The Literature of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Second Austrian Republic until 1968

Abstract

When hostilities ceased on 8 May 1945 Germany’s devastation was reflected in the state of its intellectual life — a situation which fostered the belief in a ‘Stunde Null’ or ‘year zero’ — a tabula rasa which permitted a totally fresh start. This view has however been revised recently by critics on the grounds that while the relatively small amount of writing which had a direct bearing on the Third Reich (marching songs, panegyrics to the Führer, etc.) was immediately forgotten, a much larger body of literature by authors who had made fewer concessions to Nazi ideology continued to be read. Many of these remained active, having merely modified their stance. There had been few works produced during the Third Reich which reflected the course of events according to the conventions of realism, and those who had cultivated Blut und Boden literature, colonial literature, literature on the fate of the Auslandsdeutsche (German minorities abroad) and historical novels and dramas on heroic figures from Germany’s past, could point in exoneration to a pre-Nazi tradition in all these genres. Further-more, much work without ideological bias had and continued to have a broad appeal to a middle-class reading public which looked to its authors, many now barely remembered (Wilhelm Schafer, Hans Carossa, Erich Kästner, Bernd von Heiseler, Friedrich G. Junger, Walter von Molo, Frank Thiess), for a certain high-minded escapism or light relief.