Germany – a peace-loving nation? A Pacifist Tradition in German Literature

Abstract

IT IS a commonplace, especially outside the frontiers of the country in question, that Germany is not a peace loving nation, indeed, from Tacitus onwards the belief seems to have been encouraged that a warlike spirit is the basic characteristic of the German peoples. No attempt will be made here to prove the contrary, and in particular the various peace movements in Germany and Austria will not be examined, not least because these have been more than adequately treated by Roger Chickering in an excellent book. What Chickering did not do, except parenthetically, was to examine the several important literary figures who also supported the pacifists' campaign. Yet the relationship between German writers and the state with regard to the question of peace is an interesting one, which is certainly worthy of serious treatment. Even as early as 1842 Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, had established a peace class within the order pour le mente and significant writers were included in it from the start.2 This was clearly not an order in which one would expect to fmd revolutionaries or 'Unruhestifter', but it is nevertheless encouraging to recognize among its members the names of established figures such as Jacob Grimm, Ludwig Tieck, Friedrich Riickert, August Wilhelm von Schlegel and Friedrich von Schlegel. Uhland rejected membership in 1852 because he falsely thought that it entailed acceptance of a title of nobility, which, following the events of 1848, would have been in conflict with his political beliefs and position. There was then a fairly long pause as far as election of writers to the order was concerned throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, indeed the order distinguished itself by reason of the very distinguished literary figures who were not elected, rather than by those who were. Theodor Fontane for instance was not elected, but Nobel Prize Winner Paul Heyse was. Then, apart from Gustav Freytag and Gerhart Hauptmann, no further writers were elected to the peace class of the order until 1952, when it was resurrected following the decided lack of interest shown towards it by the National Socialist regime. Those who came into the order then were Peter Huchel, Carl Zuckmayer (as a foreign member), Reinhold Schneider, Rudolf Alexander Schroder, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Werner Bergen-