Der Eutiner Dichterkreis und der Nationalsozialismus 1936-1945: Eine Dokumentation by Lawrence D. Stokes (review)

Abstract

240 Reviews Der Eutiner Dichterkreis und der Nationalsozialismus ig^6-ig4^: Eine Dokumentation. By Lawrence D. Stokes. (Quellenund Forschungenzur Geschichte SchleswigHolsteins , 111) Neumunster: Wachholtz. 2001. 470 pp. ?36. ISBN 3-5290221 i-x (pbk). In its finest moments Lawrence D. Stokes's book succeeds as a microstudy of Na? tional Socialist Kulturschaffen in that it demonstrates the mechanics of the symbiotic interplay between the interests of the state and those of individual writers. It was in fact a politician who played a significant role in the foundation of the 'Eutiner Dichterkreis' in 1936. This was a man who had earned himself the moniker 'Lattenbohmcker ' in street brawls and who had a tendency to pour beer into pianos at SA festivities. It was precisely to rid himself of the reputation as a philistine that Regierungsprasident Bohmcker supported the initiative of the ambitious failed author Jochen Schmidt, whose aim was to bring together 'eine Reihe von bedeutenden niederdeutschen Dichtern und Erzahlern im norddeutschen Raum'. And ofcourse the authors were happy to accept invitations to weekends with free concerts, excursions, readings, Kajfee undKuchen, and all the rest of it. The better-known members ofthe circle (altogether about thirty) were Hans Friedrich Blunck, Hermann Claudius, Edwin Erich Dwinger, Gustav Frenssen, and Georg von der Vring; other members were successful authors ofMundartliteratur of all genres, but were largely unknown outside the realms of Plattdeutsch. Everyone involved benefited from the arrangements: the politician appeared as cultural benefactor, the ambitious Schmidt had a meaningful cause, the state retained its cultural facade, and the poets?what did they actually get out of it? The committed Nazis were a small minority: almost always the motivations were a mixture of opportunism, idealism, sympathy with certain National Socialist ideas, and pride inspired by recognition from above. It is one of the strengths of the book that in the short biographies, which constitute its longest chapter, Stokes emphasizes the contradictions so characteristic of artists' careers in Germany in the 1930s. The book begins with a brilliant essay by Kay Dohnke (Hamburg), who traces the development of 'norddeutsche Regionalliteratur zwischen Heimatkunstbewegung und Nationalsozialismus'. It has to be said, however, that Dohnke's intro? duction constitutes the only reliable theoretical component in the whole book, for Stokes himself too often fails to analyse the phenomena he documents. Thus the aim to establish 'ob der Eutiner Kreis zu Recht als nationalsozialistische Einrichtung bezeichnet werden kann oder ob er lediglich mit gewissen Zielen des Nationalsozia? lismus ubereinstimmte' (p. 65) is a false distinction which fails back behind research standards and even behind what the book itself demonstrates. It is also disastrously wrong to state that the imperfections of National Socialist control mechanisms, resulting from personal, institutional, and ideological frictions within the state apparatus, should have led to an 'erhebliches MaB an Freiheit fur literarischen Ausdruck'. Lack of totalitarian control must not be confused with individual liberty. It is hardly surprising that the Eutiner Dichterkreis presented itselfas the continuation ofthe Eutiner Kreis around 1800 when Graf Stolberg, Voss, Nicolovius, and Jacobi established a formidable intellectual circle. By devoting twelve irrelevant pages to this group Stokes appears to give the self-legitimization of its Nazi successors serious consideration, thus lowering himself to the level of Heimatforschung in the worst sense of the word. It gets outright ridiculous when Stokes claims that the 'grundlegenste' difference between the two Eutin circles was of a political nature because Stolberg, Voss, and the others, in contrast to their dubious successors, were 'Rassensklaverei, Ausrottungsfeldzugen und Klassenherrschaft gegenuber ablehnend eingestellt'. This is at best anachronistic, at worst it illustrates the abuse of language described by Victor Klemperer in Chapter 23 of LTI (3rd edn, Halle: Niemeyer, 1957). As a documentation, MLRy 98.1, 2003 241 Stokes's book is an achievement, but it is at times marred by embarrassing theoretical and linguistic blunders. The Queen's College, Oxford Stefan Busch German Children's and Youth Literature in Exile ig33-ig^o: Biographies and Biblio? graphies. By ZlataFussPhillips. Munich: Saur. 2001.318pp. ?110. ISBN3598 -11569-5. In the last few years there have been two major exhibitions devoted to the subject of German and Austrian children's and young people's literature, written, illustrated and...