Geheimes Deutschland: Stefan George und die Brüder Stauffenberg by Manfred Riedel

Abstract

MLR, I03. I, 2oo8 28i terested in the relationship of art and literature, in the history of publishing, in the emergence of the avant-garde, and inbibliophile presses. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ROGER PAULIN Geheimes Deutschland: Stefan George und die Bruider Stauffenberg. By MANFRED RIEDEL. Cologne: Bohlau. 2006. 267 pp. E24.90. ISBN 978-3-4I2-07706-8. 'Geheimes Deutschland' ('Secret Germany' would hardly be an adequate translation) is a poem inStefan George's lastvolume of poetry,Das neueReich (1928). The term had been used before by members of theGeorge circle and by nineteenth-century exponents of theConservative Revolution. Its origins go back even further. Manfred Riedel illuminates the intellectual tradition towhich the term refers:George relent lessly rejectsGerman imperialism, definingGermany as a community of speakers of German, linked to other European peoples by a shared 'Hesperian' (abendldndisch) heritage (Riedel speaks of a 'Geheimes europiisches Deutschland'). At the core of this tradition stands a continuity of groups of friends (Dioscuri), ofwhich theGeorge circle provides numerous examples. Riedel argues that an integral part of this tra dition is the attempt by the brothers Stauffenberg to assassinate Hitler in I944. Understudied Gestapo records provide enough evidence for this refutation of Peter Hoffmann's claims in Stauffenberg und der 20. Juli 1944 (Munich: Beck, 1998) that George's influence on events a decade afterhis own death in 1933 was but tangential. With the possible exception of Eckhard Heftrich's Stefan George (Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann, I968), no other scholar has taken thepoet so seriously: poetry can help to predict historical processes, can be a form of, or at least a trigger for, individual or collective action, and itcan help us tounderstand those actions (pp. 25, 31, I38). H6lderlin's poetic visions of peace and reconciliation achieved through a mythical unity of friends are shown tobe fundamental toGeorge's 'political' ambition. Riedel does no less than redefine the relationship between George's resistance to supposedly inevitable historical processes (militarism, positivism), his productive interpretation of intellectual tradition, and themore immediate political potential of his poetry. Riedel points out, for example, that the prophet Jeremiah, central toGeorge's late work, was part of his people's tradition but also guilty of high treason. This provides a starting-point for a careful investigation into poems thatwarn against immediate political action but lead tomost decisive political acts. Riedel's narrative is also developed out of readings of other documents that have so far re ceived littleor no scholarly attention, including contributions to the circle's journal and yearbook and poems byKarl Wolfskehl, Alexander von Stauffenberg, and others. Riedel re-examines the role ofRudolf Fahrner, whose book on Gneisenau is seen as a manifesto of the resistance,with its insistence thatpolitical action is illegitimate if it isunsung. Riedel also shiftsattention tounderstudied aspects ofGeorge's biography: his unusual curiosity as well as the programmatic intimacy and modesty of his ap preciation of theyoung poetMaximin as divine apparition. Riedel shows theGeorge circle to be intellectually diverse yet always united by trustand friendship.He traces attempts after thewar byAlexander von Stauffenberg to contact Ernst Kantorowicz inBerkeley andWolfskehl inNew Zealand. The fact thatGeorge's thinkingis seen by some today as a precursor ofNational So cialism only emphasizes how deep thecaesura of theNazi erawas and how farremoved George's world is fromours. Riedel's book offers a bridge to thisworld. Allusions to contemporary issues (the dangers of political eschatology and of globalization) give evidence ofRiedel's ambition: he explicitly deplores the failure of theStauffenbergs' actions; in times of systems' intrusion on our individual liberty, the failed coup at 282 Reviews tempt is seen as a turning-point in the history of freedom. This is a remarkable and inspiring scholarly work whose central argument is certainly not 'academic'. DUKE UNIVERSITY CHRISTOPHE FRICKER 'Verwandt-Verwandelt': Nietzsche's Presence inRilke. By KATJABRUNKHORST. (Cur sus: Texte und Studien zur deutschen Literatur, 25) Munich: ludicium. 2oo6. 231 pp. E25. ISBN 978-3-89I29-476-5. Rilke's Poetics of Becoming. By BEN HUTCHINSON. Oxford: Legenda. 2006. ix+ 2I2 pp. ?48. ISBN 978-1-904350-53-8. The publication of twonew English-language studies on Rilke isawelcome indication of a revival of scholarly interest in this 'difficult'poet. Katja Brunkhorst makes...