungars Die Ermordung des Hauptmanns Hanika. Tragödie einer Ehe (1925)
Abstract: Herrmann Ungar’s text, which deals with the topic of the murder of a captain in Brünn (the murder mentioned in the title) appeared as part of the series Außenseiter der Gesellschaft. Verbrechen der Gegenwart (Outsiders in Society). In this series, which was published between 1924 and 1925 by the Berlin publishing house Die Schmiede, various authors deal with criminal cases of the time. They closely examine the court cases in order to throw light on the complex convergence of the individual and the judiciary. We see that, in so doing, most the authors, who were principally writers of literature, consciously reflect upon the difficulty of writing about the stories. A central question (for them) is whether it is possible to arrange the facts and the preconditions for the crimes. An entirely fact-based and unbiased account of the criminal case is evidently not possible, however. Owing to the situation concerning the facts and the convoluted nature of the circumstances, Ungar is unable to work with unambiguous, logical or rational concepts (or opposite concepts like guilt / innocence) and resorts to suggestive narration in order to formulate an alternative narrative in contradiction of the court verdict. The essay firstly intends to point out difficulties in differentiating between fictional (fictionalizing) and factual narration in the context of literary criticism of the law. Consequently, the text transcends the conventional, recognized genres. The approach of the authors of the series, as the example of Ungar illustrates, is moving towards new paradigms, but at the same time various forms of emotionalism are involved, either consciously or unconsciously. In all, both findings suggest that this corpus is still as difficult to assign to a particularly recognized genre, literary tradition (as for example “Neue Sachlichkeit”) or type of journalistic (factual) writing as it ever was.
Keywords: Hermann Ungar, law and literature, fact and fiction, Pitaval, literary legal criticism.
Robert Hermann – „Die Welt ist nicht Ihr Zirkus.“ Bertolt Brechts Baal (1922) als Abgesang auf den Ästhetizismus
Abstract: The article focuses on the critical depiction of Aestheticism in the 1922 version of Bertolt Brecht’s play Baal. While many scholars argue that Brecht’s 1919 version is to be preferred due to its socio-critical and more ambivalent design, I put forward the hypothesis that the 1922 revision stands out by dismissing a decadent form of Aestheticism as well as the prototypical artist that goes along with it. After a brief introduction concerning the production history of the play, I will define the notions of Aestheticism and decadent Aestheticism to provide a foundation for the following in-depth analysis of the text. The analysis will be concluded by a comparison to the 1919 version of the play. My aim is to point out the important role that the 1922 variant of Baal played for the artistic development of the young Brecht and to thus highlight the significance of this rather neglected version both for Brecht’s oeuvre and for the ambivalent – and often competing – artistic trends of the Weimar Republic..
Keywords: Modernity, Morality, Aestheticism, Decadence, Young Brecht.
Anna Sator – Männlichkeitskonstruktionen in Ernst Tollers Dramen Der deutsche Hinkemann (1923) und Der entfesselte Wotan (1923)
Abstract: The social changes that took place throughout the Weimar Republic Era affected gender roles in their depth – not only the image of the New Woman arose, but at the same time the traditional image of the heroic soldier was questioned. New images of a more sensual masculinity coexisted with the old ones. Dramatic texts and theatre in particular were and are predestined spaces to try out new forms of gender roles and characters. For instance, Ernst Toller’s Hinkemann is one of the first plays to address the effects of disability caused by war on ideas of masculinity as well as individual fates. Alongside this tragic illustration of the effects of missing representation and failing identification with the hegemonic idea of masculinity Toller wrote a comedy on the same hegemonic masculinity of the war hero in the same year. In Der entfesselte Wotan an unsuccessful hairdresser manages to gain power through founding an emigration society and staging himself as the messianic leader of this company. The analysis of the two dramatic texts points out that fictional texts are an important mirror of social change and especially the theatre is the place where new concepts of gender are staged and discussed..
Keywords: Drama, Ernst Toller, Men’s Studies, hegemonial masculinity, heroic masculinity.
Markus Fischer – „Kult der Zerstreuung“. Kulturkritik im Essay der Weimarer Republik
Abstract: The present paper deals with the concept of distraction („Zerstreuung“) as expressed in several essays of cultural criticism written during the epoch of the Weimar Republic in Germany. Authors like Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch analyse in these essays the philosophical, aesthetical, sociological, and cultural dimensions of this concept of distraction which helps to understand the historical era of the Weimar Republic better with respect to both culture and society. Distraction in this specific sense not only means entertainment and amusement but also the sociological dispersion of the individual person in an upcoming mass society and culture. In an aesthetical sense distraction refers to artistic means like the emerging medium of the film which constitutes both a symptom of and a remedy for contemporary problems in society and culture. Side glances at the social class of the employees, at books of fiction during the Weimar Republic and at Georg Simmel’s cultural sociology round out these observations concerning the concept of distraction.
Keywords: Distraction („Zerstreuung“), class of employees, film, literature, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Georg Simmel.
Raluca Rădulescu – Tier- und Naturwelt als Projektionen eines idealisierten Selbst bei Franz Marc und Gottfried Benn
Abstract: The article aims to explore the way in which the aesthetical programme of the German Expressionism proves to be valid both in literature and in the visual arts. Thus, it focuses on two artists – Franz Marc and Gottfried Benn – that have never been compared with one another in an intermedial approach so far. One of the most important themes the Expressionism deals with is the self. By choosing representations of animals and nature as alternatives and symbols of a transfigured, better self in the works of Marc and Benn, the paper explores the interconnectedness between literature and arts in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century along with its aesthetic motivations and strategies.
Keywords: Franz Marc, Gottfried Benn, Expressionism, the animal, intermediality.
Klaus Schenk – Literarische und mediale Aspekte im Hörspiel der Weimarer Republik
Abstract: In the Weimar Republic an art of listening emerges, which can be determined on the one hand by the possibilities of literary forms of expression, on the other hand by its experiments with the new medium of broadcasting. Initially conceived as a live performance, the early radio plays are characterized by an ambivalence of their acoustic medium, which addresses of necessity only one intensively used sensory organ. Using the example of Hans Flesch’s Die Zauberei auf dem Sender (1924), Ernst Johannsen’s Brigadevermittlung (1929) and Eduard Reinacher’s Der Narr mit der Hacke (1930), the question should be asked of the importance of the radio drama in the media context of the Weimar Republic. What competitive and interference relationships do these early radio plays have with contemporary literature and the possibilities of its medium? Early drafts of a theory of radiophonic hearing must also be considered. How is the genre conceptualized in theoretical drafts of the time and what possibilities and limits are acknowledged in the radio magazines? Approaches to the development of a theory of the radio play usually go beyond the political and ideological camps. From this perspective, it is also important to consider the fatal misappropriation of radio as a central means of propaganda in the Nazi era. In addition, the influence of early radio play concepts on post-war poetic radio play will also be investigated.
Keywords: Weimar Republic, early radio play, theory of the genre, art of listening.
Christel Baltes-Löhr – Da war ganz schön was los! Geschlechterverhältnisse in der Weimarer Republik, dargestellt und analysiert anhand der Figur des Kontinuums
Abstract: Based on the representation of the continuum, the gender relations for the period around 1900 and especially during the Weimar Republic are being explored for instance in the areas of work and politics, then related to the ideas about the “new woman” and the “new man”, to the gay and lesbian movement and to the problem of legal status and the documented existence of transgender and intersex people, whereby the final analysis is directed at the year 1926. The article aims at demonstrating that, despite the wind of change blowing during the Weimar Republic, gender diversity ultimately remained indebted to the traditional polarity..
Keywords: Continuum, New Woman, New Man, Gender diversity, Weimar Republic.