Images of German Youth in Weimar Novels

Abstract

'Where does youth stand?' More than the title of a pamphlet by Leopold Dingrave, this was a question raised throughout the uncertain years of the Weimar republic. Sensing a profound failure in their own capacities, many adult members of German society embraced the idea that youth would be the regenerative force in their nation. But what might be expected from this young generation who, while untouched by responsibility for Germany's downfall, had grown up in the chaos of war, political disintegration and social upheaval? During the Weimar era, this and similar questions prompted a spate of pamphlets, articles and books which focused upon what we now call the generation gap and its effect on German society. Among the most popular forms of expression, and the most vivid, was imaginative literature. Novels depicting youth abounded in the Weimar republic, and their enthusiastic reception can be documented by the laudatory reviews and numerous reprintings of inexpensive editions. A significant number of such novels reflected the political engagement so common to the period and defined the crises of adolescence in the context of Weimar society. In recent years historians of the German youth movement and authors of psychoanalytic studies of Weimar youth have used these novels to provide illustrative examples for their work. Yet the novels provide both more and less than a mirror of social reality and, as such, bear further consideration as an independent historical source. While the engaged novelist indeed desires to portray reality, he does so not by taking surveys, nor by making statistical profiles, nor by detailed documentation. Rather, having experienced and observed social phenomena, he reflects upon their significance, focuses on those aspects of society that best convey his perception, and then