Abstract
This paper examines an exemplary female diaristic approach to the bombing of Berlin between 1942 and 1945. The diary of Brigitte Eicke applies different literary strategies by which the narrator detaches herself from the threatening historical events. While the air warfare aimed at eliciting fear and panic from the civilian population, female diarists during the Second World War like Eicke developed literary strategies and technologies of the self to face the fundamental threat to life. Eicke’s precise and continuous account of air raids participates in a factual diaristic tradition preceding the modern intimate diary, such as official war diaries, sea and weather journals. Air raids are described similar to natural events, such as weather phenomena, which thus were naturalized. Furthermore, Eicke adopts an aestheticised view on the air raids, appreciating their aesthetic quality. This strategy of emotional detachment and the technique of omission may be traced back to the literary practices of the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit).
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