.! -t GOTTFRIED BENN: THE ARTIST ANp Pol,rrrcs (1910-1934) Thesis presented by Reinhard Otto Alter for the degree of Doctor of philosophy in the University of Adelaide. R.. O. Alter B.A. Hons. (aaer. Lg69) Ade Ia ide/trtunich April 1974. coTTFRrEp BENN. THE ARTTST ANp pOLrrrCS (1410-1434) Summary page i Statement IV Acknowledgements v Preface VJ- PART r: THE ARTTST (1910-1932) Chapter 1: Disestablishment and the Norm. Bennrs early Prose and Poet.ry 1 Chapter 2: Bennr s Artistic Ttreory (L92O-J-932) 46 PART TI: THE ARTIST AND Polrrrcs (rg2o-L934) Ctrapter polit,ics 3: The Artist and (L92o - March 1933 ) ZA chapter 4: Be.nn and National Socialísm (1933/34) (1) History and Creativeness IIT (2) Arr and rhe state r42 (3) Artistic Autonomy and National Socialism r59 Biblioqraphv 19T J- Summary Pärt I: The Àrtist ( rqro-lq3e ) Bennrs a::tistic theory in the rtwenties and early Ithirties is indissoluble from his cultural criticism; striving for artistic serf-determination or autonomy is invariably accompanied by an assaurt on the empiricar world from which the mind seeks release. This rerationship between culturar criticism and art had been prefigured in Bennrs early prose works; as a resul-t of their incompat- ibility with the intellectual and social norm (representecl by the personality-type of the "Herr" ), the protagonists of Bennrs early work calr up an imaginative "Gegenglückt' in which they reconstitute the empirical world according to the dictates of an autonomous imagination. The attainment of a level of consciousness which grants release from the strictures of the here and now is t'Gegenvorstellung" the object of Bennts antirationar and a precondition for its ultimate aim: artistic creativeness. Antirationalism is only the point of departure for Bennrs cultural criticism and arti-stic theory, however; his creative "Gegenvorstelrung" is opposed to a far broader spectrum than rationalism alone: art is subject to no extraneous empiri-ca1, social or poriticar determinants of any kind. The sociar and political world is relegated to an insignificant position in the scale of values in favour of the "primaryrr quarity of creative irrationarism. Artistic creativeness is expressed in terms of a denial- of the meaningfulness of history. PATI II: The unequivocar quality of Bennrs cultural criticism contains a strong tendency to think antithetj_carry and to posit a rerationship of mutual exclusiveness between political engagement and art. Bennrs serf-differentiation from the political world during the weimar Republic is accompanied by a refusar to differentiate between its individual components; these components are rel_ated l_ l- associatively and the complex whol-e they make up is rejected en k'Ioc. Benn sv/eeps the politieal grain away with the chaff" The dangers of his uncifferentiated approach to political realities become especíarIy evident in his position in the Prussian Academy during the early weeks of Nazi rulc j he sees himself as the "purerr artist opposing the (anti-Nazi ) activists in the literary world the types, he berieves, who wor¡ld submerge the artisti-c aims of the Academy in political ones. By late February 1933 Benn had begun to sympathise with National soci-alism as a form of cultural criticism of j-ts l-eft and left-liberal opponents. Bennrs "autonomous" principle and its tendency to adapt the empirical world to its own requirements facilitated the intellectr:aI short circuit which prevented him fronr see- ing historj-ca1 realities for what they were. He tried to see the historical movement of Nationar social_ism in Lhe same terms as other creati-ve (non-political_ and non- historicar ) events and associated the individuar aspects of his artistic theory the disjunctive nature of development, creative irrationalism, the "constructive" force invorved in artistic creativeness - with the Nazi movement. He found a curturo-critical common denomi_nator between his own vi_ew of art and National Soci_a1ism" But the same cultural criticism that allowed Benn to associate himself with the }Jazis is indissoluble from a principle of artistic self-determi-nation which militated against such an association" During t933/34 he repeatedly makes distinctions between hÍs own i_rrationalism, includ_ ing the "constructive" or "formar" principle, and National social-ist conceptions about the nature of creativeness. Furthermorë r he does not comply with Nazi ideas about "volk- haftigkeit" and the artist as representative of the idears of state and "volk". His effort to take National sociarism on his own terms involves him in self-contradi-ctoriness; it also involves a contradi-ction of Nati_onal socialism itself, particularly a contradiction of Nazj_ "curture " and its pretensions tc intellectc.¿a-r a*,J spiritual hegemony" Benn associated his own artistic theory and the cultural criticism it embodied with National socialism; but r_ rl_ he was also moved to defend the continuity he saw between his thinking before 1933 and during f%3/34 aqainst the Naz j- rág.ime. frls thesLa aonËafns Eû natert el nþ1eb hes basa ecøcptcil for th* ar*rdl of, ang othcr elegrsa er tltp1on¿ fu wr¡r eühcr tnl:rtrctÐ, te tbo bcst of Ðy lnnol¡{[,cdl.ga antl Þc].l.cf,r lt eou- tafna rre na,tarlal pravf,oucþ puÞILar}tcû sr trr'iften by a¡sotb¡r Irürson* cxcapü *hclr dluo rafÊrsn€t f.s saüs fn thç tcxË' A'de laide/'tunich april L9T4 V Acknowledgements f wish Lo express my appreciatåveness to Pnofessor Brian Coghlan of Li:e Department of, German in the UniversS"ty of Adelaide for his furtherance of my project and for his valuable counsel and patient encouragement. In equal measure I am grateful to him for his stimulation during my undergraduate years. I thank Dr. Dushan Stankovich of the sême department for readj-nq the early drafts and plans for the dissertation and for his com¡nents and criticisms. Professor Walter ¡,tül-ler*Seidet of the Universíty of Munich very kindly gave of his valuabl-c time in l9T2 to read chapter 1 and the outiine-sunmary for the final draft" Dr. Walther Huder of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin was most cooperative when I visited the Academy in f969 j-n order to read the records of the literary section of the Preußische Akademie der Kunste" I am also grateful to the Deutsches Literaturarch iv at Marbach for allowing me to quote from Bennrs Nachlaß" Thanks are due to the University of Adelaide for the university Research Grant which enabred me to spend 1969 in Germany and to the Australian Commonwealth for supporting me in Adelaide during fgTo/Tf with a Comrnonwealth post- graduate Award. I am Enateful to the German Fedcral Republic for granting mc a scholarship of the Deuts cher Akademischer Austar:,schdienst and making it possibre for me to spend f972/73 in Munich" Finally, r thank the staff of the rnter-Library Loans Department in the University of Adelaiders Barr-Smith Library for thein prompt and friendly help. vl- Preface "Verhalten und Außerungen Benris von 1933 und 1934 \^iaren ejndeuLig", writes Klaus Vond'unq j-n just lr) a book to hand.' ' Cent-ainly, it is an indi-spui"abl-e fact that for a year and a half Gottfried Benn openly l_ent hís hand to the National Soe ialist causc. But Vondungrs elaim (in his otherwise cornpetent book ) tfrat Bennrs clemeanour and his utterances during L933,/34 \Mere unequivocal j"s demonstrably farse. To demonstrate the ambivalence of Bennts posiLion under National- Socialism during f933/34 is one of the aims of this disscrtation" Another and related aim is to explore Bennrs artisÊ-ie theory from its points of departi-rre in Expressionism until_ 1933 and thereby to indi-cate thar his pre-1933 Lhinking contains impulscs which would just as readily suggest antipathy towards National- social- j-sm as sympathy with it: the ambivalence and even contradictoriness of Bennrs utter- ances in f9T/34 becornes apparent in the fact that he continues to profess his pre-1933 artistic theory during these years, whil-e at Lhe same time attempting to reconcire it with a politicatr- and cultural scene with which it is at variance. Thê detai.l-s c¡f Bennîs antistic theory and its complex relationship to the political world in thc late weimar Republic and during 1933//34 wil] be reserved f,or treatment in the main Lext. However, a word is cafted fon on the organisation and structure of the argument. rf Bennrs positi-on urnder National sociarism is to be treated in the light of his pre-1933 thinkinq, then the latter must obviously be discussed in sornc detair" This is the fr¡nctj_on of Part I e where Bennrs artistic theory is treated as objectively as possible; detailed inferences about its ideologicar procl-ivities are reserved for part rr " part r attempts above a1l- to establish the interrelationship (1) Klar-rs vondunE: e List Tasche nbucher der Geschichte ; Dokument und Forschung Å6n (uünchen, IgT3), p.l-42. v l_1, between Bennrs artistic theory and his culLuraI criticism. Part TI examines the functioning of what claims to be an autonomousr politieally imperviou.s artistic standpoint in the concrete politicai- context of. the Vüeimar Republic and the initial years of Nazi rule " The author is av¡are of the difficulties raised by the f.i-near, chronological Lrcatment he has chosen" He has attempted to off,set. this weakness, partially at least, by the use of cross_ref,erences in order to clarify thematic and chronological interconnexions fon the reader. It is hoped that the surnmary provided on p.i-iii above will be of some help. Bennrs "innere Emigrationrr after 1934 anci the circumstances of his withdrawal from public life are not treated.