GERMAN LITERATURE AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR: THE ANTI-WAR TRADITION
Ashgate Studies in
First World War History
Series Editor
John Bourne
The University of Birmingham, UK
The First World War is a subject of perennial interest to historians and is often regarded as a watershed event, marking the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the modern industrial world. The sheer scale of the conflict and massive loss of life means that it is constantly being assessed and reassessed to examine its lasting military, political, sociological, industrial, cultural and economic impact. Reflecting the latest international scholarly research, the Ashgate Studies in First World War History series provides a unique platform for the publication of monographs on all aspects of the Great War. Whilst the main thrust of the series is on the military aspects of the conflict, other related areas (including cultural, political and social) are also addressed. Books published are aimed primarily at a post-graduate academic audience, furthering exciting recent interpretations of the war, whilst still being accessible enough to appeal to a wider audience of educated lay readers.
Also in this series
British Battle Planning in 1916 and the Battle of Fromelles
A Case Study of an Evolving Skill
Roger Lee
British Infantry Battalion Commanders in the First World War
Peter E. Hodgkinson
New York and the First World War
Shaping an American City
Ross J. Wilson
An Historian in Peace and War
The Diaries of Harold Temperley
Edited by T.G. Otte
German Literature and the First World War: The Anti-War Tradition
Collected Essays by Brian Murdoch
BRIAN MURDOCH
University of Stirling, UK
First published 2015 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Murdoch, Brian, 1944 author.
[Essays. Selections]
German literature and the First World War : the anti-war tradition : collected essays / By Brian Murdoch.
pages cm. (Ashgate studies in First World War history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4724-5289-4 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-3155-8463-8 (ebook) ISBN 978-1-3171-2843-4 (epub) 1. World War, 19141918 Germany Literature and the war. 2. German literature 20th century History and criticism. 3. War in literature. 4. Remarque, Erich Maria, 18981970. Im Westen nichts Neues. I. Title.
PT405.M85 2015
830.9358dc23
2015016396
ISBN 9781472452894 (hbk)
ISBN 9781315584638 (ebk-PDF)
ISBN 9781317128434 (ebk-ePUB)
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements
This collection gathers together a series of papers published over the last twenty-five years, all concerned with German literature principally the novel of the First World War. Only minor typographical or factual corrections, plus some standardising of the references, have been made in those which are straightforward reprints, even though sometimes newer editions of works cited have since become available; where articles of my own that are mentioned in the notes are included as chapters here, this has been indicated. In chapters where German quotations were not translated in the original, (my own) translations have now been provided. (on Johannsens horse novel) in view of the recent popularity of Michael Morpurgos War Horse. Three chapters were published originally in German, and I have translated these into English; one, however, required some adaptation, since it was actually about translation, and contained explanations no longer needed in an English-language version. To the fourteen studies which have previously appeared in print is added an unpublished paper (prepared originally for a conference) on German writings produced during the war itself, many of which contrast with the later anti-war approach, in which admittedly imprecise, but nonetheless useful category most of the other works examined may be included. A general introduction attempts to give some indication of the many other writers who should ideally also have been treated in detail such as Ludwig Renn, Ernst Glaeser, Rudolf Frank, Alexander Moritz Frey, Theodor Plievier, Georg von der Vring and others and to underline the significance, too, of the whole range of writings which adopted a more positive attitude to the fighting (the most celebrated exponent being Ernst Jnger), although such writings are also very far from being homogeneous. Recent work on the literature of the First World War has extended the generic range of primary material (from letters, postcards and diaries to war memorials and popular songs), while recent emphases in historical and literary criticism have been on such areas as gender and sexuality, reception, memory and memorial, and interdisciplinary approaches. It is to be hoped that the introduction may update at least to some extent the secondary material used in the various chapters.
The central writer discussed is Erich Maria Remarque, whose Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) is not only the most familiar, indeed still the benchmark novel of the First World War, but also that fairly rare phenomenon, a serious work of German literature that is genuinely internationally known and read, one indeed where readers are even sometimes unaware of the original language; it remains probably the best-known landmark of German literature of any kind in English Goethe, Thomas Mann, Hesse and even Kafka notwithstanding (although claims might in the past have been made for Heidi, Bambi and The Swiss Family Robinson). Focus here is on its interpretation, but also on its reception and translation history. The chapters examine, too, a number of less well-known German novels (and a play) about the First World War, focusing especially upon those written in the great period of anti-war writing towards the end of the Weimar Republic, midway between the war supposed to end all wars and the new conflict. Eclipsed somewhat by the enormous success of All Quiet on the Western Front, some of the other works of the period and the great majority of them were translated into English between the wars remain nevertheless very much worth reading. Writers examined here include the prescient but now largely forgotten dramatist Hans Chlumberg, Ernst Johannsen, probably the first writer to focus upon a horse in the Great War, and the female novelist Adrienne Thomas from Alsace. Additional works looked at are the experimental novel of Edlef Kppen and Leonhard Franks novella exploring the effects of the war. Most of these writings were banned and burned by the Nazis. I am very conscious that Arnold Zweig is a particularly unfortunate omission here, and his importance justifies the inclusion of a very brief survey, at least, of his novels and the excuse:
