GOTTFRIED BENN: the ARTIST Anp Pol,Rrrcs (1910-1934)

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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 incompatibility 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 seeing 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 "volkhaftigkeit" 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 utterances 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. However, the question of his post-194þ retrospect- ir¡e view of 1933/34 (especj-aIly in Doppelleben) i" raised briefly. It, too¡ belongs to the literature on Bennts National Socialist interlude " His self-interpretaLi,on quite understandably is lacking in objectivity; it also falls short in the matter of critical self-evaluation. But the studentrs task is not to compensate for Bennrs o\^/n errors of judgement by polemicar and affectir¡e broadsides such as have characterised much of, the secondary literature. The facts as they exist are indispensable if justice is to be done and insights gained with nespect to Benn and the very ticklish and fundamental problems which his case raises concerníng the ideological location of art" The author makes no pretensions to total success in either; but it. is hoped that he has at least succeedcd in asking some of the right questions "

unless ot,trerwise stated in the footnotes, the sources for a1l quotat.ions from Gottfried Benn are the four-volume edition of the cesammel-te l^Ierke edited by Dieter werlershoff and the volume Ausqev/äh-IlLe Br:i-efe edited by Max Rychner (see bibliography). euotations f:rom bo'r--h soll,rcÐs alre acknowledgeci r-n the text" rn the case of the Gesammei.i:e Werke, Roman numerals denote the vol_" no. and Arabic numerals the page no. The abbreviation rBr.t refers to v l_ l-J_

Lhe Ausqewählte Briefe" Where the author has added emphases to qurotations from Benn or the secondary literature, a not.e to this effect is provided in parenLheses. PART I

THE ARTIST ( 1910-1932 ) CHAPTER 1

Disestablishment and the Norm. gennts earlv prose and poetrv (19IO-l_92O) ï In Gottfr j-ed Bennrs f irst work of pr,ose f iction Nocturno (1913) are suggested some of the characteristie attributes of a personaliLy-type which trecurs throughout Bennrs work; Ein Trupp junger Männer kam" Froh, Iaut, voll beruflichen A,nsehens, denen wenig fehlschlug, Sie lachten und waren vorbei" (rr 8) This is the personarity-type which is soon to be designat,ed simply as the "Herr". The "Herr" is an "insider", part. of a social group. He is an extrovert and basically an optimist. He is definable in terms of the role in the above example the professíonar role - he prays in society, and he feels secure in this rol-e. He is "established'r not only in a professional- and social sense, however, but arso in a psychological sense" He is a "Hertr" abor¡e arr- ín his masterv of the world in which he lives; he is equipped to avoid ma jor crj-ses, is in control; ganz persönlich gehen diese HerrenJ Bewaffnet mit allen Erfordernissen, die Zusammenhänge z\ eT-- spähen, das ist unlogisch, rufen sie im Tón des Vorwurfs und sind sarrberl_ich und prompt. (f I 6T ) He appears to have conquered the world by means of his brain and the scientific methods it has evol-ved, in which he places his faith; Wir stehen über die welt verteilt: ein Heer: Köpfe, die bcherrschen, Hirne, die erobefnr-(rI 2gg) declares the Professor of pathorogy in Bennrs carly dramatic work rthaka (1914)" The "Herr" is at home j-n the world of causality, according to the principles of which he also directs his own personarity; his existence has an aim and a method: so that hjs tomorrows follow logically from his yesterdays and his life progresses confidently in an unbroken line; Ìre has a "continuous" psychology which is furly compatible with the "kategorialer Raum" in which he lives: Da trat ein Herr auf ihn z\1, und ha ha, und schön wetter ging es hin und herr vcrgangenheit r¡nd zukunft eine I,{eile im kategorial-en Raum" (f I 34) -2^

The above quotation j-s taken from the novella Die _Bejlqq (f9f6); it. descrj-bes a meeh..ing hetween Rönne" rhe protagonist of the novella, and a "Herr"; it contj_nues; A,ls er [the rHerrr ] fort war j taumelte Rönne. Rönners situaLion is similar to that of the sub-iect of Bennrs f.irst novella Nocturno" Here too the rr Herren" app,ear to mor¡e in another worrd, whích tets itself be seen and heard but quickly flashes by; Sie lacht.en und waren vorbei. (f r B) such separateness from, as wel-r as incornpatibiriry with Lhe "Herr" and his world is characteristic of the prot.agonists of Benn's early prose work. Rönne, in the novella-cycre cehirne (tgt5/t6), is definabte substantiaJ-ry in terms of his po-ì-ariry to the "Herr " j the latter is everything whieh Rönne j_s not" unlike the "Herr", Rönneras the noverra Gehirne indicates, feels insecure in his professional existence; this is due above all to the critical state of his cogniLive faculties: he feels that his brain has forsaken him and hence that he is impotent to make sense of reality, 1et alone to influence it; Es schwächt mich etwas von oben" reh habe keinen Halt mehr hinter den Augen. Der Raurn wogt so end- los; einst floß er doch auf eine stelle " zerfar* 1en ist die Rinde, die mj.ch trug" (rr 16) Rönne's psychology is poles apart from thc profound self- confÍdence of the "Herr", "der verwurzert.e, der unersehüt{:;er* lj-cher'. (rr 34) Benn characterises hj-m Ín ret-rospect in his Lebensweq eines fntellektualisten (fç:+), Wir erblicken al_so hier einen Mann., der ej-ne kon* tinuierliche psychorogie nícht mehr in sich trägt" seine Exi-sLenz innerharb und außerhalb des Kasiños ist zwar e ine ein.zige wunde von verlangen nach dieser kont_inuierlichen psychologie, " ;. aber er findet aus konstitutionell-én crüñden ni_cht nnehr zurück. (rv 36) rn his desperate efforts to l_ive on the terms of the world of the "Herr", to integrate himself i_nto the "kategorialer Raum" of the laLter and to achieve his "continuous', psychology, Rönne is in striking contr:ast to the "Doppel- reben" of the later Benn, whom we know as unequivocarry antagon.istic to the kind of existence for which Rönne is "eine einzige wunde von verlangen" " Gottfried Benn was anything but "one of the boysrr, which is the role in which Rönne -3-

imagines himself in the following passage from the n,ovel_l_a Ire_Erc¡e-ryqs (rgr5): Nun wurde er gar ein Jäger, eine starke, g.eschlossen,e Gestalt" Er scheute sich..nieht, durch grüne Joppe und Hornknöpfe Aufschtuß über sein ceweibe jedem vorübergeheñden zu. geben Er erzahrte in einem qrößeren Kreise von dem Sechserbock, wie er den Drilling an die Backe nahm er nickte bedäehtig, schütterte mit dem Kopf und sprach sLarken ALems in die rauhe Morgenluft, kurz., €r war der geachtete Mann, d9* im,.umfang seines Faches verLrauen, zukam, eine bodenstândige Natur, feste:n sehritLes und auf* rechÈer Arr. (rr 25) The protagonist.s of Bennrs early prose work, however, i-n their efforts to exist on the terms of the worl_d of tire "Herr", reveal the extent and nature of their incompatibility wi-Lh it"; this in turn illuminates the early developmenL of Bennrs later "Doppelleben" - his doctrine that a modern artistrs exi-stence as an artist must be based on a refusar- to exist. on the terms of the "established" world of the "Herr"; a doctrine which is clearly prefigured in Bennrs prose weirk, around L92o where, in essayistic form, expression is gi_ven to what might be considered the upshot of the experiences of the protagoni-sts in the earry novell_as, to whom we shalr now turrr our attention in more detail_.

rn Die Eroberuns (1915) nönne makes hj_s rnost sustained effort at" integrating himself inLo the worl-d of the ',Hetrn',; he actually casts himself as a "Herr". But- fi-rst he must_ practise himself in the clarity of perceptíon whích is basi-c to the latter's self-confj-dence. He spends some time in a cafd, whieh is described i-n terms which emphasise t"he unambiguous¡ sêlf-evident quality of the objects i_n it: e"g. the tables, the chairs, the picture on the warr" The cafd represents the "kategoriater Raum" i-n whi-ch the "Herr', ås at home. Here Rönne for o'ce managÉrs to survive, even t.o fec] secure:

er fühl.te, wie er wuchs und still ward¡ so küh1 umstanden von lauter Dingen, (rr 2r) die geschahen This is a rare feat for Rönne and, on leavJ_ng the café, he 4-

does not suffer from the feering of "unterr,vürfj_gkej_trr which is so charact-eri-stic of him - as for exarnple in a e,cmparabJ_e episode from Der ce rt staq (1916), where he is .Ieaving a tar¡ern: Er bezahlt,e rasch und erhob siah. Aber an der Tür nahm er den Bl-.i-ek noch einmak"r"ãt an, das Dunkel der Taverne, an die Tí.sehe und Stühte, ar¡, denen er so qeti-tLen hatLe untl .i.rnmer wieder leiden würde" (ir óo) Tn Dre Er þerunq Rönne leaves thc eafd wit-]l a e,ortain feel_j_nq of tniumph; he feels that he has "conquered" his e:nvirelnrn€nt, that he has as it were taken possession of it, as the repeatrld possessive adjeetj_ve indieat.es : Sein waren díe Gassen, für seine cänge, ohne nemütigung vernahm er se:iner sehrit_te widerhal-l_. (rr 22) rn su^¡ívíng the "kategoriarer Raum" of the cafeí, Rönne has survÍved the sphere in wh.iah the "conti-r:.uous " psychorogy of the "Herr" is at ho¡ne" He feels pnepared Lo take a parti-eÍpat._ ory role in the ratLerrs worrd, to adjust hi¡nself to the ternpo and style rrestabl-ished" of the personaliLv" He feels "erinqe* ebnet" and performs the fi::st of a seric¡s,!)f aati-ons whi.eh suggest at. ön,ee a purposeful exi-s.benee and a s€tLs.i that_ th..i.s existence for¡ns part- of a rnore general scheme whÍeh rnot-ir,,ates and legitimizes the actions of the indi-vidual: eingeebnet rüntte er si-eh in das schr_enkenn der Arme eines rvrannes, der hash-i.g über die straße sehürnr von einem ziet" -(li-zâj' schritt, This ¡narks the beginning of Rönners "part:-cipatory,, rc¡re as a "Herr"" But who is thc man "dör hast.ì_q über die straße sehrittrr? Tt is no{: spereified whethr¡r: j.u j-s Rönne¡ or" another manj or both" why the use of an apparentry extraneous figure? j-s - Rönne either imi-taf ing the aeLions of a real- person or he is eonjurj-ng up such a per-son:rLn his mind. Either wây, he feels i't necessary to objeetify Lhe personarj_ty-type with which he wants to identify himself ; he needs to provJ-de himself with a model, rear or irnagi^ed. His aeLions, in .i-*hcr words, do not spring from hi-s own psycholog-,, j he direehs his ì:rody i^ accor<1a.n,ce r¡¡:i-.bir a prototype wh."!-ch is forei_gri to hi_s own nat.ure. This can be seen also in the descript.ion of his -5-

raeial expressions-" whi-eh he eonseiousJ_y con,b.rors; *r _"_. . gtättete seín.e Zrige ¡ ürlt s j.c= geJ-egent: l:-eh offer:l.bar aufz*eken zltr l_ãsser, lir 22 auLhor's emphasås ) "Offen]:ar" i-ndicates, too, thaL Rönne Is ar/¿a-re of l:is pubti.,e, that he ís, quj-be rit-eratry, .aeting. Riir:.ne ean never be a "Herr", he can onry pretend j and e\.,er this causes hj-¡n difficuity there is a sense of strain i_n his ef,fort to pass himserf of f as sornething as banar as a winerow-shoppen: weich und mahlend bewättigt.e er dåe sehaufenster durch Gedanken über cegenõtände., i" d¿;. iäã;;; " stand herum prüfendetr Brickes, als beabsiehtíqe er ein.zukaufen, ----"'-: ging weiter " ". (rr Z?_)- The polar-ity beLween Rö:nne and the prot,ctype of Lhe r:est.abrished,, personatity on whieh he tries i--o rnodel himsel_f is further suggested in the kinctie tenel:gf ¡ .f-s i-t werel, vzith v¡hieh (1) he f li-ngs h.i-mself into the exi-stent-i.:- ¡nour-cl e¡f the r_atter: Hart herap an Gangart Gesichtsausdruek anderen 'uad von (¡¡ to\ Mà:-,n*rn trat €r¡ schroß sich dcm an :"". \rr .¿ ) Rönne, in his crit.j-car awareness of -bhe l_aek of, a psych.oloq:j-cal and wel-tansahêllich frannework, i-n his feelinE of arnorphousncss (tfre name "Rönne ", with j-ts assoe ia.Li,ons of ,,rinï.].en,,, j-s itself suggest.ive of the "zerfl-ícß1¡-cÌ:ke:-l-,1r fnom whieh Rö^n.: suf,fers in Gehirne ) throws himsetrf at. the reeognizable ou.bwarcl forms of Lhe and. "Herr" i",opes thaL he wiil adhere. Rönne, ån, ef,feet, type*casLs himsel-f," But there is an ironic eorrtrast r=retwee¡l t_he "irlner,, rnatrl,, t'he real- Rönne, and pers,cnaJ-ity-bype j-yr the "¡lr1ose :eor-e Ï¡e i.¿as cast hi-rnself " He perforrns the part r:f a for:getfut eitizen; Ei-nen betebten großen pratz vor]ends nahm er wah_r, urn plötzr-iich stéhenzubleíbenj erschrocken mit der Harrd an die sti-rn zu. fassen und den Kopf zv teln; nein, zu ärgerlichJ .nun hatLe er etwas=.rrül- ver'geissen; entfar-len war ihm eLwas, das za tun ihm obtag (rr 23) The gesture "erschrocken mi-t. der Hand an d"te st.irn. zu fassen,,,

(1) rloes not .refer to a i-t. is used irr t-he re "l-at:,.i_l"e :ö t-1re II; po.l_it j_;aI.) envix.,r-,- -6-

made by the "Herr" Rönne as a conventional s-i,gnal eif a.nnoy-- ance at his forgeLfulncss, is ironic when we reealr Rö:iners critical colìcern with "Gehirne" t,hroughout the nov€lla*eyele of t-his name - as for example his broodíng ín the novel_la Gehirne; Es schwächt mich etwas von oben Zerfallen i-st die Rinde, die mi-ch Lrug (rr 16, ef. p"z abãve) or his questioning: wenn die Geburtszange hier ein bißchen tief,er i_n die schtäfe gedrücki. trätte immer über eine bestimmte st.elre des Kopfe= ;;-- schlagen hätte ? was ist es denn måt den. Gehirnenf (rr :_Br" ) rn contrast, the "Herr" j-s unaware of any possibre disLrinbanee i-n the functioning of his brain and cer-ltral nervous syst.cnn _ he does not suffer rrzentrale from the zerstörur.,,g, whiah Bcrr:¿l later attributes to Rönne (rv 3o)" He puts his hand to hi-s head merely as a neflex action¡ äs an indication of his annoy_ ance at a momentary aberration - he could equally have slapped his thigh. The "Herr" is fundamentally intact - not onry intellectually, but socially as well j he earries withj-n hirn* self a set of priorities according to whicli. he makes deeisj_ons and avoids major crises. "pflicht" heads the rist of tÏ¡.erscr priorit.i-es, and it calrs fort-h deeisi-ve acLron: ein vc:rsäumnis vor, das t-rc¡b-z a.rrer bevc¡r* stehenden Verabredungen'ag des Abends nachzuholen ihm die prricr't ger"[. ";";;;ü;r;;h-r;å;i;;ä.-h;; erübrigte sich. Es hieß l"tz|,-d¿r umkehr i.ns Auge sehen und vor-rbringeñ, *"å er-nmar- af,s rechb erkannr. (rr 23) In his imagination Rönne has made the pri.orities of ther "Herr " his own. Else Buddeberq sees in thjs a contrast with Rönne in the novel_l_a Gehirne" She wrj_tes: Unleugbar zwar lie gt Vergessen vor - aber wer ver- gißt und sj_ch erinnert, der beweis.b nicht Kontinuität nur; sondern umkehrend, sj_eh bekenn.end zu dem, was man sich vorgenommen haLte , betätigt" man Ordnung, ganz im Gegensatz zu dem sieh auflösenden Pf l-ichtenk reis des Rönne in Geh ne " (2)

(2) Else Buddeberg : GgËffrf_eg Be4n (Stuttga::t, p. 14" l96t ) , -7* Btrt the contrast is not be'tween Rönr:e in GeÀi,riL_q and Rönnr: in Q.!5--Ðroberunq. The contrast is hetwcen Rönne and L.he ::orer in whic,h he has casL him-self ; between Rör,rne and the ,'Herr,,., This j-s .i-*o contrast central the novet]a; it wj-l1 be of great ímpontance when eonsideri-nq Bennrs orúi.:. posi_tion in rel_at.j¡_cr¡, to the "Herr" (of " p'11-14 below) and to the int"_e.tl_ee.t.ual ¿rnd soeia] he "norm" relpï:esents. rn GehireË Ràrnne \^/as unak;rl,:: to earr'' 0u' his role as a doctor j-n reality; ín D_ig_Er<É.sË,r;tq he can aef ou+¡ for a t.Íme an i-magined ro.re as a ,,Herr,,pr*-_ cise ly )")ecauise t-here is no "pflicht.er:kr.eis,, wt.btrr whieh he¡ has t'o contend ín realíty. Rönne ir.as not f,orgott.ern ary._h'riq, there are no a.r:d appointments for the erzenS-ngj ttre el-årnax decisj-on of hj-sr "der Umkehr ins Auge i=,r] sehen und v,ollbringenr eÍ'mar was als rechL É:rkaRnL", of the almost bureauerat.ieaJ-tr_y expressed musings , ofr "pf licht, ( das zu tun i_hrn oblag u.rlvcrzuLElich nachzuholen ihm die pflieht gekroL. erübrigbe Weit.rtrq(::jheî. sich " ) and of the hi-gh-so'nding pnecep.s he puts into wh.'err the mouths of the people he innagines o.bserving, him ("j" ja, so ist das Leben - man erzieht sich se,lbst _ man muß manches opfern - aber nur den Kopf nicht si_nken r_assen erhebt die Herzen sursum corda - der gestirnte Hinune' dienende c1ied") - clas the climax¡ oï. raLher: the anti-e.rimax of ai-1 this a'd of Rönners excited tur^ing baek Lo fur_fil his "duty" is:

Er bog .i_n e in Friseurgesahäft und j_ch den pflege" (rr 2j) unte Ezaq s rn reLrospect, Rönne as ä "Herr" takes on a sornewhat fare:-caî aspeet. The worlcl-víew of the "Herr", as re._r,rr=al-eicl in th. precepts or er-ichás whieh - Rönne puLs into the rnouLh.s .rf; t'he cib'izcns around I'Begri-ffe him, these aus denn Lebeiisl¡/eg eines Herrn" (ll 2B') , to borro\^¡ an expressie¡r¡ from Rörine in Di-e R€ise.j are revealed as profoundly i_nrerevant for Ronners own beharzi_our " rn thre ,arber*shop nönne c'ontinues his inner rnono'-ogu,r" He consoridat-es in his mind "die d.r vernun t.,,, i"e' Lhe inbelleet.ual foundaùions',virkungsweise ,,Her-tr,,, of the .ìpon wh:[-c!:. d "contj-nuous " psyehology j.s built,: Man ,nuß Tlit-¡: an alles, \^/âs _vermogen, es mit fnütrreren bringen und es unter allge das ist die Wirkungsweise -B-

But again we ar€ reminded that thi-s way o.E thinkj-ng is not natural to Rönne j it beÌongs tr: anoilre:r worJ_d, wh:_el1 hre; rnus,L recall; desscn entsi_nne ich mi_ch. Ronners existence in the world of the "Hertr" is artifi-cia]" I'artificiaJ-ity" A certain in r.lation to the evenyday world of the "Hern" is evidenL also j-n the "Doppel_]eben,' of the later BuÊnr" rt is, however, not the dinect resul_t of the fail.lre of an at"tempt to make effectivc-- contact wi-th this world¡ às in the case of Rönne¡ in Di_e Eirobe: rung. The later Benn advocates the voh-lntary "acti-ns out" of a role in errder to avoid bej-ng defined in terms of, the. intellcctual- and socåal mi-lieu into which nönne stnove to åntegrate hi_rnself " ExLern_, a1ly Benn accomodates himsclf to this world - but only i_n order lÇEave to thte "inncr man" free to exist on his own tc.îrms,

in the manner of the narrato:: J-n we_l ¡ nhar: s Wolf (r-e37 ) ; of fne deåne Bricke nu,r der Nacht n de,.s Tags enhcbe das Glas auf das Wohl- den Hernen.o nespriöh mit den Damen die zur Diskussion stehenden thãmen und raß Brumenmädchen nicht vorbeå-" entnin*n ihm stnäuße" 9::(rr 151) Here B'ênn (rite Norr.ri=¡(3) expresses bhe private sphere of, .t.hc, "innen" man and everyday.relality tn te¡:ms of night and da1.r f,espect5-vely" rn ¡-ie e.ro¡erürg, too, Rön-ners role,. as a ,,Hetr,a,, takes place bcfonte darkness has set _tn. sr_r.dclenry, dt night* fall-, he drops this trol-^ and enters a woz:ld of ,,Rau,seh,,, whose "causality" is more in the natuLre of drcam than of, v¡ak-.t=nq consciousness " Rönne no l0nger models himself on a given, external pattern of behaviour; he exists on his own terms, as the nanrator in WeinhAus Wolf adrz6s¿lss " But unlike the _t-atte:r, Rönne has spent the last hours before dark_ness trying to s€rÉ) and experj-ence the world entircly on the tre¿"ms of the ,'He,rtr,,. Arso unlike the nar:rator in weinhar.is v{q.r:[, Rðnne se€is in the.r "81'umenfrau" and her watres an opportunj-ty to make soreÉ.ì kind esl. contact the-- with everyday rife they ::epresent_; he m

(3) Furrher to Benn and Romanticism see Edgar Lohner; und Inte 1 kt.. Di-e Lyrik Gott fried Benns (ueuwied l-96 pp.214, 1). 242.t " -9-

Die Orchidee, lachte er selbstgefäffi-g, die e1üte des heißen Afrika, der Liebling der Sammler, der Gegenstand so mancher Ausstetlungen des In- und Auslandes, jawohl, ich weiß Bescheid, jawohl, ich bin nicht unkundig, selbst zu einem Fachmann fände ich Beziehungen. (rr 24) But, ironicall.y, the flowers themselves, "brau wie stücke der Nacht, mit orchideenbündeIn, weichen Zusammenfl-usses aus HeIl- blau und orange", are described in terms which refer to the I'night" unconscious or side of Rönners existence, where the colour blue plays a prominent part (cf. p.24f.. below). Rönne and the "Herr" are combined under the apparently victorious ,private, banner of the ratter, since Rönners world of dream and "Rausch" are presented in an overtly social and empirical t'victory" context. But, as we know, this is illusory it takes place only in the melodrama which Rönne is acting out. The real "Eroberung" takes place during the night, the onset of which, signifi-cantly, is described as 'rwirkl_ich" (." opposed to Rönnets daylight role as a I'starke, "Herr", in the shape of the geschrossene Gestaltt of a hunter): Arrmählich aber war die Nacht tiefer geworden und schloß ihn ein. Nun schwolr wirkl-ich um ihn--der ward. (rr 25) rmages of fertility - breasts, sexuar- intercourse, pregnancy predominate: Er aber spürte den Drang, sich abzuflachen auf die Erde, die Zuckungen, daÃ- Zusammen"ti8*."-""a den Aufwuchs, und ptötztich stand vor ihm die schwangere : breites, schweres Fleisch, triãiena von säiren aus Brusr und Leib ... - (il-'äOt-t--" Ttrese images are in obvious contrast to "Herr" Rönne,s efforts to fit himself into the pattern of the bourgeois personarity as he sees it. Finally comes the morning, "rot und siegreich". The titre "Die Eroberung", in other wordsr does not signify Rönnef s apparent mastery of the world of the ,,Herr,, ; and stirr less does it signify the conquest of Brussels by the German army of r,vhich nönne (and Benn in 1915) is a member in worl-d war r. rn Die Eroberunqr ês throughout Bennrs work ("f . chapters 2 and 3), nationalism ranks low on the scale of values. The satirical dramatic work Etappe (F'eb., LgI5, the same year as Die Eroberunq), for example, is singularly lacking in patriotic fervour on Bennrs part. The action takes prace ,,in -l_o_

e l_ner eroberten provinzr' (rr 3o4); through Privy Councillor Prof. Dr. med. Paschen Benn makes his ironic comment on the virtues of military victory: Etappensi"g, gewonnene Sch1acht, eine Kulturtat al-lerersten Ranges: Die nröffnung der ersten deutschen Strumpffabrik, (rr 305) rn the same work Prince vichy is an even more eloquent witness to the gulf separating Benn from the more representative sentiments expressed by Thomas Mann in 1914, who praises "diesen große In], grundanständigen, ja feierlichen vol-kskrieg''. (4) o" against this, Bennrs prince Vichy: Gut geschlafen, ausgeschnaubt und Ine syrische Zigarette in der Schnauze--es geht noch immer I n Schlacht ist auch nicht ohne. (rr 3r5) Rönnets "Eroberung", then, is a "conquest" nej-ther in an intellectual, nor a social, nor a miritary sense; it signifies the victory of the unconscious over the empiricar kind of consciousness which rej_gns in the "kategorial_er Raum" of the "Herr " . Rönne celebrates the victory of "blood" over "brain" - an impression which is reinforced by the redness of the dawn and the emphasis on the \^romanrs body as opposed to her "magerer, verarmter schädel" (rr 26). Ronnels "Erobe rungr " is akin to what his namesake advocates nine years r_ater in Ale qe anderzu mitte s !{a11 en (tgZ+) where, having categor- ically rejected the worrd of the "Herr", he enjoins: auf , wir wollen die lt7elt erobern, Alexander- züge mittels Wallungen Even a cursory reading of the final pages of Die Eroberunq, where Rönnefs "warlungen" find expression, wil]_ ,existential" reveal not only a psychorogicar and devi-ation from the real, empiricar worId, but also an artistic one: not onry does Rönne cease to modet himself al_ong the psychorogical lines of the "Herr", but the language in which the experiences of the "new" Rönne are described represents a departure from the logical and syntactical patterns of conventionar ì_anguage. we will- return to this question presently and note some aspects of Bennrs early prose as "expressi-ve" rather than "representationalt' writing. But first we wirl continue the discussion of protagonists the of Bennrs earry prose work and

(4) Erika .Utann, ed. : Th s lvla nn. Brie fe 1BB9-1 936 (¡'rank- furt, 196r) , p.112 - 11-

their deviation from the established prototype of the "Herr" - beginning with some observations of a more general nature on Die Eroberunq and then referring to the novella Dies ter- \des (1918 ) and Bennrs essayistic work around I92O. III

The absence of anything which could be interpreted as authorial comment may partly account for the diametricarry opposed interpretations of Die Eroberunq by Else Buddeberg and Dieter werlershoff. Buddeberg, writing on the "Rönne"- cycle as a whole, asks herself: hat Benn schon hier eine erfundene Gestalt dazu benutztr ürrì an deren höchst skuril Isic] gezeichneten Erhaschen-Wo1len von'Wirklich- keitenr banalster Art das Schemenhafte des gängigen wirklichkeitsbegriffs zrt ironisieren - und damit ganz generell die Wirklichkeit der bürgerlichen welr in Frage zn sretleni iti This, she continues, would mean "Annahme von rronie als stir- (6) mittel : Brechung Benn-Rönne". she discounts this possibility: Die rronie ars stilmittel wird man nicht anzusetzen haben. rhre Handhabung verlangt eine gewisse ü¡erl legenheit auch..gegenüb9r eigenen zentrãren anliegen. Davon kann zunachst kein: Rede sein. Das existen- tierle Betroffensein dessen, der hier schreibt, wird durch seine rerfundener Figur hindurch geiadezu penetrant tütrt¡ar. (T) " The "Rönne"-novellas, in other words, are "eine mehr oder weniger direhte Darstellung /O \ der Not Rönnes . , die die Not \o; Benns istr'. on this basis Buddeberg proceeds to discuss Die Eroberunq. Dieter wellershoff, on the other hand, writes of the same novel_la: Benn benutzt Rönne zu ei-ner ironischen Demonstration, rär¿t ihn die welr des Herren neu ;;;-il;Höã"-""a abtasLenr urTl ihre phantomhaftigkeit sichtbaí zv machen. Der Anschlußversuch réstätigt das nntl fremdungserrebnis; denn was Rönne géwinnt, ist nur eine Anhaufung sinnroser Tatsachen, durch auriiige Begriffe gebündelt und verknüpft, ist die tote Fakten_ welt des Empirismus. Als eine gestal_trose ninöde

(5) Buddeberg: Gottfrie d Benn t op. cj_t., p.lO. (6) rbid. ft) Ibid. , p. I1. (B) Ibid., 'p.10. -12-

erscheint sie, behaust von Gespenstern, die geschäftig Einzelheiten mj-teinãnder verbinden, Herren, die auf die lftrr blicken und irgendwohin mussen. Hier setzt Benns Kulturkritik an, sein protest gegen die Profanierung der Welt durch den Auf- klarungsprozeQ (9 ) I¡IellershofEr--no doubt because he onry mentions Die Eroberunq in passirg, restricts himsel-f to general remarks and does not substantiate his claims. Buddeberg arrives at her conclusion before analysing the novellas and relies too heavily on Bennrs comments on Ftönne in 1934 in Lebensweq eines ïntel_ lektua listen. Certainly, Bennrs early work substantiates Buddeberqrs claim as to his "existentielleIs] Betroffensein", i.e. his criticar awareness of the rerativity of all things, his sense of spiritual and intellectual impotence, his inability to identify himself with the prevailing Wel-tanschauunq of his time. Rönne suffers from si_milar mal_adies. unlike Fönne, though, Benn himsel-f nowhere expresses the desire to identify with this prevailing trlel-tanschauuns. on the contrary, he exposes its optimism as shallow, its "progress" as illusory and its foundations as serf-decej_t e.g. in such poems as I¡Iir gerieten in ein Mohnfeld (1913), the five Nacht_ café poems (I7IZ-I914), per Arzr (publ. fgfT) or in rhe dramatic work rthaka (1914), where the professor of pathology, one of those "Köpfe, die beherrschen, Hirne, die erobern" (.f. p.1 above), is physicalry attacked in the best traditions of Expressionist drama and hj-s materialistic world-view rejected in favour of the unconscious of "Traum", "Rausch"_, Dionysos (rr 3o3). - And in I9L5 Etappe castigates the val-ues of those same "ekerhaft geschäftige Mitterstände" (rr 3lJ) which Rönne (not BennJ ) emulates in Die Eroberunq. The question which Dr. orf , the "hero" of Etappe, asks of the ',Herren, with respect to their confidence in materiaJ_ progress; wor-It ihr noch kaltes Land erobern? (rr 32o) gives an indication of Bennrs atÈitude to Rönners efforts at playing the part of a "Herr" in Die Eroberunq. The various ironic contrasts poj-nted out above between Rönne and the ',Herr,,

(9 ) Dieter wellershoff: l_e t ser Ei die en SE Ullstei Bucher We n Frankfurt Ber1in, 19 t p.t9f -13-

whose rore he was trying to pray further suggest the wrongness of unreservedly equating Rönne with Benn. wal_ter sokelrs statement, for example, that "phil-istinism appears as un_ attainabre br-iss to Benn-Rönr.""(1o) is mj-sreading in that it admits the interpretation that philistinism appears as un_ attainabre briss to Benn hi-mself . rf the formur_ation "Benn_ Rönne" is to have any meaning at all, it must be restri_cted to the Rönne at the end of Die Eroberung - to the Rönne who exists on his o\¡/n terms, independently of the "categoricar_,, and social world of the "Herr". sokerrs formul_ation is not valid for "Herr" Rönne the impersonator. The "continuous" psychology of the "Herr,,, the con- sequentiality of hi-s existence as Benn presents it through the eyes of Rönne, his seÌf-evident, determi_nate relationship to the empirical world are reveared as totalry foreign to Rönnels nature. This incompatibility is not reveared through the medium of an objective observer; there is no authorial commentary or anarysis. Benn eschews the psychol0gical and sociological mechanisms of Naturalism and, indeed, the con_ ventions of the more traditionally "realistic" narrati_ve forms. such treatment would presuppose a degree of faith the on authorrs part that man and the world are explainabre in empirical terms. Benn was not of this opinion. Arthough he utilises the ,,Herr,,, empirical, sociar world of the he does not do so on the terms of or according to the principles of the l-atter j the artistrs approach according to Benn is, in a broad sense, critical - he deforms, stylizes or creates ne\^/ combi-nations. He does not "represent" or rrrefr_ect,, what is given. fn Die Erobe runcl Benn is not represented by Rönne alone, but by the situation expressed in the novella as a whole - by the "innere Grundlage' of the work, to borrow formulation a of Bennrs included in some remarks he made in l-937 on the work of Thomas wolfe. They are remarks which throw at least as much light on Rönne's situation as do Bennrs oft-quoted comrnents in b e te ,!_en. As is frequently the case wj_th Bennrs comrnents on othêr

(fo) walter H. sokel: t T a Paper cks New York , McGraw- 11 oronto t 1964) , p.89. -14-

\^/riters, they are as much a self-commentary as a commentary on the subject under discussion: die Lagerung ist meistens so: erstens etwas Bestehendes, ein Milieu, etwas schon Allgemeines, sozial und individuell_ Typisches, geschichtlich Angelagertes und zweitens das andere, das noch Lucken und Schwachen hat, auch noch Kindlich- keiten, das noch erlebt. Dies wird nicht zrt Kon- flikten verarbeitet, problemen, Entwicklungsab- Iäufen und ähnlichen Buchvorwänaen, sonderñ aie Kontraste ergeben sich aus dem Ausdruck der inneren Grundlage, aus dem Stil. (fv 266) It is the "innere Grundlagerr of Die Eroberunq which we have been consldering: Rönners incompatibility with the world of the "Herr", the farcicality of his efforts to exist on the psychological terms of the latter or to pass himself off convincingly as a member of a communj_ty to integrate himself into "etwas schon Allgemeines, sozial und individuel-1 Typischesrr . Rönne, in his ef forts to be "typica] ", is reveared in his polarity to the "typical". - And (to antici_ pate some of our remarks in chapter 3 ) this porarity which runs through Bennts early prose works prefigures his own position in the actuar world of the late weimar Repubric, where the interl-ectual, social and political world j_s treated I'typifi-cation" to a similar - or reduction to a "norm" - as is the "Herr" in Die Eroberunq. when Benn poremici-ses against inte1lectua1, social or historical realj_ties, it is invariably from the standpoint of the individual, creative "Geist"; he rejects the former as an adequate model for the latter¡ oÍr whose autonomy or "Eigengesetzrichkej_t" he insists. The novel-Ia Diesterweq (r9rg) represents a further step in this direction.

rn Diesterweq the farcicality of any attempt to walk in the shoes of the "Herr" is more manifest than in Die Eroberunq and results in Diesterweg himself explicitly rejecting the type of the "Herr" he had sought to emulate. rn this he can be seen as the mouthpiece for Bennrs own attitudes; the novella takes on something of the essayistic character of Bennrs prose work after r9zo, although the removal from Diest erwec[ of almost six pages of the more reftective passages -15-

for the publication of Bennrs Gesammel_te prosa in 1928 restored to the work something of its compressed "noveIlen- artig" qr.lity. Like nönne, Diesterweg suffers from a sense of cri-sis with regard to his own personality, from a feeling that he j_s not definable by any pafticular qualities: Diesterweg sah an sich herunter. längst wol1te er etwas an sich haben. (rt 65) As a result he longs to be "reelr beeigenschaftet" (rl 65) - like the "Herr". rn its utter absurdity the "sorution" Diesterweg desperately dreams up only demonstrates the complete estrangement between his own personality and that of the "Herr" to whom he wants to adjust - Diesterh'eg as a "personality" in the accepted sense would be whotly arLificial: vielleicht ginge es mi-t einem Tick, etwa einer bestimmten Bewegung mit der Hand; etwa ein kurzes, rasches wischen mit dem zeigefinger an der Backe, ein nervöses hlischen ¡awoñt, dãs war es: ein nervoses wischen, unterbewußt, in Gedanken ver- sunken, eine Art Naturzwang, höchst persönlich; niemand könnte ihm das..eigéntümriche bestreiten i.edenfarrs stark würdé es an ihm hervortreten, es wurde Diesterwegisch sein, ein nervöses wischen mit dem Zeigefinger an der Backe. (r, 6ti.j--- The farcical nature of ttris proposed solution to Diesterwegrs problem arready indicates that the question: "!,Iomit Ig"- schehn]?" which he had asked himself in response to his desire: ich wil1 wieder heißen, und Diesterweg sol_l mit geschehn (rr 64), must remain unanswered. The generally accepted patterns of thought and behaviour of the "Herr" are unthinkable as objects of sel_f-identification for Diesterweg, and he is thrown back upon h j-s own devices. Diesterwegrs incompatibility with the "Herr" breaks out into hostility. Those qualities of the "Herr" and his worl_d for which Rönne had been "eine einzige wunde von verrangen,, are both i-ronised by Benn and directly inveighed against by Diesterweg. The self-confidence of the "Herren" is ironized: ganz persönlich gehen diese Herren,! Bewaffnet mit arlen Erforderniisen, die zusammenträ"f,.."ä,i spähen, das ist er_ unl0gisch, ruren-"ie im Ton- des vorwurfs und sind säuberrich und prompt. iri-oz - see also p.l ) -rb-

Their belief in social progress and its driving whee1, materialism, is rejected as "schwinder, der gar.ze Auftrj_ebJ' (rr 6T) Diesterwegts verdict on the civilisation which this materialism has brought about is: zermatscht, verschmiert muß eine Menschheit werden, die in Maschinen denkt. (rr 46o) (11) The comforts and sentiments of bourgeois family life are contrasted with the brutal realities which this same bourgeois \^ray of life has helped bring into existence: Lebenserinnerungen, Enkelgeschwätz, Boudoir_ geschmuse -z aber die Blinden, die Xrüppe1, die aus den Schlachten kommen - heran zu mii, wir wollen den Herrn zerfeLzen, der das Hauptwort handhabt wie ein Messer, mit dem er Fisãhe frißr. (rr 67f. ) Diesterweg suffers in a similar way as had Rönne in the novella ¡ie lnsel (1916): from "anarytischen phänomenen, Empirien, zielstrebigen Gesten, dem ganzen Grauen bejahter wirkrichkeitenrr. (rr 46) Like Rönne, Diesterweg embraces a subjective reality which is by nature diametrically opposed to the empirical reality on whose terms he cannot exist. This "new" reality of Diesterwegrs is opposed to empiricism in that it is "ein Land , das der Kamera entsehtrr. (rr 68) unlike Ronne in Die Eroberunq, however, Diesterweg goes through an aggressive intermediary stage. His "indivi_dual_ism" is more aggressive and more self-conscious than Rönners; not only does he display a predirection for the irrational, but more in the vein of the Rönne in rthaka (cf. p. 12 above ) _ he adopts an emphatically anti-rational stance. Bennrs prose work around rgzo is predominantly essay- (:.2\/ r-sEr-c.' Here Benn speaks directly, and his opposition to rationalism is expressed from wider terms of reference than in Diesterweq or in his prose and dramatic work around rgr5. Like nönne, Benn suffers from an inability to identify himself

(11) The quotation is part of a section which Benn removed from the novella in I92B for the publicatj_on of his Ges lte P rosa. (l-2) Including Das 1etzte rch , which editor Dieter We 1lers- hoÉf classifies as prose fiction for vol. II of the Gesammelte I,ferke. Cf. aLso p.B7 below. -r7-

with the intellectuar and sociar rearities surrounding him; but untike Rönne he does not make the attempt: unmöglich, noch in einer Gemeinschaft zv existieren, unmogrich, sich auf sie zu beziehen in Leben oder Beruf t z\t durchsichtig die..wrackigkeit ihrer anti- thetischen struktur: zD verächtrich dieser ewig koitale Kompr:omiß embonpointaler - (rv ro) Antinomien . . " ' he writes in L92L in the npirog to his Gesammerte schriften. Benn sees modern man as conditioned by his o\^/n intel_- lectual progress; the spectrum ranges from societyrs smalrest ce1I, the individual, through to the whole of western civiris-

ation as for example in Das 1etzte lch (t9Zt) z die Menschenlehre Europas, ars Fiktion indivi- duelr existenter subjekte, hat nur noch einen kommerziellen Hintergrund. Der als persönlichkeit bezeichneten räumtich betonten stelre im wesent- lichen öst.lich von creenwich wird als waffentråger und Arbeitnehmer die vorsterlung der Einkörperung des universalgeistes in ihre somatische cegèbenheit mit den, handlungsbestimmenden Hauptworten áer verant- wortrichkeit und Eigengesetzlichkèit durch eine üË; d?" ganze Land verteilte Macht der Erziehung, Ein- richtungen und öffentrichen Meinung inflatiéit unter besonderer Betonung des unersetzliõhen wertes der einzelnen Leiblichkeit für den Falr politischer Malencontres. Das Eigenleben, bezogen aus den schofelsten p'ressephrasen, verklebt mit Zitaten aus den oeuvres von virlenbesitzern, deren rnner- lichkeit nach Ausdruck ringt in den Kategorien der Popularität und der Tantieñe, stetrt sich dar ar_s parthenogenesis innerhalb des industrietl_en unter_ nehmens, das die moderne Nation bedeutet, mit Divi- denden nach Rentabirität der Frucht, ars der Mutter- kuchen, bei dem beide Kontrahenten partizipieren nach Maßgabe des Kurses der geltendèn rdolè , (rr 9Tr.¡ Bennrs remarks indicate a simirar view of the rerationship between individualism and conformism in the consumer society as Max Horkheimerts and Theodor w. Adornors verdict: Den Menschen wurde ihr Selbst a1s je eigenes, von aIlen anderen verschiedenes geschenkt, ãamit-es desto sicherer zum gleichen rierde. (lj) - Benn (r. can note here for future reference) uses the concept "individualism, in two distinct senses: in the sense of "liberal" individuarism - which he consi-ders to be a sham

(13) Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno: kla ncr. Phi osophis e Fra nte ( Frankfurt, 19 p. 19 9 t -18-

individualism, only another kind of conformism and commercial-- 1y manipurated and in the sense of spiritual self-determj_n_ ation: a kind of individualism, that is, which is remarkable for its unconditionar rejection of socio-economj-c determinants and thus antagonistic to the "personality"-type he diagnoses in the passage from Das letzte rch quoted above. Bennrs "unconditional" indivi-duarism i-s the position from which he exercises his culturar criticism and from which he develops his artistic theory - an artistic theory, it might be added, , which is indissoruble from curturar criticism (cf. chapter 2). Benn after the first I,{ar does not bemoan and pity the human lot in the manner of the "o Mensch', and ',verbrüderungs_ pathos " common among his contemporaries. urtimately he makes rittr-e distinction between the socio-economi_c,,manipurators,, and the manipurated. ,,masses,, He castigates the in termin_ ology similar to Nietzschers, who had seen.his contemporaries in terms of "Behagen und Dummheit - Mitte"(f4) .rra who, with his sarcastic attacks on "das clück der meisten,,, was cJ_early rhe uril_irarianism of rhe ',Flachkopf ,, rohn sruarr rvrJ-rr-.::::.tiÊi ' rn terms similar to Nietzschers compJ_aint about the ascendancy of the norm or "Mitte " --.."Benn writesvvrruEÞ inrr¡ Das moderne rch (r9zo) : (r0) - nsch, das kteine Format, agens: der Barrabas_ re leben will_r ëtuf n säue, die den r grofJe Kunde=ú"i¡""ã"" des talters Maß und ZíeI.

(14) Friedrich Nietzsche : 1e r_ne ur V S Umwe tun al We te Kroners Taschenausgabe 7 Stuttgart, 19 'P.94- (15 )

(16 ) -'r o-

Bennrs "anti-rationalismrr can thus be seen in its wider perspective as opposition to that anthropocentricity which he saw as having been handed down to his generation by the nineteenth century and accepted without reservation. Here, too, Benn follows in the spirit of Nietzsche and his gibes at "die hvperbolis che uaivität des Meñschen: sich sel-bst als Sinn und (rZ) wertmaß der Dinge anzusetzen". Benn sees the "individualism" of the "Herr" - his self-confidence and optimism, the "continuity" of his personality refl-ected also in a generaJ_ crj-mate of optimism in bourgeois circles, in a feering that, like the indivj-dual personality, history also marches forward confidently in an unbroken line towards the best of arl- possible worlds, towards a materialistic paradise which manrs rational faculties have the capacity to realize. This critical view, of course, is neither original nor peculiar to Benn; it informs the work of many writers in the first decades of this century and, as we have noted, had been emphaticarry expressed by Nietzsche in the latter decades of the nineteenth century. Empiricj-sm, rerying on the evidence of the five senses, not onry found Rönne wanting, but was itself found wanting by Benn. By I92I it is clearer than ever that for Benn cmpiricisnr itself and the materialistic wel-tanschauunq which in his opinio. accompanies j-t are unthinkable as objects of self-identj-fication. Diesterweg' s question : "womit [geschehn]? " remains unanswered, and in his Epiloq of rgzr Benn draws his conclusion: wie soII man da teben? Man soll ja auch nicht. (rv 11) This, arrd Bennrs cognisance - also in the Epiloq - of "die tiefe, schrankenlose, mythenarte Fremdheit zwischen dem Menschen und der welt" (rv 9), augurs his insistence that the artist, if he is to function at all, must necessarily do so independentry, entirery on his own terms. This is arready implicit in Rönners situation in the early novel_las, and in his essayj-stic work around Lgzo Benn adopts the more aggressive_ ly individuaLi-stic stance which cul-minates in his insistence that the artist, if he is to express himsel_f in relation to the realities of his â9€_, must not permit himself to be defined in

(17 ) Nietzsche : Der l,{ille zur Macht r op. cit. , p. 16. -20- terms of these realities: wer mit der ZeiL mitlauft, wird von ihr uberrannt ... (f 428), he says in 1931 in his radio-talk Die neue I terarische saison - with unconscious irony, if one calls to mind Bennrs career in Nazi Germany. Bennrs remark of 1937 in weinhaus wolf - that "verwirk- lichung von Geist im Leben ist nicht mehr" (lr r45) - can be appried in reverse to Benn the artist: "Leben" is not to be realized in the works of "Geist" - the artist does not imitate reality as it is seen by the empiricar eye, but reconstitutes it according to the raws of what in ouerschnitt (r9r8) i_s cal-Ied "eines tieferen Auges Traum". (rr TT) This view of the artist in effect fulfils Diesterwegrs desire to enter " ... ein Land , dàs der Kamera entqeht', (cf.. p.16 above). Photography generally considered to be a predominantry "representational" activity - was rejected by charles Baudelaire. Hugo Friedrich, in his discussion of this fact, makes some important observations on the nature of modern art in general observations which are valid for t].e early Bennrs "Land das der Kamera entgeht" and for much of his r_ater work as we1l. Friedrichrs remarks are worth quoting at some length: Es schei-nt, dafð in dem Augenbr-ick, ars die ruoderne ihr rechnisches Können, iñ cestatÉ aer phot;;;;phie, auf das Abbilden des vtirklichen anwandte, diðses positive, begrenzte lvirkriche sich um so schnerrer verbrauchte und die künstlerischen xräfte-=ìtrr-'* energischer auf phantasie die nichtgegenständliche welt der "o hinlenkten. Daõ wäre analog zu der Reaktion, die der wissenschaftliche positivismuã hervorgerufen hat. BAUDELA]RES verurteilung der photographíe steht auf einer Ebene mit seiner veiurteilung á.i'ñ.i"r_ wissenschaften. Die wissenschaftliche wertauicrl_ dringung wird vom künstrerischen sinn ar_s w.il"ur- engung und a1s verlust des Geheimnisses empfunden, daher mit extremer Machtausweitung phantasie beantwortet der Dieser in BAUDELATRE sich abspier-ende von unabsehba-rer vorgang ist Bedeutung bis =ü, e.g.nwart.-*ö;;;;' fn .-i"-.T cespräch sa gre eeu¡ÉLerRe : I rch .oË9.- farbte wiesen, blaugefärbte Bäume.' RTMBAUD wird von solchen wiesen dichten, Künstler des 20. Jahrhunderts werden sie ma1en. BAUDELAIRES Bezeichnung ;ü;-;i;;"' der kreativen phantasie entsprungene runst r_autet: -sgrnaturarisme. Gemeint ist-einõ Kunst:-eu'u"g.,ngen, w€r_che die Dinge entdinglicht zv Linien, farben, -2l-- selbstgtändig werdenden Akzidentien und die das i' rmagische Licht' über sie wirft, das ihre Realität im Geheimnis vernichtet (IB) Many theorists do not share Friedrich's approval of this development. Walter Benjamin, for example, had a quite different opinion about photography's relationship to art; he saw the potentialities rather than the possible hindrances of (19) technorogicar innovations. tor" recent theorists have adapted Benjaminrs ideas and refer to "autonomous" art in (2o) terms of a "reaktionären Tendenz der Kunsa". How and indeed whether such a judgement is applicable to Benn wirl concern us in chapters 3 and 4. rn anticipation, it shourd be mentioned here that we do not pran to use artistic "autonomy" as a formula to tar with the same political- brush all artists in the tradition described by Hugo Friedrich. "Autonomy", if it means a refusal to give empirical and historical- realities their due, can without doubt have dubious consequences politic- aIIy. But there is a "non-representative" impulse in Bennrs artistic theory (and clearly prefigured in his Expressionist phàse ) which is not unambiguousry "reactionary". rndeed - as v/e sharl see in chapter 4 Bennrs ideas carry a palliative force acting against the so-catled reactionary tendency of "pure" art; his artistic "autonomy" i-s an ambivalent phenomenon. In 1916 Bennrs novella Die rnse I describes the anti- empirical, "riberated' world of the imagination as Rönners

(18) Hugo Friedrich: u rne der Mitte eunzehnten zut t CS l_ sten Jahrhunderts, rowohlts deutsche enzyklopadie 25, 2nd ed. (ttamburg, 196T), p.56f . (19 ) See lrlalter Benjamin: rk ta l_ne en Re rke St ur sozl_o loqie t edition suhrkamp 2 (Frankfurt, 19 J cf also p.I55f . below. (ZO) Michael Scharang: e Samml ung Luchterhand 27 (Xeuwied r1in, J-97l-) , p.IZ More recently: Michael Mu1Ier, Horst Bredekamp, Berthold Hínz, Franz-Joachim' Verspohl, Jurgen Fredel, Ursul_a Apitzsch: Aut ie der Kunst. Zur Gene se und Kritik q j-ner burqerlichen Kateqorie, edition suhrkamp Ão2 (Frankfurt, 1972). -22-

"cegenglück" (rr 42). This is an early example of numerous words in Bennrs work prefixed by "Gegen-t'(2l-) .rra referring , to the essent-ially "oppositional" role of the artist and his work e.g. "Gegenvorsterlung" (t 4o), "Gegenkomplex", "Gegen- wert " (t r2o), "cegen z1rg" (r 414 ) , "cegenkunst " (r 253). The latter formuration ( "Gegenkunst" ) is contained in the essay on Expressionism which Benn wrote in 1933, i.e. during his "politicaI" phase under National Socialism. The essay is a confession of faith in Bennrs own Expressionist past, where the idea of art as "Gegenkunst" has its origins in his work. rt is an idea which will play a central, rore in our consideration of Bennrs ideas fro¡n his Éxpressionist years up to and includins 1933/34. In the fÍrst decade of his work (19lo-192o) Benn had not yet developed a -clearl-y defined artistic theory. However, most of the fundamentals of the theory he was to formulate in the late 'twenties and earry 'thirties are impricit in his early work. This is, true not onry of his conception of Lhe artist as a "non-representative" typ.. - The "existential" guestion of incompatibility with the world of the "Herr" is j-nseparable from the problem of language in Bennrs prose and poetry: the "non-representativeness " of the psychological "anti-type " - his inability to identify himsel-f with or "represent" the intellectual and social norm - inctudes al_so a "non-representationar" use of language on Bennrs part. This language has j-n common with the protagonists of Benn's earry prose work that it does not function on the terms of a given prototype. As such it anticipates many of Bennrs ideas in the 'twenties and earry 'thirties about the function of the artist and of art.

(21) The source of such formulations prefixed by "gegen- " is in all probability as Reinhold Grimm ha s suggested Nietzschers definition of art as "die Ge ge nbewegung". See Reinhold Grimm: Kritis e Erqanzunqen r Benn- Lj-teratur, in R. Grimm: t k ut- schen Literatur (cöttingen, 19 ), p.298. cf . arso Nietzsche: op...cit., pp.4,533, 577 and Die , Kroners Taschenaus- gabe j-x 7O (Stuttgart, 19 ), P. 7. The pre f "gegen- " t it should be added, has its antithesis in another concept which figures prominently in Bennrs work: the "norm" or the "Durchschnitt" (seê p.BZ below). _23_

Many of the qualities characteristic of the "cegen- gIück" which the protagonj-sts of Bennrs earJ_y prose works embrace as a result of their perenniat incompatibility with the empirical, "categorical" world of the "Herr" are contaj-ned in the following extracts from the final pages of Die Eroberunq ) they will serve as an initial point of reference for our discussion of the early prefigurations of Bennrs "Gegenkunst,,: Er [nönne ] sank auf Moos unter stern und stirlen Lauten. Blau stand zwischen gäumen, Tier und Dorf und i-m schauer seiner Haut, im sprunge seiner Glieder, im Trunk.der Augen, in seines ohies Rausch: er, als der e1üten eine: er, .í" der Tiere Beischlaf Da tanzte eine hinter schleiern, die Brüste gebunden Er aber spürte den Drang, sich abzuflachen auf die Erde, die Zuckungen, daõ-zusammàn"irã*." den Aufwuchs, und ptötztlch stand vor ""a sçhwangere: ihm die breites, schvueres Freisch, triefend von saften aus Brust und Leib; ein magerer, verarmter schäder über feuchtem BlaÉtw;;r,-'î¡., ei-ner Land_ schaft aus Btut, über schwellunqe; aus tierischen Geweben, hervorgerufen durch eiñe unz\^Teifelhafte Beruhrung. der _4r, Einsame; blauer H imme I , s chwe j_ge nde s Licht. Uber ihm die weilJe Wolke: die sanftgekappten Rande, das schweifende Vergehen.

rch worlte eine stadt erobern, nun streicht pa]men_ blatt ü¡er mich hin. ein nr wühlte sich in das Moos (rr z5_ZT). As opposed to his role as a "Herr", to hi_s efforts to recall "die lvirkungsweise der vernunft", Rönne exists here in what the namer-ess protagonist of Bennrs earlier prose work l-nr n ct (1913) rraa cal1ed "den Ausweg aus ml_r tn Siedelungen aus meinem BLutr'. (rr 9) Rönne in Die Eroberun g exists not only in an unconscious, rnstinctual state of "Rausch" and sexuality, however, but, as "der glüten eine", r-n a pre-conscious conditi_on which finds expression also in Bennrs early poetry - as in the well-known 1ines from Gesänqe (1913 ) : O daß wi-r unsere Ururahnen wären. nin xlümpchen Schleim in-äinem \,{armen Moor. (rrr 25) In similar terms, in be e s te t Benn describes Rönners situation in Die Eroberuncr: Also nach der zentral_en Zerstorung das Vegeta- bitrische. (rv 3o) -24-

This opposition of the unconscious and preconscious (b1ood, the vegetative) to consciousness (brain) finds analogous expression in the last lines of our extract from Die Er- oberung: Ich wollte eine Stadt erobern, nun streicht ein Palmenblatt über mich hin. The "Palmenblatt" is one of the many images in the realm of "Süden" which, throughout Bennts work, is opposed to the conscious world of the north to the "kategorialer Raum" which harbours "das Nördlich-Diskursive" (rr 9r) and which is seen as barren in contrast to the south, as in Die Insel: Jetzt aber, schien es ihm, wanderte er dahin zuruck, wo es unabsehbare lnlasser gab im süden und im Norden brackige Flut ( rr 4o). In Der Geburtstaq the table s and chairs from which Rönne suffers are seen both in relationship to the "Herr" and to the north: Stühle, cegenstände für Herren, die bei nach vorn geÞogenen Knien einen stützpunkt unter der Hinter- flache der Beine haben worltenr..trockneten dumpf und nördlich. Tische für cespiäcfre wie diese: Nâ, wie geht's, schelmisch und männlich (rr iT) of the words whích belong in Bennrs rearm of "süden" ("palme", "Meer", "olive", "Möwe" etc. ), "blau" is the most frequent; Benn calls it "das südwort schlechthin". (rv 13) rn their opposition to the "kategorj_arer Raum" of the north, both "blau" and "süden" can be seen¡ âs Reinhord Grimm has pointed out, as belonging together to another centrar el_ement (22 of Bennts early work that of dream . ) A further conf j_rm- ation of the centrarity of btue and its relationship to dream is the following extract from Ouers irr , where blue is integrar to that level of awareness which lies beneath the empirical surface - where things are seen according to "eines tieferen Auges Traum": Blau: sie: rn rhrer wiege aus Moos, zwischen den Asten einer palme, blau: ich: auf meinem Lagunen- riff und weidend die Koralre, blau, wir: geñeitert aus fernen Festen, und bl-au die Hand, jeLzL schneidet: die sie aus eines tieferen Auges Traum itt TT).

(22) Reinhold Grimm: G t Be f e e in der Dichtunq, Erlanger Beitrage zur Sprach- und Kunstwissenschaft I, 2nd ed. (uürnberg, ]-962), p.49 -25- "Blau" j-s for Benn "vonlenormem rwallungswertr, das Hauptmittel zur I zusammenhangsdurchstoßung"'. (rv 13 ) That ís, Iike dream, it serves as an agent by means of which the causality of the empirical world is abrogated thus freeing the ego from the necessity of existing on empirical terms, on the terms of the "Herr". rn this "new" level of consciousness (oiesterweg calls it "das andere Leben", rr 61 ) the subject is invariably "der Einsame ", as in our extract from Die Eroberunq. This does not necessarily mean that he is alone, for frequently he is with a woman; but he stands in no interpersonal relationship to her - his intercourse wÍth her is not of a social kind but, like dream, "süden" and "blau" (in Die Reise "kam eine Frau und roch blau", rr 34), it is "von enormem Trlatlungswert" and is another means of attaining to the condition which Benn in hj-s Schöpferische Konfession (L9I9) calts "das Außersich des Rausches oder des vergehens" (tv lB9)j it is succinctry expressed in Rönners intercourse with edmée in Der rtstacr: es entsank fleischlich sein Ich. (rr 5D) In Heinrich Mann. Ein Untergang the female body is used metaphorically to express descent into the south: immer tiefer in den Süden: von Lippen ü¡er Brüste in den Schoß. (rr 11) sexuar "Rausch" and "süden" are aspects of the same experience: an extinction or "untergang" of empirical a\^/areness, a "zrr- sammenhangsdurchstoßung" of what Benn considers the sterile I'established" norms of given, patterns of thought and behaviour. The "categorical", empirical and sociar world of the "Herr" on the one hand; and the subjectrs prj-vate, acausal, dream-like "Gegenglück" on the other: this antithesis can be expressed in its simplest terms as an antithesis between the objective world and the subject, i.e. between "Außenwelt" and "Innenwe1t", as the following image from Das mode rne Ich most vividly illustt'ates; Benn is giving an imagj_nary l_ecture to a group of medical students: Man hängt lhnen Röhren in die Ohren, die Umwelt zu erlauscþen, aber hinter den Augen schweigt der rraum. (r B ) "Außenwe1t" and "rnnenwelt", then, can be seen al_so as empirical reality and dream. rmplicit in this is another -26- antithesis: that between the scientist or philosopher and the early Bennrs idea of the artist. - In rten v Ies (r92o), for example, Benn opposes the art of van Gogh to the rationar ontology of Kant, expre?:lîg this opposition in terrms of north and south respec,tively. \¿Jl ln this prose work Rönners cry in Die fnsel: schöpferischer MenschJ Neuformung des Entwj-cklungs- gedankens aus dem Mathematischen ins Tntuitive (rr 46) finds its echo. Its implications lead beyond we1 anschaulich questions, beyond the existential estrangement of the individuar from reality, to the aesthetic implications of this estrangement. Just as Bennrs early prose shows the individuar as in- capable of acting in accordance with the given weltanschau- Ij-ch or sociar pattern of things, of considering himsel_f j.n any way "representative" of the prototype of the "Herr", so the language of the "Gegenglück" he embraces is not ',representational" language; it does not attempt to depict realj-ty as it is, on its o\^/n terms. Benn is not alone i_n this refusal to approach reality artistically on its own terms. Art, said the Expressionist theorist Kasimir Edschmid in r9r8, should be "ohne gewohnte psychologie" and should not be "von bekann- ten Kausalitäten geIenkt".(24) *."tity was not to be expressed in terms of the psychological theories which were products of the same positivistic method that had gone hand in hand with the formation of the very world-view which the Expressionists (with Benn in the vanguard) had rejected. There v/as a widespread reaction against the riterary movement of Naturalism Benn himself was later (i., 1934) to refer to "die stupide psychologie des Naturalj_smus', . (r 479) Edschmid shows where, to his mind, Expressionism departs from the theories of Naturalism:

(23 ) Cf. Pau1 Requadt: tf a 1i Wort " , l_n Neophiloloqus, 19 2 t p.5 (24) Kasimir Edschmid : e Jugend, in K. Edschmid: F Man f chen des Expressi_onismus (Hamburg, 1957 t p.35. -27-

Logisch entwickelt der Geist sich nicht, tieferen Kraften nach steht er auf und braust oder schweigt. Wir fühten ihn nur. Zusammenhänge laufen nicht geradlinig, mehr unter aIs in der sichtbaren zeíL. (25) To create in accordance with the given realities of "der s icht- baren zeiL", be thelz intellectual, social or political, would mean an accomodation of the artist to these realities - but this, according to Benn and many Expressionists, is inimical to the task of the arti-st. In this context Kurt Pinthus writes in :-.9l-9 z Die Geisteswissenschaften des ersterbenden 19. Jahr- hunderts - verantwortungslos die Gesetze der Natur- wissenschaften auf geistiges Geschehen übertragend begnügten sich, in der Kunst nach entwicklungs- geschichtlichen Prinzipien und Beeinflussungen nur das Nacheinander, das Aufeinander schematisch zv konstatieren; man sah kausal, vertikal. (.26) Pinthus gets to the heart of the matter, summarj-zing much of the substance of our discussion so far and pointing forward also to aesthetj-c considerations, when he writes: man füntte immer deutlicher die Unmöglichkeit einer Menschheit, die sich ganz und..gar abhängig gemacht hatte von ihrer eigenen Schôpfung, von ihrer Wissenschaf t, von Technik, Statistik, Handel_ und Industrie, von einer erstarrten Gemeinschafts- ordnungr' bourgeoisen und konventionell-en Bräuchen. Diese Erkenntnis bedeutet zugJ_eich den Beginn des Kampfes gegen die Zeit und gegen ihre Realität. Mann begann, die Um-Wirklichkeit zrtr Un-WirkIich- keit aufzulösen, durch die Erscheinungen zum Wesen vorzudringen (27) The early Benn belongs firmly in a riterary-historicar background, some of the problems of which had been prophesied in some detail by Hugo von Hofmannsthal in Ein Brief (trre "chandos" letter) of r9o1. Benn is not alone when he sees that, just as the rerationship between the individuar and empirical rearity is no longer self-evidentr so this individual (i... the artist) cannot rely on traditional devices to express himserf in reration to it. For Benn this means dissatisfaction with the grammar and syntax, indeed with the very vocabulary of conventional language. He expresses this

(25) rbid.

(26 ) Kurt PinLhus, ed.: E des Expressionismus (Hamburg, ]959 , p.22. (Original edition: Berlin, l-920). (27) rbid., p ¿o. -28-

dissatisfaction in a letter of 2J.6.r92r to Elsa Fl.eischmann- Fleming. It is a letter which at the same time demonstrates the inextricabitity of these specifically ringuistic

questions from their weltanschaulich background : Mir räIrt es nämIich unendlich schwer eine derar- tige, überhaupt noch eine wissenschaftliche Arbeit zu machen. rch kann diese syntax, diese roderr und rdennsr u. ttrotzdemr nicht mehr schrei-ben u. ich bezweifle den satz von der Kausalität zv. sehr¡ ürr noch nach Gründen und Folgerungen z\ fragen; ich habe mir diese Art zu denken übergedacht, ict graube weder an wissenschaft noch an Erkenntnis, insonderheit halte ich die Naturwissenschaften i", Komparserie bei allen ernsteren Fragen u zum schluß glaube ich weder an Entwicklung noch an Fortschritt weder des einzelnen noch áer cesamt- heit (ar. r4) we remember that Rönners existence as a ',Herr", on the terms of the ratter's "wirkungsweise der vernunft", h/as artifici-a1. comparably ranguage geared to the causatity of the world of the "Herr" becomes, for Benn, inadequate as a meèns of self-expression. rn the place of conventionar grammar and syntax to represent a given, external reality, language functions as association and evocati_on, as the expression of an "inner" experience. This "inner" experience can be transferred to the external, so-cal1ed "objective" worl_d¡ âs for example shortry after the opening of Die Eroberunq, where we meet Rönne prior to his role as a "Herr"; he describes the city: or rather he expresses his experience of it: - Er schritt aus; schon brühte um ihn die stadt. Sie wogte auf ihn zus s.ie erhob sich von den Hüse1n, schlus erückén ü;";-ä;; ìr,setn, i_hre Krone rauschte. über plätze, vor Jahrhunderten lie.gengebrieben und von keinám Fuß-;e;ü;;r,- -- drangten alle Straßen hernieder in ein tali es war ein_Abstieg in der Stadt, sie liet. Ái.f, sinken in die Ebene, sie entsteínte ihr e.Ãå=,rã, einem weinberg zv. (rr Zo) Rönners emotions are transferred to the city, which takes on a life of its own; the city appears to be moving towards nönne; the normal rer-ationship between subject and object is reversed not unrike the rerationship between Herr Mi-chael Fischer and the trees in elfred oö¡tinrs Ermorduns einer Butterblume (f9f: ) : -2Q-

Die gäume schritten rasch an ihm vorbei (;:ii) rn their apparent interchangeability, both subject and object lose their character as fixed, objectivery definable entities, and in Die Eroberung the object, the city, is not fixed and held by the camera-eye of empiricism or "consequential_r' Natural-ism, but is used as an "objective correl_ative" (t.S. Eliot) to express a subjective experience. The verbs used in reference to the city ("blühen", "wogen", "sich erheben", "überschlagen"r "rauschen"r "drängen") reinforce this impression in their dynamism they emphasise the independent life of the city; used in the main intransitively and refrex- ively¡ they do not describe a crearry definable relationship between or a vis-å-vis of subject and object. In his Schopferische Konfession Benn illuminates this "expressive" (-" opposed to "representational") use of language and its avoidance of logicat and grammatical connections coincidental with the causarity operating in the empirical world: Wie ich es einmal versucht habe darzustellen in der Novelle Der Geburtstaq (Cetrirne ); da schrieb ich: rda geschah ihm die Olivet, nicht: da stand vor ihm die Olive, nicht: da fiel sein Bfick auf eine Olive, sondern: da geschah sie ihm, wobei arrerdings der Arti-ker noch besser unterbriebe. A1so, da geschah ihm rOliver und hinströmt die i_n Frage stehende struktur über der Früchte silber, ihre leisen WäIder, ihre Ernte und ihr Kelter- fest. (rv 1BB) The linguistic elements which hypostatize a vis-à-vis of subject and object having been removed, the object remains essentially as a cipherr cärling up a range of associationsr the individual elements of which are not necessarily connected by spatiar, chronological or other causal raws. The imagination is given free playr äs is illustrated by Rönners associati-ons in Der Geburtstaq:

Noch hingegeben der Befriedigung: so ausgiebig zn assoziieren, stieß er auf ein Glasschild mit aér Auf- schrift: Cigarette Maita, beleuchtet von einem

(28 ) Cf. Albert Soergel, Curt Hohoff: Dicht ung und Dichter der Zeit (lüsseldorf, 1964), vol. 2, Vom Natural_ismus bffi-cêqenwart, p. rB3 .áá Hel-mut Liede: Stilte enzen ressl_ l_ sa. uchun e I von 1f Carl l_m Eds Geors Hevm und Gottf ried Benn Diss., Freiburg, 19 o),P.9. -3o-

Sonnenstrahl. Und nun vollzog sich über Maita Malta Strände leuchtend f'ähre - Hafen Muschelfresser - Verkommenheiten - der he1l,e klingende Ton einer leisen ?ersplitterung, und Ronne schwankte in einem c1ück. (rr 50) rn connection with this associative and evocative quality of Bennrs use of languager âs opposed to a discursive, descript- ive or anarytic trea!:nent of empirical reality, Reinhord Grimm has pointed to the use of corours as ciphers: die Farbe kann einen weiten Komplex von Vor- ste der in den Kern der dichterischen I^Ie1t BENNS t wie ein Geheimzeichen ausdrücken Auf der Kraft i.hrer zeichenhaften Aussa 9ê, die es dem Dichter IÍcht, ermö 9- einen kompli zierten Vorga ng in einem Wort zusanìmenzu fassen, beruhr die poetische Funktion der Farbe. (29) How the extreme compression into one word or idea of what Grimm calls "einen komplizierten vorgang" functions when it is extruded from the sphere of riterary creativeness and applied i-n the form of cultural criticism to the socio-economic and politicar sphere, wirl concern us in chapters 3 and 4 when we dj-scuss the complex problem of the connections between art and politics in Bennrs work. For the present, the most important conclusion to be drawn is that Benn reconstitutes empirical reality according to the raws of an autonomous imagination; he creates a world which is not only "ein Land ..., das der Kamera entgeht", but arso a worrd in which the possibility "mit worten [r,r] lügen" (rr 15) appears to have been removed: because of its independence of verisimiritude with empirical rrabsolute"; reality it is, in a sense, it. could be li-kened to hallucination, which for Benn in his Epiroq of ]Ig2l is the only valid "categoryt' - he opposes it to space and time: wir erfanden den Raum, um die zeíL totzuschragen, und die zeiLr u*r unsere Lebensdauer zu motivieren; es wird nichts und es entwickert si_ch Kategorie, in der der Kosmos offenba*i;ãr-i"t"i;ht;,-ãiu ai. Kategorie der Halluzination. (fv B1 Similarly, for the philosophy lecturer in Der Garten von Arl_es, final truths lie beyond empirical reality: das Absolute ist der Traum. (rt BB)

(29) Reinhold Grimm: 1 ch de Dichtunq, op. cit., p. o -3r-

Dream and hallucination have in common that their images and their "truth" do not depend on the causality to which the categories of time and space are subject. The same is true of what Benn was to call "absolute Prosa", which he characterises in f949 as: prosa außerharb von Raum und ze!t, ins rmagi_näre gebaut, ins Momentane, Flächige gelegi, ihr Gegen_ spiel isr psychologie und evolutlon.-(iv ßZ) The correspondence between this statement and Bennrs theory and practice of thirty years previously is more than coincidental. rn his rater work Benn opposes the use of a realistic, psychologi-ca1 framework, just as Rönne and Diesterweg must be defined essentially in terms of their polarity to such a "normal" framework. 'rAbsolute" prose a,ims beyond the categories of space and time and what they imply (scr-entr-fic,/, social, historicar and political realities) ; in this it is an outcome of the early Bennrs rearization of the inadequacy of these reaÌities as moders for his artistic endeavours. rt is also (and this is a point we wilr- be emphasising throughout ) an outcome of Bennrs conviction that the artist can "represent" nothing and no-one but himsetf a conviction not only of the early Benn, but also of the "Ptolemäer" in r94Tz Die Lage war nicht so¡ daß man noch für andere sprechen konnte t zn anderen sprach, kaum d;;¿; ein Zimmer drangen die sentenäe", fur-"î.t*-"^' arlein rrieb man die Gebirde tor. (ii á4r') Thus bothrrabsolute'prose and the writer of this prose, both art and artist, claim to be non-representative of rearity. similarly, in Bennrs early prose, Rönne and Diesterweg are atypical of their intellectuar and sociar environment, in spite of their efforts to identify with it; artistically the result is a language largely independent of the 10gica1 and Ii-nguistic laws prevailing in this environment. The I'absoluteness" of this language, however, does not necessarily mean an exclusion of reality. - Benn actually uses the categories of space and time as material for his ,,absorute,, writing. The poem Verlorenes rch (1943), for exampJ-e, uses these categories as subject matter: not, however, to "represent" them, but to express the positj_on of the ser_f in relation to them - and not to express its identity with them, but its estrangement from them. A similar principÌe, as we -32-

shaII see, operates in Bennts method of "summarisches Über- blicken" ("lready practised by him long before he first uses the formulation in 1944.; cf . p.6Tf. below). Here, too, facts usually historical- and geographical ones - are mentioned in plenty: not to affirm them, but as self- differentiation on the part of the artist. For him, empirical reality provides the subject matter but not the criteria. The artist as non-representative and his art as non- representational: this, in general terms, determines Bennrs conception of the artist as an "anti-type" to everyday reality. It is a conception whj-ch recurs throughout his work and can be traced back to the protagonistsr incompatibility with the world of the "Herr" in his early novelras, to their inability to model themsel-ves upon the given intel-lectuar and sociar patterns - to be "with it". The "Gegenglück" which the protagonj-sts carl up in response to their incompatibility with the "Herr" suggests that Bennrs "Gegenkunst", his artistic theory and practice, is inseparable from the existential question of estrangement from real-ity. Art for Benn means the inability and unwillingness to speak with or for socially and intellectually established realities; artistic "Geist", if it is to function at all, must do so on its own terms.

Bennr s remarks in his feris Konfe s s of I9I9 do not give a comprehensive picture of his early work: so ist es im Grunde diese fdie Bewußtheit ], gegen die ich mich wehre, mit der südl_ichen Zer_ malmung, und sie, die ich abzuleiten trachte in ligurische Komplexe bis zur überhöhung oder bis zum verl0schen im Außersich des Rausches oder des vergehens. (rv 189) of course repeated attempts to escape consciousness presuppose the persistence of consciousness. rt woul_d be mis- leading to define Bennrs earry work excl_usively in terms of the dreamrike "cegenglück" which tönne embraces in Die rnseJ. Much of Bennrs writing before rgzo - as we have arready noted with reference ro rrhaka (r9r4) and Erappe (1915) (cf . p.t2 above) - revears an aggressive, even (in the case of rthaka) violent confrontation with the here and noriv. rn rthaka this -33-

confrontation is followed by a cry for the "Gegenglück" of "Traum", "Rausch" and Dionysos. In many of Bennrs early poems, however, consciousness does not give way to the "Gegenglück" which Rönne had embraced or to the "Außersich des Rausches oder des Vergehens " mentioned in schöpferische Konféssióir. Bébide early poems such as ce- sänqe (1913), unterqrundbahn (1913), Karvatide (1916), o Nacht (1916), Kokain (l-9I7), whose range of words and images ("blau", "Traum", "süden", "olive", "strömen", "vergehen", etc. ) and v¿hose associative and evocative effects are in aIl essentials the same as in Rönners and Diesterwegrs "Gegengrück" in the early prose, there stand other poems - poems which effect an artistic confrontation with contemporary reality and the traditions infruencing it. These poems reveal an aggressive aesthetic. nmpirical reality, the experiences of the doctor, conventional language are aIl utilized - but not as "natural- isticarly" as it may at first sight appear. Bennrs artistic aim is still a deviation from prevailing val-ues and the ranguage which expresses them. rn spite of the great difference in tone and styre, these poems have in common with Rönners "Gegengrück" that they execute a "zusammenhangsdurch- stoßung" of given patterns of existence represented by the world of the "Herr" - but it is not a "Durchstoßung" via "Rausch" and most certainly not via the unconscious. A discussion of the second of Bennrs Morgue poems - schöne Juqend (l9lZ ) - *.y help to clarify thj-s: SCHöNE JUGEND Der Mund eines Mädchens, das lange im schilf gelegen hatte, sah so angeknabbert aus. Als man die Brust auflcrach, war die Speiseröhre so l-öche- schließlich in einer Laube unter dem Zwerchfel_l lrig. fand man ein Nest von jungen Ratten. Ej-n kleines Schwesterchen 1ag tot. Die andern lebten von Leber und Niere, tranken das kalte Blut und hatten hier eine schöne Jugend verlebt. Und schon und schnell kam auch ihr Tod: Man warf sie allesamt ins lrrasser. Ach, wie die kleinen schnauzen quietschtenJ (rrr B) ' The title of the poem evokes a stock response in the reader "schöne Jugend" carries all the associations of the conventj-onalry "romantic" : health, radiance, vitality, rosy cheeks, rosy lips, etc. The first image ("Der Mund eines t"tädchens") begins to confirm the reader's initial_ response -34- a response which for most readers of poetry in I9I2 would have been little short of a conditioned reflex. But the 'second half of the first line ( ". . . das lange im Schitf gelegen hatte" ) already throws doubt on the response evoked by the title and the first image. rn the context of the latterr \h/ê would not expect the girt to be rying in the "schilf" "wiese" and "Blumen" would have seemed a more approprj-ate setting. And how long has the girl been lying in the rushes? The long first line, which gave us pause to question, is followed by the terse "sah so angeknabbert aus" with reference to the girlrs mouth, the I'romantic" associations of which are thus abruptly invalidated and, with them, the expectations of the reader, who now awakens. "Angeknabbert" suggests an inanimate object - a thing whj-ch has been lying around for too long, which shourd have been rrangeknabbert" thrown out with the rubbish long ago and the "lange" of line I reinforce one another. Line 3 brings futr confirmation of the doubts raised by the second half of line 1 and by line z the girl is indeed an inanimate object. she is a corpse, and the setting is a post-mortem at the morgue. The first word "al_s" strikes the note of an objective report, and the impersonal "man" reinforces this objective tone, which is diametrically opposed to the sentimentar idealization of youth and beauty which we had been 1ed to expect. Analagous to the destruction of the romantic image "Der Mund eines Mädchens" in Iine 1 is the treatment of "Brust" in line 3. "Auflcrach", in reference to "Brust" and its associati_ons of softness and warmth, effects a brutal contrast not only through the literal meanings of the words, but onomatopoeical_ty as rrrrr weII, through the harshness of the and rrch, in "brach". hle now have an inside view of "schöne .fugend". Despite the ugly image (trre oesophagus furl of holes ), conventionally "poetic" words echoi-ng the "romantic" overtones of the title, the girlrs and lips her breast are retained ( "Laube " ). rn the bower under the girl's midriff is found the nest of young rats. The ugly is - quite literarly contained in the traditionally "poetict'. rn retrospectr \^/ê find that the "angeknabbert" of rine 2 had already suggested the possibir- -35-

Íty of rats or some such animals. But only in the poemrs centrar image in line 5 is the whore cumulative force fett of the discordances in the earlier part of the poem ( "schilf", "angeknabbert" ). The suggestion is that the rats entered the girr by way of her mouth, fed on her oesophagus in transit and finally settred in the region of her diaphragm. Line 5, however, not only refers us back to the beginning of the poem, but arso points forward the fact that the rats are young is the fj.rst suggestion that the titre does not refer only to the young girl, but to the rats as we11. Line 6, in- its use of the (30) doubre diminutive "kl_eines Schwesterchen", corrtirrues the pattern of words and images with senti-mental associations placed in the context of the indifference of nature in thi-s case the fact of death. "Kleines schwesterchen", in its associations of "cute', and "pretty", further reinforces the connection of the rats to the title of the poem. rn addition, the double diminutive carries overtones of compassion for the dead rat overtones which were absent in the clinícal references to the dead girl_. The other rats are feeding on the girl's liver and kid_ neys and drinking her "kaltes Blut'r. "Kal-t" in reference to "Blut" is a reversal of the more customary "\nrarmes B1ut,,, or even "heißes Blut" as appried, for example, to the "Lebens- 1ust" of youth. The girlrs brood is simply food for the rats the "Lebensrust" is arl theirs. Line 9 sums up the lives of tÏ¡e rats: "eine schöne Jugend". "Schön" here connotes pleasant, comfortable, secure, "gemütIich" - the ratsÌ youth has been "schön" in the sense of the old cliché carefree "a youthr', as expressed in the following Volk s (31 lied which walrher Killy ) quotes as a contrast to Schone Juqend and as a typical example of a popurar, sentimentar_ (and clichetic) treatment of "Vergänglichkeitr' :

(3o¡ Wolfgang Heybey: Der Ivrensch vor der Zukunft Eine ver- ich tr V l_ Bertolt l-e Brechts, in Padacro qische Provinz t 15, 19 l-, p. 339 . (31) Walther Ki11v: ( tingen, l-956 p.1 cöt- ), Cf. al so Astrid Claes: Per r G (tiss. Ko1n, 195 ¡P , -36-

Schon ist die Jugend bei frohen Ze iten schön i-st die Jugend, sie kommt nicht mehrJ Drum sag ichs noch einmal: Schön s j-nd die Jugend jahr; schon ist die Jugend, sie kommt nicht mehr. Vergangne Zeiten kommrn niemals wieder, verschwunden ist das junge Blut. Drum sag ich q. . etc. Man liebt die Madchen bei frohen Zeiten, man liebt die ¡qädchen zum Ze itvertre ib. Drum sag ich etc. The destruction of such literary clichés and the dis- appointmenÇ of accustomed emotional responses characterizes not only the individual images of Benn's schöne Juqend, but typifies the conceit of the poem as a whole: the titre is more meaningful when applied to the young rats rather than to the young girr. she is the means to the "schöne Jugend" of the former. They die of drowning, and the poem suggests that the girr had died in the same \^ray the "schöne Jugend" of the young girl and that of the young rats share a common fate: both die. Dead, they are on exactry the same l_evel - of matter. This "Kreislauf" theme recurs in other poems of the early Benn e.g. in Kreislauf (tgtz), which immedi_ately follows schöne Juqend in the Morque cycler or in Mann und Frau gehn durch die Krebsbarack e (r9r2). Benn is not concerned simply to remind us of the fact of death - he wants us to view it from an unaccustomed perspective. Nature is indifferent to human beautyr âs it is to human sentiments; the clichés traditionatly used to express these sentiments are placed in the context of the cold1y, clinically presented real_ities of nature. Thus Benn causes us to question the rightness both of human sentiment_ ality and of tradj-tion. He produces a "verfremdungseffektr. rndirectly, however, and probably without Benn intending it, Ëhe poem poses the question: how is man to transcend his own relative position within the universe? How is he to overcome his dependence on the purely material aspects of reality? Such questions are behind much of Bennrs artistic theory and practice the artist, in his rejection of purely "natural-- I'metaphysical" istic" guide-lines, is a type. This means he stands against the materialism which he sees merely as a development of the empirical or "natura1" world and against -37-

"nàturalistic" riterature and art which reproduce or t'represent" this world. rf he uses elements of the phys- icar world in his work, the artist rearranges them on his o\^/n terms - he refuses to be determined by them or by what he considers to be traditionar responses to them. such reconstitution of the "given" is characteristic of Bennrs work and is already evident in his use of tradition in Schöne Juqend. The rast line of the poem, with the pathetic "Ach" and the diminutive "die kleinen schnauzen", continues the tone of sentimental regard for the rats. They, not the girl, are celebrated in a conventionally "poetic" (here elegaic) manner. This reinforces the "verfremdungseffektr, preventing the reader from reacting according to his accustomed views, forcing him for a moment to review from a strange perspective the reality he has taken for granted. Thus wolfgang Heybeyrs view on the sentimental and elegaic tone in schöne Juqend needs correction: Hören wir nicht unter den zynisghen obertönen einen elegischenr..ja sentimèntal_en Klang? Die unbewußten Nebentöne verraten das Gefuhí, d;;- rAch I z.B. , oder der doppel_te Diminutiv von dem rkleinen Schwestercñèn'. (J2) ltlhat Heybey cites as examples of unconscious "Nebentöne" arer on the contrary, quite consciously utilized elements of literary tradition, with the express purpose of invalidating this tradition. Not through an unconscious appropriation of, but through a deriberate confrontation with tradition, does the poem achieve its effects. Nor is one justified in the generarisation that Bennrs (33) early poetry is "alles mehr schrei als Gedicht". ,., the better of his early poems, such as Schöne Juqend t Bennrs emotional responses and his personar experience as a doctor do not escape the rigours of the conscious mind. The invor_ve_ ment of the criticar- faculties in the process of artisti_c creation is emphasised again and again in Bennrs later

(32) Wolfgang Heybey, op. cit., p.3j9. (3: ¡ Gunther Klemm: fr e n DJ-chtung und Deut.rng 6 (wuppertal-/øa rmen, I95 ,P Ã On the other Klemm admits, hand withoutI'Formkrafti being too specific, that traces of Bennrs lat er can be found in his earJ-y poetry, roo (ibid. ). -38-

theoretical work and is suggested as early as 19IO .l_n Gespräch: Du kannst den ganzen Kosmos durch dich fl_uten rünlen und brauchst doch nur ein schwätzer zu sein. rch halte mich an Rodins hartes wort, daß es überhaupt keine Kunst gÍbt, sondern nur ein Handwerk. (rv rB7) certainly, in many of his early poems of the Morque type Benn fails to revise and check his subjective responses j this resurts in poems - e.g. Merkvnirdiq, Dirnen, Finish (arr 1913 ) - which remain bound to the mirieu of the morgue and the hospital and which lack the qualities of combination and contrast: peculiar to such poems as Sch one Ju nd. It is nevertheless understandable how contemporary critics could generarize of_ Bennl= "":tT.ll"ary that it "zn tief im Natu- ralismrrs stecken bleibtrr. \J+l Mann und Frau qehn durch die Krebsbaracke (r9L2), for example, appears to consist wholIy of unpleasant physical details enumerated for their own sake; but in fact the poem has rittle to do with a purely "natural_ istic" depiction of rearity. The very rearism of the guiders language, of the cool, dispassionate tone of the poem and the quiet rhythm herp to produce an apocalyptic effect the details of the cancer-ward courd stand for the whole of human existence. The transition from the realistic details to a universar, even metaphysical plane, is made in the final three lines: Hier schwillt der Acker schon um jedes Bett. Fleisch ebnet sich zu Land. Glut-gibt. sich fort. saft schickt sich an zu rinnen. niae ruft. (rrr 15) In Schone Juqend 5 too, there is a deceptively "natural_ istic" tone of facts objectivery reported. But the images take on a universar significance. The girl has no namer rro disti-nguishing features, and in her anonymity she takes on a certain representativeness. Like alr bodies, living or dead, she consists of thinqs - her mouthr âs we have seen, appears as an inanimate object; her organs are pieces of meat and her blood, from a ratrs-eye view, is a beverage. Beyond the

(34 ) lgrr_wolfgang Martens: Krinische Lvrik, in Die Aktion, 35, r9tz, p.11o/. euoteã-from peter uwe Hohendahl, ed.:

Autoren im Urteil ihrer Kritiker (Frankfurt, p.91. 3 IgTI), -39-

particular young girl and the nest of rats in her body, the poem expresses the eternal probrem of youth and beauty and their transience. rt suggests that physical beauty is no more immune to the laws of nature than other matter an awäreness which was always to remain with Benn and which helps to explain his iater insi-stence on the "unnaturar" (in the sense of "artifice") quality of l_iterature and art, I'antinaturalistic I' (35 i. e . on the artistr s function , ) o¡ form as opposed to content. on the one hand, the artistrs refusal to work on the terms of what is "given", his dissatisfaction with the logicar and grammaticar l-aws traditionalty inherent in language, his insistence on the arti-st s subjectivityr o' his private "vision" and on his right to express it entirery on his own terms, to create a newr personar J-anguage independent of tradition, to write according to "eines tieferen Auges Traum", as Benn would say; on the other hand, the artist's insistence on a supra-personaÌ, "objectively" valid vehicre of expression, his urge to go beyond the recording of personal impressions and to transcend thè relativity of his subjective responses - this paradox of artrs private, autonomous, sometimes esoteric quality and its simul_taneous claim to "absorute", objective validity, craims particur_ar attention in the early part of this century. rt is a paradox v¡hich is particularry important for an understanding of much Expressionist úriting and art. ceorg Trakr, for example, revised many of his "impressionistic" poems in favour of a poetry of metaphor, which became increasingì_y idiosyncratic and resulted in a private, autonomous, non-

(35) Bennrs formu la "die antinaturalisti_sche Geistesrr fir Funkti on des st appears in a private Ärbe itshe ft J_n 1936 (in his Nachlaß in the e at Marbach). In a sli ghtly naturalistische different form die anti- Aufgabe des Geistesil it appears in a letter of IB. 10 . f%6 to Frank to Maraun where it refers the modern awarene ss of the loss of "Harmoni_e u. Identitat von Na u r' Èur . Geist . ( Br. T4) This i-s nor a new awareness of Bennrs gained from his political episode in f%3/34, bur can be traced back to his early work both i-n the "non- representational_ " use of language rr and in the unrepresentative " po"ition of the a rtist . -4o-

representational world in a poetic universe which dis- appoints traditional conceptions of "universality" and of communication. Yet Trak1 can claim for the revised versions of his poems that they are more "impersonal" and "universal" than the earlier versions and that they possess greater communicative pov\¡er; in a letter of I9II to Erhard Buschbeck concerning the revised version of his poem Krage, Trakl writes: Anbei das umgearbeitete Gedicht. Es ist um so v j-e1 besser als das ursprüngliche, a1s es nun unpersonlich ist, und zum Bersten vol1 von Bewe- gung und Gesichten. Ich bin überzeugt, daß es Dir in dieser univer- sellen Form und Art mehr sagen und bedeuten wird, denn in der begrenzt persönlichen des ersten Ent- wurfes . (36 ) rt is not unusual in Expressionist poets that they see their work in opposition to the impressionistic tendencies of the turn of the century. Beside Trakr, Expressionist writers such as Ernst stadrer and Georg Heym also begin in an rmpressionist vein - but only as a step on the road to a more personal sty1e. Thisr âs Harald S teinhagen has pointed (37) out, is true also of Benn. ,. is e vident in Rauhreif (38 ) (r9ro ) and in Herbst as wel-J. as l_n lde de se 1i- sen (f9fo) which, however, already contains simil_arities to (3e Schone Juqend. ) clearly Benn's unzeitqemäß quality takes in literary varues as well as the more general bourgeois varues with which he was unable to identify himself . His curtura] criticism and his artistic theory are inseparable, as we

(36 ) Walther Kil Iy, Hans Szklenar, eds.: Georq Trakl. Dichtuncren und Briefe (salzburg, 19 , vo1. I, p. 485. (37 ) Harald Steinhagen: Die s tatischen di chte vôn Gott- fried V l-le rner sl_ sche Lyrik , Veroffentli chungen der deutschen Schil-ler- gesellschaft 28 (stuttgart, 1969) , p.12. (38 ) Harald Steinhagen: Benns, in Paul Raa nTr Dokumente, dtv 557 Munchen, 19 ), P.11-1 (39 ) steinhagen: stat edi Be op. cit. , p . l-2. t -4r-

shaII see in more detail in chapter i2. As "unrepresentativeil of contemporary culture, and as a poet, Benn could not adopt a passive attitude to language and tovuards literary tradition His díssatisfaction with both, although first radicalry expressed in the Morsue poems, is evident also in his (4o) Gespräclì of 19ro, whictr is the earliest indication of Bennrs view, whj-ch he was to hord insistently and emphatic- arly, that the artist is not a passive reflector of rearity, that he must see the worrd with an eye not habituated to custom or tradition, with an eye which j-s not dazzled by the constantly shifting surfaces of empirical rearity but which is intent on filtering out and extirpating the inessentiar and the coincidental. For this an unconditioned eye is necessary it must be "free" before it can be creative. rn this sense Garten rl-es of I92O describes the artist van Gogh as "Frei-auge" and Arles as "ort, wo das Auge schuf". (rr 91) rn Gespräch "künstrerisch" means "neu" and "eigentüm- l-ich" (tv rT9); it implies a revitalisation of ranguage: Meinst du, du könntest irgend etwas anfangen mit hergeraufenen worten, die br-aß und matt ..rñ¿ mü¿e zu dir kommen? (rv tB2) Bennrs early work tries to confront this probrem of the creative, expressive rather than imitative use of language sometimes by breaking up the accustomed rogical, syntacticar and grarnmatical patterns of languager üsing unusual words with exotic associations, coining new words or, as in the case of Schöne Juqend, placing the "blaß", "matt", "müde" and "hergeraufen" ,"/ords (clichés) in a context which reveal_s them as clichás and, largely because of thi-s, retains them as viable material for poetry.

The course on which Benn embarked with his Morque poems of I9tZ does not alter significantly during the next decade

(4O) For an illuminatin g discussion of Bennrs beginnings and his rel-ationsh ip to the "sprachskepsis" of the early century, see Horst FríLz:. Gottfri-ed Benns n Jah ch der Schill-e rqe se 1l-s ft 12, 4-4o2. , -42-

or so. The cycle Söhne (1913 ) and other poems of this year, beside the rebellion against "Hirn" in such poems as Gesänqe, Untergrundbahn and Das Affenlied (poems which reveat similar- ities to Rönners "Gegenglück" in the prose), contj-nue the attack on contemporary varues and on literary tradition arthough not always with the artistry we observed in schöne Juqend, as the first poem in the cycle Finj_sh (1913) indicates: Das Speiglas - den Ausbrüchen so großer grüner warmer Flüsse nicht im entferntesten gewachsen schlug endlich nieder. Der Mund fiel hinterher. Hiqg tief. Sog schluckweis Erbrochenes zurück. Enttäuãchte jedes Vertrauen. Gab Stein statt Brot dem atemlosen Blut. (rrr 375) This poem certainly confirms Ernst stadrerrs judgement of Bennrs early poetry that it "gründlich mit dem lyrischen rdear der Blaubrümeleinritter aufräumt"(41) - ¡,r, it offers littre in the wery of poetry to replace the poetic ideal wh j-ch it re jects. The technique of pracing bourgeois (incruding patriotic) sentiment in the context of the ugfy is continued in the five Nachtcafé poems (t9tZ-tg14), e.9. in Nach cafe IV (1914): Das Weserlied erregt die Sau gemüttich. Die Lippen weinen mit. Den Stiom herunter das suße Tati Da sitzt sie mit der Laute. (rrr 393) Or in Nachtcafé v (rgr+): Der Burgerpfuhl tritt auf dj-e Bänke aus: Pack, pickel, Ehe, Bärte und Medaill_en: (rrr 384) A similar deflatory technique is used in Barl (publ . rgr1); as in schöne Juqend Benn contrasts the contents of the poem to the expectations awakened by the titl-e. By novel_ word- combinations ( "HurenkrewzztJg", "syphilisquadrilr"" ) he praces a respectable bourgeois convention in a new right: 8a11. Hurenkîe\zzlrg. syphirisquadrirre. (rrr 39o) By seeing the institutions, traditions and val-ues of contemporary society under the aspect of the hospitar and the morgue Benn implicates the whole fabric of this society in sickness, decay and incipient disintegration. He is of

(41 ) fn Cahiers lsaciens (November, I9f2). euoted from Hohendahl, op. cit., p.95. -43-

course not alone in this : some of Bennrs contemporaries in Berlin e.g. Georg Heym and Johannes R Becher expressed . a similar sense of cosmic decline. rn the Austrian region Georg Trakl achieved a simirar effect by viewing the beauty and treasures of past traditj-on from the consciousness of a --His threatening present. predecessor Hugo von HofmannsthaJ_, in his poem sünde des Lebens, expressed an important theme of Expressionism before the event: rch sah den Todeskeim, der aus dem Leben sprießt. (42) rn the relatively few poems he wrote in the i_mmediate post-war years some of which were not pubrished until l-922 in Ðie Gesammelten schriften - Benn continues the provocative tone of much of his earlier poetry. As in the essayistic work of these post-war years, he broadens the range of his criticism. He sees post-war Europe as "die schäderstätte Abendland'r (in proroq r92o, rrr 395). The pre-h/ar apocalyptic visi_ons of Georg Heym had become real-ity; Benn makes a direct connection between the disaster of Europe and the ideals of soci_al and material progress which the earJ-y twentieth century had taken over from the l_ate nineteenth. All sci-entific, social and political experiments, beriefs and dogmas are seen as futire to Bennrs mind they are a mere continuation of nineteenth century thinking. Hence his attack on the new political order in Russia in the poem Bolschewik (pub1. r9z2). But Benn does not restrict his mockery to specific poritical, soci-ar or intellectuar_ phenomena; he sees them as condi-tions of the positivistic world-view which had encouraged materiarism and helped sub_ ordinate the individuar to a system (be it capitalist or communist) not of his making or choosing. Äs in his prose works around r9zo, Bennrs perspective ranges from the whole of human history right down to the individual. He depicts the contemporary bourgeois citizen j-n stock categories : "Auf-lcau, Sitte, Stand " (tlI 394 ) , "Familienglück" (ttt 399), "cesundheitswesen,, (rrr 4oB). To

(42) Herberr Ste*ner, ed.: V l-te l_ .E;-rn rJ-S Dramen Stockholm, 19 t p.67. -44-

reveàI as trivial the generally accepted conception of an

"individual", he produces mock-heroic word-combinations : t'Etagen-Mephistophen" "vorortdämonen" r (ltl 397 ) r "Break- fast-dämon" (rrr 394). obviously in his poetry of the immediate post-war years Benn does not see the contemporary scene as an object of serf-identification. similarly, he feels estranged from the literary world of his time. He sees it as a lackey of society, directry representative of it, thinking and writing entirery on j-ts terms. He caricatures the literary scene in Proloo zrr einem deuts en Dichter\^re tstreit (pubr . l-922) , where he lists a whore range of stock bourgeois customs, institutions and clichés which compose the world of the "verlauste schieber" (writers) of his time: "Freibier", r'Fortschritt,, ,,zylinde ,, "viIlenwälder " , , rglanz,, , ',Kaviar , "rmporte", "Gott, wie der Chablis schmeckt", "Die Börsen- bu11en und die Bänkeljurenr', "kesselr] schrager", r'Hoch der

Familientischi" etc. (rrr 4o6r. ¡ The conviction that the artist must refuse to go atong with the band-waggon of "mass'r-culture and "mass"-varues is stated more definitively, indeed programmaticarly, by Benn rtwenties in the late and early rthirties, where the satirical intentions of the above examples are appried directly to the political scene (cf. chapter J). However, the artistrs "no" to society is explicitly stated as earJ_y as 1913 in a letter to paul Zednz Kunst ist eine Sache von þO Leuten, davon 3O nicht normal sind. !{as große verlage .rerÍegen, i;¿ reine nill:a-, sondern Arbeit von r,euten, dié iúrer Mitter-- maßigkeit schriftstellerisch gerécht werden. Nietzsche hat zeiL seines r,ebéns seine Rechnungen nicht bezahlen können, van Gogh r_ebte von ãB--T"ssen Kaffee den Tag u. Heinrich rrlañn ist arm, sovier ich weiß. Kunst ist rrrsinn und getährdet áie Rasse. Was Allgemeingut wird, ist aamit gerichtet. iã..f2¡ In these lines, despite their exaggerated tone, ât l_east three important aspects of the later Bennrs artisti_c theory can be distinguished: (r) rris scorn at the "popular" writer ' (2 ) his idea that the "true' arti_st cannot expect support or encouragement from the communi_ty (a corol_rary of the artist's refusal to submit himsel_f to the interests of the community, to work on its terms) and (3) the "abnormar_- _45_

ality" of the artist and his work their self-different- iatj-on from what is generally considered by the community to be "natural", "normal", 'rupliftih9", sal-ubrious and generarly "Allgemeingut": an idea which in 193o Benn develops in some detail with reference to w. Lange-Eichbaumrs "bionegative" type (cf . p.62t. below). The question of the artist and the community - particularly the political community - will concern us in some detail in chapters 3 and 4. rn the foregoing discussion of Bennrs early work we have tried to show how "existential" questions form the basis of his conception of art as "Gegen- kunst". fn the next chapter, too, the indissol-uble connecti-on between Bennrs cultural criticism and his ideas about art wiII rtwenties be central. During the and early 'thirties he deveroped a detailed artistic theory, some aspects of which for the Engrish-speaking reader at least - have the appearance of being a trifle esoteric. Thus it wirl_ be necessary to try to transrate some of the fundamentars of this theory into plain language. And, last but not l-east, such clarification will be necessary before \^/e can make meaningful statements about the artist Bennrs position vis-à-vis political realities in the late Weimar Republic and in f9nß4. -46-

CHAPTER 2

Bennr s Artistic Ïtreorv ( I92o-I932\

fn Bennrs predominantry essayistic work after r!2o his opposition to what we have calIed the worl-d of the "Herr" is expressed from somewhat wider terms of reference than it had been in the "Rönne"-novellas (cf. p.16 above). Friedrich wilhelm wodtke (who had access to Bennrs ribrary) reports that after 1918 Bennrs range and intensity of reading (1) increased considerably. This reading, however, does not change the direction of his thinking, but provides a theoretical framework for a world-view which was already inherent in his early work. The world of the "Herr", characterised in Bennrs early work by the "continuous" personality¡ positivism, optimism, sociar esprit de corps, remains in rgzo-r93zz as the worrd of the "kausalgenetischeIrJ Denker" (rt l]2) which is possessed of "eine grundsätzlich optimistische, technisch- melioristische vlertanschauung" (r 6T) and a "grundsätzlich pragmatische und positive Einstel1ung" (I 6T). This intel-lectual and social mirieu has a "Neigung zur Freudig- keit und Herle, einer überraschenden Bejahung des Lebens, eines unerwarteten Glaubens an Erkenntnis ". (r 68) rt adopts the legacy of the nineteenth century, of Darwinism, of "die aufrechtgehende ufeltvernunft" (I 69) which is remark_ abre above all for its belief in the "Entwicklungsbegriff', and by its faith in "Fortschrittrr. (r 69) The "Herr" as Benn describes him in r9z4 is ,eine Art von Mitglied aus der Gemeinschaft der der gesamte modern- zivilisatorische Komplex ohne viel Aufhebens entströmte". (rr loi) But unlike the "Herr", Benn himself does not see the intell-ectual and material development which characterises this "civilised" complex as a reason for optimism. on the

(1) Friedrich wilheLm wodtke: Gottfried Benn. samrnlunq Metzler 26, 2nd ed. (stutt q|õT, p.ZA. - --'--' _47_

contrary, he feels, l-ike Oswald Spengler, that it contains the seeds of its own destruction. In Der Garten von Arles (I92o) and in Das let zte Ich (r92L), for example, he places intel-Iectual processes in the context of death, thus assign- ing them suicidal qualities; he objects to "jene[m] mör- derischeln] Drangr s€in Denken zur Fixierung z'tJ resultieren " (rr BT), to "der Aposteriorisrik töaficnelm] Fanal" (rr 96) and to "dfer] sinnlosigkeit dieses schlachtfelds um den sinn". (rr BB) The concrete, historicar "schrachtferd" of world war r is also one of the fruits of positivism, as was apparent in Diesterweq (cf. p.16 above), in the "schäde1- stätte Abendl.andrr of the poem proloq 1a2o (cf . p.43 above) and in Der Garten von Arres, where the returned soldiers are described as "verführte und nun geschragene söhne, Treber essend im toten Landr'. (rr BZ) or, more succinctly, in the first (I92O ) version of Das moderne lch: Die aufklärende Arbeit der Naturwissenschaften als ursache zum weltkrieg, das ist nicht ü¡et. (r 6o6) An equally sceptical attitude to interlectual and material progress is evident in Bennrs work throughout the Itwenties and early tthirties. rn Medizinische Krise (1926) he looks ironically at his own profession: Bekannt ist der Ausspruch eines berühmten Klinikers, eine Lungenentzündung dauere mit einem guten ArzL drei lrlochen, oúne einen Arz|- einundzwanzíg. Tage, und mit einem schlechten Arzt kõnne sie viel länger dauern. (r 33f. ) And in Fazit der Perspe ktiven (f93o) ft. sees power-poli_tics resulting in a reversal for the conquerer, as for example l-n the European colonisation of Asian countries: noch fünfzig Jahre weiter und das Unauf_ hörliche schwinlt zurück . -.-e"iån kotonisiert (r 128) cebührr Carleton ein nkmal? (tg3Z) telts of the development of a new variety of wheat in Kansas, of the resur-ting pros- perity, the fal-l- in the price of wheat and the bankruptcy of the farmers. The question raised is "die Frage des tech_ nischen Fortschritts überhaupt. Hat die Erleichterunq der Lebensbedinqunqen den qroßen menschl-i chen Sinn. n das vercfan gene Jahrhunder t ihr zusprach? " (r 2o9f . ) -48-

Bennrs negative view of the "Entwicklungsbegriff" is evident arso in his theory of "verhirnung" or "progressive Zerebratj-on" a I'kontinuierfiche schädelvergrößerung in- folge Überspezialisierung des croßhirnsr' (r 98); here, too, "development" means setf-destruction, for this "schädel- vergrößerung" can "aIs Geburtshindernis fragrant werden und das weiterbestehen der Rasse gefährden". (r gB)(2) rn his earry worlç, too, Benn had expressed a correl_ation between the cerebrar world of the t'Herr" and a sense of death, sterility and desolation - viz. the imagery in He ich Mann. Ein unterqanq (1913), where the nameless heror ât the start of his train journey from Germany to rtaty, describes the northern landscape, the geographical home of the "Herr": Es kam Frost, harter, unnachgiebiger. Mittags, a1s die Fahrt begann, wáren ði'p"., Dinge schwarz: wälder, xiähen, Buschwerk an Graben laubbraun; das andere weiß. über alr-em lag das !l"h-t: eingefroren, starr, lang hinge_ worfen. Blankes, auf das. ich fiel, sah ver_ nichtend aus: nj_cht anrühren, gibt es Wunden und Schorf "orrÁt Es stand al1es vernichtet auf einem Ufer, das unaufhaltsam abfier zu einem toten eisigen Fruß (rr 10) And in Die rnsel (rgro) intellectual processes had been likened to the act of dying: Rönne sees himsel-f "röchelnd nach der Einheit des Denkensrr. (rr 4l) rtwenties During the and early 'thi_rties intelrectuar_ deveropment as the determinant of culturar pessimism is reiterated in many variations by Benn ranging from the biological theory of "verhirnung" described above to historical, philosophical, psychologicar and paraeontolog- ical hypotheses, all suggesting a universar_ correlation between "Entwicklung" and "untergah9,,, between positivism and nihilism, inflation and devaruation and pointing to the modern stage of development as "die zivilisatorische End_ epoche der Menschheitrr . (r 438 ) "Fortschritt ", i_n short, is "die intellektualistische potenzierung des werdens, die

(2) cf. also the akademie-Rede (tg3z) z "überspezialisierung des Leitorgan@gangspunkt bei* u"lãr;;;;' von Artenrr. (r 435) -49-

degradative Dezimierung der Genesis und des Seins -, das bestimmte Integral des nihilismus". (r 192)(3) Applied to the artistic sphere, Bennrs principle of what in generar terms we might cal-l the inverse ratio of quality to quantity means a correlation between the popurar- isation of ideas and their triviarisation. Benn applies this principre directly to lyric poetry when, in a l_etter of 22.9.1925, he writes to Carl trrlerckshagen: vielleicht lassen Sie gelten, daß wo immer in der Lyrik in unbestimmter Form: rwirr auf- taucht, der Dilettantismus nicht weiE-ab ist. Denn wer spricht, ist a1l_ein. (4) rn Bennrs early work we observed the prefigurations of this non-compl-iance of the artistrs with the popular forum. Bennfs non-compliance has a background of cultural criticism and means a distinction between artistic and "l_iberal" individuarism (cf. p.rTf. above). The poputarly held conception of an "individuar", Das letzte rch had suggested in r92r, is a "Fiktion" and "individuarism" only another kind of conformism - a situation similar to Horkheimerrs and Adornors diagnosis quoted on p.1Z above. Also in the context of the correlation he finds between intellectual "infration" and "devaruation", Benn anticipates another idea expressed by Horkheimer and Adorno: the idea that "Aufklärung" tends to degrade into ideology, both in the cognitive sense of positivistic fact-fetishism and in a

(r) In_his essay Nach dem xihilismus (fgje) eenn acknow_ ledges the inrrue.rrce on rris conception of nihirism of Nietzschers In the same sees ïvan T essay he Fathers and Sons )- as the first E ffi,s nihj_l-j_sm as mus schle.chthin, sondern- ein fanatis sglaube, ein radikaler aturwissenschaft und Sozio_ y, Basarov I s physiognomy ich for Benn represents n the biol_ogical domain: th a broad forehead His light-brown hair, which was long and thick, failed to hide the bulging temples of his Éro"a r,".ãli. -i;;; Turgenev: Fathers_Ènd go{rs (eenguin Classics , 196,,-- transl. Fosemary Edmonds ) , p. 19. (4) Limes-Lesebuch, 2. Folge (Wiesbaden, ir}DB) , p.45. -5o-

socio-economic and cultural sense. - "Rationalismus, rnduk- tion, Psychologismus", Benn writes in 193O, have revealed "ihren charakter a1s standardisierte Mythorogie". (r 126) And in the same year he complains that "der szientifismus, in dem die Aufklärung vor unseren Blicken endet, auch nur ein neues system von Dogmatismus, orthodoxie, scholastik, Fetischismus ist". (r T6) Bennrs attacks on what he call_s the social and culturar- "Einheitsidol" (r ].26), his complaint that the cultural- scene functions "nach Maßgabe des Kurses der gertenden rdolerr, are símilar in spirit to j_nsights of Horkheimer and Adorno: Durch die ungezährten Agenturen der Massenproduktion und ihrer Kultur werden die genormten verhartens- weisen dem Einzernen a1s die allein natürlichen: êo_ ständisen, vernünfrisen ."rs.piä;I.- ïtt-----..-' Benn was no sociologist, and his method of estabLishing the vuorkings of the "norm" is not an analyticar one. For him, the process of rational analysis itself belongs to "Auf- klärung", and he rejects everything "was man sum¡narisch ar_s Aufkrärung ansieht" (r T4) thus diverging considerabry from Horkheimerrs and Adornors method when they insist in their introduction: die Aufklärung muß sich auf sich serbst besinnen, wenn die Menschen nicht i¡or-lends verraten werden sollen. (6) Benn judges empiricar rearity not by its o\¡/n, but by other criteria criteria which he insists on determining for him_ self ; this was the substance of our discussion in chapter l_, and it forms the basis of Bennrs arti-stic theory in the Itwenties and early 'thirties. LI t 1' 'r-'-'i'

The above very cursory survey of some aspects of Bennrs world-view during the weimar Republic was intended only as a background to his artistic theory in the same period. - Bennrs sense of maraise with contemporary civiris_ ation is not a unique position; he was not arone in his

(5 ) Horkheimer, Adorno : D lektik der fkla rung p. 35. op. cit., (6) rbid., p.5. -rr- cultural pessimism during these years the wide resonance enjoyed by Spenglerrs Untercrancr de Abendlandes (voI. I 1918, vol-.Z I92?) is itself witness to this. Vlhich is not to say that intellectual life in the Weimar F.epublic was homogeneous J one need only point to the chasm separating a Stefan ceorge (or a Gottfried Benn) from a Johannes R. Becher. More important for our purposes, however, is the fact that the distance separating Benn from circles such as Alfred Rosenbergts Kampfbund fur deu tsche Kultur is equally great. Bennrs prace within the undulating spj_ritual l-and- scape of the weimar nepubric is not easy to pinpoint. The catch-word "irrationalism, which is so often appried both to the period and to Benn himserf should be treated with care for irrationarism is capabre of presenting itsel-f in more fornrs than one. The particular "irrationalism" represented by Benn is part and parcel of his artistic theory. rt wirl be necessary to make some distinctions between his "biologj_cal_" theory of creativeness and certai-n other ideas about biology and creativeness which were popular in some circles during the weimar Republic and in the twelve years following it. These distinctions are symptomatic of a deeper-going principre of self-differentj-ation in Bennrs work a prj-nciple which: âs \^/e shall see in chapters J and 4r gives the ]ie to any mono-causal treatment of the connections between his pre-l9jj thinking and his position in f9ß/34. The cultural pessimism and irrationarism which are commonry made responsible for arti-stsf and intellectualsrattracti-on to fascism, while they te1l part of the story in Bennrs case, do not tell the whole story.

Das mod erne fch was first published in Tr der Kunst und der ZeiL (no.12 , L92O), where the two sections of the essay \^/ere headed "Ekthese" and "Narziß" - thus i-llustrating an ambivalence characteristic of Bennrs thinking: his concern: orr the one hand, to specify his position in relation to his environment and, on the other hand, hi_s -52- desire to find a sphere independent of empirical reality, to create a private¡ s€1f-directed, "monological" world where, Iike Narkissos, he experiences himself as his "eigenes tyäisches Bild". (r 22) Both impulses - percep- tion and consequent dismissal of empirical reality on the one hand, and the embracing of an unconditional, autonomous sphere on the other are aspects of one and the same experience. CulturaI criticism and Bennr s anti-empj-rical asylum are inseparable, just as Rönners "GegengJ-ück" was a response to his estrangement from the intellectual and social modalities of the "Herr". Ronne reappears in A1 exanderzucre mitte ls Wallunqen (1924). He rejects "die kausalgenetische Methode" (rr roj) prevailing in the world of the "Herr"; " . . . diese pene- tranz zur Amalgamisierung, diese Tendenz zum Resurtat, die so fatal einen Drang nach Sicherung bedeuteter', Benn reports: "die war es, die er nicht mehr teilen konnte". (rr 1o4) The same inability to "share" or participate in the world of the "Herr" had been typicar of the younger Rönne in the cehirne-novellas; and in Alexanderzüqe mittels warrunqen Rönne's response to the situation is similar to that of his namesake eight or nine years previousry: a search for "harluzinatorische v,Iärme" (rr ro5) through an abrogation of causar categories: " ... auf , wir wol]en die wert erobern, Alexanderzüge mittels wallungenr'. (rr 106) For Benn rationalism and what it implies - deveropment, materialism, devaluation, sterility, nihilism (cf. pp.46-48 above) - "ruft die cegenvorsterlung hervor" (r 4o), as his essay Medizinische Krise puts it in 1926. rn all essentiars Bennrs "Gegenvorsterlung" develops the situation described in his early work. Against the "bürger- liche Ratio " ( t rT ) and against the "Determinierthe it'r ( r 15) of the individual in contemporary European civi-lisation, he sets the prerogative of the free, creative individual- whose world, like the "Rausch", "Traum" and "süden, of his early work, is diametricarly opposed to empirical and social_ rearity. The creative ego refuses to work on the terms of the latter. -53-

It is not until the l-ate rtwen'ties and early 'thirtj-es, however, that Benn develops his creative "Gegen- vorstellungl' j-nto a detailed artistic theory. In his Totenrede für Klabund (1!28) he confronts the present, "given" stage of civilisation with an other, earlier and above all more creative stage of development: the pre- historíc period, in which "eine andere Art Menschheit mit anderen xräften der seele sich gestartete und wuchs (r 4oB) and which was "die eigentliche produktive periode des humanen Geschrechts'r. (r 4oB) But for modern man the preconscious sphere in which the ego can realize its creative potential is attainable only through a nulrificatj_on or "Durchstoßung" of the conscious, historical period - of the "Bewußtseinsepoche" (r 437) which has throttl-ed the creative imagination. The attainment of such a sphere in which the ego is freed from the strictures of the here and now is the object of Bennrs "Gegenvorsterrung" and a precondition for its ultimate aim: artistic creati_veness. Benn describes this independent sphere in psychologi-ca1, physiological and biogenetic terms. - Not onty the contemporary stage of civil-isation, but its biological equivalent, the "Hirnrinde", calrs forth its "Gegenvor- stellungrr : the "Hirnstamrn", seat of the prerogicar "pro- periode duktive des humanen Geschl-echtsr'. Between t92Z and r93z Benn variously describes this prelogi_car creative I'Erbgut" potentiar as (r 99, ro4), "Erbmasse" (r 196, 4o9), "anthropologische substanz" (r 4jB) or - what is common to them all "produktive substanz aus dem Dunkel des rrrationalen". (r 4T) But the creative raw material contained in the "Hirnstamm" can only be activated "wenn der rogische oberbau sich röst" (r 99), i.e. when the "Manter" is "destruiertr'. (r 99) Ttris situatj-on, where creatj-veness invorves the abrogation of empiricar consciousness, is invarj-ab1e in what Benn in his essay I)e r Au f-loarr der Per on- lich ke it (r93o) calls rhe "Geologie des rch". (l 90-106) He defines "das geologische prj-nzip" as "der schichtungs- -54-

charakter des Psychischen". (r 98) 3) The deepest, creative "Schichten" or layers of the psyche whj-ch are the object of Bennrs "geologicaf" principle are marked by their liberation from empirical- and causal laws, from the categories of time and space "im frühen Erlebnis des tfuerall und des Ewig- seins" (t 99); but more significant is the fact that such liberation is prerequisite for and integral to artistic creativeness: Das archaisch erweiterte, hyperämisch sich ent- ladende Ich, dem scheint das Dichterische ganz verbunden. (r 81) Equally significant is the fact that Bennls J_iberated, "independent" sphere is arrived at via an attack on the civil-ised world based on empiricism and causality. Bennrs striving for artistic self-determination is simul_taneously an act of cultural criticism; it is almost invariabry accompanied by an assault on the reality from which the ego seeks release: Die nealität, von einer zivilisatorischen Mensch- heit geschaffen und behauptet, keines Blickes, keines Lächelns wert. rrnmer nur gegen sie angehen, immer nur sie umbiegen zv einem zug von ¡laskeñ: zrt einem wurf von Formen, ein spier im Fiebern, 1os und das Ende um jeden Saum. Ach, diese ewige=írrr- Entwickrutrgr welch ei.re kommerzielle'xonti-nuiltËl Die Seele hat andere Tendenzen, sie hat eine schi-chtungs.- und Rückkehrtendenz zv jener Erbmasse, zv jenen Träumen t zD jenen Tränken aus ihrem arten Brut: die wirklichkeit und die Entwickrungr die Kausalität und die Geschichte, al1es nur Masse, arles nur Ton, darin sie spielend nach cöttern suchr. (r 4o9) This extract from Totenrede für Klabund (f928) conrains rhe fundamentals of the "Geologie des rch" which Benn formul_ated in more detail two years rater; the situation it describes, where the "Erbmasse" represents spiritual independence of "civilised" insti-tutions through the abrogation of the empirical categories on which these institutions are buiJ_t, can be verified by an abundance of exampres from Bennrs work

ft) Jung (see r TB) , Freud (g.. r 9B), Edgar Dacque, Erj_ch Unger and Lucien r,évy-erüh1 are the main sources. See Dieter Wellershoff: Gottf Benn. not ser Stunde, op. cit., p. -1 -55- (B) in the late rtwenties and early 'thirtie". orai=ai. creativeness invofves self-differentiation from rationalism (rv 222), causality (r 4o9t rr lII), history (r 72, 4o9 ,4Sz¡, empir j-cism (rv 222), materialism (r 73 ,l-5l-,L5B, I92, rv 235), determinism (r l-5,I5I), civil-isatj-on (r 68, 438), to select only a few examples. Ideology is another quality against which Bennis artistic irrationalism is directed; this question will concern us further towards the end of the present chapter. For the present, it will be sufficient to indicate that the qualities cited above are not strictly separable in Bennrs cultural criticism; they all belong to what in l-924 he had described as "der gesamte modern-zivilisatorj-sche Komp1ex" ("f . p.46 above ), against which the creative "Gegenvorstellung" is directed. As the formidable list suggests to which one could add qualities such as science, development, progress, commercialism, utilitarianism, opportunism Benn's attacks äre directed against a far broader spectrum than rational-ism and "Aufklärung" alone. His t'irrationalismr', certainly, is "anti-rationalr'. But it is morej it is fundamental to a theory of creativeness which craims that art is an unconditional, autonomous quality and thus not subject to extraneous empirical, social or (as we sharl_ see ) poritical determinants. The artist¡ âs Bennrs earry work had already suggestedt yefuses to accomodate himsel-f to the demands of "der sichtbaren zeíLtt , to borrow Edschmidrs term (cf . p.zT I'sichtbare above ). The zeí|-t' , the empj-ricar and social- sphere, is reregated to a secondary position in favour of the "primary" q.r.rity of creative irrationalism; the l-atter is a "genuines Nei.", an unconditional rejection of the former as for example in the fi-rst stanza of the poem

Grenzenlos (pubI . l-925) ¿

(B) This relationship continue s into Bennrs late work; what he says in his radio-tal-k Soll d e Dichtuncr da s Leben bessern? (f955) aetineares the same positS-on as in his theory almost thirty years previously: "Die Dichtung ...-fréut aié zeiL rr.rå die Geschichte auf, ihre Wirkung geht auf die Gene, die Erbmasse, die substanz. r' (r 593) -56-

Blute des Primaren, genuines Nein dem Gebrauchs -chimaren, dem Entwicklungs-sein, kosmisch akausale Arbeitsaversion dämmernd das Totale einer Vorregion. (rrr 121)

IIÏ

In view of the independence of empirical and social reality which characterises Bennrs "Geologie des Ich" and which is the sine gua non of artistic creativeness, one might enquire what is meant by the "corrective" principle to which he refers on 2J February 19JI in a letter to Richard Gabel-: sie kennen sicher die Literatur über Totemismus und mystische Partizipation. Aus ihren Resten rekru- tieren sich alle seelischen fräfte, die sich in den alogischen Äußerungen (xunst, primäre philosophie, allen metaphysischen Dràngen, in ihrer el-ementaren unbrechbaren Macht heute wohl allgemein verkannt) dokumentieren. Dies ist der korrextive Besitz der Menschheit, der dauernde, tragende, ökonomische Prinzipien und materialistische Geschichtsphiro- sophien überdauernde kollektive Besitz. (ei. 42\ obviously Benn is not referring to the socio-economic "collective " of Marxist theory. Bennrs I'coll-ective " in fact represents a reversal- of the Marxist "unterbau-überbau" scheme; the main point of his "ceologie des rch" is that artistic consciousness refuses to be conditioned by and endeavours to free itserf from historicar forces from the Marxist "unterbau". But, on the other hand, Bennrs conception of the free, "autonomous" artistic ego cannot be described in terms of liberar individualismr of the "rndivi- duaritätsbegriff" which he dj-smisses in the forrowing passage from Zur Prob lematik des Dichterischen (193o): der Individualitätsbqgriff, Erbe des aristo- terischen Zeitalters, Träger des nachmittelalter- Iichen Denkens, gesellschaftlicher Mittelpunkt der aufklärerischen Idee, aIs Sieger in den Schlachten vom Darwinismus mit den Skalpen al-ler Tiere behängt, das freie rch, das eergsteigerideaJ- der protestantischen Gl-aubensrichtung, der autoch- ,rr"thole blille, die aufrechtgehende Wel-tvernunft ... ,"(r 69) -57-

Liberal individualism means "freedomil within an economic framework - "Unumschränktheit in Geschäften und Genuß" (r 445)r âs Benn was to call it in 1933. One should therefore distinguish not only between Bennrs rrcollective" principle and social or political ideas, but also between his conception of artistic "freedom" and "das freie fchil of the socio-economic sphere. The "collective" mentioned by Benn in his letter to Gabet belongs to the "frühe schicht" (r lr8), to the creative layers of the "Geologie des rchr' : "Es wird sich keine andere Perspektive finden lassen", he writes in 1931 in the intro- lt duction to his oratorio Das Una u rliche t a1s daß sich das rndividuum wie die ganze menschriche Gemeinschaft immer wieder des unaufrösbaren mythj-schen Restes ihrer Rasse erinnert und sich der schöpfung übereignet". (rrr 599f-) As the terminorogy suggests, Bennrs "corrective" principle owes something to Jungrs "corlective unconscious"; and Jung himserf doubtl-ess belongs to the 'rliteratur über Totemismus und mystische partizipation" to which Benn refers in his letter to cabel (cf. also note T, p.54 above). we must therefore modify our claim about Bennrs conception of the artist as a "non-representative" type. The artist is a "representative' type after a1r: representative of the creative, metaphysical material l_ost^in the course of (9 developing consciousness and civilisation, ) of what Benn in 1927 calls "historisch und systematisch so verlorene

(9 ) Not unlike Benn, Jung sees the unconscious as a vi ta1, cre ative principle opposed to rationalism: The predominantly rationalistic European finds much that is human al_ien to him , and he prides himself on this without realisi ng that this rationality is won at the expense of his vi_tali ty, and that the primitive part of his personaJ_ity is consequently condemned to a more or l-ess under- ground existence. " Aniela Jaf fe, ed. Juncr eams cti (rrre Fontana Library, 19 T ,trans1. Richard and Clara !{in Itg,"), p.27,3. Juns, like Bennr usês the conception of oE.nerness as a unconscious, vital part of the psyche lylonym.fo5(cf. p. ol below, !h. note fZ). -58-

weltenr' . (rv l3f . ) But at the same time he is an "anti- type": non-representative of the empiricar rearity which manifests itself politically in the organised collective of modern civirisation. This duar quality of the artistrs r,vork its "universality" on the one hand and its "autonomy" or "non-representativeness" on the other - was touched upon in chapter r with reference to Expressionism: the abrogation of generarly accepted logical and empirical thought patterns, many Expressionists berieved, leads to a more truly "universal" expression of truth for ,reriance upon rogical-empirical patterns would mean a mere refl_ection of conditionar phenomena subject to the vagaries of the empirical worrd. such reliance wourd mean an absence of the supra- personal "universelLe Form und Art" to which Trakl refers in his letter to Erhard Buschbeck (cf. p.39f. above). rt is in this context of the insufficiency of empirical_ experience as the point of departure for literary creative_ ness that Benn's "Geologie des rch" belongsj it is in this context, too, that a remark of Bennrs in Der fbau der Per- sonli-chkeit can be in terpreted: impressions which are "durch äußere Lebensreize hervorgerufen", he writes, "errnleí- sen sich als reaktiv entstanden, zufä11ig und variabel". (r 97) This complaint, to express the matter in very general termsr r€fers to the "impressionistic" method rrabsoluteness" as opposed to the of the "expressionistic" method (cf. p.39f. above), which endeavours to transcend the categories of time, space ancl causality and the relative, "begrenzt persönrich" (trak1) q,r.1ity of writing bound to biographical experience. The creative "rch" for Benn is not (1o), the empirical, day to day, biographical "ïch" ',Das Ich", he writes in Lg 3o in zur Prob lematik des ichteris chen "gehört nicht zu den überwärtigend kraren und primären Tat_ sachen, mit denen die Menschheit begann, es gehört zv den bedingten Tatsachen, die Geschichte habenr' . (r TB) The merely "historicar" or biograþhical "rch", in order to reach

(fO) See also Edgar Lohner: G t Be nd Eli .rn deu ue He fte t 195 , p.1O5 and Beda AIle- mann: t ried Be Das lem de Geschi te opuscu la2( Pfullingen,, 19 t p. 5t. -59-

the supra-personal, creative unconscious where it is freed from empirical experience, must undergo a "magische Ichum- wandlung" (r 99) analagous to the "Durchstoßung" of the "logischer oberbau" or "Hirnr:Lnde" as described above. only then is the empirically determined, uncreative "Ich" trans- formed and rereased from the Kantian categories "im frühen Erlebnis des Übera11 und des Ewigseins". (t 99) The artistrs supra-personal, "collective" experience, his "Verankerung im überindividuellen" (r 436), means autonomy through freedom from determinism: Das lch, gelöst vom Zwangr_.im Abbau der Funktionen, reines rch im Brand d.f Frühe, akausal, erfahrungs- a-priori, 1rêift rückwärts (r 78) The "supra-personal" source of creativeness in Bennrs artistic theory, it shourd be emphasised once again, should not be confused with servicability to a concrete, empj-rica1 collectj-ve. That Benn himself went part of the way to associate the "metaphysical" and the empirj-ca1 coll-ectives lies as much in the method as in the substance of his think- rrcollective ing (cf . chapter 4 ¡elow). rn fact Bennrs " means precisery the reverse of an organised col-rective on the empj-rj-cal prane, let al,one on a national plane. - The "Erb- masse" and its creative "anthropologische Substanzr', in transcending the categories of space and time, also transcend racial and national boundaries; der crundstock der psyche filtriert ldenti- täten durch alle Rassen und durch al_Ie Zeiten. (r TB) The disquieting ring of terms such as "die arthaften schichten" (r 187) or "a1tes BIut" (.f. p.54 above) in connection with Bennrs "Erbmasse" shourd therefore be considered with some care and distinguished from other "collective" - e.g. "völkisch" ideas about biology and creativeness which were popular in some circles during weimar cermany. Benn himself, as \^/e will see in chapter 3r specifically distinguished more than once in the two years before March I93J between his own theories about the irrationar origins of creativeness and rr "völ-kisch -nationalistic ideas . on a more obvious leveI, it need hardly be pointed out that Bennrs thoughts do not move on the l_evel of pan-German -6o-

nationalism. During the Weimar Republic, at a time when the political right was militantly anti-French, Bennrs essays Paris (1925) and Frankreich und wir (r9:o) express an admir- ation f or French art and culture. And as Reinhol-d Grimm reminds us Bennrs creative "Gegenvorstellung" is not an "Aufstand des Urteutonischen" but takes place in a southern (11) or Mediterranean context. *or does Bennrs "Erbmasse" refer to a specific e.g. "Aryan" - race; the quality underlying the "Erbmasse" or "anthropologische Substanz" is the "produktive Substanz" (I 47), which refers to artistic creativeness and not to any Social Darwinist theories of "Ertüchtigung". Furthermore the creative type, the "Genie", arises "am häufigsten in Gegenden und Landschaften von Bl-ut- und Rassenmischung" (t 11o) - a far cry from racial- idealogues' call for racial purity. Finally Nietzsche, the epitome of the "cenie" for Bennr wâs "antinational" (r 134), and the work of the early Heinrich Mann so greatty admired by Benn is "ohne nationalen Hintergrund" (I 413), whil_e the mixed blood of the Mann brothers is seen in a positive relationship to their artistic ability. (r 132) on occasion, it is truer Benn uses "Erbmasse" in connection with the idea of "züchtung". In the essay Das Genieproblem (f93O) tre refers to the intellectuat milieu of the Lutheran pastor-house and to the high number of original thj-nkers the latter has produced. (r rogf .) Even here, however, he delimits his definition of "züchtung": Man kann also sozusagen und innerhalb einer gewissen Grenze Genie züchten, aber, um das gleich hinzuzufügen, vererben kann man es nie. (r to8) Thus, whil-e certain intellectual (not racialJ ) groupings may favour the birth of the "Genie ", the l-atter cannot be planned or predicted. Nor is genius rel-ated to the physical or moral hearth of the parents for "Genie ist Krankheit, Genie ist Entartung". (r 116) The genius appears "wenn die Familie zv entarten beginnt" (t 1ll), when "nach den Generationen der Tüchtigkeit der Abstieg beginnt'r. (r Ill)

( 1r ) Feinhold Grimm: che E zvr Be Literatur r op. cit., p.2 If. -6r-

Benn thus uses "züchtung" in a decidedly anti-Darwinistic sense_; it belongs to the "En.twicklungsbegriff ", to the sphere of materialism, devaluation, nihilism (cf. p.46ff. above). Darwin, Benn writes, had seen man as "der dicke hochgekämpfte Afferr. (r 429) Benn himself prefers to see man as "ursprüngrich und primär in seinen Erementen ars metaphysisches wesen angelegt, nicht das Zuchtstier, nicht der sieghafte, sondern der von Anfang an seiende" (r 429) as a being, that is, who is not subject to the causal categories of "development" or to Social Darwinist ideologies concerni-ng biological, economic or nati_ona1 "fitness". rt is the task of the arti-st, according to Benn, to find a way back to the "ursprünglich" and "primär" qrr.tities of humanity and thus to be a "representative" typ" in the sense we have already indicated, i.e. to speak for the meta_ physical qualities lost in the process of intell-ectual-j-sation. The type who wírr transcend the given, historical worl-d is thus not the type who works on the terms of the given. (12) This is the essence of Bennrs self-confessed artistic "radicalism", whose specificarJ-y political implications will be discussed in the next two chapters. "Eigentlich", Benn writes i-n Nach dem Nihilismus (1932) , " . . . ist heute a11er Materialismus reaktionär, sowohl- der der Geschichts_ philosophie wie der in der Gesinnung: näml_ich rückwärts bl-ickend, rückwärts handelnd, denn vor uns liegt ja schon ej-n ganz anderer Mensch und ein ganz anderes Zierr'. (r l5B) The type to overcome nihirism, Benn continues, "wird al_so doch der übermensch sein". (r $g) But Bennrs "übermensch,' is the antithesis of the 'rmateriaristic" type who is "reactionary" because he limits himself to the empirical surface of things; Bennrs "Übermensch" is "radical" in that probes he to the metaphysical "root" ("radix") of things: he is thus marked by his radical serf-differenti-ation from the "gi-ven" stage of deveropment, from the biological and psychological norm and this brings us back to Bennr s ',Entwick_

(r2) Benn frequently_ refers to the anti-empirical "Gegen- _vorstellung" r,,the,,sphere of the unconËcious, non- biographical "rch"r- as "das .Andere": e-g. 2oB,2r4,4og, rr 6t. : r 93, l-oj, -62-

rungsbegriff", his rejection of "züchtung" and his anti- Darwinism. He sees the creative "übermensch" as :.. allerdings nicht der Typ, den Nietzsche ganz im sinne seines neunzehnteñ-,:ahrhunderts schil_dert. Er schildert ihn a1s neuen als rassemäßig gesteigerte züchteris ch kómþletteien, gerechtfertigteren Typ t êE positiv, das war Darwinism die bio¡eqativç,n Werte studiert, Werte, die die Rasse eher schadigen und sie gefänraen, die aber zur Differenzierung de.s Geistés gehöreÁ, die Kunst, das Geniale, 9i. Auflösungsmotive des néri_giös";;-' das Degenerative, kurz alJ-es, was die Attrí¡ütã ' des Produktiven sind. wir setzen den Geist nicht in die Gesundheit des Bi-orogischen ein, ni-cht in dj-e aufsriegslinie des positivismus . .: ii-ïig j-' The "bionegative " typ" , there fore , li_ke the "Genie " , is the odd-man-out in his dissociation from the causa] processes of "Entwicklung"; he does not adapt to but dis_ cards what is generally accepted as the "norm". Benn's theory about the bionegative type as the creati_ve type ( "Genie ist eine bestimmte Form reiner Entartung unter Aus_ produktivität", Iösung von r 112) is characterised by the same antithetical- relationship to contemporary conscious_ ness and civilisation as is the prerogical "Erbgut" of his' "Geologie des rch". Both belong to his cultural criticism; they mean an insistençe on the creative typers deviation from the norm - a fact whose importance Bruno Hir_rebrand underestimates when he contends: ". . . das Wesen der bio_ negativen Hartung ist Resignati-on angesichts der über- macht einer geschichtlichen wirkrichkeit, die den ceist und damit die Kunst in die rsoration abgedrängt hat". (13) Bennrs "bionegative Haltung" is in fact a conscious protest aqainst "g"=chichtliche wirklichkeit" - a del-j_berate, purposive refusal to be defj_ned in its terms; j_n Das Genie- problem of 1930 he writes: Wir sehen Abwärtsgerichi:etes, letale varianten, und diese bilden die Mischung von Faszinatj_on und Verfall. Es trennt sich hier ,ro, .rrr="."r, Augen_ ei-n cegenkomprex von der rdeatität aer soziologischen und medizinischen u"i*,-e" iã"t

(13) Bruno Hillebrand: ist fr r.l_ Be von und tzs t samml ung dialog ( Munchen, 19 )' P _63_

sich hier als einziger FaII innerhalb der natur- wissenschaftrich-hygienisch-technischen wert e i-n Gegenwert und sanìmert aIle skalen vom Genuß bis zur Unterwürfigkeit, von der Bewunderung bis zum Grauen. .Der Begriff des BIONEGATIVEN (f,ange_ Eichbaum) entsteht vor uns (r 12O) Bennrs "bionegative" typ" is diametrically opposed to the type of the "Herr" described in chapter I above; he is "entartet", and "Entartung" is "eine Kombination von körper- licher Minusvariante und einem psychischen Geschehn, das ein Leben nach dem Mehrzahltyp der Art nicht mehr ermöglicht". (r 1r2) such inabirity to rive on the terms of the ".[urehr- zahrtyp" had been prefigured in Rönners relationship to the worl-d of the "Herr" in Bennrs early work; here, too, deviation from the norm had preceded Rönners "Gegengrück".

The "Rönne"-novellas also prefigure Bennrs r': "Entwick- lungsbegrj-ff his idea that creative events are "discontinuous" or disjunctive i.e. that they are independent of a causar chain of deveropment. Rönne was abre to embrace his ecstatic "cegenglück" only for limited periods before falling back into fhe awareness of the barren, day to day world of the "Herr" - a situation expressed in Der Geburts_ taq (t9t6) t manchmal eine Stunde, da bist du; der Rest i-st das Geschehen. Manchmar die beiáen Fruten schlagen hoch zù einem Traum. Manchmar rauscht es: wenn du zerbrochen bist. (ff D9) The antithesis between the 'rconti_nuous" personarity_type of the "Herr"(14) .ra thet'disjunctive,, Rönne is presented very explicitly in er mt_ S of 1924, where Ronne abrogates both empirical reality and the principle of continuity and causality normally required for its function_ ing: das Leben \^/ar eine_Angeregenheit von stunden, von reeren und angefülIt.eÃ, dãs war die ganze- Psychologie. Der institutionerl stukturíerten,

(14) cr. IÍarandagch (tgtl) z "Ein Mungo, wer noctr l_inear lebt ". (rr 3To) -64-

vom Gedachtnis accouchierten, der sozial-en per- sönlichkeit, dem empirischen phänotyp mit der q_usgeglichenen elutfüIte stand der ãnaere gegen_ uber: Stakkatotyp, Ivianometer auf Bruch, at

(15 ) charl-es Darwin: The l_n l-e f Natura 1 Select or The Preservation of Fav oured F.aces i S for l_va , €d. J.W. Burrow Pelican Classics, 19 ' P.20 (16 ) semi Meyer: t l- e l_s Die ceistesforme n ( r,e ipz i 9, 1913 ), p. See al_so Meyerrs remark on Darwin: "Dj-e prinzipien DARWINS sind sämtlich xräfte der Entfaltung vorhandener Anlagen, sie versagen vor jeder schopferi j_d. schen Tat. " (tb , p.T ) . -o5-

Mever aber stellt die Intwicklung dar als das Prinzip, das nicht ablauft oder entfaltet, sondern auf den vorhandenen Grundlagen schöp- ferisch das Unberechenbare erbaut. (r 14) This implicit contrast to Darwin and the nineteenth centuryrs empiricism has its analogy in Bennrs contrast of van Gogh to Kant in Der carten von Arles (atso I92O, cf . p.Z5f. above). Indeed, in his ademie-Rede (f932) eenn specifically refers to van Gogh, surrealism and Expressionism in the context of the "Schwelltyp" who forms the basis of what in 193o tre calls his "hyperämische Theorie des Dichterischen" (r Bz): Was mit diesem Halluzinatorischen gemeint ist, ist ja heute jedem be.kannt. Der Expressionismus, der Surrealismus gehort hierher, van Goghs Formel: rich rechne nur mit der Erregung gewisser Augen_ blicke' - Violante von Assys Rauschreich wirá für immer am Anfang stehen - Klee, Kandinsky, féger, der ganze Sudsee-Einbruch beruht ja nicñt aui rogisch-empirischen, sondern auf ñal-luzinatorisch- kongestiven Mechanismen (r 436) Bennrs disjunctive principle the acausar, spontaneous, irrational and, above aIJ-, the creative principle which is opposed to the conception of a gradual, inevitable, more or ress predictable and rationally motivated "Entwick- lung" along causar lj-nes appears consistently in his work rtwenties (f7) throughout the and early 'thirtie=. ta al_so appears in a wide range of contexts and is not restricted' to the creative "rch" of the artist hi-mserf or to the creative moment : ot "stunde " as Benn frequently calls it (rr TI,106, rlr TT, TV 14 et aI.). The work of art, too, is a "dj-sjunctive" phenomenon; it is not an extension of society, it does not belong in the wider context of "culture" rrKunstträger" (eenn distinguishes between the and the "Ku1- turträger", cf. p. 95t. berow). The work of art has no

(,IT ) rn the Epitoq of IgzI "Ha lluzination " means removal_ from the category of "Entwicklung " : rr es wird nichts und es entwickelt sich nichts, die Kategorie, in der der Kosmos offenbar wird, ist die Kategorie der Hal-luzination ". (rv B, cf. also P.Jo abov e). Other selec ted examples: I 3e( i-nis rise 1926) ; II 1 11f. ( Urcre icht , rg2g ; IV 2I2 ã des s l-ler die ir t rg29 TT rPr k des ter n r9Jo); r432( Akad emie-Rede t 19 a -66-

direct pedagogical function; it is i-ndependent of social cause and ef fect: the artist produces "Autonomien',. (fv 222) The disjunctive principle, furthermore, can be detected in the smallest unit of the literary artistrs world: in the individual word or image, which is not subject to logical or grammatical rures; it does not obey causarity and possesses an "autonomous" quality in that it (18) frees itself from syntacticar strictures. As for the person of the artist himself, the disjunctive principle he represents is not only an anti-Darwinist principre; it is not onry the "bionegative " type's dissociation from the "Aufstiegsrinie des positivismus" - it is evident also in the artistrs refusal to be "conditioned" by society or to be defined in its terms. There is no "causal" connection between the artist and societyr oo effective l-ink or reciprocity: nur sage keiner, daß diese Kreise inei-nander- gingen, daß sie 1ogisch und kausalgenetj_sch auf_ einander wirkten, daß das Genie eiñe postume Recht- fertigung erhielte im sinne einer historischen Qualirar (r r21 ) The disjunctive, unconditional- structure of Bennrs thinking, finalry, manj-fests itserf in a strong tendency to think antithetically as the frequent use of the prefix "gegen-" arready suggests. of special ínterest is his habit of opposing various types of thinkers and artists to one

(lB) See Benn's letter of 25. (quor_ed on p..28 above rr 9.!g?r- ) , where rejection of the Entwicklungsbegrj_ff " is expressed in terms of a rejection of conventional_ syntax in language. fVri ting j-n 1927, Carl Einstein saw Be nnrs preference for nouns as "Abneigung gegen die te leologische Dynamik des Entwicklungs- und Kausal itãtsnepps ". Carl E instein: Gottfried Benns samme lte tel t ]-n Die neue nr@JBI 1927, p. Quoted from Hohendahl, op. cit., p.124. See also R. Grimm: Die f ê re r op. cit., p. 5 and Ed gar Lohnerfs interpretation of the poem Ein Wort ( 194 1), in Lohner: Passion und fntellekt, op. cit., p. 68rr -6r-

(19 ) another' -' not so much j-n order to reveal something about the latter as to irlustrate a point of his own, to adapt them for his own purposes; they appear rather as el_ements in a personar mythology than as components in a philosophical "system". This reconstitution of the empirical and historical worrd is a practice conìmon both to Bennrs "creative" and "theoretical" work. Bennrs practice of reconstituting the intelrectuaÌ tradition on his own terms rather than accomodating himself to it is not strictly separable from the arti-stic method of "zusammenhangsdurchstoßung' which we observed in his early work. This "zusammenhangsdurchstoßuñ9", it should be emphasised once again, means both arti_stic self-determination and cultural criticism. "Gerädert von Determiniert_ heit", Benn had written in r9zo, "gehetzt von Abrauf, gesteinigt jeden Tag von neuem von einer v,jirklichkeit, vor der es kein Entrinnen 9ab, sind wir er1egen". (r 15) The artist's reacti-on to this situation is an onslaught or: a "breaking up" of the empirical patterns to form a structure which has its own, autonomouq validity: sie dürfen sich erschaffen, sie sind frei. sahen sie Timurs großen Brand oder Benkals trunkene vision, sahen sie picassos Geige v¡ie eine Axt gegen diese üIirklichkeit oder viermehr die splitter ausgeborstener Kosmen neu verbunden zu einer Geige aus Blut?'r (r 15) Bennts "zusammenhangsdurchstoßung", his abrogation of the given pattern of things, the principle whereby empirical rearity serves as subject matter for the work of art but not as the criterion for its structure, underlies his method of "summarisches überbricken". rt is a method to which he does not refer by name until 1944 in his n des Pha norr typ: schon summarisches überblicken"., he writes here,

(19) E.g. Newton and Goethe in the Na l-s s cha ften (publ . 1932); Ka nt and van Gogh cf . p.2 above ) ; the early work o f. the Mann broth ers nineteenth centu and the göldertin ry( r 13If., 411) j Jack Dempsey and ( "wer hatt e mit dreifóig Jahren mehr auf der Bank ?" rr r14f.); last, but certaj_nl y not J-east, the antithesis Benn s ees between himsel f ( representing "the artist" ) and politicall y engaged writers i-n the Weimar Republic (cf. chapte r 3) -68- "schafft manchmal einen teichten Rausch". (fr IZI) "summarisches überbricken" means a perspectivistic corrage of facts and ideas combined associatively; the associati_ons are called up by a word r(zo) a picture, a page in a book. rt is a method which has its theoreticar origins at the very latest in the second (WZf ) p.rtofE nd1 ches Bei der Lektüre eines, nein zahlloser Bücher durch- einander, verwirrungen von Ären, eâlâmele von stoffen und Aspekten, Eròffnung weiter typoJ_ogischer ren (rv rz) schich- The artist does not participate in the worl_d he recreates but, tike the "selbsterreger" in the poem of that name (1925) ' he is the " . .. Bewußtseinsträger/stumm im Eigen- raum". ( rrr r19 ) rt is not our intention to examine in detail the earJ_y prefigurations of Bennrs later theory of "summarisches über- blicken"; of greater concern wirr be the application of this method rtwenties in the late and early 'thirties to hj-s polemics relating to the problem of art and politics. rt shourd be indicated here, however, that an example of "summarisches überbricken" in practice can be found as earry as r92o in Der Garten von Arres, where the protagoni-st, a philosophy lecturer, lets the 'rceschi_chte des abendländi_ schen rch" (rr 85) pass in review before hi_m (rr B5f.). other striking examples are to be found in urqesicht (lgz9, fI I15f. ), and the whole of Saison and most of Fa ir der Perspe ktiven (both 1930) can be seen as exercises in " summarisches r' überblicken . In his Akademie-Rede Benn expresses this sunìmary \^/ay of looking at history in terms of his "hyperamic" theory of artt rAlexa_nderzüge , mitter-s wallungenr, so versuchte ich dasselbe methodologisch zu formulieren in einer meiner experimentelr-en studien -: auch die GeschichÇe nur noch vorhanden a1s kongestive Synthese, als hpression yon großen Massèn, von Dreadnoughts- --J-- -- heute und von weißen Segeln einst. (r 4j3 ) Artistic creativeness is expressed in terms of a deniar of the meaningfulness of hi-story. And the above mentioned

(Zo) See the I)ZT parr of Ep locr und lvri sches Ich: "worte, Worte SubstantiveJ Sie brauchen nur die Schwingen zv offnen und Jahrtausende entfallen ihrem r.1ug " . ( rv 13 ) -69-

examples of "summarisches Überblicken" are all, without exception, exercises in cultural criticism - saison of the concrete here and now, of Ber1in in 193O. The above outline of the unconditional quality of Bennrs thinking is by no means exhaustive. rts main concern !,/as to indicate that this quality (inctuding its premiss: "unconditioned") underries Bennrs artistic theory and is inseparable from the probrem of artistic autonomy which wilr be of great importance in chapters 3 and 4 bel_ow. The "autonomous" principle which finds expression in Benn's "Geo- logie des rch" and in his theory about the disjunctive quality of creativeness is an aspect of curturar crj_ticism. concretely, this means a refusal on Bennrs part to be defined in the terms of prevailing intellectual, cultural and political realities. !{hat WilheIm Worringer writes about "Abstraktion" i.e. about the artistrs treatment of the empirical world is applicable to the whore spectrum of Bennrs creative "Gegenvorsterlung", including the person of the artistic anti-type himserf: it is not the "Nachahmungstrieb" which motivates the artist, writes hlorringêr, but "das Bestreben, das einzelne objekt der Aussenwelt, so\4,eit es besonders das rnteresse erweckt, aus seiner Verbindung und Abhängigkeit von den anderen Dingen zu erlösen¡ €s dem Lauf des Geschehens zv entreissen: €S absol-ut zu machen". (Zt) The same unconditional or 'rabsorute" quality is central to another aspect of Bennrs artistic theory to his "Formprinzip" which, rike his "Geologie des rch", can be seen in its dual function as a form of cultural criticism and as an expression of artistic self-determination.

Already in Bennrs earliest work there \^/as clear ev j-dence of artistic serf-awareness and of form-consciousness. The early Benn did not adopt a passive attitude towards ranguage; his ces ach of 19IO showed that his non-representative

(2f) WilheIm Worringer: S tion infütr Ein Be itra zvr Sti-lps locrie th ed. Munchen, l-9I t p.27 . -7o- stance included the problem of language and literary tradition. It also included a rejection of cliché, of "hergelaufenen Vlorten, die blaß und matt und müde z\l dir kommen" ("f. p.4r above): the Morque collection had attacked cliché in poetic form. During the rtwenties Bennrs form-consciousness is apparent principally in his poetry . (22 ) ,o*" of these poems give thematic expression to his ideas about form The first stanza of the poem T) er Sänqer (publ . l-925), for example, can be seen as a variation on the method of "summarisches überblicken" referred to above; the " sänger " or poet recombines the most heterogeneous realities on his own terms: Keime, Begriffsgenesen, Broadways, Azimut, Turf- und Nebelwesen mischt der Sänger im B1ut, immer in Gestaltung, immer dem Worte zrt nach Vergessen der Spaltung zwischen ich und du. (rrr 59) A further indication of Bennrs attitude to "Form" and "Gestartung" during the rtwenties is an essay which is rarely mentioned in Benn-criticism: his review in 1926 of Rahel Sanzarars novel Das verlore ne Kind (eerlin, 1926) Entitled Plaqiat, Bennts review emphasises the primary importance of organisation of content in a literary work as opposed to the secondary value of the content itself. Plac¡ia t clearly prefigures Bennrs post-I93O formula of the j-ver "konstrukt ceist " . (r r5r,161 ) And here one should correct Hans-Dieter Barserrs claim that "das Moment des konstruktiven Geistesrr, insofar as "es auch Benn serbst subjektiv bewußt \n/ar", is totally absent during the Itwenties . - Awareness of the I'konstruktiver Geist., craims Balser, "ist nun eindeutig nicht vor den Essays der drei-

(?2) see Harald steinhagen: Die stati-schen Gedichte von Gottfried Benn. op. cit., p.2l and rriedrich wittretm Wodtke: cottfried Bennr op. cit., p.35f. -7r- (2J) ßiger Jahre der FaIl". on the contrary, Bennrs formuration in l-926 is armost identical with the one he uses - after I93o: " das Thematische", he writes of Rahel_ sanzarals novel, "wird aufgelöst j-n den konstruktiven Àffekt, das Kasuistische des vorgangs in die ordnung eines

transzendent Notwendigen". (rv 191 ) such an assault by the "constructive" principre on "das Kasuistische des vorgangs", undertaken in order to attain a "transcendent" prane, follows a course anaragous to the "magische rchumwandlung, which we noted with reference to Bennrs "Geologie des rch" (cf. p.5Bf. above), where the empiricar self is rereased from the "reaktiv ..., zu._ rärrig und variabel" timitations of empi-ricar_ observation. The "magische rchumwandlung" had had its forerunner in Bennrs early work in the "Außersich des Rausches oder des vergehens" (cf. p.25 above), in the release from the "kategoriarer Raum" of the "Herr" by means of the acausar real-m of "blau". And "Form, and "brau" are not unrerated; in his prose work ouerschni-tt of rgr8 Benn associates the two qualities - both berong to that sphere which exists independentry of "das Leben", of the day to day, empi_ricar world of the "Herr"; wenn man aber rehrte, den Reigen sehen und das Leben formend überwinden, wtirãe da der Tod nicht sein der Schatten, blau, in dem die Cfücte srehen?" (rr TT) (24)

(23)

Literaturwissenschaf t 29 , 2nd .a =] l"orrr,, . Balser is replying to Reinhold ciimm,Á e_^fi9sr (r96j)-eãitíon of tris ¡oot j_n (f966, p. tlof : ) Gri_mm agrees with Balser nstructiveil element doeÃ not appear as a fore the early rthirties, but that it in the form of poetry. chronology if," question of is not raised here foi its own sake ; tor Benn carries with him into literary/politicar á"¡.1. the artistrs self-awareness as a resolute the "casuj-sric" empiricar opponent of This serf-awareness linãruui;;-ñìirical) world. is intensified Éy'r"t is not a result of the controversies in which- eãnn was involved in l-929 and 1931 (cf. chaprer 3). (24) Das mode{ne rch of r92o contains an almost passage (r 15). identicaÌ -72-

The affinity between the acausal "b1au" and "Form" finds a correspondence in Bennrs artistic theory in the earry rthirties - in an interrelationship between the prelogical, creative "anthropologische, substanzrr (like "b1au", integral to that lever of awareness which lies below the empirical surface) and "Form": the formal principre, Benn says in his Akademie-Rede, is I'eingebettet in das ursprüng- lichste der anthropologischen substanzrr. (r 4JB) The "constructive" side of Bennr s "halluzinatorisch-konstruktiver stir" (r 438) is not an opposite but a comprementary principle to the "ha1l-ucinatory" qrr.riLy of the "frühe schicht" or creative raw material of the "Georogie des rch". The "constructive" side of artistic creativeness represents the Aporlonian principle which F.w. wodtke has described in some detair with reference to the i-nfluence of Nietzschers Die Geburt er Traoödie on Benn .GS) an" Apollonian principle in Bennrs artistic theory tames and fashions the Dionysian creative source, the 'rproduktive substanz aus dem Dunkel des rrrationalen" (t 47, cf. p.53 above). Both principles have in common the prerequisite for artistic creativeness in Bennrs theory: self-differentiation from the empirical and sociar worrd and spiritual serf-determin_ ation. This means, in short, that "nicht mehr die natur_ wissenschaftliche ceneralisierbarkeit des Einzelfarls, sondern der schöpferi-sche Akt individueller perspektive ars Kriterium der wahrheit giltl'. (r 39f . ) wi_trr Nietzsche, Benn denies that the world can be objectively interpreted; underlying his artistic theory is Nietzschers idea of cogniti-on: pl._'!_!se-nz.'¿ die rWesenhej_tr ist etwas perspek_ Ër-vr-scrres und setzt eine vierheit schon .ro..ü". Zugrunde rwas liegt immer ist das für mich? t¡¡- G6) After 1930 i.e. after the theory of the "ceorogie des fch" had been fulIy developed in Au er son-

(25) See Friedrich Wilhetm Wodtke: .l_e ike e tfri f (wiesbaden, 19 J t pp.11 ,:-3,49, 7 ,Ttf . ,7 ,1o4ff (26) Nietzsche: Der Wille zur Macht t op. cj-t., p.3Bf . -7 3-

lichkeit and Zur Prob lematik des Dich erischen (both 1930 I'konstruktiver ) Bennrs Geist" becomes programmaticar; the "constructive" or "forma1" principle is reiterated again and again in his theoretical pronouncements during r93r and 1932. Like the irrational and creative I'anthropologische substanz" or "Erbmass€", the formal, rraestheticrl mission of the artist includes transcendence of the empirical world and an uncompromising rejection of it. The words of Nietzsche often quoted or paraphrased by Benn after 1930 - "die Kunst ars die eigentliche Aufgabe des Lebens, die Kunst als dessen metaphysische tätigkeit" (r 4r2, rv 236 et ar.) - do not represent a principle of lrart pour ltart on Bennrs part; like Nietzschers response to nihilism in Der will-e zur Macht, they are motivated by cultural criticism and contain an aggressive impulse. rn his Rede auf Heinrich Mann (f9:f ) eenn cl_arifies this relationship between art and nihilismj the allusion to Nietzsche is unmi_stakable : Di" Allgemeinheit hatte den Zusammenhang noch nicht erfütrlt zwischen dem eurofåì""ne., Nihilis- mus und der dionysischen Gestaltung, der skep_ tischen Relativierung und dem artistischen Mysterium, zwi-schen ãem verkrärten, versctwärm- ten, schwammigen des deutschen Geistes und dieser oberflächlichkeit aus Tiefe, aiesÀm orymp des scheins (r 413) Benn refuses to judge art by the standards of day to day, histori-cal "rife"; in fact he goes a step further and rejects the latter from the absolute standpoint of the former - a relationship not unlike that between Dionysos and social and cultural- reality in Nietzschers oie ceburt der Traqodie: alles, v/as wir jetzt Kultur, Bildungr Zivi'i_ sation nennen, wird einmal vor áem untrüglichen Richter Dionysus erscheinen müssen . (Zft------Bennrs "konstruktiver Geist', then, is characterized by an oppositional stance over agai_nst the empirical and sociar worrd which represents "das Kasuistische des Vor_ gangs ", to borrow his words from plaqiat. rn Ig3I/32 the critica 1 impulse inherent in Bennrs "constructive" principle is expressed in more aggressive terms than before

(27) Nietzsche: Die ceburt der Traqödier op. ci-t., p.16o. -74-

1930. - rn Nach dem Nihilismus (tg3z) rr" defines the "konstruktiver Geist, as "betontes und bewußtes prinzip weitgehender Befreiurig von jedem lvtaterialismus, psychologischer, deszendenztheoretischer, physikalischer, ganz zu schweigen soziologischer Art -, konstruktiver Geist ars der eigentliche anthropologische Stil " (t I51); and the artist who implements this constructive principre i_s "der sich durch Formung an Birdern und Gesichten vom chaos differen- zierende Mensch". (r 439) Bennrs 'aesthetic" principle is thus not an escapist one; it means self-differentiátion through confrontation. rn "der Differenzierung zwischen den F'ormen und dem Nichtsrr, he says in his speech before the Prussian Academy in 1932, "sehen wir das produktive sesen dies naturalistische chaos im tuühen um einen Grund, ein stein, ein ordnendes Gesicht, stehen wir prötzr_ich vor einer Art von Gesetz, dem Gesetz von einer formfordernden Gev/alt des Nichtsrr. "Das Nichts" refers not to a material_ but to a spirituar vacuum - a "Nichts " brought about by the forces of "development" and materialism which, in Bennrs opinion, are the causes of nihirism (cf. p.4Br. above). Thus in Nach dem Ni-hi-lismus "progressive Zerebrati_on" and nihilism belong to one and the same constellation, and their antagoni-st is the "konstruktiver Geist": rhnel t+.:.'progressive Zerebrationr and'Nihilis- mus' ] wird . . . dér Begriff des il"""truktiven ceistes gegenübergestéI1t ars aei ausdrrr"x-i,r. xräfte und-versn.ñ., den rettr"igisierenden strö- mungen jener entgegenzugehen. (Í I51)

"Aesthetic" and "existentialr probJ_ems, in case we need reminding, j_nseparable are in Bennrs work. And so are cultural criticism and artistic autonomy. The "anti__ naturalistic" aesthetic to which Benn gives expression in (rg:f) - where he rejects "ieden Materi-alismus historischer oder psychologischer Art, as "unzulänglich für die Erfassung und Darstetlung des Lebens" (tv 236) - presupposes the "konstruktiver ceist,, to be a "betontes und bewußtes prinzip weitgehender Befreluns (author's emphasis ) from materialism. ïndependence not only of the cognitive methods of the "Herr", but also freedom from the latterrs i-. e. the "norm, s " sociar_ modalities had rs characterised Rönne "Gegenglück". Comparably Bennrs -75- creative "Gegenvorstelrung", including his "konstruktivcr Geistr', is directed not only against empir-icism and ',Auf- krärung", but arso against the standardised attitudes and behaviour into which they tend to sink (cf. p.49f. above). Thus the "Befreiung" he insists upon is al-so a release from t'Haben ideological strictures: wir noch die Kraftr', he asks in Nach dem Nihilismus, " dem wissenschaftlich determinierenden weltbild gegenüber ein rch schöpferischer Freiheit'zu behaupten, haben wir noch die Kraft, nicht aus ökonomischen chiliasmen und politischen Mythorogemen, sondern aus der Macht des alten abendländischen Denkens heraus die materialistisch-mechanische Formwelt zu durch_ stoßen und aus einer sich selbst setzenden rdeatität und i_n einem si-ch selbst zügelnden Maß die Bilder tieferer werten zu entwerfen?" (r 151) The "tch schöpferischer Freiheit", the spiritual self-determination or autonomy of the artist, is here seen antithetically to ideology, incruding political ideology; Bennrs artistic "Gegenvorsterlrrngrl contains a strong "antiideological" impulse and the emphasis is on the "anti": the "rch schöpferischer Frei_ heit" asserts itself aqainst the empiricaJ-, inctuding the poritical-, world; this is the sense of "behaulrten" in the above quotation from Nach dem Nih j_Iismus. This antitheticar- rerationship between art and ideology wirl be considered more crosely in the next chapter when we rook at Bennrs standpoint in the literary and political world of the weimar Republic, especialry between rg2g and 1932. But we can note in anticipation that in Bennrs artistic theory the rejection of atr ideology is precondition a for creativeness. fn Fanatis mus zur Transzendenz he suggests a mutual exclusiveness between art and (i.r this case: religious) dogma; the Ìittle con_ junction "da" exposes the nature of the rer_ationship: so gewiß ich mich trüh von den problemen des Dogmas, der Lehre der Glaubensgemeinschaft ãnt_ fernte, da mich nur die proble¡íe der Gestartung, des wortes, des ¡ichterischen u.ràg|""-.. :-¡il, z35rt This rer-ationship of mutuar exclusiveness between art and ideology is more succinctly expressed in Benn's Rede auf Heinrich Mann, where he associates "ausdruckshaft" with "antiideologisch"-; he writes of "dem Kampf, den der -76-

Deutsche von heute kämpft, dem Kampf um ej-ne antiideolo- gische weLtanschauung, eine irdische, eine ausdrucks- hafre". (r 413) Nach dem ihilismus postulates a simj_1arIy antithetical position of creativeness in relation to ideology thiç time with reference to the creative, irrationar strata of Bennrs "Geologie des rch". - "Die letzte arthafte Sub- stanz will Ausdruck, überspringt arle ideologischen zwí- schenschaltungen . . . ", (I f 6O). Bennrs 'rantiideological" standpoint, then, is co¡nmon both to his "constructive" principre and to the creative "anthropologische substanzrl or "Erbmasse" from which this principre is indissotubl_e. "Das archaisch erweiterte, hyperämj-sch sich entradende Ich", he insists in I93O, means "ein Schritt jensej_ts jeder rdeologier'. (r Br) rn similar vein he writes in Lgzg that "schöpferi-sche Akte" have their origin "im rrrationaren, d.as kein Dogma errei-cht". (w ztz) rr the relati-ve pronoun "das" is given fulI pray, the formuration takes on an added dimension one which is varid for the whol_e range of Bennrs r:reative "irratj-onalism", including his "constructive,' principre. For Benn considers his irrationalism to be a very special kind of irrational_ism: i.e. one which is amen_ abl-e to no dogma whatever. Arthough the formulation refers above all to Marxist doctrine (it is taken from Benn,s reply to an attack on him by Egon Erwin Kisch and Johannes R. Becher in Die neue Bücherschau), our extended interpret_ ation can nevertheless serve as a @ pre_ paratory to a question to which we will be returning frequently namery Bennrs distinction between his o\^in "creative" irrationarism and irrationalism in the service of any ideology, party or collective.

The irrational, creative "substanz" latent in the I'Geologie primary layers of the des rcht and Bennrs ,,con_ structive" principre both contai-n a strong impurse of ser_f- differentiation from any "Graubensgemeinschaft. at a1J_, be j_n it religious (as the above examp le from Fa tismus zvr Transzendenz ) or political. Theoreticarly, Bennr s "har_r_u- zinatorisch-konstruktiv" principle, because it is not subject -77-

to empiricism and the categories of time, space and causä1ity, cannot be placed in the service of processes which are subject to these categories, e.g. history and poritics: the background to art, Benn says in his Akademie- Rede, is an "antihistorische Tendenz". ( r 432¡ The same speech (on 5 April 1932 ) represents one of Bennrs last assertions in public prior to the Nazi takeover that art is by definition an exclusive, autonomous and "unrepresentative" phenomenon; he proclaims emphatically that "Produkt ivitat von vornherein, keìn anes Zirri I i q t i ons- rrnd Ri 1d ltnafq- oha n ist. sonder n eine radika extravacrante Nuance e nt- hàlt und eine unrepräsentative " (t 43I). The great irony is that the scene of this statement about the a priori excrusive quatity of creativeness is the same Prussian Academy which, ereven months later and thanks to the reading rore played by Benn himserf, was brought into tine with the Nazi rágime (cf . p.1r4f . berow). Benn, in other words, appears to have nurrified that radicar "un- representativenessrr which had always been so vitar to his whole conception of art. rt is a conception of art which is outrined by Alfred Anderschrs comment on the nature of artistic "Abstraktion" in generar; he cal]s it "die in- stinktive oder bewußte Rea\tion der Kunst auf die Entartung (28) der ldee z\tr rdeologi.". Bennrs reaction: âs we have noted with reference to his "constructive" principre, is highty conscious: "betont" und "bewußt" (p.74 above ). rt expresses itself in cultural- criticism and in the insistence on the autonomy of art and of the artist. The same duality of energetic cultural criticism and of declaration of independence from the thing criticised characterises the modus operandi- of the artistic "anti-type " Benn within the concrete, empiricar, highry "political" world of the weimar Republic, particurarry during its last four years.

(.28) AIfred Andersch: Die lindhe it des Kuns twerks r aÍt J- e s rk a ition suhrkamp I Frankfurt, 19 PART II rHE ARTrsr AND pol,rrrcs (I92o-I934) -78-

CHAPTER 3

The Artist and Politics (T92o rch Ig33 )

The imaginative "cegenglück" in the first decade of Bennrs work had prefigured in many points his artistic theory in the rtwenties and earry 'thirties. comparabry, the ¡rrotagonists in his early work e.g. Rönne, Di-ester- wê9, the doctor in Ouerschnitt and Das mode rne Ich , the philosophy lecturer in Das letzte rch - anticipate Bennrs position as the artistic "anti-type" whose antagonistic rerationship to the poriticar (and a l_arge section of the literary ) world becomes especialJ-y marked in the ratter years of the Weimar Repub1ic. Already j_n the novella Gehirne (tgtS) ¡r. Rönne had had great difficulty in carryi-ng out his "Beruf " (cf . pp. 2, 7 above ). This is a theme which continues into the 'twenties and early 'thirties - into Epj-l-oq (tgzt, rV Btt. ¡, Alexander züqe mitte Is Wallunqen (1924, tr 106), Medizin ische Krise (L926\ and lrrat onalismus u moderne dizin (r93rl. The "mass" culture whose representatj-ve type is the "Herr',, the "NormgeschmeifJ" (rr ror ) , the "Mitmensch und Mitte r- mensch, eines zeitalters MatJ und zieL" (r rT), is not an object of self-identification. Dr. Benn in Lgz6 sees the world of science from the standpoint of the creative "Gegenvorstetlung" of the artist: " ... der verstand a1s solcher und in seinem lrlesen ist €sr dem die Krise giIt. seinem fra- chen Milieu., s€inem engen Schema des Denkens, das alles nur unter dem Verhältnis von Zweek und Mitter sieht er ruft die Gegenvorstefrung hervor, dieses Schema kann das r,ebeñ ja nicht sein. " (r 4o) The scientist's revort against utiritariani_sm is taken up again in 1931 by Dr. Rönne in the ',essay" rrrationalismus und moderne Medi-zin. Dr. Rönne cannot agree to lend his hand to the preservation of human heal_th if its onry purpose is to service the estabtished material-- istic system., if it results merely in "pferdekräfte-. Brauch_ barkej-ten, Arbeitskarorien, Kaldaunenrefrexe, Drüsengenuß". (t r47) "Hätte es überhaupt noch irgendeine historische -79-

Bedeutung", Dr. Rönne asks himseIf, "den Abendländer mit spritzen, salben, B uchbändern und nun auch mit suggestions- methoden körperlich ztJ sanieren, wenn sein Hintergrund doch nur dieselbe verrottete rdeologie des uütztictrkeitspositi- vismus, dieselbe abgetakelte, hilflose, leergelaufene Hymnc>rogie auf den von der wiege bis zrtr Bahre mit Nasen- duschen und Nährktistieren hochgepäppelten Fortschritts- favoriten immer blieb?" (t ].4T) Bennrs rejection of rationarism and of "Aufkrärung" is, as we have already noted, only the point of departure for his cultural criticism; the latter includes a rejection of "mass" curture and of soci-o-politicar real-ities as a whore. comparably, Rönne in Bennrs earry work was incompatible not only with the intelrectual but arso with the sociar world of the "Herr". While Dr. Rönne in 1931 objects to scientistsr use of "verstand" to serve a materiaristic and thus necessarily(r) anti-creative civilisation, the artist Benn rebers against writersr use of words to reflect and serve the ideals of the same civilisation. Both the doctor Rönne and the artist iSenn judge the world from the standpoint of creativeness, to which not only "verstand" but also the 'institut- ional" and the "popurar" are inimicar. The conclusions of Dr. Ronne in Irrat onalismus u moderne Medizin are not without their imprications for Benn the artist i the doctorrs refusar to serve society is informed by the antithesis we have noted in Bennrs artistic theory between the empirical- and sociar worrd on the one hand and the primary, creative layers of the "Georogie des rch" on the other: Dr. Rönners refusal würde sich darin,.äußern, darò er aus der Ge.serlschaft verschwände und auch seine praxis- raume nicht mehr beträter €s wäre ihm muskulär r¡ry5islich geworden, den íhm ,r*gebenden menschlichen Typ karitativ zu stützeÃ, unmöglich, seine Gedanken, seine A: beit dem inaiúiau.ire., Drüsenidyll des weißen restaurativ zuzuwenden. Er verschwande: unbei_rrbar den Blick auf einen ewigen mythischen Rest unserer Rasse gerichtet, von dem er glauben gelernt hatte, daß ihm atlein wir es verdanken, wenn wir z.o (L) This characteristic logic of Bennrs will be discussed in more detail later in the present chapter. -Bo- Zeiten herrlich waren und es vielleicht für Stunden auch noch sind. (r 15O) Although Dr. Benn never fulfils the implications of Dr. Rönners conclusions on the position of the doctor in society, the "other" Benn (cf. p.6t above, footnote IZ), the artistr go€s some way in this direction; he operates against the same empirical and sociar reality which he serves as a scientist and doctor.

IÏ

one shourd make some qualifications, however; Bennls own tendency to polarj-se the "social" and the "creative" spheres invites too abstract a treatment of his rel_ation to his time. rt is true that the separation he postulaÈes between his existence as a doctor and his work as a writer does find a far-reaching correspondence in his rife. rn sumrna summarum (1926) rt. calculates that his writing has brought him an average of four Marks fifty per month (rv rr); but he is prepared to go on writ.ing under these conditions: nein, ich will weiter meine Tripper spritzen, zwanzíg Mark in der Tascher-Êeine Zahnschmerzen, keine ¡tühneraugênr der Rest ist scho4 Gemeinschaft, und der weiche ich aus. aber ich zu meinen Trippern und jeden Monat ein GedichtJ Gedicht ist die unbesoldëte Arbeit des Geistes, der Fonds perdu, eine Art Aktion am Sandsack: einseitig, ergebnislos und ohne partner -z evoöJ (rv 1B)- This "Doppelleben" of Bennrs (which he practised long before his work of that name published in r95o) reaves him - as a writer financially independent of his pubric. rt would be naive to infer from summa summarum that Benn would have complained had his writing been more lucrative. rn the following year (r9zT) his essay Kunst und staar (originally entitled Neben dem schriftstellerberuf ) carrj-es an unmistakabre undertone of resentment regarding his financial position and hi-s difficulty in finding work which woul-d guarantee him financial security and also leave him time for writing (r 4zt.¡. There is a distinct tone of -8r- bitterness in his observation that what he considers to be third-raters ("Intendanten, Regisseure, Tenöre, KapelI- meister, also Bearbeiter, Vermittler, gêistig-wirtschaft- lich betrachtet: Ausbeuter, produktive dritter, vierter Hand", f 46) can make a lucrative profession of their art, while top-line artists like himse If e ) struggl-e. Kunst und staat arso revears a degree of pique on Bennrs part at the conrposition of the prussian staters riterary Academy: Der Staat beruft eine Akademie z zweí oder drei Konzessionslose, die unübersehbar sind, aber dann die Masse der Schieber, die flüssigen Epiker.. die nülpser des Anekdotenschleims, gi" isycnðfo- gischen Stauer von Mj_ttelstandsvorfällen, Schund und Schmutz (r 44r. ¡ The reference is to the recent (1926) re-estabrishment of the literary section of the prussian Academy of Arts, to which Gerhart Hauptmann, Arno Horzr stefan George, Thomas Mann and Ludwig Fulda had been nominated as foundj_ng members and to which Benn himself (without any objections on his part) was to be nominated in 1932. There is little doubt, then, that Bennrs sovereign bearing in relation to the riterary and politicar life of the weimar nepubric was not undisturbed by j-ntermittent bouts of irritation. Gordon A. craig's somewhat imprecise remark in this connection namery that Benn "hated" the vùeimar Republic "with a deep loathing, in part for quite serfish'r"."orr="(3) contains a grain of truth when one considerê Bennrs letter of IB August I93f to Thea Stern- heim (quoted also by craig, who mistakenly gives the date as September): Bin heute wieder von der Steuer mit pfändung bedroht, wenn ich nicht sofort 5OO M. zahle. Die Leute sind irre, der Staat muß zertrümmert werden. Die freien Berufe, die kein festes

(2) Benn modestty cites other peopre's opinions of his work. See Summa Summarum (rv 16). (3) Gordon A. craig: Engaqement and Neutraritv in weimar Germany, in Walter Lacqeur, George L. Mosse, edJ.: Litera t re and Politics in the Twentiet Centurw Journal of Con temporary History 5 (mew yorkT'Evan ston. 1967) , p.6r. -Bz-

Einkommen, keine Pension, keine Ferien und keine Bürostunden nach der lJtrr kennen, die müssen wieder ran, den verkrachten und verlumpten Staat zrt finanzieren. (er. 47) But Benn was most certainly noL the only German citizen to utter such sentiments in 1931; it is unlikely that his dislike of "the state" is limited to the weimar state: in his view the artist and the state are incompatible not onty during Weimar, but always: sublimierter Kapitalismus ist die Kategorie, in der der Staat und die von ihm vertretene öffent- Iichkeit die Kunst empfindet und gelten Iäßt. Hohenzollern oder Republik, das ist Jacke wie Hose. Günther, HöIder1in, ireine, Nietzsche, KIeist, Rilke oder die Lasker-SchüIer der Staat hat nie etwas für die Kunst getan. Kein Staat. (r 44) Of the two main factors operating in Bennts attitude to political authority during the t¡teimar Republic - his dissatisfaction with the Republic itself, and his repudiation of "the" poritical worrd as such the latter predominates. Admittedly Benn dj-d not disengage himself totarly from the pubric sphere. His public engagement for a cause, however, was never pro-Establishment; in the early rtwent j-es, for example, his expertr s report Úber den Zusammenha von Sexualpatholocrie und Satire helped defend the Dadaist writers Wieland Herzfelde and Walter Mehring in a prosecution where anti-militarism and obscenity (4) constituted the bone of contentiorr. And his review of Victor Marguerj-tters novel Dein Körr¡er qehort dir ( BerIin, f92B ) is not only anti-capitalist in theme : Solange Kapitalismus als Moral und Staat als . Rustung besteht, werden die Rose und Spi Icharacters in Margueritters novel ] weiter durch die Jahrhunderte ziehen und sich ]-lnmer von neuem eLnem Schi-cksa I cpfern, das die Armen erleiden und die Reichen umgehen. (r 57) rt is also a specific attack on an artj-cre of the weimar Constitution i.e. on paragraph 2rB (prohibiting abortion; Benn attacks the üIeimar state for its fairure to take

( 4) Friedrich wilhe Im !üodtke : Gottfri ed Benn r op. cit . _, p.29. The exact year is not provided. Neither Herzfelde t s nor Mehring t s memoirs contai-n the necessary information. -83-

responsibiri.ty for its ou/n l-aws; he sees it as a state "der für das keimende : Leben dies riesige Tnteresse bekundet, das er für das ausgekeimte dann schnerr ver- riert " . (r 55) $) Anti-Establishment sentiments, this time with reference to what he considers to be artrs and riteraturers lack of freedom from commerciar and poritical manipulation, are revealed in Bennrs attack on another articre of the weimar constitution; his objection is simirar in spirit to passages in Das letzte Ich of l-?ZL (cf. p. 17 above ): wenn der s_142 der deutschen Reichsverfassung lautet: rDie Kunst und die wissenschaft und ihie Lehre ist frei. Der staat gewährt ihnen schutz und nimmt an ihrer pfrege teirr - so solrte der zweite Satz lieber heißen: er gewährt nicht ihnen Schutz, sondern ihren Suriogaten, da sie der rndustrie Anregungen und den tqinisúern ihre Redensarten liefern. (r 46) Freedom of speech j-n the I¡Ieimar Repubricr âs Hans-Albert walter has recently documented in some detair, did indeed fa11 somewhat short of the promise contained in paragraph r42.' and,the restricti-ons affected mainry leftist ( t / authors rargely, that is, writers who were associ_ated with the same literary journals as Benn himserf (¡ie neue Rundschau, oie weltbühne, Die neue Bücherschau, Die I ite sche We , Der Ouerschnitt ). The literary circles

$) Contrast Benn in his radio-dialogue Können Dichter die.wglt ändern? (I93o), where hé .rffi social engagement is not the provincé of the writer: rch sehe, daß eine Gruppe von schriftstellern für abschaffung des $2rB ei-trt.itt,-ðir,. a'aeiã-rü. Beseitigung der Todeðstrafe. Das ist der Typ von schriftstelrern, der seit der Aufkrärung sichtbare stellung in der öffentlichkei[ einnimmt"eii-re (rv 2L4) As we shall see in more detair later in this chapter., Bennrs tendency to argue antitheticarry, to see i'p.,i"" art, for example, as diametrically opp-osed to ',err|.gèa" art, leaves little room for maki"g oiËtinctions between individual aspects of the empirical world. rn the above example it means a contradiction of what he himself had written onry two years previously il- ¡ein Körper qehört dir (6) See Hans-Albert Walter: Deutsche ExitIi teratur 193 i- 1950., vol. I, dr o1 l-s Sammlung Luchterhand T Darmstadt uwied, 1972), pp.44 ,57 ,60,65. -84-

in which Benn moved were most certainry not those close to the military or industrial Establishment; in the main, they \^¡ere somewhat left of centre. And some of his o\^/n publications expressed decidedly anti-capitalist sentiments. Furthermore and perhaps more relevant in our context they expressed a strong distaste for interrectual opportunism and for the writer as ferlow-traverler; they insisted on the autonomy of the artist But in the same breath the second and more pervasive aspect of Benn as an oppositionsqeist revears itserf: his tendency to generarise and extend his oppositional stance to cover the entire political spectrum, incruding a11 shades of poritically engaged authors. His "criticism" is informed by that unconditional principle of self- differentiation which we have noted in his artj_stic theory. The critical, even "progressive" impulse contained in Bennrs "autononry" and in his rejection of the srick literary operator who waits on political and economic interests by derivering the appropriate, seasonal catch-words tends to be serf-defeating; it is nullified by a summary rejection of "the" poritically and socíalry engaged writer as such. - The unequj-vocar character of Bennrs ctrrtural criticism contains the danger of working against that very autonomy which informs it; that is, it contains the danger of unwittingly lending a herping hand to forces which are anathema to independent, critical thought. This point wil-r become clearer later in the present chapter when we consider the actuar si-tuation of the "autonomous" artist Benn in the finar years of the weimar Repubric and in the initiar weeks of lNational socialist rule. preparatory to this, it wirr be rel-evant to consider the method and content of Bennrs "political theory, and its rerationship to his j-dea of the artist as an "anti-type ".

III

Bennrs anti-capitatist bent does not make him a Marxist. He does not interpret material development reading to an improvement in the means of production in the Marxist sense i.e. positively, as a process which is -Bl-

necessary if capitalism is to be overcome and a communist utopia established. on the contrary, Benn sees materia.I development as a prerude to nihilism (cf. pp.46-49 above). As for communist revorutions themserves, they do not change the capitalistic basis of a nation but represent a mere reshuffling of power "bei gleichbleibender imperiaristi_ scher crundlage". (r 432) Materiarism for Benn is common both to capitalism and to sociafi=*(7); it is al_so the quality which enables him to associate Marxism and "Americanism" and to reject both out of hand: Der Einfruß des Amerikanismus ist so enorm, weil er in mancher Hinsicht anderen ceiste""¡;å;";;;" ähnelt, die den jungen Deutschen heute formen: Marxismus, die materialistische Geschichtsphiloso- phie, die rein animaristische GeserlschartËaotirin, Kommunismus, deren niveaulose Angriffe g"g.rr-ã;= individuaristische und das metapTíysischã éein gerichtet sind. (rv ZO2) "Das metaphysische sein" in Bennrs artistic theory presupposes an aggressively anti-materialist standpoint. Appried to Benn I'political the theori_st', it amounts to a reversal of the Marxist "unterbau-(fuerbau" schemer ãs we noted in the previous chapter with reference to Bennrs letter of 23 February 193f to Richard Gabel (cf. p.56 above ) : Benn denies that empirical reality including socio-economic and poritical factors determines the artistr s work. on the contrary, Bennr s "unterbau,,, the irrationar source of creativeness_. is the sphere which, because it functions independently of the empiricar world, makes artistic autonomy possibre. The creative writer, in other words, is by definition the antagonist of all organisations devoted to the service of empirical reaJ_ity for I'jensei-ts "wahrheit" is jeder Empirie". (r 4oB) what this standpoint must mean for Lhe writer,s position in relation to political pa rties is indicated in Könne nDichter die welt ändern? (f93o): "schriftsteller, deren Àrbeit auf empir.ische Einrichtungen der Zivilisation gerichtet ist,,,

0) See atso ¡ieter wel lershoff: is te ott V tr ir- t i-n Reinhold Grimm, WoIf-Dieter Marsch, eds. : e r Gottfried Benn ( Gottingen, 19 P.29 -86-

Benn claims, "treten damit auf die Seite derer über, die die wert realistisch empfinden, für materiell gestartet halten und dreidimensional in wirkung fühlen, sie treten ü¡er zu den Technikern und Kriegern, den Armen und Beinen, die die Grenzen verrücken und ¡rähte über die Erde ziehen, sie begeben sich in das Milieu der frächenhaften und zu- tät-tigen Veränderungen, während doch der Dichter prinzipiell eine andere Art von Erfahrung besitzt und andere Zusammenfassungen anstrebt als praktisch wirksame und dem sogenannten Aufstieg dienende". (rv ZLU) The rejection of the poritically engaged writer as one concerned with "flächenhaften und zufättigen veränderungen" reflects an antithesis we have already noted in Bennrs artistic theory: that between the absolute., unconditional quality of art and "den bedingten Tatsachen, die Geschichte haben" (.f. p.58 above ). How Benn views this antithesis is indicated by his choice of the verb "übertreten" in the above-quoted extract from Konne n Dichter die Welt andern? ) it suggests that the writerts identification with social reality means a betrayal of the uncompromising, "absolute" calling of the artist. such a rel-ationship of mutual excrusiveness between the "autonomous" type and the sociar sphere is very explicj-t1y formulated in Das mo rne Ich of r92o; the division of the world into two camps described here is the method on which Bennts treatment of the poriticar world in the v'Ieimar era rests; this appries particularly to the crisis years L9Z9-I93Zz was sollte die kleinformatige und rein voluntaristisch emotionierle Genossenschaft, deren Verdienst die eevöIkerungsdj-chte von Europa darstellt, mit dem bedingungslosesten cedanken, der )e gedacht war, dem Gedanken des autonomen Ïch beginnen, aus dem kej-n KIeingeld abzuschachern, keine pressewerte auszumelken r^raren, was tat das Geschmej-ß vor dem Befehl des Absoluten: - es wurde sozial. (r 16r. ) As in I93o in Kclnnen ichter die We 1r andern? , Bennls message is that the "social" type , of whatever couleur. is a renegade to the spirit. The irreconcirability he postulates between the "autonomous" type and the "sociar" sphere necessitates the construction of an abstract norm on Bennrs part. rn the -Bt- early novella Die Eroberung a similar Process was evident in the stylísation and typification of the "Herr". While the "Rönne"-noveIIas are still clearly discernible as "fiction", the tine between BennIs "fiction" and "non- fiction", between "imaginative" and theoretical or essayistic prose becomes blurred in the decade or so after L92O. Dieter Wellershoff., the editor of Bennrs collected works, discovered this while trying to classify the prose works either as "Essays' (for vol.I of the Gesammelte Werke) ot as creative Prosa (for vol.rr¡. (B) creative writing in Benn's work functions as cultural criticism, and cultural criticism often takes on "artistic" form; the latter occurs also in the course of polemic or debate, where Benn applies his "artistic" techniques (..g. association, antithesis) to contemporary, historical problems . The prefix "gegen-" which appears so frequently in Bennrs work and which originates in Rönners "Gegenglück" j-n the novella Die Insel (1916, cf . p.ZLf . above) has its opposite number in the "norm" - just as Rönners "Gegenglück" was a response to his incompatibility with the "Herr". "Norm" is a concept which appears in many variatj-ons in Bennrs work throughout the rtwenties and early 'thirties: e.g. "Normgeschmeiß" (rr lof), "Normaltyp" (r 84), "Nor- malmann" (l 158), "Normalmensch" (l l-5B, 425), "NormaI- bürgerlichkeit" (r B6t.), "Normatgehalt" (r 85). similarly the "Durchschnitt" (..g. r 84, 87, rv 2f5) or the "Durch- schnittstyp" (r L56) are formulae favoured by Benn. AIso prominent in the same context is Bennrs dismissal of manrs historical, social and political existence in terms of an inflated but meaningless "Masse" (l L24, 126, l-4T, I4B, 156, 433, rr 97, rv 2o2; cf. also p.18 above). Bennrs "norm" r âs ever , appears under the aegis of empiricism which, through the natural sciences. has encouraged materialism, the common denominator of modern civilisation - be it dominated by Marxism or by "Americanism". - Benn sees his position as "antikapita- listisch, antizivilisatorisch". (rv 2C,6) By placing the

(B ) See wellershoff ts postscript to voI. II (rr 4BZtt. ¡ . -BB- two concepts in apposition, he makes them appear to be synonymous, i.e. it is not possible to attack capitalism without attacking "civilisation" as a whole; thus Marxism is no antidote to capitalism since it too falls under the heading of materialism: the scientist not only propagates capitalism but, with his empirical method, he is also a rrKeimblattmarxistr'. budding Marxist a (rr 114 ) The scientist, in fact, has a finger in every "cj-vilised" pie; he is also behind the "Technj-ker" and the "Krieger". (rv 2L4) Furthermore and above alt he is the prime defender of mediocrity, of the "norm"; he is the type who "das primat des Durchschnitts sichert"; the artist, on the other hand, is diametrically opposed to and independent of the norm: ich meine ¿llerdings, daß der diesen beiden Ii.e. the tTechnikerr and the 'Krieger'J ü¡er- geordnete Begriff, nämIich der des wissenschaft- lers, der eigentliche und prinzipielle cegen- spieler des Dichters ist, der wissenschaftler, der einer Logik lebt, die angeblich allgemein- güftig sein sott, aber doch ñur tukrativ i-st, der einen Vùahrheitsbegriff durchgesetzt hat, der den populären Vorstellungen von Nachprüt- barkeit, allgemeiner Erfahrbarkeit, Verhrertbar- keit weitgehend entgegenkommt, und der eine Ethik propagiert, die das primat des Durch- schnitts sichert. (rv 2I4f. ) By association Benn, the critic of empiricism and of the entire socj-o-economic spectrum, can gather the most diverse qualities into the one category. placement of words in apposition is the most frequent method. The mil-ieu of the engaged writer, for example, consists of "der Zivilisation, der Wissenschaft, Induktj-on, Baconschem ZeiL- alter, stählernem säku1um, opportunität, Liberalität. . . " (r 74) of everything, that is, "was man summarisch als eufklärung ansiehtr'. (r T4) It is Bennrs self-confessed "summary, treatment of reality which enables him to dismiss " [d].s sanze der Geschichte" (I 73, authorrs emphasj-s ,, the "typische fn l historische In ] prozeß" ( r 73, authorr s emphasis and the imperialistic basis "aIler historischen Organi- sationen". (r 433) rt arso enables him to dismiss the entire empiricaL/socío-economic spectrum as "das ganze frei- schwebende cemecker der Zivilisation". (rv 22O) -ri9-

" ... ich fordere für den Dichter nur die Freiheit", Benn insists, "si-ch abzuschließen gegen eine Zeitgenossen- schaft, die zur HäIfte aus enterbten Kleinrentnern und Auf- wertungsquerulanten, zur anderen aus lauter Hertha- und Poseidonschwimmern besteht: er wilI seine eigenen Wege gehen". (rv 22O) Berrn forces his contemporaries into ideological moulds, while himself insisting on absolute freedom from such moulds. Concepts such as empiriçi-sm, science, materialism, hedoni-sm, civilisation, progress, politics, opportunism, Marxism(9), the generality, the norm, the "Durchschnitt", the "Masse" are related associatively, remain undefined and often appear as Bennrs ohrn special brand of cliché. He describes the "freedom" which he demands for the writer as "transzendent, nicht empirisch, nicht materiell, nicht opportunistisch, nicht fortschritt- lich". (tv ZZZ) Here the two methods of association and antithesis are combined: on the one hand is the artist, the "tränszendent" typa, and on the other hand are the social and empirical dregs, the "Iulehrzahltyp" - what Benn in another place (Goethe und die Naturwissenschaften, i-93Z) refers to as "der garrze ranglose Consensus omnium" (l 193): all those miscellaneous, inferior quarities which correct- ively c¡o to make up the "norm". The latter, the non-transcendent qualJ_ties of the socio-economic and politicar wortd, are "rein phänomena1" (rv 2O9,218) and the materialism which is common to them all is "reaktionär" (cf. p.6I above). only art, because it. breaks through and transcends the empiri-car foundations of "given" realities, is "radicaI", without compromise, unconditional and wholly autonomous: " die Kunst", Benn writes in 193f, is "vieI radikaler als die politik sie aIlein, nicht die politik: r€icht bis in jene seelischen schichten hinein, in denen die wirkrichen verwand-

(9) Bennrs approach to Marx is not analytical; he does not mention him or any of his works by name, but refers in general terms to the "ism". "Marxismus" is an emotive cipher expressing an antithetical position in relation to art and "das individual-istische und das metaphysische Se j-n" ("f . p. 85 above ). -9o-

lungen der menschlichen ceserlschaft sich vorr-zi-ehen. die Verwandlungen des Stils und der Gesinnung". (rV 23p) These "seelischen schichten'r are the irrational rayers of BennIs "Geologie des rch", the "primary", irreducible sphere to which the secondary, "rein phänomenar" poriticar world has no access and which "kein Dogma erreicht,, (p.76 above). As we noted with reference to Bennrs method of "summarisches tiberbricken", artistic creativeness means dissociation from historical processes (p.6Bt. above ) ; it is this same anti-materialist conception of artistic "radicalism" as spirituar self-reliance which Benn pro- pounds in his letter of 1929 to Die neue Bücherschau, in which he attacks the Marxists Kisch and Becher: mir kommt der Gedanke, ob es nicht weit radikaler, weit revolutionärer und weit mehr die Kraft eines harten und fiten Mannes erfor- dernder ist, der Menschheit zv lehren: so bist du und du wirst nie anders sein., So lebst du, so hast du gelebt und so wirst du immer Ieben. (rv 2to) The artist, then - because he rejects the socio-economic and political worrd en broc, because of his conviction that "seine cröße gerade darin besteht, daß er keine sozialen Voraussetzungen findet" (l T6), because he believes onry art is without compromise can indulge in the logic of "der öftenttichen, also opportunistischen sphäre". (r 136, author's emphasis) This is a dangerous proposition when measured against the real world within the context of which it was; made: Berlin in 193Ij it causes one to wonder wherein the "opportunism" of at least one "public" typu in the l-atter days of the weimar Repubrj-c (and in the earry years under National sociarismj ) consisted: carl von ossieLzky, the editor of the same wertbühne to which Benn (10) himself was a contributor. tn;.rat=a Bennrs ".tr-

(ro ) Benn had made a si_milar a ssociation between the "pub1ic" sphere and oppor tunism in Das mode rne lch of I92O, where he had equated democracy with hedonism (r rT). ossietz pursuing democra hedonistic"; in he anticipates h "wenn man den ve votl bekämpfen w Schicksal teilen Bedrohunq und Verfolqunq bis 1933¡ op. cit., p.213. -o'r -

differentiation from the empiricar and sociar worrd is accompanied by a refusal to differentiate between individuar components of this worrd. such an uncompromising standpoint, when maintained not onry within but arso vis-å-vis a time of poritical precariousness, contains the danger of sweeping the grain away with the chaff.

Bennrs undifferentiated and in the final anarysis unfairly exclusive standpoint invites a contrast with Thomas Mannrs position in the rtwenties and early ,thirties. rn fact Benn himself invites the contrast. significantry, it arises from a difference in the two writersr approach to history, specificalty to the nineteenth century. (Bennrs view of history, as hre sharr see in the first section of chapter 4, is not separable from his attitude to the concrete poliLical events of 1933). Remarking on Mannrs reference in L929 to "das große neunzehnte Jahrhundert,,, Benn sees the nineteenth century under the domination of negative qualities; he describes it as "das Jahrhundert, dessen Standardbegriffe vor unseren Blicken j_n vehementer weise i-hre historische sendung beendenr'. (r 6Bt. ) end of contenrporary culture he complains that it derives its standards from the "zivilisationstyp, ein Ausdruck, der nichts weiter bezei-chnen sorl als den durchschnittrichen Typ,'den das verflossene Jahrhundert schuf". (r 68) But the "standard concepts" and "average types" of which Benn speaks with such confidence are largery of his o\^/n construction. Mann, in contrast, had cautioned in his essay Die Ste 1lu Freud in der moderne nGe istes- cfe schichte (L929) z Wir sind wenig geneigt, gewisse beschämende Fehlleistungen ães neun=éhnten Jahrhunderts als -physiognomisch bestj-mmend für aie=e Epoche anzuerkennenj wir leugnen, ã.n-Aiu Philisterei delî monistischen Ãufkíä.u"g' wirklich Herr ypçf seine tieferen-ili;;." geworden wäre. (11)

(II) Thomas Mann: Die Ste 11 Fre uds in r mode n tes ch , in Th. Mann: A1 un ue KIe r S tr q Frankfurt. 1 t p 1 -ot-

The same principle of differentiation which prevents Mann from accepting a single crj-terion as the determinant of an entire epoch allows him to grant that creative imagination and reason are not necessariry mutually exclusive; he does not treat reason as virtually synonymous with pedantry or shallow optimism.Gz) By the same token, he does not find that sober criticism of contemporary events with a view to improving the course of these events is at varj-ance with the artistic personality. Benn, however, sees little distinction between parti ipat- ion in historical or political processes and subiuqation to them. ". . . wie ist es mit dem historischen p.ozeß,, , he asks, "kann er, kann jemand für ihn fordernr daß ihm die Kunst oder die Erkenntnis dient?" (r Tz) Bennrs answer is an unequivocar "no"; he cannot concej-ve of "dienen" other than in terms of abandonment of artistic integrity. Active identification with his times wourd mean that the arti_st "in das allgemeine Gejoder über die cröße der zeíL und den Komfort der Zivilisation Ieinstimmt]". (r TZ) Vlhat r orr€ wonders, is more "radical " ? Bennr s unconditional, absolute standpoint, his insistence that the artist is a priori removed from "arren historischen Kate- gorien der Macht und ihrer Entfaltung, dem Geserr- schaftrichen und Forensischen, den Begriffen der Entwick- lung r.lnd des Fortschritts als einer rein naturalistischen vorstellungsmethode, einer sphäre rein empirisch ,, (r 72)? such a grobar and uncompromising rejection of historical categories does indeed have the appearance of an extreme - perhaps even "radical" spiritual sel_f- reliance. But Bennrs "radj-carism", his apparent refusal to float with the intellectuar tide, however much dis- comfort it may have caused him in the latter years of the weimar Republic and however much one must admire his tenacity of purpose, can be seen from another point of view: a point of view from which Thomas Mannrs position

(l-2) See for example Mannrs essay Zu Lessinqs cedà tni-s in Mann: ES ES op. cit., p.I!t- r)o.!!2zg) ' -93- appears more independent, more intellectually mettlesome and, irl this sense , more "radical " than Bennr s . For Mannts self-possession, his efforts to adhere to a discriminating, balanced vj-ew were undertaken in a climate of intellectual and political extremism which was hostile to such efforts; his Deutsche Ansprache held in Berlinrs Beethovensaal in 1 93O is another example of an act which was both "öffentlich" and anything but "opportunistisch". (13) Benn, although he dissociated himself from party poritics and was hostire both to the extreme Ìeft and the extreme right in the late weimar Republic, did not remain immune to the methods of debate prevarent in these circles. He submitted to the prevailing spirJ-tua1 winds in spite of himself . I'either-or" The tendency to think in terms which was peculiar to many groups in the weimar Repubric especiarly after L929 meant that intellectual moderation and Lhe willingness to compromise hrere rare commodities. Extremists insisted on the absolute and exclusive validity of their own position; their methods of politicat debate not infrequentry amountçd to denunciatory tactics of their opponents. This phenomenon, particurarly as it concerns the poritical scene, (14) has been amply documented. rt affected not only Taqesporitik but was prevalent also in political theory as fo,r exampre in carr schmittts uncompromising "Freund- Feind" pattern as outlined in his Der Beqriff des porj-tischen, which went through the first of many editions in 1927. schmitt's antitheticar method was common to almost

(13) cf. Klaus Mann: de nkt. bensbe t t Bertelsmann ( Gutersloh, 19 ' P.2 f (14) Sge Karl Dietrich Bracherrs standard work: l-ri e Auf- losung der We imarer Re Iik. Eine Studie zum Prob des Machtverf Ils in der oe kratie , Schrif- ten des Instituts fur pol-it ische Wissenschaft 4 (stuttga rt/oüsseldorf , IgDj ). on p.156 Bracher writes of the "propagandistischer Kampfführung und ideologischer ex:Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht. The latterrs work in particular was decried as-"Tendenz", which precluded the required ,Parteitichkeia". (IB) lukácsl

(15 ) See Kurt Sontheimer: Antidemokratisches Denken in der WE t e en des tschen , Studienausgabe Munchen, , P.l . Other examples of this antithetical method: Germanic "heroism" - international "pacifism"; the "abstractil and "artfremd" quality of pãrliamentarianism and of the weimar "system" - the 1'organic" qrr"lity of the true "volksgemêinschaft". See also CarI Schmitt; Der Beqriff des Politischen 5 3rd ed. (Hamburg, 1933), pp.52f., 56r. Hitref's crasser use of antithesis is discussed by Lutz Winckler: t_ , edition suhrkamp 17 (Frank- furt, L97o Such antithetical thinking necessitates the bringing together of heterogeneous qualities under one categoryr ãs in the following example from Hans Schemm when he defines "Verstand" as "Logik, Berechnung, Spekulation, Banken, Börsen, Zinsen, Dívidenden, Kapitalismus, Karriere, Schiebung, Wucher, Marxismus, Bolschewismus, Gauner und Spitzbuben". Ouoted from Hermann Glaser: Spießer-Ideoloqie. Von der Zerstorung des deutschen Geistes im 19. und 20. Jahr- hundert (rreiburg, 1964), p.86. (16) See Inge Jens: Dichter z¡lyischen rechts und links. Die Geschichte der Sektion fur Dichtkunst der Preußischen t Munchen, L97T t pp.9 5 9 f. , lOIf. See also p. IO[f. for .Tosef Pontents list of antitheses between "schriftsterler" and "Dichter".

(17 ) rbid., p.128.

(18 ) Schriftsteller, Sammlung Luchterhand L9 (Ueuwied @pp.2o,68t. -95-

dogmatism, particularly with regard to Brecht, tended (in Helga GaIIasr words ) "zur denunziatorischen FormeI". ( 19 ) Marxist intellectuals were also antagonistic to other socially engaged writers such as Döblin, Toller, Tucholsky, Hiller '(2o) .rr"lagous to the KpDrs uncompromising attitude to the SpD in the political sphere, such writers were dismissed as "bürgerlich". writers of the most varied kinds were reduced to a common denominator. Thus in l-932 otto Biha finds that Alfred Döblin, Franz vüerfel and Gottfried Benn have one thing in common they are all reactionaries because, he craims, their work is "arbeiterfeindlich" : Denn schließIich sind ihre Traktate mehr oder minder private Rechtfertigungen ihrer eigenen Existenz und Abbirder i-hres schlechten cewissens , (2L)

Benn himself rejected the ideologica). jostling and wrangling in toto, dismissing both left and right with the remark: I(arrpf um die Ideologien derer, die sie angreifen und derer, die sie halten. Metaphorisché Auf- schneiderei- einmal von rechts, einmal von links. (r T3) such cavalier banishment of the socio-poritical worrd from the realm of "Geist", Bennrs self-differentiation from what he calls "empirische Einrichtungen der Zivilisatj_on', (p.Br above), incrudes a conviction that art moves on a qualitatively different leve1 from "culture"; in IgZT he writes in his essay Kunst und staat that "Kunst" is ',vj_el seltenerr äls es scheint". "Dieser schein", he continues, "hängt mit dem verbreiteten rrrtum zusanmen, daß Kurtur, Zivilisation, Bildung und Kunst im Grunde identisch seien. Kunst aber ist ein isoliertes phänomen, individuell

(Ie ) rbid., pp.156,225. (zo ) rbid. , pp.4Bf ., Bo. (21) Otto Biha: E 1 runcf s roze s se s der Lite tur. Liter in Interna tiona Ie Zen an l_ Ver- n p.1 1 t 2 t 19 t -96- unfruchtbar und monoman. Das bestimmt ihren Rang". (I 47) This rigorous distinction between art as a primary and culture as a secondary phenomenon underl-ies Bennts condescending view of the cultural life of Berl-in in his prose work Saison (f93o). one of the main objects of his scorn i-s the theatre. - rn what is doubtless an allusion to the many theatre-scandals and Saalschlachten of the Weimar Repub1ic, he remarks sarcastically: Die Clique, die klatscht, ist das gleiche Kaliber wie die Clique, die pfeift, die ej_nen sind von rechts dumm, die anderen sind von links dumm, morgen klatschen sie einem Tomatenpropheten, ubermorgen einem Bauchredner, schadrt ja auch nichts, warum denn nicht, Gehirnmütt Zinnober, Tank Gottes. (rr I21) Bennrs attempted caricature falrs flat in retrospect; his disdainfur dismissar of "the" cultural and politicar scene in one breath can be convincing only if one un- reservedry shares his views about artts independence of the historicar context within which it is produced. Benn himserf , of courser \^rãs not blessed with hindsight; he seemed unav/are that he was no ress impricated in the burn- ing issues of the day than were his "poritical" opponents - that he was not as sovereignly "autonomous" as he liked to believe; the "metaphorische Aufschneiderei" of which he accuses the politicar left and right was not absent in hj-s own affective onslaughts on both directions. rn summariry and unconditionally dismissing the politicar scene, Benn falls into the same interrectual error which characterises much of this scene itself; Kurt sontheimerrs remarks about the extreme left and the extreme right in the weimar Republic are relevant in this context: Der Charakter des Unbedingten, der die Bedingtheit des eigenen Denkens zv sehen verwehrt, gab béiden Richtungen das Gepräge . (22)

The "Bedingtheit" into which Bennrs own "unbedingt- heit" 1ed him does not, as we know, come from an overtly

(22) Kurt Sontheimer: Weimarer Republik op. cit. , p f _,-)-(_

politíca1 position; his particular "Feindbild" is this political position. But since Benn was a writer and not a politician, the question arises whether it is fair to make him pass muster politically, to approach him from a position other than the exclusively artistic one he prescribes. Doubtless the antithesis he lays down in 193f between "Gesinnung" and "rnspiration", "Mitteilung" and "Ausdruck", "Teilnahme" and "Differenzierung" (t I38) can be a valid and effective theoretical preliminary to artistic creativeness; it is a conception which Benn shares with other artists of his own and previous ( '¡'¿ I generations. \'-Jl But he also asserts his vi-ews against writers who identify themselves with the politicar arena, and aggressively so. Not only does he refuse to be determined by political concerns; he arso measures (ano dismisses) poritics against his ov/n view of art. His anti- political remarks in the late rtwenties and early 'thirt j_es cannot escape being evaluated within the context of the cultural and politj-car scene within which they u/ere made and against which they were directed. Bennrs "provocativeness", as Eckart oehlenschräger rightly claims:, +s "eine spur polemisch aufgeradener schübe aus sprache".(24) this provocativeness is not merery "..ra the stylistic,phenomenon as which oehlenschräger prefers /rt- ) to see íL.\')t certainly, it is a stylistic phenomenon. But it is also much more; styristic erements such as

(2s) E. g. Mallarmé, Baudelaire, poe, Stefan George. (24) Eckart Oehlenschläger: Prov tion und Ve gecfen- warti neS umP i1 ied Be Literatur und Reflexion 7 Frankfurt, L97t p 2 (25) of Bennts ironic remark in summa sum¡narum r".-- die ceselrschaftsordnung ist gumlen- schläger writes: Die wendung witr nicht geresen werden ars eine abschließende soziologische Beurteilung; "gut" ist die "cesellschaftÃordnung. vielmehr gerade insofern, als sie die Beweguñg des Sprechens zum Widerspruch herausfordèrt. oiesér ist jedoch seinerseits ni-cht inhaltrich als Geserl- schaftskritik, sondern nur von seiner provoka- tiven Technik..her ars eine spur polemisch auf- geladener schübe aus Sprache zu ver_ stehen. (rbid. ) "rrgä*"""ãr, -98-

association and antithesis are present not only in Bennrs "imaginative" work, but also in the hectic and bitter Iiterary controversies in which he was involved in l-929 and 193I: they are inseparable from his "existential" concerns, from his view of himself as an artistj-c "antj-- type" to the society in which he works - and from the method of thinking whereby he defines the relationship between art and politics. The "Differenzierung" Benn speaks of and which he opposes to "Teilnahme" means self- differentiation and, as we have noted, of a kind which preverrts him from doing justice to the reality from which he differentiates himself. It does not allow him to see the individuaÌ trees for the forest. "In jeder geistigen Haltung ist das politische latent" wrote Thomas Mann .(26 ) t".rn meant this positively, with reference to the emancipatory impulses he saw in Romanticism. In our context the phrase also admits a negative interpretation. Vlhile it is not quoted here to impute that Gottfried Benn was a proto-fascist (.n idea we dispute, see chapter 4 ¡elow), it does serve to indicate that "Geisü" in its "pure" form is a doubtful quantity; when applied to a political situation, it cannot entj-re1y escape "politicisation" in spite of itself. And when it understands itself apolitically not only within but .\ vl_s-a-vJ_s a politically volatile environment, its persistence in :Lts so-calIed "pure " state r âs Bennrs case shows, is very tenuous indeed .Gl ) B.rrrr," etitist "Artistentum"., no matter how independent and self-sufficient it may appear, cannot escape the empirical world it seeks to transcend.

(26 ) F s ste op. cit. , p.1

(27 ) The problem is whether such a "pure" condition can exist in reality at aII. Even Bennrs assertion of "autonomy" under the Nazis and his break with them in the name of artts "purity" ("f. chapter 4 ¡e1ow) was a "politicalr' act; it involved diãsent: concretely, repudiation of National Socialismts Kulturpolitik. -99-

Many of the above-quoted examples of Bennrs "political theory" and of his aggressive insistence on the private, autonomous quality of art v/ere expressed in the context of public literary controversy. These controversies, while confirming the criticisms made above about Bennrs undifferentiated approach to political realities, also relativise these criticisms. For the attacks on his own position with which Benn had to contend \^¡ere no less intractable than his own polemics; he not only provoked, but was provoked. Furthermore, he pursued his principle of self-differentiation with admirabte conseguentialityr so that his position in the literary life of rate weimar was f.ar from comfortable. The "autonomous " force in Bennrs 'artistic personatity, whatever dangers it may contain, also possesses an obdurateness which not only resisted the Marxists through thick and thin but which ultimatery did not lend itself to subjugation by the Nazis.

In JuIy 1929 Max Herrmann-Neisse wrote an article in Die neue Bücherschau entitled Gottfried Benns prosa. Herrmann-Neisse gives unreserved approvar to Bennrs view of the artistrs position in society; he sees Benn as diametrically opposed to the politically engaged wrj-ter: " ... in dieser ZeiL des vielseitigen, wandlungstähigen Machers, des literarischen Lieferanten poritischer propa- gandamaterialien, des schnetlfertigen Gebrauchspoet€h", he writes, there still exists "in ein paar seltenen Exem- praren das Beispiel des unabhängigen und überregenen wert- Dichters Es gibt neben dem keß intelrektuellen publi- kumsliebling, dessen Vokabularium, snobistische A1rüre t zD nichts verpflichtender Radikalismus leicht eingehen, den wirklich, naturhaf! selbstständigen Geist Es gibt. (28 Gottfried Benn". ) Herrmann-Neisse goes on (with ".rr.r, a sj-de-swipe at Marxist authors) is "das Gegenteil von

(28) Quoted from Hohendahl, op. cit., p.12Bf. -100-

populär ... , zuverlässiger, weiter gehend und weiter wirkend revolutionär, als die wohlfeilen, marktschreie- rischen Funktionäre und Salontiroler des propaganda- buntdrucn"". (29) Herrmann-Nej-ssers article was provocative, to say the least. rn fact two members of the editori_al committee of Die neue Bücherschau, Egon Erwin Kisch and Johanhes R. Becher, were sufficiently provoked to resign their posts. rn his letter of resignation to Gerhart pohr (trre editor of ¡ie neue Bücherschau ) trre Marxist Kisch directs his attacks less at Herrmann-Neisse than at the subject of his essay i.e. at Benn himself and at his "autonomous" position, at what Kisch prefers to call the I'widerliche Aristokratie, di9 aus jeder zeíre des Bennschen prosa- (3o) buches stinkt". B.r,rr'" response to Kisch came in the form of a letter to pohr which was published in the october issue of Die neue Bücherschau under the titre über Ile rift rs r_ r . Not surpris- ingry, he totarry rejects Kisch's views and disagrees "daß jeder., der heute denkt und schreibtr €s im sinne der Arbeiterbewegung tun müsse, Kommunist sein müsse, dem Auf- stieg des proletariats seine xräfte leihen". (rv 2oB) Bennrs statement represents a defence against the craims of party or ideology on the artistrs intellectual and spirituar independence. But he goes a step furtherj his defence is also an attack, and in terms as unconditi_onal_ as Kischts attack on him in the same issue of Die neue Bucher-

(29 \ tbi9:, p.f?9. rt is possible that Herrmann-Neissers wer-ter gehend und weiter wirkend revorutionär" was a stimulus for Bennrs own remark in september yea{.that of the l.*g'weit refraining from politicãr activism is radikarer, weit revolutionärer" than trying to change the world (cf. p.90 above). (3o; euoted by Gerhart pohl replying to Kisch and Becher in the September issue of Die neue Buche chau r aft Hohendahl, op. cit., p .134. - Iol-

(31) Benn adopts that position of mutual exclusive- ".1,-,.,. ness and Iack of differentiation which characterised many areas of political and intellectual debate in the Weimar Republic: "Natürlich höre ich die große Frage der ZeiL" , he avers, but then goes on to reveal himself as a representative of the times by defining the "große Frage" in terms of an irreconcilable antithesis: "rch oder Gemeinschaft, Hingabe an den sozialen Verband oder Selbst- gestaltung, Politisierung oder Sublimierung .... ". (rv 2fI) Bennrs "either-or"'position is not merely a resPonse to Kischfs extremism, for he had expressed comparable ideas long before L929 - most emphatically in I92O in Das moderne rch (p. 86 above ). And earlier in L929, in a contribution to the ninth issue for that year of the weekly Die literarí ehe WeIt , he had j-nsisted that there are no "Ver- mittlungen zwischen produktiver und rezeptiver Menschheit" (rv 2O3) i.e. between the artist and the uncreative socj-o- political plebs. Nevertheless, Bennrs position in 1929 is better understood when seen in context concretely, in the context of his clash with Marxist authors and in the light of the problem of mutual exclusiveness between artistic autonomy and political engagement which characterises this clash. Ludwig Marcusers 1931 discussion of the latter is both relevant and illuminating. - He defends Bennrs position but in so doj-ng unintentionally throws into relief the ambivalence of this position; he disagrees with the Marxists r "Behauptung, daß alte geistigen Schöpfungen j-n erster Linie bedingL sind durch den sozialen Boden, auf

(3r In thê salne (October) issue of Die neue Bücherschau ¡ a letter from Kisch appeared. Like Bennrs letter, it is a reply to Pohlrs letter in the September j-ssue ; Kischrs tone is no more moderate than it had been in September. He writes that Benn is "ein in seine krankhaften (schizophrenen) Hemmungen einge- sponnener Snob, der keine Ahnung von der WeIt hat, aber sie behandelt.I' Quoted from Hohendahl, op. cit., p.535. Furthermore Kisch prescribes as binding on the writer the same Marxi-st view of literature which is anathema to Bennrs entire artistic theory: "Alles in der welt ist von der Politik abhängig, von den ökonomischen verhäItni-ssen und ihrem tiberbau. il Also auch die Literatur Die neue Bucherschau t 7 , L929, p.537. -LOz- dem sie gewachsen sind" and objects to the "Entlarvungs- sucht, die inquisiLorisch bestrebt ist, noch bei den abge- Iegensten Kulturgebilden die Blu'tprobe auf gesellschaft- Iiche vorurteile zu machen". "wer diesen Soziologie- Fetischismus nicht mitmacht", Marcuse complains, "wird als (32) 'Reaktionärr verfedmt". so far, so good; so far Benn's position is eminently worthy of defence. But Marcusers emphatic (and convincing) statement: rr Es ist die nte llektue 1Ien S me urch Ents wq-f.]e'.", is applicable in equal measure to the extrem- ity of Bennts own position. Benn cannot be accused of having thought through the Marxists' positioni he rejects it out of hand. He decides the complex problem of the relationship between art and politics by setting himself above the problem and, from this sovereign position, dis- allowing a possible interconnexion between art and poliLicaI realitj-es; not only does he (quite reasonably) refuse to be measured by a political yardstick, but he goes a decisive step further and finds political ideas wanting according to decidedly apolitical standards - by the standards, that is, of his own ideas about the nature of creativeness. In October l-929 hj-s attack is directed specifically at Kisch and the Marxists; but the same attitude characterizes his view of the political spectrum as a whole: rm übrigen aber nehme ich die Aristokratie meiner schriftstellerischen Art durchaus für mich in Anspruch und, lwenn sie einem Journalisten von so oberflachlichem Hinsehn des Herrn Kisch widerlich erscheint, nehme ich sie um so freudiger an mein Herz. Denn wenn mej-ne geringe Art zrt schriftstellern überhaupt eine ¡estimmté Tendenz vertritt¡ so allerdings ganz ausgespro- chenermaßen die, den Typ des unfundierten Rum- und Mitläufers, des wichtigtuerischen Meinungs- äußerers, dês feuilletonistischen Stoffl¡esprengers,

(s2 ) Ludwig Marcuse: Der Reaktionär in enführunssstrichen t in Das Tagebuch (/ uarch 1931). Quoted from Hohen- dahl, op. cit. , p. r4or.

(3s ¡ rbid. , P. 142 . -103-

dessen Persönlichkeit ihren Talenten und Energien nach gar nicht danach ist, irgendeinen Gedanken historischen oder erkenntnismaßigen Charakters zu Ende denken zu können, in séiner ganzen Nebensächlichkeit empfinden zu lassen zugunsten eines reservierten Typs, der mit eigenem geistigen Besitz, durch ältere Herkunft Iegitimiert, in längerer Arbeit an sich selbst gezüchtet, in einem immer zv sich selber zurück- laufenden Rhythmus stilisiert, aus der unheim- lichen Gebundenheit des Ich immer von neuem produktive Vorstöße versucht in ein Weites und Allgemeines, das wahrscheinlich der einzige l

immer in dem Sinne, daß die ZeiL fur den Dichter vorüber sei, an seinen Platz sei eine andere Erscheinung getreten. (r 66) However, one shoul-d emphasise the "cum grano sa1is" in Peter Uwe Hohendahlrs comment on the effects of Max Herrmann-Neisse I s article : So darf Herrmann-Neiße cum grano salis als der Schöpfer des aristokratischen Gottfried Benn seltèn.(34) The controversy triggered off by Herrmann-Neisse and the provocation Benn receives from his Marxist opponents speeds the aggressive momentum which had already informed his artistic personality in the firsl decade of his work and which is inseparable from his principle of self-differentiation from empirical and socj-al- reality. - Benn, the "aristocratic", "reserved" type, asserts himsetf in a most vehement, decidedly "unreserved" style; in practice, his artistic autonomy does not mean a complete withdrawal from the public sphere: he participates in it only to negate its relevance for the artist, to reaffirm the "genuines uein" he trad expressed in L925 in the poem Grenzenlos (cf . p.'56 above ). He unconditionatly proclaims art as a primary value and simultaneously relegaLes the political world to a secondary position - a relationship expressed in thç antithesis "legitimiert - unfundiert" in the above- quotecl extract from Bennrs attack on Kisch in October 1929. fn 1931, the year after he had formul-ated his "Geologie des rch" in detail, Benn provides the thus far most detailed e:xplication of his "formal" principle. He does so publicly in his Rede auf Hej.nrich Mann on 28 March. Like his "Geologie des Ichr', Bennts emphasis on "Form" and the "konstruktiver Geist" belongs to his principre of serf-differentiation (cf. p.f7ff. above) and to his rejection of art as political engagement. (rt is in his speech on Heinrich Mann, in fact, that he equates "antiideologisch" and "ausdruckshaft", cf . p.T5f. above ). The emphasis in Bennrs speech on the earIy, unpolitical

(3+¡ In the introduction to Hohendahl, op. cit., p.36 -r05-

Heinrich Mann at the expense of the later, politicalì-y engaged Heinrich Mann means an emphasis on "Kunst" as a quality higher than and incompatibte with social and political concerns: "Ich bin mir natürlich vöttig ]'.lar darüber", Benn says, "daß man eine so große Erscheinung wie Heinrich Mann noch nach vielen anderen Seiten auslegen kann, jeder nach seiner Neigung: als Fortschritt, als BiI- dung, als Pädagogík, als Partei rch feiere in ihm die Kunst ". (I 4f6¡ "Kunst", as Bennts words suggest, is at variance with "Bildung", "Pädagogik", "Partei" ' The talk on Heinrich Mann and the exclusive view of art it expressed provoked another attack on Benn. Werner Hegemann, writing in the weekly Das Taqebuch on 11 epril 1931, entitles the second section of his articte "G.8. als Faschist und Adolf Hitlerrr and refers to Bennrs Adolf and to his "Geistesgenossen "ceistesgenosse "+:lît" im Lager der Reaktiontt. \J2l To j-mpute so simple an affil- iation between Bennrs thinking and reactionary politics is an over-simplification¡ âs will become more evident in the next chapter. Such a nonchalant association can only be made if one does not carefully explore the nature of Bennts peculiar kind of irrationalism. And this Hegemann did not do. In the same speech on Heinrich Mann which Hegemann refers to as reactionârlr Benn had emphatically opposed the claims of party or ideology on art; and his resistance is directed not only against Marxist but also quite specifically against "völkischr'-nationatistic ideology: "Hierüber", he writes with reference to Nietzsche and the primacy of art, "hat uns nichts hinaus- geführt, keine politische, keine mythische, keine rassische, keine kollektive rdeologie bis heute nicht (r 416) And in an essay on Heinrj-ch Mann which was published on 2f Mardn (one day before the speech), Benn is quite specific in his defence of Nietzsche against political misuse; if his remarks do not refer exclusively to the

(35 ) Werner Hegemann: Heinrich Mann? Hitler? Gottfried Benn? ode r Goethe? t in Das Tasebuch, L2, I93t. Quoted from Hohenda hI, op. cit., p. 146. -r06-

Nazi party, then at least to the "völkisch"-nationalistic parties of the right, of which Nazism in r93r was the most prominent. Aft.er discussing Nietzsche's inf luence on tleinrich Mann, Benn continues: Wenn man nämlich gewisse öffentliche Stimmen beachtet, müßte *átt folgern, wir befänden uns hj_ermit bei der Huldigung auf einen Defaitisten, Stimmen, die aus der gleichen Affekttrubung heraus die heroische Intrans ígenz Nietzsches für j-hren unfundierten Imperialismus in Anspruch nehmen und Bataillone bei ihm ausheben, obschon er es doch l¡/ar, der schrieb; der deutsche ceist ist meine schlechte Luft, ich atme schwer in der Nähe dieser Instinkt gewordenen Unsauberkeit in i pslzcholosis . (r 134 ) (36 ) These remarks, made before Hegemannrs attack on him accus- ing him of \lazi sympathies, confirm that the anti-Nazi sentiments Benn exPressed on 16 aprir r93r in his reply to Hegemann ( Fline ceburtstacrs de und die Folcren ) are not conveniently produced for the occasion or mere polemical punch-1ines. Bennrs reply to Hegemann was not printed in an esoteric literary journal, but in the very public forum of the Vossische Ze_itunq. Even the milder of his remarks imply an antj--Nazi standpoint: "AIso denunziert Hegemann mich und meine Gedankengänge aIs faschistisch", Benn objects, "und bringt Redensarten von Hitler ârrr die er afs vom gleichen ceist neben die meinen stellt"' ( rv 233) eenn points out that "das faschistische organ Der Anqriff vom 3o. Mätz, in dem ich wegen derselben Rede, wegen der mich diese braven giedermänner des Common sense Ii.e. Hegemann and the left l antölpeIn, aIs zugehörig zum portugiesischen Mischvolk angesprochen werde, aIs Kurfürstendammjour- naille, als Defaitist, als Zugehöriger zu der Liga für

(36 In 1963 Reinhold Grímm referred to this as Bennrs ) "einzigen bisher vor 1933 nachweisbaren Angriff auf die Nationalsozialisten". See R. Grimm: Kritische Erqänzunqen zur Benn-Literatur, oP. cj-t., p.3o4. one could add a further example to Grimmrs: the attack on the Nazis contained in Bennrs reply to Hegemann; see below. -Lo'(-

Menschenrechte". (rv 233) He takes a distinct pride in not meeting the requirements of either politj-caI grouping: "Armselige Gehirner', he ca1ls the left, "die jeden, der seinen Blick ei.nmal rückwärts richtet, aIs reaktionär ver- schrein". But nor is he enamoured of the group to which his real sympathies are accused of belonging; he gÖes on to make a fundamental distinction between his own irrationalism and that of the Nazis: "Armselige, stumpfe, unerfahrene Gehirne", he calls his attackers from the left, "die schon die Diskussion des Irrational-en nicht mehr scheiden können von den geistigen Schwammigkeiten des parteimäßig organisierten Somnambulismus". (lv 233)

The exclusiveness of the artist, the fact that he expresses "prinzipielt eine andere Art von Erfahrung" (p.86 above) ttran prevaiJ-s in the empirical wor1d, is a conviction which Benn voices vis-å-vis specific political currents of the day - both left and right. Arthough his attacks are directed mainly against leftist thinkers, this fact alone is not enough to suggest an identification with or even sympathy for National sociarism. on occasion he attacks both left and right in the same breathr âs the above-quoted remarks from Eine ceburtstaqsrede und die Forqen confirm. And, consistent with the sharp rine he draws between the "autonomous" and the "social" spheres, his ra

"Prinzipielt und für alle zeiten": a universal law, in óther words, by which artistic self-differentiation precludes self-identification in any form whatever with the socio-political here and nowi it is a Iaw which postulates a "Gegensatz zwischen der kollektivistischen und der artistischen Kunstrr . (r 4ZZ¡ (Wherein Benn makes no distinction between the "Arbeitertiteratur'r advocated by Tretj¿rkow and the Kitsch to which the reference to the "Damenwelt" presumably refers ). "Collective" as used by Benn, it should be emphasised once again, does not refer to the Marxist sense of the word alone, but to the entire political complex: "Die völker und ihre politischen ¡'ühreri " he exclaims disparagingly in l-9292 "Die rührer, die nichts um des Volkes wil-Ien tun, alles nur aus Eitelkeit, aus Machtgier, im idealsten FaIl aus Fanatis- mus zu einer fixen Idee. Erbl-icken Sie irgendeinen Sinn darin t zu ihnen überzugehen? Ich erblícke keinen Sinn, ich höre keine Stimme, ich sehe keine Figurr'. (rv ef f ) rfrat Benn ostensibly usurped this position in I933t 34 is of course puzzlíng. No matter from which angle one looks at the problem, however, one cannot escape the fact that Bennrs artistic theory was an I'antiideological" one and that the principle of self-dífferentiation it contained meant what it said: that the artist be free from extraneous injunctions. But nor can one overlook the dangers of his undifferentiated way of thinking about poliLics. Both factors are evident in his behaviour in the literary section of the prussian Academy in the early weeks of 1933.

The records of the Preußische aka der Kunste in Berlin suggest that Bennrs role in the early weeks of 1933 - until late February at least - was entirely in keeping with the sharp dividing line he had drawn betwen art and politics. In 193f¡ ês we have seen, he was prepared to attack both the left and the right. This is stilt the case in January 1933. On 5 January the literary section of the Prussian Academy held a meetj.ng at which paul Fechterrs -109-

"vöIkisch" literary history Dichtunq der Deutschen (lgSZ) vvas gelq:?Ily agreed to be "kunstfeindlich und anmas- (J/ send-n . ) r,udwig Fulda and walter von Molo agreed to revj-se a draft for an open letter of protest which had been prepared by Heinrich Mann in December L932. In mid- January of 1933 members of the Academy received copies of the Fulda/von Molordraft, and most agreed that its terms were too genet"I. \"/ his objections """?.Bl"ompanied with an alternative draft.\-ti But for practical reasons ( "Da befürchtet wird, daß Benns schriftsatz bei wieder- gabe in der TagçsPresse als zri schwierig empfunden werden (4o) möchte " ¡, r,i" proposar was not accepted at the meeting of members on 2J January, and the task of revising it was handed over to Alfred Döblin. Bennrs terminology reflected his personal view of art. At the same time, it reflected his own and the Academyts belief that one should not confine oneself to attacking one particular political direction. Accordingly he formulated his draft so as to emphasise artrs independence of all political ideology, bê it left or right. His draft is. much sharper in tone than the Futda/von Molo (41) version''-'. and reflects his unconditional rejection from artrs point of view of "dem niedrigen Standpunkt von Partei- formeln" ; it continues : "Wer es gar \^/agen sol1te Geisteswerke wie etwas Ne.bensäctrtictreè oder gar Unnützes abzutun, oder sie aIs reine Tendenzwerte den aufge.bauschten und nebel-- haften Begriffen der Nationalitat, allerdings nicht weniger der Internationalitat, unterzuordnen, dem werden wir geschlossen unsere Vorstellung von vater- ländischer Gesinnung entgegensetzen, die davon aus- geht, daß ein Volk sich nicht durch Aufl¡ringung von Macht und Waffen, nj-cht durch Klassendiktatur, auch

(37 Inge Jens: Dichter zwischen rechts und Iinks, op. ) cit., p.I77.

(38 ) rbid., pp.ITT? ., 2B3f .

(3e ) Ibid., p.178.

(4o ) Archives of the Ln the akademie de (41) printed in Jensr op. cit., p.z92t. -I10-

nicht durch züchteriàche Rassenmaßnahmen entwj-ckeIt und trägt, sondern ausschließlich durch die immanente geistige Kraftr. durch die produktive seelische Substanz (42) Benn's distinction between creative irrationalism ("immanente geistige Kraftrr, "produktive seelische Substanz" ) and "völkisch" or nationalistic ideas follows the same principle he had exPressed in 193r - both in his specific references to the Nazis and in his complaint about the misuse of Nietzsche for political purposes (p.1O5ff. above). His conception of creativeness j-s consistent with the belief he had exPressed in L929 that "schöpferische Akte" originate "im lrratj-onalen, das kein Dogma erreichtrr. On 20 February ' three weeks after the National Socialistsr accession to power, the Academy discussed the resignation of Heinrich Mann and xättre Ko1lwitz j-n connection wíth their support for a proclamation suggesting a union of KPD and SPD against the Nazis for the March 5 elections. Bennrs remarks at this meeting, too, appear to be in line with his oPposition to the artistrs involvement in politics: Benn weist darauf hin, wie oft er seine große verehrung für den Künstler Heinrich Mann öffent- tich bekundet habe. Er werde dafür von links und rechts angegriffen. Er brauche also nicht zrr wiederholen, wie er z! dem Dichter Heinrich Mann stehe. rndessen Heinrich Mann eröffne den Kampf gegen die Iegal und verfassungsmäßig gebildete Regierung und sage, bêi dieser Regierung sei die Barbarei. DaraufLrin habe sich die Regierungs- macht zur Wehr gesetzt. Er müsse scharf betonen, wir seien nicht angegriffen worden, sondern rieinrich Mann habe den Angriff eroffnet. Die Weimarer Verfassung a1s Grundlage unserer staats- bürgerlichen Rechte taste niemand an. Wir aber hàtten außer der Weimarer Verfassung aIs Akademie eine innere Verfassung, díe uns Zuruckhaltung auferlege. (43) But in spite of Bennrs insistence on the "purity" of the Academy and of art or rather because of this insistence his remarks are ambivalent. They carry ad absurdum his

(42) rbid. , p.286 .

(43 ) rbid. , p.185. -111-

ideas about the apolitical position of the artist and in view of the actual political context reveal a naive faith that art, if only it keeps itself to itself, will therefore remain free from political interference from above. His interpretation of the Constitution is very one-sidedi it ignores the fact that Heinrich Mann, actj-ng as a private citizen, was entitled to the same "fegaI und verfassungsmäßig" rights as the government. rt is precisely this fact which Martin Wagner had pointed out on L5 February in the meeting at which the president of the Academy (under pressure from the Nazi curture Minister in Prussia, Bernhard Rust) had accepted Mannls and Kollwitz' resignations; the actions of the ratter, wagner insisted, were wj-thin the constitution i.e. they had "nur von ihrem staatsbürgerrecht der freien Meinungsäußerung Gebrauch gemacht, das durch die verfassung garantiert ist, die dg. Reichspräsident, die uinigË.gf , auch der Herr Reichskomissar selbst beschworen haberr''. (44) Bennrs attacks are aimed in the wrong directi.on. They constitute an unconsidered, indiscriminate dismissar_ as "politicar' types of those writers whose efforts were directed at preserving the same intelrectual and spirituaJ_ self-determination which was fundamental to his own conception of art. Consistent with his pre-I933 ideas, he considers that art is above political actj_vism of any kind and that such activism trivialises artrs high caIling. Later i-n the meeting of 20 ¡'ebruary he emphasi-ses the artistic duties of the Academy and, true to his previous theories, suggests that political engagement is i_ncompat- ible with the true function of the Academy: Renn wendet sich gegen die Einstellung al_ler derjenigen Mitglieder, die immer und ohne weiteres geneigt sind, alles, hras die Akademie und ihr eigenes wesen betrifft, zu bagatellisieren. Altes sei nach deren Meinung weit wlchtiger: die t¡eimarer verfassung, der Zusammenschruß der Arbeiterparieien, hemmungslose politische Agitation, ars g...ä. die Akademie. Die Akademie aber sei eiñe gtanzvorle Angeregenheit, sie könne es jedenfalls seiñ al-s die einzige stät.te zur literarisóhen Traditionsbildung

(44¡ rbid., p.z9ot. -l12-

und zur künstlerischen nepräsentation, die Deutschtand hat. Daß die Akademie eine hohe innere Aufgabe habe, habe,j!.gerade Heinrich Mann wiederholt ausgesprochen ' 145) By globally rejecting political activity of any kind on the part of the artist, Bennrs remarks are self-defeating as far as his ideas of artistic autonomy are concerned; they aread e cto support of the Nazis, who \^/ere to make of the Academy anything but the "glanzvolle Angelegertheitil in Bennrs sense. Not the Nazi régime, Benn believed, but the political activities of its opponents represented the real danger to the artistic independence of the ecademy and to the preservation of "pure" art unadulterated by political engagement and this in spíte of the fact that most writers within the Academy were relatively passive vis-à-vis the régime and that the immediate effect on the Academy of Heinrich Mannrs and Xättre Kollwitzrresignations was ml-nrmar.- (46) Butr âs Bennrs above-quoted remarks On 20 February suggest, he feared that the Academyrs artistic activities woufd become submerged in political ones. He associated political activity on the part of writers with the same "unfundiertrr (cf.p.1O2 above) social and political preoccupations which in his opinion were anathema to artistic creativeness. rn the late February of 1933 Bennrs dismissal of the "secondary" quality of political concerns from the absolute, unconditional standpoint of art included disdain for what seemed to him the naivâté and triviality of those sections of the literary world which feared the worst from the new régime. This j-s evident ín a letter which Benn wrote on 2T February 1933 to Egmont Seyerlen; it is the first indication of the analogies (to be discussed in chapter 4) Benn finds in f933/34 between the Nazi movement and his own theories of creativeness : Hier herrscht Angst und Schrecken in der Litefatur. nie verláge senden íhre anrüchigsten

(45 ) rbid., p. f85t.

(46 ) see ibid. , p.187-190. - 113-

gücher nach Wien ins DepoL utìd wi.ssìolr volr NicltL.s I die Autoren sitzen in Prag und im Otl-akringer l-lezirk und erwarten das Vorbeigeún der Episode. Was für Kinder: was für Taubel Die Revolution ist da und die Geschichte spricht, wer das nicht sieht, ist @ Nie wird der Individual-ismus in der alten Form, nie der alte ehrliche Sozialismus wiederkehren. Dies ist die neue Epoche des geschichtlichen Seins, über ihren Wert oder Unwert zlr reden ist Iäppisch, sie ist da (47) There is evidence, then, that Benn sa\^i j-n Nazism "po1itical" qualities of a different order than those he rejected in activists of the ]ibera] and far left: that, already in February 1933, he had begun to sympathise with the Nazis as a "revolutionary" force far transcending the mundane positivist and rationalist frames of reference to which Ieftist thinkers and activists and obsolete l-iberal individualism were bound. Jottings dated 5 March 19ii in one of Bennfs unpublished noLe-books tend to confirm this judgement. They are entitled Thesen and contain five brief notes on history notes which develop the line of thought contaj-ned in the above-quoted letter to Seyerlen and which also form the basis for Bennrs radio-ta1k Der neue Staat ntellektu (24 epril 1933). rn this talk he states that the new historical movement of National SociaI- ism is "negativ wie positiv vorhanden: in dem¡ \ÂIâs sie bekämpft, und in dem, was sie errichtet". (r 443f. ) Nat j-onal Socialism, that is, has thrown of f the o1d "Iiberal", materialistic and Marxist values and is con- structing new, metaphysical ones. This association of his o\^/n cultural criticism with Nazism, which we will be discussing in more detail in chapter 4, is implicit in the above-mentioned Thesen written on 5 March: Inrmer hieß es: die Ku1tur ist bedroht, die Frei- heit ist bedroht, Iacherlich: jedg geschichtliche Bewegung machte Kultur uberflussig u. ent- hielú gÍeichzeitig den Boden für eine neue (48) These private thoughts of Bennrs do not suggest that his behaviour in the Academy eight days later (13 }ttarch) is

(47 ) Benn-NachIaß, op. cit.

(48 ) rbid. -r14- motivated by political expediency or opportunism; at a meeting of the literary section of the Academy on this date, h€ makes the following suggestion (not quoted in Inge Jens' book): he befürwortet, daß wir dj-e Regelung der Ver- häItnisse in deÍ Abteilung selbst in die Hand nehmenr üfr Auflösung oder Zwangsmaßnahmen z|J veïmeiden. Wir seien all'e mit der Vorkriegs- zeíL auch verbunden; ebenso seien wir der Gegeff^/art verpflichtetr üñ die-Zukunft der Sation mitzugestalten. Er schlagt vor, eine Erklärung zu formulieren, die allen Mitgliedern zrrr Unteizeichnung zugehen und ebensowohl der Reorganisation der Abteilung wie einer ein- deutígen zuverlässigen Arbeit der Abteilung dieneñ könnLe. Er hat folgenden Wortlaut zur Diskussion gestellt (49 ) Benn then put forward a draft for the "Erkl-ärung" : Sind Sie bereit, unter Anerkennung der ver- änderten geschichtlichen Lage weiter Ihre Person der Preußischen Akademie der Kunste zur Ver- fügung z1r stellen? Eine Bejahung diese'f Frage die öffentriche potitisóhe eetätigung gegen="ñriéßt die Regierung aus und verpflichtet Sie 2u- loyãlen ¡lltarbeit an dèn satzungsgemfß der"iner akademi-e zufallenden Aufgaben der NaÈion. (50) That Benn himself was the instigator of this questionnaire is further confirmed by his statement in reply to a question from Rudolf Binding: that "Gedanke und Formung (lr) des Entwurfs von ihm selbst seien". Benn, in other words, was instrumental in helping t.o bring the Prussian Academy into alignment with the Nazi

(4e Archives of the PreulSische Akademie der Kunste' ) op. cit. (¡o¡ rbid. rnstead of Bennrs original- "satzungsgemäß der Akademie zufallenden Aufgaben der uatiorl", the final version quoted by Joseph Wulf and Inge Jens goes a step further in its "satzungsgemaß der Akademie zrt- fallenden nationalen kulturellen Aufgaben im Sinne der veränderten geschichtlichen Lage". see Joseph Wulf: r ne .l Dokumentation GU tersloh, 19 P.2 and Inge Jens: Dichter zwischen rechts und' linksr oP. cit. , p. 191. (51) Archives of the Preußische Akademie der Künster oP. cit. -115- régime. It was not long before most of the old members were replaced by new figures who were faithful to the government: e.g. Hanns Johst, Hans Grimm, Emil Straúss, Erwi-n Guido Kotbenhey€r, *"?:^{tiedrich Blunck, Börries von Münchhausen and others .\)¿ / ott 20 April (Hitlerts birthday ) tfre new members were invited to the State Theatre by the Minister for Culture (eernhard Rust) to witness the premiåre of Hanns Johstrs play Schlageter. Benn was invited as a representative of the few members of the Academy remaining from the time of the Vüeimar Republic. At the celebration which followed the performance he felt little affinity with the new members as Oskar Loerkers diary entry for 22 apríL reports: Bei der Vorstellung \^/aren Stehr, Strauß, schäfer die Zusammenstellung erfolgte nicht nach dem Grade des Könnens, sondern politisch. , Benn nahm Anmaßung und Feindlicfrteit-wahr-... (fS) yet only days laterr orr 24 april, he held his radio-talk in support of the National Socialist state, in which he attacked the literary emigrés from what appears to be an overtly political standpoint.

The "political" Benn of 1933/34 is the same Benn who in 1931 had proudly seen himself as the "purerr artist "der nicht übera11 mitlief, den Rummel- mitmachte, dabeiwar, sondern die Trächtigkeit hatte: wer mit der Zeít mitläuft, wird von ihr überrannt, aber wer stillsteht, auf den kommen die Dinge zrt ". (l 428) The early weeks of the Nazi régime demonstrated that the mutual exclusiveness, the I'either-or" choice which Benn saw between "stillstehen" and I'Mitlaufen" was invalid and the more so in a politically volatile time. His conception of his o\^/n position in February and March 1933 was still that of the artistic "anti-type" opposing the (anLi-Nazi) activists in the literary world opposing the type who represented for him

Ø2) For a fu1I list see Inge Jensr op. cit., p.2O4. Þs¡ Hermann Kasack, ed.: Ta 1903-Iq39 (Heiaelberg rmstadt, 1955 t P.27r. -r16- the hustling political busybody who has no place in the sphere of art and whom Benn (=eg above ) fraa so unconditionally rejected during the Vüeimar Republic as the type "der den Rummel mitmachte". Bennl s antíthetical thinking, his anti-materialist, anti-Marxist and anti-liberal bias facilitated his initial sympathy with the Nazís. But this sympathy, as we shall see, was not unambiguous and did not lead to a full identif ir:ation with the rágime j for the same principle of self-differentiation the rejection of "mass" culture and of concern with political questions which had prevented him from identifying himsetf with Marxist or "Iibera1" writers - was to be a central factor in what we might in anticipation call his incompatibility with Nazi culture. Further- more, the same principle of self-differentiation which informs the person of the artistic "anti-type" is common to the individual aspects of his artistic theory discussed in chapter 2 above: to the irrationalism expressed in his "Geologie des Ichil and to the rel-ated "constructive" princ- ipIe. Yet these same principles have been made largely responsible for Nazismrs attractiveness to Benn (see chapter 4, parts 1 and 2 respectively). The real ambivalence of Bennrs "political" phase is that the same cultural criticism that allowed him to associate himself with the Nazis was indissoluble from a principle of spiritual self-determination and artistic autonomy which milítated against such an association. And, further to complicate the matter, it was this same "autonomous" principle which, in its tendency to adapt the empirical world to its o\4tn requirements, made possible the intellectual short circuit that prevented Benn from seeing historical realitj-es for what they were. -r17-

CI-IAPTEIì 4

Be nd ialis (t) Historv and creativeness

Repudiation of historical categories as a whole and of the generally accepted "Entwicktungsbegriff." in particular had played an important role in Bennrs theory of creativeness before f933. A. Iook at the changes in his attitude to history in L933/34 might provide some insights into the relationship between art and politics in his thinking during these years: Bennrs support for the concrete historicat phenomenon of National Socialism should be seen against the wider background of his view of history in general. " ... es gab iemals eine Qualitat, die außerhalb des Historischen stand", declares Benn on 24 april 1933 in his radio-taIk er ie Intel (r 445) clearly departing from his insistence one year previously (in the Akademie-Rede) ttrat creativeness contains an 'rantihistorische Tendenz " (p. 77 above ) . " rmmer 'prägte die Geschichte den StiI, immer war dieser Stil die Verwirk- Iichung eines neuen historischen Seins", he insists in Der neu e Staat und die Intellektuel-Ien. (r 445) Bennrs new, "po"itive" view of history does not, therefore, exclude his previous preoccupation with the question of "stil", w.ith the problem of art. But political history now gains a ne\^/ significance as a quality through which artistic styles can be realized: eeispiele dafür wären gewisse bekannte Tatsachen zum Beispiel aus der Kunstgeschichte: Das attische neichsgeiüfrf zerbrach die Mauer, die den ägyptischen Hof umschloß, entwickel-te das Fernbild, den perspek- tivistischen Stil; aus der neuen Dynamik des Geistigen, die der orient nicht kannte, brachen in Hellas die großen heroischen cötter, aus dem politischen Grundbegriff seines fünften Jahrhunderts, dem des Sieges, der dorische Tempel, die Nike und die -I18-

Statue des Polyklet hervor. (r 445f.) (1)

Bennrs "Iibergang zvr_ zeitweiligen Anerkennung eines sinnes in der Geschichterr, writes Beda Allemann, v/as only (2) possible "auf dem weg über die Kunstgeschichte". orr" can go stil1 further: Bennrs "po"itive" vj_ew of history in 1933/34 was possibre onry by way of his o\^/n previous theories about the nature of creativeness through a view of creativeness, moreover, in which "historyt' was described in negative terms. This paradox is symptomatic of Bennrs vj-ew of history in 1933/34 anð, of his relationship to the concrete historicat phenomenon of National socialism. we have to dear not only with an apparent logicar deveropment of Bennrs pre-r933 artistic theory in rgr/34, but also with ambiguities and even contradi-ctions - which throw considerable doubt on the belief that his support for the Nazis was ä natural resur-t of his thinking in the two decades before 1933.

rï

It might be asked what Beda Allemann means by ,,Ent_ wicklungsbegriff, when he writes of Bennrs view of history in L933/341 Jetzt wurde sogar der Entwicklungsbegriff vorübersehend árr"ftiura; ã;!;-äi" Geschichre hatte ja wieder eiñen Sinn.(3) Benn had always had an "Entwicklungsbegriff ,, (.f . p.63_69 above ) - one whi-ch had been remarkabr-e for i_ts polarity to the generally accepted view that "Entwicklung,, is ,,das schrittw"+îî Hervorgehen eines Zustandes aus einem anderentt. \¿*/ rhis latter is certainly not the meaning of

(1) The same examples are cited one in week later ( 3o april) tzI de n (r zrz (2) Beda ) Al1emann: Gottfried Benn. Das problem der Geschi-chte roP cit. , p.32. j_d. (3) rb , p.4T . (4) Heinrich Schmidti .o.. revised by Georgi rÕth êd', 13 lstrttf.ri, ígA naussabe -119-

"Entwick1ungil which Benn accepts in f9T/34-; he retains the same viev¡ of the "discontinuous" or disjunctive nature of significant events in time as in his creative theory before 1933. Now, however, in 1933, he tries to see the histori-cal movement of National Socialism in the same terms as other "creative" (non-poritical and non-historicar) events. Benn admixes his previous decidedly apolitical view of creatj-veness with politicaJ_ concepts: Die Geschicht verfährt nicht demokratisch, sondern erementar, an ihren wendepunkten immer erementar. Sie fägt nicht abstimmen, sondern sie schickt den neuen biologischen Typ vor (r 444) Benn discusses history in his own terms, i.e. in terms of art; his remarks reveal a conception of historical "developmentil which corresponds with his own pre-1933 theory of the unconditional way in which art is created; thus he asks the literary emigrás on 24 uay 1933: wie stellen Sie sich denn nun eigentlich vor, daß die Geschichte sj_ch bewegt? Wie stellen sie sich zum Beispier das zwölfte Jahrhundert vor, den tibergang vom romanischen zum ¡otischen Gefühi; meinen sie, man hätte sich das beéprochen? Meinen sie, im Norden des Landes, aus GGenEen sie mir jetzt schreiben, hätte sich jemand einen neuen Baustil erdacht? Man hàtte abqestimmt:. Rundbogen oder Spitzbogen; man hàtte debattiert über die Apsiden: run oder polygon?Elaure, sie kamen weiter, wenn sie endlich diese noverl-istische Auffassung der Geschichte hinter sich l-ießenr ürTr sie mehr a1s das elementare, das stoßartige, das unausweichliche phänomen zrt sehen lrv-Z4f ¡ The irrational and spontaneous quality of creativeness is contrasted with rationar processes of poriticar decision- making. True to his previous theories, Benn does not see creative events as a cultivation or extensíon of a given situation; they arise independently and are to be judged on their own terms. - To borrow semi Meyerrs words, they are "schöpfung, nicht Ausbirdung gegebener Anlagen" (.f. p.64 above). Benn transposes this disjunctive and unconditional principle of creativeness to history in general_ - as is evident already on 5 March 1933 in the conviction expressed in his note-book, namery: "geschichtriche Bewe- -120-

(5) gungen sind nie t?] u. abteitbar. Sie sind da". He appries the same principle to contemporary historical events: like art, the new state must be judged on its own terms; as one of those rare creative events in the discontinuous course of history, it breaks with the previ_ous historical epoch, the l{eimar Repubric, which has no right to judge it from its superseded premises. Es waren doch diese vergangenen fünfzehn Jahre eine andere Epoche, sie isÉ ü¡erwunden, und man kann sie nicht mit den neuerstandenen Maßst-¡ãr, messen. (r 257) Benn had seen the early years of the twentieth century, including the Vrleimar Republic: âs l-itt'e more than a continuation of the sterile positivism and materialism which in his opinion dominated the nineteenth century. Thus he sarcastically refers to the "bürgerl_iches Neunzehntes_Jahr_ hundert-Gehirn'r (rv241) of the émigré representatives of the fifteen years prior to 1933 (i.e. of the hleimar Republic). Bennrs early prose and poetry, as wer-l as his artistic rtwenties theory in the and early 'thirties, had been directed against the "standardbegriffe" propagated by the nineteenth century and adopted by the twentieth (cf. p.9r above ). His artistic theory had been characterised not only by the "negative" movement of cur-tural criticism, however, but also by a "po"itive" movement: the setting up of his creative, anti-rational "Gegenvorstellungr'. comparabJ-y the National socialist state is attractive to Benn in its aggressive rejection of Lhe past., âs welr as in its will_ to construct new values: like the creat.ive ,anti-type" of Bennrs pre-1933 artistic theory, the new historical real_ity is "negativ wie positiv vorhanden: in dem, h/as sie bekämpft und j-n dem, was s ie errichtetil. (r 443f . ) such a sense of an irrevocabr-e break with tradition, of a new start from radicalry new premises, had been, in one form or another, an experience co¡nmon to most Expressionist writers and artists. But care is ca]led for in treating of these writerst "break'r with tradition,

(5) Benn-Nacþl-aÊr 9p. cit. One word was indecipherabl_e: most probably "erlernbêr", possi¡ty- "ãii.""tá;l'.---' _l-2I_ including thr= aggressive cultural criticism in Bennrs artistic theory which appeared to find some correspondence in National Socialism. It was characteristic of the German Expressionists that they did not simply break with "the" German tradition. They were attracted by those figures within tradition who themselves fel-t uneasy in relation to their own tradition: e.g. ttölderlin, Kleist, Heine, Büchner, Nietzsche. For Benn the latter plays a decisive role. Like Nietzsche, Benn is concerned with the devaluation and stagnation of traditions, and the common denominator of this stagnation in his own epoch is the nineteenth century. Nietzsche had begun the attack on many of those nineteenth century ídeal-s and usages which Benn rejected along with facets of his own era. His programme, in Bennrs eyes, is a manifesto for the twentieth century artist. Inseparable from Bennrs theory of creativeness is his culturat criticism, already clearly prefigured in his Expressionist years. Just as the weimar Republic had done litt1e but continue the traditions of the nineteenth century, the task of the creative "anti-type" writing in these years and in 1933/34 is to continue Nietzschers legacy of provocation and spiritual renewal, his "negative" as well as his "po"itive" impulses. After Nietzsche, it was the Expressionist generationwhich had given impetus to what Benn calls for in t933/342 hlas vernichtet werden soII, ist der Intellek- tualismus und die in ihm verwurzelte Zivilisation. (rv 394 ) And it was this "civilisation", according to Benn, which had provoked the Expressionists I irrationalism: Lange genugr..sagte sich diese Jugend, haben wir das mitangehort, G€istesfreiheit z Zersetzungs- freiheit antiheroische IdeologieJ Aber der Mensch will groß sein, das ist seine cröße; dem Absoluten gilt unausweichlich sein ganzes inneres Bemühen. Und so erhob sich diese Jugend von d.en gepflegten Abgründen und den Fetischèn einer defaitistisch gewordenen Intelligenz und t,rieb in einem ungeheueren, den Sechzigjährigen nicht mehr verstandlichen neuen Generationsgluck vor- wärts in das Wirkende, den Trieb, in das formal noch nicht Zerdachte, das rrrationale (r 448f. ¡ -r22-

since his own Expressionist years, "das Absolute" for Benn had meant a dismissal of "l-iberal" individualism and a refusal to be defined in terms of empirical, casuistic, day-to-day domestic and political- realities. rn f933/34, as we sha1l see in some detail in the third section of the present chapter, he did not relinquish the principle of artistic setf-differenti-ation which was inherent in his conception of artrs "absoluteness" and autonomyj that he nevertheless associated himself with National Socialism necessiLated a capricious interpretation of historical realities.

]II

For Benn "der Intellektualismus und die in ihm verwurzelte ZivíIisation" in the years before 1933 had included the world of history and politics¡ âs manifest- ations of a materialist worl-d-view. His support for a concrete historical movement in 1933, for the political powers of the dayr does not mean a new recognition of materialist, empirical principles in history. On the contrary, the National Socialist state, he says in 1933 in his Àntwort an die Iiterarischen micrranten ,rrhandelt sich gar nicht um Regierungsformen, sondern um eine neue Vision von der ceburt des Menschen". (rv 243) " ... über diese vision'r, he asserts, "entscheidet kein Erfolg, kein militärisches oder industrielles Resultat". (rv 243) Klaus Mannrs reproach of "Barbarei", he insists, "wird absurd vor so viel Legitimation als geschichtriches seinr'. (rv 243) Benn sees the "geschichtliches Seinrr of the National- socialist state, therefore, not, in "historical" but in metaphysicar terms as a self-regitimising power which has its being independently of governmentar forms, of industry and of the mititary: the empiricar real_ities which are prerequisite for "history" and "politics, in the accepted sense are downgraded to a secondary roJ_e. This is exemplified by Bennrs ì view of economics in 1933/34' He sees National socialism in contrast to Marxism: "werch sonderbarer sinn und welche sonderbare Geschj_chte, -L23-

Lohnfragen als den InhaIt aIIer menschlíchen Kampfe anzu- view of history' sehenrr , (r 44o) he remarks of the Marxist BennwelcomesinNationalsociatismwhatamountstoa reversal of Marxist thinking: a "Wendung vom ökonomischen the zum mythischen Kollektivt', (f 44O) a "Durchstoßung" of empirical layers of reality, to speak in terms of his pre- f933 "ceologie des Ich". "Welch intellektueller Defekt' welch moralisches Manko", he upbraids the opporients of the Nazi régime, "i. diesem a.llem Ii.e. in National Socialisml nicht das anthropologisch Tiefere zu sehen,! " (f 44O) vlhere Benn does speak favourably of socio-economic realities, he does so in terms which stress the secondary importance of these realities. In 1933 tre tells the literary émigrés daßesdemdeutschenArbeiter}reutebesser geht als zuvor die arbeiter haJ¡en mehr Macht, ãie sind besser geachtet, sie arbeiten in besserer stimmung, in staãts¡ürgerstimmung (rv a44r' ) Bennrs point, however, i-s less the workersr economic welfare than their spiritual condition a condition which is not determined by material considerations, but which transcends them: " was die sozialistische Partei ihnen [tfre workers] nicht erkämpfen konnte", Ïre says, "gab ihnen diese neue nationale Form des Sozialismus: ein sie bewegendes Lebensgefüh1". (fV 245) For Benn this anti-materialist "Lebensgefüfrt" goes hand in hand with the Nazisr stated rejection of the philosophical premises of material-ism, above all those of Ivlarxism; the new state propagates a new form of socialism wtrich den unfruchtbar gewordenen marxistischen Ge.gensatz vorl Arbeitnehmer und Arbeitgeber auf- lösen wilt in eine höhere Gemeinsamkei-t, mag man sie wie ;ünger rDer Arbeiterr nennen oder nationalen soziálismus. (r 442¡ The fact that National Socialism was "social.i-st" in name only need not concern us here. It might seem puzzling, however, that Benn suddenly sees in "Sozialismus" a positive quality. But here, too, h€ submerges historical and political categories in a "higher synthesis" not unlike Ernst ;ünger, from whose book Der Arbeiter (1932) he takes his conception of "socialism". ;ünger had made a myth- -L24- ological figure of the worker, hag-seen him as "Gegensatz (6) zu aIlen bürgerlichen Wertungen". Like Benn, Jünger had fondness for "Sicherheit als einen complaj-ned "t ?g\rgeois höchsten Wertrr \ I / and for "Vernunft a1s die oberste Mtacht, er reürger'] diese Sicherheit gewährleistet durch die/O\ Ittre siehtrr .\o/ Jünger's "socialism" was bare of dialectics, Marxist or otherwise, including those of parliamentary democracy: his "socialist" state transcended historical causality and was thus "totaI" and "absolute". Technology had been raised to the status of myth, politj-cs to the level of metaphysics and materialism was to transcend itself in the type of the "worker" and his anti-bourgeois Weltanschau- uns. Comparably Benn tries to see the National- Socialist state as an "absolute", whose quality is beyond discussion, which therefore does not admit dialectics in any form and which, in its transcendence, is not subject to empirical- or causal laws nor to the bourgeoj-s institutions which base themselves on these laws. The new state is "der notwendige Gedanke, diese überirdiChste Ivlacht der WeIt, mächtiger als das Eisen, mächtiger als das Licht, immer in der Rufweite der Cröße und im FIügelschlagen einer transzendenten Tat". (r 44r¡ Benn, then, is interested in "den inneren Prozeß, die schöpferische Wucht" (lV Z4O) of the new historical movement, rather than in its empirical accompaniments. National Socialism is attractive for him in its refusal to accept empirical truth as the basis for its endeavours. Empiricism, as ever for Benn, "ruft die Gegenvorstellung hervor"; he associates the anti-empirical, anti-dialectical and "absolute" quality of his "Gegenvorstellung" with the Nati-ona1 Social ist state : Die unabsehbare geschichtliche Verwandlung for- miert sich politisch zunächst unter dem zentralen Begriff: der totale StaaL. Der totale Staat, im Gegensatz zum pluralistischen der vergangenen

(6) Ernst ;ünger: Der Arbeiter. Herrschaft und Gestalt in Ernst Junge @il, , (stuttgart, r.d. ), p.21.

7 rbid. , p. 50. B rbid. -L25-

Epoche Identitat von Macht und Geist, Indj-vidualität und Kollektivität, Freiheit und Notwendigkeit, er ist monistisch, antidialektisch, uberdauernd und autoritär. (r 2:.4) Theoretically at least, the state cannot be argued with; it is by definition an intellectually unassair-able quality. Benn provides an a priori justificatj-on for the new state, and from a point external to politics. In his pre-I933 artistj-c theory he had drawn upon scientific terminorogy to irrustrate his ov/n (highly unscientif ic ) theory of the irrational basis of creativeness; in 1933/34 ne draws upon political terminology to express an essentially aporiticaÌ, metaphysical view of history and politics. Bennrs depolíticisation of poritics can be observed in his treatment of a further politicar category, that of the "Führer": ¡'ührer ist nicht der Inbegriff der Macht, ist überhaupt nicht ars terroiprinzip gedacht, sondern ats höchsres geistiges prinzip 9è=ãher,. Éür,i"rt das ist das schopferisc e, in ihm sammern sich die verantwortung, d ie Gefahr und die Entscheidung, auch das ganze rrrationale des ja erst durch ihn sichtbar werdenden geschichtlicñen wir-tens er beruft sich selbst, man kann natürrich auch sagen, e¡r wird berufenr ês ist die stimme aus dem reuiigén Busch, der folgt €rr dort muß er hin und besehen das große Gesicht keine Macht konnte sie hindern, keine widerstände sie zurückhaltenr €s war überhaupt keine andere Macht mehr da -, auch hierin zeígt sich das Elementare, unausweichriche, immer weiter um sich greifend Massive der geschicht- ljc hen Verwandlung. ( r 214f . ) The concept of "die historische cröße, which Benn adapts from Jakob Burckhardt(9) is thus "dehistoricised,,, removed from the chain of historical causality, played over into a sphere which is monistic, "absoluter', not arguable with; j-nto the sphere of the irrational which herer âs always in Bennrs creative theory, is integrat to creativeness, to "das schöpferische". The "Führer", like all creative types and like all creative events, is not subject to causarity or to models of behaviour external to himserf. He is the

(9 ) rt is the sub-tj.tle of the fifth chapter (entitled Das Individuum und das 11 rne )of Burckhardtrs Welt:- ctes chicht he Betra tunc'en. -126-

,,autonomous" type which can be traced from Bennrs early rtwenties work through his artistic ttreory of the and early The "Führer beruft sich selbst" and, 'thirties. I'nicht like Rönne in Die Eroberunq, h€ is Muster, soncLern Ausnahme". (f 2L5) If he is a "representativerr type, then he is it in the sense that he represents the irrational and creative metaphysical raw material lost Ín the course of developing consciousness and civilisation (cf. P.57f. above ). The "Führer" and his historical movement seek to construct "eine neue anthropologische Qualität und einen neuen menschlichen stilrr . (r 2I2)

"Eine geschíchtliche Verwandlung wJ-rd immer eine anthropologische Verwandlung sein" (I 2l-5), writes Benn ín Züchtunq I (1933). "Anthropologische Substanz" had been an important concept in his pre-1933 artistic theory' along witl. the disjunctive nature of creativeness which went to make up his "hyperämische Theorie des Dichterischen". In f933/34 "anthropologische Substanz" and "Verwandlung" are central in his view of history (both concepts frequently accompanied by the adjective "neu" ). But how is this "Verwa¡dtung" to be interpreted? Vùhat is the "anthropologische Verwandlung" which the "geschichtliche Verwandlung" brings with it? Benn writes of the political realities of 1933/34 as emanations of a deeper, more fundamental- spirit- ual metamorphosis: A1les, was heute politisch und empirisch sj-cht- bar wird und Form gewinnt, ist ja nur der Aus- druck dieser Verwandlung, sie selber ist jen- seitig, kausallos, transzendent (rv 393f. ) Nazi and fascist idealogues, too, emphasised the "spiritual" and transcendent quality of their movements. "History is an aspect of the ma jestic life of the spiritr', said the (1O) Rumanian fascist Horia Sima. *nit. history had taken

(fo) Quoted in G.L. Mosse: Nazi Culture. rnte1lectual. s Grossetrs Universal Library I T Nev/ York, 19 , P.xxa ii. -L27- onsometningofthe''majesticlifeofthespirit''also concrete' for Benn in L933/34, the question remains how empirical, historical reatity is to be reconciled with the transcendenb "anthropological" principte which for Benn (lottr before and during 1933/34) represents freedom from the strictures of the empirical here and now' Bennrs attempt to depoliticise politics does not make politics any the less rea1. Before 1933 Benn had expressed the "newness" and "otherness" (cf. p.6I above, footnote L2) of creativeness as a result of a return to the "old", precivilised levels I'anthropologische of the psyche, to the "Erbmasse" or Substanz", in terms of a "Gegenvorstellung" to an empirical, mechanistic world-vj-ew. He had sought "eine neue, die alte, Wirklichkeit", (r 185) as he exPressed it in I9JI in his essay coethe und die Natur\,fissenschaften. In ]933 he writes a forward to this essay for the publication of his volume Der neue Staat und die Intellektuel-len. As in his pre-1933 artistic theory, h€ oPPoses the irrational, transcendent qualities of the mind to the mechanj-stic world- view. Now, however, in 1933, with his characteristic polar- isation of intellectual spheres, he presses National Socialism into the servica of his "transcendent" (itt this case exemplified by Goethe ) world-view in opposition to the mechanistic (exemplified by Newton) world-view: Newton schuf jene Vorstellung von 'objektiver we1tt. V,Iie wenig es eine solche gibt, wie sehr sie ímmer wieder der existentiellen und transzendenten unterliegt, zeígL zwar die heutige Stunde der Geschichte, aber in der Wissenschaft lebt sie grundsätzlich fort. Diese objektive, die anti- goethische Vüelt wird heute getragen von den sogenannten Realwissenschaften AIs die ein- ziÇe Forderung, die sie zu erfüllen haben, wird neùerdings voñ ihren Autoritäten hingestellt: Prop-hezeiungen zu ermög1ichen. Prophezeiungen ermôg1ichen, also Erfolge berechnen, Chancen auskalkutieren-: das hat mit Erkenntnis gar nichts mehr zu tun, das sind reine Geschafts- prinzipien. (r 6r4t. ) "Die heutige Stunde der Geschichte" is thus cited in support of essentially ahistorical ("existentiell" and "transze¡.- dent") qualities. An attempt is made to transcend history -r2B- through history. The "new" historical movement releases those "o1d" creative forces which are "ohne die späte zivilisatorische Aufteilung in rdee und Realität". (r 6L5) Benn raises the reality of history to the leve1 of an idea: an "idea" which is itself ahistorical. This "dehistoricisation" of history occurs under the aegis of lJennrs own pre-1933 theorj-es of creativeness. rn 1933, for example, he writes a foreword to his early essay Das moderne rch (L92o), which he now interprets in the light of his interpretation of contemporary (1933) tristorical reality - as an attack on materialistic conceptions about the function of the state and as a plea for "transcendent" qrr"lities in poJ-itics: Ihr ltfre essayrs] Grundzug ist der Haß gegen das wissenschaftlich Util-itaristische, die kauf- männisch gewordene Erkenntnis, den Staat aIs reinen Verpfleger, den Menschen aIs reinen Renten- empfänger, gegen aIIes Mechanistj-sche des Lebens, ihre Sehnsucht ging über da.s Empirische und Soziale hinaus auf die schopferische Substanz, auf die Verwandlungsgefuhle, auf Bilder und Gegenbilder, die ihr aufstiegen aus der ewigen, von Untergang umkränzten, der ichl-os strömenden, der stygischen Flut. (r 6Of) Comparably in f9fi/34 the I'geschichttiche Verwandlung" transcends "das Empirische und Soziale", for: "Eine geschichtliche Verwandlung wird immer eine anthropologische Verwandlung sein". Thus Benn sees the historical, poli-ticaI events as expressions of something much deeper and more primary than the "actual" or objective historical phenomena accompanying National- Socialism. "Niemand zweifelt mehrr', he writes in 1933 in Züchtunq I, 'r daß hinter den politischen Vorgängen in Deutschland eine geschichtliche Verwandlung steht, die unabsehbar ist. Der kulturelle Lack einer Epoche ist brüchig und springt. Aus den Nahtlinien des organischen stößt ¿ie Erbmasse hingesäte Jahr- hunderte sind am Ender'. (r 2f4) Bennrs treatment of "history" in general and of specific historical and political categories (..g. economics, the "Führerpri-nzip" ) in f933/34 reveals a Gedankensprunq over the empirical phenomena which go to make up historical realities. So, too, his treatment of individual points of -r2g-

the Nazi prograrnme indicates a depoliticisation of political reatity and caIls into question his compatibility with the actual, empirj-ca1 phenomenon which National Socialism undoubtedJ-y was; it also raises the question of the alleged similarity between National Socialism and Bennts pre-1933 thinking : ot at least the idea that one is contirruous with the other. Benn either does not bother to inform himself on what precisely the Nazi progranìme con- . (rr)\ tains ' --' or he stretches the programme to suit his own needs; orr âs a resul-t of such wilfu1 adaptation, he involves himself in contradictoriness and, on occasion, he finds himserf forced to defend his o\^/n ideas against the Nazis. - The unity he superimposes on various spheres of reality, the claim in the 1934 introduction to his volume Staat nd t e Ie , for example: Politisch geistig - biologisch es ist alles gar nicht mehr zv trennen, (IV 394) is not workabre in practice ; Bennrs o\¡¡n conception of "Geist" and of the "biological-" origins of creativeness is in the final anarysis irreconcirable with the actuar political programmes of the Nazis. An essay such as Geist und Seele fticrer ces lech- ter (1933) would suggest on the surface that Benn i_dent- ifies himserf entirely with the genearogical measures of the Naz-is: that instead of a deporiticisation of po]_itics a politicisation of his artistic theory a harnessing of the creative "Erbmasse" to a political ideology takes p1ace. The essay consists rargery of a discussion of scientifj-c means by which the race coutd be "improved" by a points-system, for example, whereby only marriages would be permitted, "die das wertvorlste Erbmateriar des

(11) see Dc)Ðl)e leben (publ . L95o)z rr Das Partei- programm. Ich hatte es nie bis zu Ende studiert, \^/ar auf keiner der NS.-versarnmlungen gewesen, hatte weder vor noch nach 1933 -Zeitschrift abonniert 5 March f933 Benn had wri part of the fifth of his "Das Proqfamm einer neuen Bewegung kann man nie erfahren. " Benn-Nachlaßr op. õit. -130-

volkes hüten nd weiterführen". (r 237) The parallelism to Nazi ideas is, of course, unmistakable. But Bennrs statements in favour of genealogicar laws to further a concrete social programme are qualified whe he sees the politicar measures in conftict with his own private interpretation of them - i.e. in confl-ict with their servicability to creativeness as he understands it. This raises the question of what Benn means by "wertvoll": his conception of "Rasse" does not correspond with the actual Nazi idea that a hearthy body (provided it berongs to Lhe right raciar grouping) fulfirs a large part of the (12) requirements for a healthy irra, ,, ... welches sind die entschei- denden lrlerte des menschlichen seins: das biorogisch Natür- liche und Gesunde oder die ho e Züchtung des ceistes?r asks Benn in Geist . (r 239) He continues: so viel wird man alrerd ngs vermuten können, daß es Rasse ohne ceist nicht gibt. Daß alåo Rasse züchten auch immer heißt: Geist-;ü.ht;;. Nur der Geist - Geist als Entscheidunqstähicr- keit, Maßsinn,..Urtei1shärte, prüfungsãchärté - bildet das Körperliche eines volkés oder eines Einzernen dahin aus, daß man von Rasse und Züchtung sprechen kann. (r Zag)

Bennrs pre-1933 conception of "Gei-st" and "Rasse" had been similar; he had seen "Geist" as a quality which, although favoured by certain intelrectual (not racial) groups (e.g. the Lutheran pastor-house), cannot be "bred" or "improved" by design (cf. p.6o above) - and it was in this point (trre question of biological "züchtung") that his chief objection to Nietzsche had come (p.62 above). The "cemeinschaft" of which he speaks in tiqer Geschlechter is not a colrective of Germanic super_ tentscheidenden men; the primafy, the Ï^Ierte des mensch_ lichen seins" for Benn are metaphysicar ones the var_ues of a "metaphysische Gemeinschaft". (f 23g) Benn does not unambiguously commi-t hi-mserf to the biotogism which domin_ ated Nazi genealogical theories.

(I2) Hermann claser: @, op. cit p.27. - 131-

Benn does not adopt the Nazisr Social Darwinism. Biological "fitness" is a secondary question, just as the empirical aépects of politics are secondary to its metaphysical meaning. There is evj-dence, too, that some of Bennts statements on genealogy are concessions to the régime and not entirety expressions of his own convictions. on 24 August 1933 he writes to xäthe von Porada: Habe ein paar Aufsätze verfeltigt für Zelt- schriften, die gut zahl-en, lappisches Zeug. Was man so jeLzL wil1.(13) It is probable that the "Iäppisches ze\g" to which Benn refers includes at least the essay Der deutsche Mensch. Erb- masse und Führertum, nine Pages of genealogical gossip published in Die Woche on 26 August i.e. two days after his letter to Kathe von Porada. Even in the process of making concessions to the régime, Benn reveals that his own personal conception of creativeness and the Nazisr ideas about "züchtung" are worlds apart; in f934 he writes in Lebensweq eines Intellektualisten: Die neihe der Paralytiker unter den Genies ist enorm, die der schiZophrenen trägt die größten NTamen, und das al1es nicht beilaufig supplemen- tarisch, hinzukommend, sondern als Geschick, Wesen, BIut und Boden des Schöpferischen Unter den hundertfünfzig Genies des Abendlandes finden wir allein fünfzig Homoeroten und Trieb- varianten, Rauschsüchtige in..Scharbn, Ehelose und Kinderlose als Regel, Kruppel und Entartete zu hohen Prozenten, das Produktive, wo immer man es berührt, ist durchsetzt von Anomalien, Stig- matisierungen, Paroxysmen. (rv 52) Benn's terminological- concession to the Nazj-s ("Blut und Boden" ) is grotesque in the context, whose message is precisely the reverse of what the régime publicly declared as "productive", i.e. physically robust, "cleant', "fit". It is hard to believe that Benn does not consciously distance himself from the Nazis here: the use of "Entartung" and "B1ut und Boden" to describe one and the same thing is too much of a dichotomy for Benn not to have been aware of it. This dichotomy is reinforced by the "Homoeroten" and

(13 ) Paul Raabe, Max Niedermayer, eds.: Gottfried Benn: Den îraum alleine tracren. Neu e Texte. Briefe. Dokumente t op. cit., p.135. -r32- the "Kinderlose", both of which hardly correspond to Nazi ideas about "Ertüchtigung". Benn describes art (positively) -which in terms simíIar to those Börries von Münchh¿rusen had used in his article ene icht on 7 october f933 \-/rh\ / to attack Expressionism from the Nazi point of view. ' Not the biological suPerman, therefore' not tlte "blonde Bestie" is the creative type: nicht aus dem Samenunflat der Zwanzíg- jährigen, auS fettwerdenden Leibern kam Erkenrtt- nis. (rv 53) Benn in Ig33/34 does not abandon his earl-ier (1930) idea cf the "bionegative" tyP. as the creative type (cf ' p'6Zt' racial- above ). Tfhe decisive values lie beyond questions of origin or the concrete political measures which are to regulate and "develop" the race. - Even the modern science of eugenics is significant f:or Benn by way of the prelogical, creative "Urwe1t" of his theory of creativeness: Die ungeheure Ahne.nverehrung früher Re1igi onen Iebt iñ aen lehrsätzen der modernen Eugenik wieder auf (r 462) Benn, then, not infrequently separates his own theory of the irrational basis of creatíveness from the 'rpoliticised" irrationalism of the Nazis. Although he is willing to see the latter as helpers and protectors of the irrational, creative "anthropologische Substanzrr, he insists on the primary position of his own theory: on the one hand he sees the Nazis as custodians of the "Erbmasse"; on the other hand he sees them as a hindrance to the effective expression of the creative material in the "Erbmasse". This question will be developed further in the final section of the present chapter, when we discuss the fate of Bennrs principle of artistic self-determination under National Socialism.

The none too clear-cut consonance between Bennrs

(r4 Reprinted in Paul Raabe, ed.: Expressionismus. Der ) ¡ d.tv Sonderreihe r( Munchen, r9 5 , p.229-234. see also p.173 be Iow - t33-

conception of creativeness and that of National Socialism begs the question of the continuity between his pre-1933 artistic theory and his support for the Nazis in 1933/34 the question whether his thinking was "proto-fascist" to the degree that it was destined to lead him to an unequivocal support for National Social-ism . ot whether there \^/ere elements in his thinking which would suggest an incompatibility with and even a rejection of the new régi-me. A discussion of some of the secondary literature on this question may provide some enlightenment preparatory to a further enquiry into what Benn the artist and Benn the "po1j-ticalr' writer have in common. Bennrs interpretation of some of his earlier works in the light of "die heutige Stunde der ceschichte" (p.I2T above ) i. 1933/34 suggests that he himself understands his support for the National Socialists as a natural_ development of his thinking before 1933. His L934 foreword to the volume Der neue Staat und die tntel_Iektuetlen (1933) is quite specific on this point and asserts that his two radio-talks in support of the new régime ( Der neu e Staat und die rntellektuellen and Antwort an die l-iterarischen Emiqranten ) are " ld Jas ResultaL meiner fünfzehnjätrrigen gedanklichen Entwicklung". (rv 393) Much of the secondary literature on Bennrs "politicar" phase has been too eager to draw the same conclusions. On Ç May f933, not long after Bennrs first public expression of support for the Nazis, Klaus Mann wrote a letter to Benn j-n which he anticipated the latterrs sel-f- interpretation, albeit from a negative point of view: Es scheint ja heute ein beinahe zwangsläufiges Gesetz, daß eine zu starke Sympathie mit dem Irrational_en zur..politischen Reaktion führt, wenn man nicht hollisch genau Acht gibt. Erst die große. Gebärde gegen ãie 'Ziviliõation' - eine Gebarde, die, wie ich weiß, den..geistigen Menschen nur zrt stark anzieht - t p1ötzlicfr ist man beim Ku1tus der Gewal_t, und dann schon beim Adolf Hitler. (euoted by Benn in Doppe1leben, rv 76f .) Four years later, however, in his essay Gottfried Benn. Die Geschichte einer Verirrunq (L937), Mann modifies rhe assumption of his letter to Benn that j-rrationalism al_most -134- inevitably leads to political reactioni he makes the imporLant point that other thinkers (spengler, George) with spiritual affinities to Benn did not support National (15) Socialism. ,r, insisting that it is Possible to preserve the ideals of "civilisationn without necessarily (16) becoming a "platter Rationalist", t..rn demonstrates the differentiation which one misses in Bennrs cultural criticism and political judgement during the Wqimar Republ-ic and in I933t34. rn his reminder: "rdeologisch tï9: sich über den (17) Expressionismus ... alles behaupt.r.", Mann once again makes an important distinction - a distinction which is sometl-mes overlooked by Marxist critics. Bernhard Zieglex (pen-name for Alfred KureIIa), fot example, takes a danger- ously simplistic view when he writes (itt the same number of Das Wort in which Klaus Mannrs article is printed) that it is clear "wes Geistes Kind der Expressionismus \^/ar, und wohin dieser Geist, gaîz befolgt, führt: in den Faschis- (18 ) Barrrr' fascism" zíegrer craims, can be traced mus ". " " , back to his Brussels period and the dramas and novellas he /ra\ wrote there . \LJ i A similar view has been maintained by more recent crítics. Like aII half-truths, it is unjust in that it leaves out of account those facts which do not support the desired conclusion. Given the fact that Benn supported the Nazis, it is a simple matter to go back and "prove" that he was a fascist from way back - but only by distortion and, above all, by omission. On the other hand, the Marxist approach does provide insights, especially where the question of Bennrs un-

(15) Klaus Mann: Gottfried Benn. Die Geschichte einer Veri t in Das Wort t 2, 1937, P.36.

(16 ) rbid. , p.37. (u) rbid., p.41. rNun r, (rB ¡ Bernhard ZLegIer: ist dies Erbe zuende ... in Das Wort, 2, 1937. Quoted from Hohendahl, op. cit., p.2oo. ( 19 ) rbid. , p. 2o1 . - r35- differentiated culturat criticism is concerned. In this context Georg l,ukácst critique of Expressionism is rerevant: Expressionismr writes l'ukács in 1934, "vermochte sich nur zu einer ganz abstrakten Opposition gegen Oppo- ' Bürgertichkeit' überhaupt aufzuschwingen t zv einer sition, die ihre bürgerliche Grundlage und dementsprechend ihre gemeinsame Weltanschauungsbasis mit der'bekämpftenl Bürgerlichkeit schon dadurch verriet, daß sie den Begriff der'Bürgerlichkeitt prinzipiell rind.von vornherein aus (20) jedem Iöste". too, failed to Krassenzusammenhang ".rrrr, distinguish between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; "bürgerlich" for him is not a socio-economic concept, but a handy formula used to dismiss the mediocre, materialistic "Durchschnj-tt" r "Mehrzahltyp" or "Normgeschmeiß'r. The danger of the Marxj-st approach, however, Iies in the drawing of a direct line from Expressionism to political reaction¡ ãs l,ukács did and as Kurella did with specific reference to Benn. It is an approach which He1mut Kaiser continues in l-962 when he claims a direct connection between Bennrs National Socialist episode and the fact that 'rer die Klassengrundlage der Wirklichkeit, die ihm 'aufstießr, nicht erkannte und ihm die Arbeiterbewegung fremd war und fremd blieb". (2t) certainly Bennrs undiscriminat.ing treatment of the socio-economic and political world during the Weimar Republic is not above critj-cism, be it from a Marxist viewpoint or no. But some MarxisL critics leave themselves open to the reproach that their method succumbs to the same exclusiveness and lack of differentiation as Bennts own "political" thinking. rt is to such ideologicat exclusiveness that Ernst Bloch, writj-ng in f93B in Das Wort, objects when he makes the astute remark that the method

(zo ) Georg Lukacs: in G. Lukacs: Essays u r Realismus Neuwied rlin, L97L) ' P.12o. (21 ) Helmut Kaiser: We tfried Benns und Ernst Jun rS (eerlin, 19 2)' p.15. See also Gunter Hartungts interpretations of the title poem of the AJasha cycte (1913) and of the dramatic work lthaka (1914), in weimarer Beiträqe, sonderheft 2, ñÇp.r4Ari. rtre@, Hartung writes, occurs "in faschistischen cestenT (p.149 ). -136- I'rechnet represented by Kurella and f,ukács fast alle OPpo- sitionen gegen dj-e herrschende KIasse, die nichi- von vorn- Ìrerein kommunistisch sind, der herrschenden KIasse z''J" '(22) Contrary to r,ukács, Bloch sees a certain "progressivê" impulse in ExPressionism: DÍeExpressionistenwarenIPionie.!ieldeszer- falls: wäre es besser, wenn sie Arzte am Krankenbett des Kapitalismus hàtten sein wollen? (23) ÉIochrs approach leaves the way open for the possibility of distj-nguishing between individual aspects of literary/nistoríca1 movements; in the case of Expressionis¡n and its political. sequel, it does not preclude one from making distinctíons between various forms of irrationalism: between that of a Benn, for example, and that of a Kurt Heynicke, an Arnolt Bronnen or a Hanns Johst' (Wfrettrer the latter three can all be thrown into the same pot is of course another question). Benn's particular form of cultural criticism, while it had much in common wit'h and contributed to the climate of spiritual and intellectual extremism which were favourable to the rise to power of Natj-onal Socialism r(24) ut the same time contains a Pohler- ful impulse which sets him apart from the mass of Nazi fellow-travellers - an instinct of non-compliance, a refusal to speak on behalf of realities extraneous to his own artistic pursuits. This t'non-representative " posture was

(22) Ernst Bloch: Diskussionen über Expressionismus, in E Bloch: S fr ZeiL erweiterte Ausgabe, Gesamtausqabe vol. Frankfurt , 1962) , p.269. (23) Ibid., p.27I. (24) Benn of course is also turned into a proto-fascist in t933/34 øv ideologicar supporters of the Nazis' Frank Maraun finds in Bennrs work a welcome recognition of the "cedanke der Schöpfung, den er dem flachen Fortschritts- und Entwicklungsbegriff der Ziví- lisation und ihren wissenschaftlichen Stutzen entgegen- ste1lt". Frank Maraun (erwin Goelz): Auf dem weq zum at. Da bnis ,in Berliner Borsenze itung, Dec. 1933. Quoted from Hohen- dahlr op. cit. , p.178. For other positive interpretations from the National Socialist point of view, see Hohendahl: pp. t66tt. , I75-LTB, I8off. See also MartÍn Raschke: Gespräche mit Gottfried Benn, in Die Literatur t 36, 1933, pp.9, tI and Rudo1f RelLau: Schopferische étáats¡ãÍañüttq, l.t Der Mittaq (oüsseld orf), 3O August L933. _r37_

manifest in his Expressionist years, in his thinking during the weimar Republic and, as we shall seer it was decisive in making his rerationship with National sociarism the *é=ä1li.rr.e it was. Bennrs "irrationalism" has also been given short shrift at the hands of many post-war critics. walter Muschgrs polemicar essay of Lg56, for exampre, throws rlo ne,nr liqht on Bennrs rerationship to Nationar socialism. Like many others before him, ruluschg attacks irrati_on_ alism Bennrs in toto; he writes that "Lust am Archäischen gebrich maß_ am Zustandekommen des Dritten Rei_ches beteiligt war", that "Benns Kunsttheorie und -praxis gar nichts anderes erwarten ließen" and that "di_ese proteische Denk_ weise in ihrem l^resen charakterlos fist ]".(25) u,r".rrg does not distinguish between irrationar-ism as a component of an artistic theory and irrationalj-sm as a pseudo_ philosophy in the service of a political ideorogy. The former, he implies, must necessariry read to the r_atter. But one must distinguish between susceptibility and fatal necessity. Benn himself distinguished between his own irrationalism and that of the Nazis before 1933 (cf. pp' 106t. rogf. , above ), and he did not cease doing so in r9T/34' Muschg fails ,,connecti_ons to consider the 1, between Bennrs own artistic theory and Nazi ideorogy equally importanL and the relationship between Bennrs think_ ing before 1933 a'nd during f9T/34. one cannot hope to make such distinctions if one posits an a priori identity between Benn and Nazism. Ïn contrast to Muschg, Alfred Àndersch remarks that "der Hang zum rrrati-onalen nicht unbedingt eine vorform des Faschismus ,, (26 zlJ sein braucht . ) orruursch writes this

(25) Wa1ter Muschq: 1 Benn, in W. ¡¿u schg: D Ze t Lj-teratur, 3rd ed. r t n . Bernr l Quoted from Hohen- dahl: op. cit. , P.3 19 r. (26) Atfred Andersch: Gedichte ,inFr er f Hohendah t 5, I95o. Quoted from I, op. cit., p.2 9 -r38- with reference to Walter Mannzenrs essay on Bennrs theoretical work. Mannzen distinguishes between Benn the poet and Benn the essayist and thinker. He makes Bennrs irrationalistic "Kulturtheorie" responsible for his support of National Socialism and writes of the "unverändert fort- bestehenden Grundzüge seines Denkens, aus dem seine dama- Iigen Handlungen in logischer Folge hervorgj-ngen".(27 ) "lra the continuity in Bennrs thinking is not as simple a matter: as Mannzen makes out: the ideas which dominated Bennrs thinking before 1933 do indeed continue to dominate his thinking during f933/34; and because of this continuity Benn was unable to identify himself convincingly with Nazism. The point will become clearer in the second and third sections of this chapter. In f95B Dieter Wellershoff makes some attempt at a more objective evaluation of the relationship between Bennrs th inking before 1933 and his support for National Socialism in f933/34. Wellershoff remarks that Bennrs support for the Nazis was "eine Konsequenz seines Denkensr', but also that it was "keine fatale Notwendigkeit". (28) thus appears to free Bennrs early work from the stigma of". proto-fascism. Butr on the other hand, Benn, "der Vitalist, der rrrationalist, der NihiIist, waruyä"1.Ito mortale ins braune Kollektiv durchaus disponierL".\'Y ) Wellershoff goes on to stress those aspects of Bennrs work before 1933 which could be interpreted as containing a predispositj.on for Nazism, ât the expense of those aspects which might have prevented 1933 from being a "fatale Notwendigkeit'r. He indicates that much of Benn's pre-J-933 tfrinking is not compatible with Nazism - e.g. Pan-German nationalism, (30 chamberlainr s racial theories, social Darwini-"*. ) But : "Benns lebensphilosophischer lrrational-ismus ist eine der

(27 ) Walter Mannzen: Die Stunde Gottfried Benns. Die Essavs, in Frankfurter Hefte, l, I95O. Quoted from Hohendahl, op. cit., p.247.

(28 ) Dieter lvellershoff : c. B. Phanotvp dieser Stunde t op cit. , p.1O9.

(2e ) Ibj-d., p.110.

(3o ¡ Ibid . , p. 121 . -139- (3I ideologischen Vorformen des Nationalsozial-ismusrr. ) Wellershoff finds the evidence as far back as 1913 in the cycle of poems entitl-ed Alaska. He writes that the third poem of this cycle ( Ein Trupp herqelaufener Söhne schrie ) " ist ihm unversehens zu einem ahnungs- vollen Portråit des Faschisten geworden''. (32) ""r. Wellershoff approaches the over-simplification we have noted in earlier critics an over-simplification which still characterises one of the crassest examples of Benn- criticism: Franz Schonaueris opinion in 196I, "daß der weg Benns, vom ersten, r92o erschienen Essay Das moderne rch an, folgerichtig zu dem fütrrte, was man fäl-schricherweise Benns 'Verratr genannt hat: seine frenetische akklamation 1933 für den rKolonnenschritt der braunen Bataillone'". (33) That Benn himself was of the same opinion." *.rry åt his critics, that he saw Nationar sociarism in terms of Ïris o\^/n pre-1933 thinking, was possibre only through an idiosyncratic view of history a view of history which, as vüe have seen, is inseparable from his theories of creativeness; as Beda Allemann rightly puts it, the historical "Mutation" which Benn welcomed in f9T/34 is "der im engeren Sinn geschichtemachende vorgang, wenn Geschichte im sinne der (34) Bennschen Geologie verstanden wird". ês ""rrrr¡ indicated by our discussion of his view of history in r%3/ 34 and as suggested by Allemannrs remark, does not i-n the first instance see or value the actual, empirical phenomena of history in general and of National Socialism in particular.; he is blinded to the realj-ties of historicar phenomena by his own vi-sion of what these phenomena represent: a breakthrough to the deepest, creative, irrational layers of his "Geologie des rch'r. one can speak

(3r ¡ rbid. (32¡ rbid.

(33 ) Franz Schonauer: l-m nRe Versuch einer Darstellun olemi idakt Absicht Freiburg, 1 ¡ P. (34) Beda Allemann: G.B. Das problem der Geschichte, cit., p.44. op -r4o-

of a certain "continuity" of Bennrs pre-1933 thinking with his private view of history in 1933/34, but not of a correspondence between his own conceptions about the nature of creativeness and those of the Nazis. Bennrs affirmation of history and politics in 1933/34 was possibte only through a nullification of historical and political principles. His abrupt transposition of one sphere to another (ttre application of artistic principles to historical_ reality ) was possible only through his mettrod of thinking, which had arways incrined to associatircn, the abrogation of causarity and the reconstitution of the empiricar world according to the dictates of an autonomous imagination. He could only "affirmil the concrete, historical realJ-ty of National- socialism by refusing to see the concrete, historical rearity it was. The paralle1s, between his pre-I933 thinking and Nationar socialism v/ere indeed onty pararlers: they could not meet in the here and no\¡/; Benn courd only see a correspondence by doing violence to the meaning of "history" and 'rpolitics". Theodor Heuß provided an acute interpretation of Bennrs "private National socialism" as early as f934, in a review of the volume Kunst und Macht: Diese erregten Satze sind voll von leidenschaft- lichem Bemuhen, die politischen Erscheinungen der zeiL mit dem sinn und Auftrag der Kunst zusanìmen- zudenken, aber dies gemühen ãerbricht es ist der Monolog eines Einsamen und Erschütterten, der von der Gewalt der Zeít erfaßt ist, ihr zugehören möchte, in ihr irgendwie urfúllungen erspurt und zugleich seine denkerische position verteidigt - ein merkvnirdiges Beispiel wie sich ein Mann von starker schriftsLelleríscher Begabung, von extensiver und zugreifender Beresenhgitr seinen privaten Nationalsoziarismus auflcaut. (35 )

(35 ) Theodor Heuß: Kunst und Magþ!, in Die Hilfe, IL, 1934. euored rro@p. .ffiit.-' Another earry recognition of a certain contradict- or]-nes s in Bennrs thinking in f933/34 comes from Rudolf Rellau¡ op. cit. See also Werner Milch: Das l_ d Benns, in Jah t a o, 1935, p.257- zTL, especialty p.2 f and Rudolf Binding's 1etter of 1.9.1934 to Berthold Widmann t which is quoted in Hohendahlr op. cit., p. f86t. -141-

rt is this "zusammendenken" - Bennrs forcibl_e association of his essentially private artistic theory with political reality the probrem of the fundamental incompatibility between Bennrs conception of art and NationaÌ socialist reality, r,vhich deserves closer attention than most critics have been willing to devote to it. rn judging history and politics by the criteria of his artistic theory, Benn, as we sav/, tries to lift the state and poritics out of the empirical, politicar world and at the same time to associate himsetf with a concrete, politicar movement - unsuccessfully, for, in trying to adapt the political situatio.t to his view of art, he must inevitab]-y find that he cannot convincingry do the converse: i.e. adapt hi-mserf as an arti-st to the political situation. Bennrs continuing belief during f9T/34 in the possibility t'Durchbruch" of a to those creative layers of the t'Georogie des rch" where "das absolute rchrr can exist free from the determining factors of empirical (which must include political ) reality was bound to bring him into conflict with the empirical phenomenon which an historicar event inevitably is. -L42 -

(2) Art and the State

What makes the National Socialist state interesting for Benn, writes Gerhard Loose, is "die monolithj-sche struktur, die geschlossene Form - im Gegensatz zur Lockerheit, in der Tat: Formlosigkeit der politischen Gebilde des (1) Liberalismus". ,n. partiar truth of Loosers statement is borne out by Bennrs rejection of liberar indivrdualism and by his affirmation of what he considered the Nazi staters "monistisch, antidialektisch" quality (cf . p.J,Z]2 above ). Arthough Loosers remarks do suggest a connection between Bennrs principle of "Form" and his cultural criticism, the active, vehement, forceful, almost aggressive impulse of Bennrs 'rkonstrukti-ver Geist" and iÈs relation to cultural- criticism and political rearity deserve more emphasis. - It is in his treatment of "Form" duríng f9T/34 that Bennrs association of artistj-c and political principles through the medium of curtural criticism becomes especially evident. Bennts manifesto of the "konstruktiver Geist" before 1933 involved a conscious, determined serf-differentiation from what he sarnr as a material-istically biassed civirisation j "materialism" r "civilisationr', development and intellectual and spirituar devaluation had been virtuarry synonymous in his thinking, with the artist as their antagonist. This antagoni-stic standpoint of the art.ist had meant a refusal to work on the terms of the given, "casuisticr' ("f . p.Tr above ) material worrd. The same relationship continues into f933/34; Benn attacks the previous, "Iibera1" epoch and the aesthetic he considers representative of it: he dismisses I'naturaristic' art, meaning art founded on observation of empirj-cal reality. His Fede auf Marinetti on 29 March f934, for example, wercomes Futurism as a style which "die stupide psychologie des Naturalismus hinter sich warf, das faul und zäh gewordene

(1) Gerhard Loose: Die Ästhe tik cottfri ed Benns ( Frankfurt, 196r), p.86. -143-

Massiv des bürgerlichen Romans durchstieß'r ( r 479). Comparably, the aesthetics of Expressionism for Benn included a rejection of the "erbärmlichste bürgerliche trrleltanschauung" of Wilhelmenian Germany : Im Grunde v/ar ja doch dieser Expressionismus das Unbedingte, die antiliberale Funktion des Geistes zu einer ZeíL, als die Romanschrift- stelter(2), sogenannte Epiker, aus maßlosen wälzern abgetaÈeltste Psychologie und die er- bärmlichste bürgerliche We1tanãchauung, aIs Schlagerkomponisten und Kabarettkomiker aus ihren Schenken und Kaschemmen ihren fauligsten gereimten Geist Deutschland zum Schnappen vor- warfen. (r 247) Benn here varies the anti-empirical- in the broader sense "anti-naturalisticr' - impulse behind his artistic theory and plays it over into a quasi-political sphere: in the formulaLion "die antiliberale Funktion des Geistesrr. A similar association of aesthetic with political forms recurs in the same essay on Expressionism (l uov. 1933) from whj-ch the above example is taken; Benn refers to the time of the weimar Republic and finds that the dominant literary trends in this epoch corresponded to its potitical forms: Einige Romanschriftsteller betrieben ja wohl auch politische Propaganda, die Geschichts- raume beruhigten sie hinsichtlich der Vteit- schweifigkeit ihrer prosa, und j_m parl_amen- tarismus fanden sie Entsprechungen für die Geschwätzigkeit ihrer upik (r 253)

Apart from such disparaging analogies between artistic and political intentions and forms, Benn al-so draws positive paralleIs : namely between the "antj_-naturalistic", disciplinary quarity of his "constructive" principle and the "anti-liberal" state; his essay Doris InIelt sees

(2) ffi]J," other forms do come under f ire r ãs for example Valery in the following excerpt, novelists are thé mgin object of Bennrs attack on so-called "bourgeois" literature : "çelS¡ggflhy, diese kapitatistische Fre- gatte Lawrence, Erotiker mit Tannenduft Val_ery eine rein gesellschaftliche Arabeske, ein Nachzugler es sind alles dieselben ceselrschafts- typen, dieselben psychologischen Mixer" (l Z5B). The main exceptions to the rule are Flaubert, Conrad, Hamsun, the early H. Mann. - r44- bothartandtheSpartanstatemoving''ausderpuritani- schenundpassivenldeologieindiegeordneteundordnend ästhetische" . (t ZgIf ' ) extension of Bennrs artistic theory in 1933/34 is an art and Ïris previous anti-materialist understanding of simultaneouslyaretentionofhispre-Ig33practiceof dividingtheworldintotwodistinctcamps:intotheun- in creative, "representativerr types who' Iike the "Herr" hisearlywork,existonthetermsdictatedbyempiricalI'anti-types" reality.; and the rare, creative who deviate from and reber against the given, empirical, "natural" norm. As in 1929, the world is still divided into "produktiver und rezeptiver Menschheit (.f. p. ror above ). Benn die dist.inguishes in Lg33/34 between the types "die nur Natur erweiterten" (t 263) and those "die einen StiI bil-- ' gegen natura- deten". ( I 263) The latter are "Drillbohrer listisches cewäschr' (rV 6O), the former are the perpetrat- ors of thís same "naturalisti.sches Gewäsch": i'e' their work is based on "[d]"s Plausibte, Fixe, Mâssenhafte' das die Naturwissenschaften und der sozialismus heraufgebracht hatten".(I 467) Before L933, too, socialism and scienco I'ei'ir-¡crnt'- had been in collusion, with the artist as thejr und prínzipielle Gegenspieler" (.f . p.uu abovc ) : attd liche r' in f933/34 "das Ar j-stokratische , Strenge (r 467 ) of the artist is directed against "deIn] fntellektualismus und die in ihm verwurzeL|-ce Zivilisation" (tV 394) against the same "gesamte modern-zivilisatorische Komp1exil which Benn held responsible for European nihilism (cf. p.46tt' above)' The new, anti-Iiberal a9ê, Benn believes, will be "ein Zeii¿alter der Züchtung, der Form und des gesteigerten ceistes" (IV 59), whose onslaught on modern civilisation and its mass-culture will bring about a reversal of Speng- Ierrs prognosis(3) - an "Aufgang des Abendlandes"' (tV 59)

s I 3 ) "Mass "-culttrre also f igured prominently in Spenglerr \J/ of what constitutes cultural decline. Like Benn"""ããption ãnd Nietzsche, hê draws a para1le1 between the modern and ancient world: betweèn the "market-place loungers " of Alexandria and Rome and modern newsPaPer readers, the "educatedt' manr the cult of the "best- r' se 1Ier . See Oswald SPengler: I st (london , 1926/28' transl. Charles Francis Atkinson t p.359f. -145-

with Nietzsche, the artist for Benn is the rrphorder of "das Artistenevangelium innerhalb des alrgemeinen euro- päischen verfarlsrr. (t 2l6) And, as before 1933¡ so arso in r%3/34, culturar criticism lies at the root of Bennrs idea of "Form" : Form nie als Urmüéiung, verdünnung, Leere im deutsch-bürgerrichen si.rne, sondern als die enorme menschli-che Macht, die Macht schrecht- hin, der Sieg ü¡er nackten Tatbestand und zivitisarorische Sachverhatre fi zgàj such positive associations between 'rMacht" and "Form" recur freguently in Bennrs work during f%3/34; aesthetic quarities are praced in the context of political and military ones r so that artistic "Form" and politicat I'Disziprin" "zucht", "ordnung", are seen in artiance. (r 473) "Form" is the principle conìmon to art and the Nazj_ state: I.orm -: in ihrem Namen wurde alles erkämpft, was Sie im neuen Deutschland um sich Form und Zucht: die beiden Symbole der"efrå.r;. neuén Reiche; Zucht und stil im ståal-una in der Kunst: die Grundlage des imperativen wel_t_ bil_des, das ich kommen sehel Die ganze Zukunft, di-e wir haben, ist di-es: der staat und die Kunst (r 4Bf; of the spirit of "Form" in the work of stefan George, Benn writes that "sei-n Axiom in der Kunst Georges wie im Kolonnenschritt der braunen Bataillone ars ein Kommando lebt"'(t 627) He even speaks of a "Geburt der Kunst aus der Macht".(r 281)

IÏ

The latter formulation is the titre of the fourth section of the essay t. e l-e on t (pub1. 1934), Alrhough omitting direct reference to the National Socialist state, this work is Bennrs most extended effort at defining the relationship between art and the power-state. f t o\^res much to Nietzsche's Der qriechische Staat. Nj-etzschers premi-ss i-s that the true aim of the state is ,'immer erneute -146 -

Erzeugung und vorbereitung des Genius" '(4) ..d the only kind of state which can fulfil this aim i-s "der Macht- /Ã\ staatrr. \-/i Nietzsche goes on to define the "Machtstaat" in its positj-ve relationship to artistic creativeness: Bei diesem geheimnisvollen Zusammenhang, den wir hier zwischen Staat und Kunst, politischer Gier und künstlerischer Zeugung, Schlachtfeld und Kunstwerk ahnen, verstehen wir unter Staat nur die eiserne Klammer, die den Gesel-l-- schaftsprozeß erzwingt: während ohne Staat, im natürtiêhen bellum omnium contra omnes, die cesellschaft überhaupt nicht in größerem Maße und über das Bereich der Familie hinaus Vüurze1 schlagen xann. (6) The main part of Nietzschers definition is reproduced l'7\ verbatim by Benn in Dorische Welt (r 29o).'" For both Nietzsche and Benn, the state conducive to art is cJ-early an "anti-Iiberal" one one which transcends the plurat- istic "bel1um omnium contra omnes". Nietzsche had been writing as a cultural critic of the ]ate nineteenth century; and Bennrs own cultural criticism in the first third of the twentieth centuryr ds noted in chapters I and 2 above, follows a parallel course. Nietzsche had seen his times threatened by a "Iiberal- (B) optimistische Weltbetrachtung" ' .r,a liberalism, as he insisted in 1871 in a foreword to Die ceburt er Traqodie originally_intended for Richard Ïrlagner, is a "kulturwidrige Doktrin". (9 ) *i.arschers anti-libera1ism, his castigation of the "schwächlichen Bequemlichkeitsdoktrinen des liberalen (1o) optimismrr"" and his ai"missat of "bourgeois" ideals such

(4) Friedrich Nietzsche : l_e t_ , Kroners Taschenausgabe 7O (Stuttgart, t9 t P 2 $) Ibid., p.22If . (6) Ibid., p.2I9. ft) See El-se Buddeberg: Gottfried Bennr op. cit., p.IIBf . and Friedrich Wilhel-m Wodtke: Die Anti im vüerk Gottfried Benns r op. cit., p.11I.

(B) Nietzsche: Der qriechische Staat t op. cit., p.22I. (e) Nietzsche: Die Geburt der Traqodie, op. cit., p.2OO.

(ro ) Ibid. , p. 2O1. -r47-

as material and spiritual comfort, security, home, domestic- ity, etc. had been shared by Benn since his Expressionist days. Bennr âs already indicated by Das letzte Ich in I92I (cf. p. I7f. above ), makes a rigorous distinction between the "individualism" he finds at work in the socio-economic world and the "abso1ute", unaccommodating striving f.or self- determination by the artist. The latter works against the f ormer i.e. he works against what Nietzsche in the l-ate nineteenth century had catled the "Mitte" (p.18 above), the mediocre "mass". It is thus no coincidence that the source of the many formulations in Bennrs work prefixed by "gegen-" can be traced to Nietzsche (cf. p.21f. above) or that the first example (in I9L6: "Gegenglück'1) represents a deviation from the intellectual and social modalities of the "Herr" - from the, "bourgeois" norm, that is, against which the artistic "Gegenvorstellung" is directed. Like Nietzsche, Benn fears in the dominance of "mass"-man a threat to artistic creativeness; he shares the fear expressed by Nietzsche in Der qriechische Staat Èhat the "domestic" ideologlz of liberalism represents a debasement of ".@_ Kunstziel des Staates zn dem einer häusrichen Kunst". (rt) Benn also follows Nietzschers analogies between Greek cultural history and his own epoch: like Nietzsche, he praises.the "man1y" q,rulities of Sparta (r 262r 268, (12) 279)^_^, '--r.i and, like Nietzsche, he sees in Euripides the beginning of Greecers cultural decline: Euripidesr work represents that "häusliche Kunstrl which Nietzsche had deplored and on which Benn remarks in Dorische Welt: gei Euripides beginnt der Mensch, der He11enis- mus, die Humanität. Bei Euripides beginnt die Krise ¡ €s ist sinl

(11 ) Ni-etzsche: Der oríech sche Staat t op. cit., p.227. (12 ) rblq., p.229f. See also Bennrs 1etÈer of ! August ]-933 to xäthe von Porada: "was haben Sie denn nun schon wieder gegen den Streiter Ii.e. AeschylosJ? Verlassen Síe doch diesen larmoyanten bürgeil_ichen PazifismusJ Ihr Ideal von Mann Iöst wohl Kreuz- worträtsel u. tätrrt eine Luxusjacht am Lido ...,,. trf a Ile r op. cit., p.1 1. -148-

Weiberstucke, W€ibertj-tel . . . Es beginnt die Psychologie alles wird alltäglióh, die Shawsche Mediokritat. (r zTBf..) Benn specifically identifies late Greek thought with his own epoch (r 2BB) and, to describe the cultural decline of ancient Greece, he writes j-n terms similar to those in which he had attacked the "liberal" era of the Weimar Republic and the institutionalised mediocrity which he considered made up its political life: Oder nehmen wir das Politische, die ganze regierungsmäßige Ausdrucksweise ist im fünften Jahrhundert schon da: rder öffentliche Nutzenr, 'die bürgerliche cleichheit', das rparteiweseni (r 268)

Against those qualities which he chooses somewtrat arbitrarily to sum up under the heading of "liberalism"(13) (psychology, empiricism, rationalism, "progress", materialism, "Humanität", mediocrity, opportunism, hedonism, etc. ), Benn sets up rranti-Iiberal" values. As in his pre-1933 thinking, he constructs an abstract norm and defines his own position in relation to it by way of an antithesis an antithesis definabl-e substantiarly in terms of the same creative "Gegenvorstellung" and motivated by the same cultural criticism as before 1933. He finds a culturo- critical common denominator between art and the "anti- l-iberar" state. when he writes, for example: "Das liberare Zeitalter konnte die Macht nicht sehen" (t 281), he means by "Macht" not only spartan miritarism and disciprine, but a rerated also "disciprinary" spiritual force which contains both a (politicat) 'ranti-1iberar" impurse and an (artistic) "anti-naturalistic" one : Die moderne anthropotogische prinzipienlehre, die sich als neue wissenschaft bildet, erbrickt gerade in der Macht und der Kunst verschwistert die beiden großen Spontangewalten der antiken cemeinschaft. (r 2Br) I'Machtstaat" The of antiquity appears for Benn to be hardry distinguishable from its aesthetic or I'anti-naturalistic" q,t"rityj he adopts Nietzschers definition of art

(13) see also Gerhard Loose: "Benn greift einen Liberal-ismus âor den kein Liberaler je vertreten hätte'r. G. Loose: Die Asthetik cottfried Bennsr op. cit., p.84. -149-

(j-n Der Wille zur Macht, cf . p.22 above) as "die Gegen- bewegung" to describe both art and the Doric state(14): Die Antike, das ist dann die neue Wendung, der Beginn..dieses Prinzips, Gegenbewegung zu werden, runnaturlichr zu werden, Gegenbewegung gegen reine Geologie und Vegetation, grundsatzlich StiI zu werden, Kunst, Kampf, Einarbeitung ideellen Seins in das Material ... (r 29l-) Art and state share a "constructive", disciplinary force whose aim is the destruction and transcendence of the 1evel1ing, nihilistic qualities dominant in the spurious empirical and social world and in the flaccid "individual-- ism" of the liberal epoch; they have in common the "Um- wertung alles nur reizvoll lndividuellen, genußhaft Nahen". ( r 462',

III

Bennrs transposition of artistic principles to the state through the medium of culturar criticism was possibre only by way of a perverse and wilful interpretation of poritics. As noted in the previous section of this chapter with reference to the "Geologie des Ichr', Bennts utterances in f933i34 reveal a certain difficulty in reconcil- ing actual, empi-rica1, historicar rearity with the "primary" nature of his creative irrationarism, with its quarity of self-differentiaÈion from all ideorogical and political determinants. The same difficulty is apparent in his association of the artistic "constructive" principle with the "anti-libera1" Nazi sLate. Bennrs language indicates how tenuous this association is and the degree to which it can be valid only in the realm of the imagination, in a sphere which is not subject to the laws acting in the here and now. Benn suggests the connections between art and the state mainly by apposition

I'staatengott'l (14 ) For Nietzsche, Apollo had been both a and a "Kunstgottrr. See Nietzsche: Der qriechiãche Staat, op. cit., p.23Of. -L59- by a comma or by conjunctions such as "und'" or "oder": "Zwischen Rausch und Kunst muß Sparta treten, Apollo, die große züchtende Kraft" (I 2BT); "It{oira-: der jedem zvge- wiesene Teil, der Raum des Lebens, den die Arbeit tüttt am Staat und am Marmor" (I 476)(f5); "Zucht und Kunst - die beiden symbole des neuen Europas" (I 476); "Bei der dies- jährigen Bilanz der Erde stieß ich auf zwei Prinzipien, die die Gevüatt des Züchtungsgedankens zu ertragen scheinen, es sind die Kunst und die Macht oder der Krieger und die Statue oder das Schlachtfeld und die Herme". (l 4OO) The relation- ships are not defined but suggested, not logically developed but stated. A similar principle operates in the fusion of separate ideas into one formula : I'mil-itante Trans zendenz" (r ZZO); "formale[r] Absolutismus" (t 253) j "die impera- tive Kunst" (l 4TT).; or, âs already noted, "die anti- Iiberale Funktion des Geistesrr. The "scientific" sub-title of Dorische welt ( "Eine IJntersuchung über die Beziehung zwischen Kunst und Machtr') (16) is misleadinn. As in his artistic theory and practice before f933, history serves Benn as material- for an imagi.n- ative "Gegenvorstellung" which itself works independently of historical categories and methods. The Greek historical and cultural background is significant for Benn only through the affinities he selects (largely through the agency of Nietzsche ) between it and his ovrn ideas about the meaning of art. The same assocj-ative method which before 1933 had enabled Benn to posit an antithetical rel-ationship between the artist on the one hand and the complex and multifarious world of politics on the other hand permits him in 1933/34 to dream up an alliance between the I'anti-libera1" qualities of art and the National Socialist state. rt is an alliance,

I (r5 ) Compare Nietzsche s formulation in Der Wille zur Macht op. cit., p.649: "Man kann bei Naturen wie Casar und Napoleon etwas ahnen von einem rinteresselosenr Ar- beiten an ihrem Marmor ". (16) see Ludwig Rohner: cottfried Benn: Dorische welt rf[ L. Rohner: Gesch (meuwied rlin, 19 ' P.2 - r51- however, which was not to stand the test of concrete reality. - For under National Socialism as it existed in fact (u= opposed to its mode of existence in Bennts mind) it would have been ludicrous to hope that the political world could loe pressed into the service of art; actual Nazi reality demanded the reverse procedure. In the last rrantiliberale analysis Benn had to ask himself whether the Funktion des Geistes" had a political or an artistic meaning i.e. he had to ask himself at what point the boundary between "Kunst" and "staat" is to be decisivety fixed. It is Bennrs concern for artrs "primaryrr quality, for its right to function independently of ideological and political controls or pressures which is above a11 responsible for the inconsistency and even contradictoriness that becomes evident in the course of his attempted "zusammendenken" of "Kunst" and "staat". There are points where he draws back from identifying the two spheres: the state, he writes in Dorische Wel,t, "reinigt das Individuum, filtert seine Reizbarkeit, macht es kunstfähig. Jâ, das ist viel- Ieicht der Ausdruck: der Staat macht das Individuum kunst- fähigili "aber", he continues, evidentty with a side-glance at National Socialism, "übergehen in die Kunst, das kann die M¡rcht nie. Sie können beide gemeinsame Erlebnisse mythischen, volkhaften, politischen Inhalts haben, aber die Kunst bleibt für sich die einsame hohe we1t. Sie bleibt eigengesetzlich und drückt nichts aIs sich selber aus". (r 29o) Benn, in other words, hesitates to a1low the state fuII status in the artistic sphere: "Denn wenn wir uns jetzt einmal dem Wesen der griechischen Kunst zuwendenr so drückt der dorj-sche Tempel ja nichts aus, er ist nicht verständlich, und die SäuIe ist nicht natürlich, sie nehmen nicht einen konkreten politischen oder kul-tischen Willen in sich auf, sie sind überhaupt mit nichts para1lel, sondern das Ganze ist ein stil ..."(t Ðo,t ) art here is not seen as an extension or representation of historical or political powers; while the state may serve as a means towards art, it is not its aim: although Benn describes the Doric state as "Beginn dieses Prínzips, Gegenbewegung zu werden, run- natürtichr zu werden, Gegenbewegung gegen reine Geologie _L52_ und Vegetation, grundsätztictr Stil zu hlerden", he reserves for the artist the ultimate realisation of the "anti- naturalisticr', constructive principle and demotes the political world to the secondary status of "mere" nature: Dieses Darstellungsprinzip stammt nicht mehr unmittelbar aus dãr Natur wie das Politische oder diã uacht, sondern aus dem anthropologischen Prínzíp (r 29L) The suggestion is that "das anthropologische Prinzipr' - in Bennls artistj-c theory the source of creativeness ís primary, unconditj-onal and not subject to laws operating in the empirical sphere. This cl-ear del-imitation of the "anthropological" principle from politics and worldly "Macht" means an equally clear distinction between the latter two qualities and formal, artistic ones for t?ästhetische Gesetze" have their I'zentrale Lage im anthropologischen Prinzíp". (I 292) Comparably in the Akademie- Rede of L932 the formal principle had been "eingebettet in das Ursprünglichste der anthropologischen Substanz" (cf. p.72 above); and both principles had in common the spiritual and intellectual self-determination which was and in 1933/34 remains the prerequisite for artistic creativeness: art, Benn writes in Dorische wel-t, is anchored in "der freispielenden Gene" ( I 289), which is "absolut, eigengesetzlich, sêlbstentzündet nichts hervorgerufen, durch keine Cötter und durch keine Macht".(r 289f..)

Bennrs reluctance to allow the two spheres of "Kunst" and "Macht" to coalesce, his insistence that art is "eigengesetzlich", throws considerable doubt on Else Buddebergrs claim that he rrsubstitutes" the Nazi movement for his own irrationalism: Was mußte es bedeuten, wenn dem entleerten Ich nun mit der rBewegungr plotzlich realiter erlebbare t in der vötkischen Gegenwart zu ver- wirklichende Gehalte angeboten werden konnten Das Rönne-rch suchte die imaqi-nierten Gehalte des Halluzinatorischen im tMedj-terranr, -r53-

im 'ligurischen KomPIex w ieviel wirk ich- keitsnaher wurde dassel-be nun mittels der Sub- stituierung durch das National-ra s s isch-völ- kische (17 ) Benn does not replace his own imaginative "Gegenvorstellung" with "das Natic,nal-rassisch-völkischer'; and how little enamoured he is of "das VöIkische" wil-l become clear in section 3 below. While it is true that the impulse of cul-turaI cri-ticism contained in the "konstruktiver Geist" facilitates Bennrs association with the Nazis, Lhe same "konstruktiver ceist" means freedom from the dictates of the empirical, including the political, here and now and freedom from ideological strictures: it means that "Kunst" is not subject to "Macht"; at best they are analagous, not interdependent qualities : Man kann sie nebeneinander sehen, die Macht und die Kunst. (r 29o) The artistic principle contained in "die anti- libera1e Funktion des Geistesrr, then, is not submerged in the political meaning of the formulation; art remains "für sich die einsame hohe wel-trr. rn this point, too, Else Buddeberg finds a different interpretation: Vor..der Wende. hatte Benn aus dem subjektiven Gefuhl der volligen Ich-Entleerung a.ls einzige Rettung vor dem Chaos eine immer starkere Herausarbeitung des Formale n entwickelt. Mit der Vüende vollzieht sich al tmätrtictr ei-ne imrner deutlicher werdende Abschwä chung der Autonomie, der rAbsolutheitr der Form. (1 B) Contrary to Buddebergrs assertion there is in fact an intensification of BennIs "formaI" principle in t933/34; this is indicated by the forceful quality of the formul-- ations he chooses to express the idea of form: "formaler Absolutismus" (I 253); "Form ist Sieg, Herrschaft" (r )173); "Sagen Sie für Form immer Zucht oder Ordnung oder Disziplin" (r 473); "die unerbitttiche Härte des Formalen" (r 474) -; "sich herankämpfen in t{ühen¡ auf Wegen und umwegen, mit Rückschlägen, in immer härterem und gestänt- terem Elan" (l 476); "ordnung die das Leben er- I'Kunst, hämmertr rnêißelnd ergreiftr' (r 262); Kampf , Ein- arbeitung ideellen Sej-ns in das Material" (r 29I) j "Dri11-

(tt ) EIse Buddeberg: Gottfried Benn t op. ci!. , p.1O4. (IB ) Ibid . , p. 1O1 . -rt+-

und ideologischen bohrer gegen naturalistisches Gewäsch andere' die allgemeine' Dilettantismus, Einbrecher in die muß erkämpft und die unsichtbare Weltrl (rv 6o); "Ausdruck aufs rucksichts- gehalten werden mit e iner Schärfe, die (lv 6f) None of these Ioseste alles teilt und scheidet". about the "Ab- examPles suPPort Budde bergts contention der Form" in Bennrs think- schwächung" of the "Ab solutheit episode' In fact the ing during his National Socialist Lebe nsweg e ].nes lat ter two examples quoted above (fottt from as an assertion Inte llektualisten, L934) can be interPreted its culturo- of the "Absolutheit der Form (including and its critical imPulse ) aqainst Nat ional Socialism cultural effluent (cf' P'fB5 below). and Buddeberg is right in Placing "Autonomie" but her aPParent "Absolutheit der Form " in apposition; il-rtIÊcl " cletermination to demonat-raLe bhaf- Be¡ntt "rluJ¡Ft j Ito t' I tr National Socíalism for his own prê-l:JJ lcì

(19 . Ibid., P.116. Nietzsche: Die Geburt der-Traq-ôqiel. oP' cit' (20 From "în-õãilsåt' s "Nietzsche ' ;:iî. trr=-ine* einzigen satz, d?s.könnte nur al-s Ganze= sein". (I 292) sein tiefster ""ã-r"Lünftígster -L55- (t welr 292\/ and in Lebe nS\,VeCf e a s Inte lektua I sten. (rv 65) An approach such as Buddeberg's serves to confuse rather than clarify the issue of the relationship between Bennrs pre-1933 ideas and his thinking in fgß/34. The problem of artistic self-determination remains fundamental_ to Bennrs position in these years; even Buddeberg finds herself confronted with the unavoidable fact that (2I) "Geistes- freiheit" and "Frej-heit der Kunstausübung', ,... basic to Bennrs conception of art before 1933, and toward the end of her section on Benn and National socialism she suddenry discovers that he did after arl try to save "die Absorut_ heit der Kunstrr from the domination of poritics: Man fragt sich angesichts der Erhöhung der Kunst über jeães politiãche Maß, wie e"rr., gt-auben konnte, daß diese seine Auffassungen mit der Handhabe von Macht im dritten Reiõh jemals )u vereinen gewesen wäre. Jedoch: man ñruß ,."ig_ nieren; von Benn ist keine Folgerichtigkeil, zr7 erwarten, - wenigstens nicht außerhaÍb dieser einen Konsequenz, die auch innerhalb seiner politisch-nationalen überflutung gel_egen-tlich durchbricht. rmmer wiedei ist er bemuht, die Absolutheit der Kunst zu retten. G2) one hopes that Bennrs own inconsistencies do not precrude a consistent treatment of them. The vicissitudes of his creative "anthropologische substanz" and of his ,,constructive principle " in 1933/34 ao i-ndeed appear to conf irm Er-se Buddeberg's judgement that there is "keine Folgerichtigkeit zu erwarten" from Benn. However, one should took for the source of the inconsistency; this might result in the discovery of a certain underlying "Forgerichtigkeit'r in Bennrs thinking after all. Creativeness, Benn had said on 5 Apri1 I93Z in his Akademie-Rede, contains "e

(2r) Else Buddeberg: Got fried nn. op. cit., p.lOZ. (22 ) J-n contradiction 2l absolut schem Formwillen rden aufqehobenr'. -$6-

und eine unrepräsentative" (.f. p.77 above). Despite the "radical" and unconditional quality of the "schöpfe- rische Vüucht" (p.I24 above) which initially made National Socialism attractive to Benn and which he associated with his o\^/n specif ically artistic "radicalism", he was forced to the recognition that art serves a qualitatively differ'- ent 1evel of "creativeness" than that envisaged by the Nazi state. Benn tried to superimpose his o\^/n conceptions of creativeness on the Nazi movement; he tried to I'aesthet- (23) j-cise" politic". But he shrank from the corollary which a totalitarian régime imposes: he shrank from "potiticising" art. The constant underlying his artistic "radicalism" the fact that it was in its pith and kernel "unrepresentative" and not amenable to spiritual annexation from alien quarters - prevented Benn from unreservedly placing hiinself in the service of National Socialist ideology.

The formulation r'Ästhetisierung der Po1itik" has its source in Walter Benjamints study Das Kunstwe rk im ZeiL- alter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (1936). Benjamin uses the term to describe art which tends to support reac{:ionary politics by withholding from art its social relevance - by a "künstlerische Befriedigung der von der Technik veränderten sinneswahrnehmung". (24) "Politisierung der Kunstrr, on the other hand, is given a positive meaning in Benjaminrs study. It is introduced

(23 ) The term "Ästhetisierung der Po1itik" is employed by Dieter Wellershoff in Gottfried Benn. Phànotyp dieser Stunde. op. cit. , p.135 and by Gerhard Loose ffi eottfried-Benner op. cit., p.12o. For a brief but convincing discussion of r'Ästheti- sierung der Politik" with reference to the complex question of the continuíty between Benn's pre-1933 thinking and his position in f%3/34 see Reinhol-d crimm: Bewußtsein a1s Verhanqnis. Uber Gottfried Benns Weg in die Kunst , in R. Grimm, Wolf-Dieter Marsch, eds. IE nst im Schatten des Le und wider c tfried nn t op. cit., p.7 f (24) Walter Benjamin: Das Kunstwerk im ZeíLa1ter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeitr op. cit., p.51. -L57 - rather abruptly in a postscript to the essay; but the marn body of the work suggests that "Politisierung der Kunst'l refers to artrs function of critically illuminating the structures of social reatity: artrs main significance (e.g. in the film) i= "die Tendenz, die gegenseitige, (2þ) Durchdringung von Kunst und Wissenschaft z\t fördernrr and to emphasise more than hitherto the "publj-c" or "Aus- (26 stelrungswer ttt ) of arÈ. Bennts artistic theory is clearly at variance with Benjaminrs views on the alliance between science, photography and art and on the latterrs social frame of reference' t'gegenseitige As opposed to Benjaminrs Durchdringung von Kunst und wissenschaft", Benn had insisted i'n 193o that the scientist is "der eigentliche und prinzipielle Gegenspieler des Dichters" (cf. p.BB above). BennIs artistic "autonomy" had meant self-differentiation from the socio-economic \^/orId and had involved a failure to take account of the complex interactions between individual aspects of this worLd j to approach empirical reality critically on its own terms was for Benn tantamount to a betrayal of art (cf. P.B5f. above). As noted in chapter 3, this relationship of mutual exclusiveness between artistic, "purerr rrGeist" and the entire "public" sphere had its dangers and tended to be self-defeating as far as artrs independence is concerned. The dangers and the Possible political consequences of such a separation of "Geist" from socio-economj-c realities seem, ât least, to have been convincingly exPlained by Herbert Marcuse in his essay Ü¡er den affirmativen Charakter der Kultur (1937). Marcuse concludes that the cultural traditions of the last four hundred years, in their tendency to raise art to a higher, "autonomous" sphere and thus to "transcend" sociat and political reality, have de facto supported social injustices. The transference of "culture" into a sphere beyond the socio-economic here and now, Marcuse belj-eves, tends to cancel out intellectual and spiritual independence and lead to voluntary subjugation under a totalitarian régime, "wo d.ie innere Freiheit sich

(25) rbid. , P.40. (26) Ibid; ¡ p.22f f.. -r58- (l''l ) selbst zur äußeren unf reiheit aufhebtrr . nb"t-t..t, "Innerlichkeit" in a realm beyond concrete historical realities, Marcuse writes, leads to "eine ebenso abstrakte äußere Gemeinschaft Das Individuum wird in eine falsche Kollektivität gestellt (nasse, Volkstum, BIut und Boden). Aber solctre Veräußerlichung hat dieselbe Funktion wie die Verinnerlichung: Entsagung und Einordnung in das Bestehen- de, erträglich gemactrt durch den realen Schein der Befrie- digung. Daß die nun seit über vierhundert Jahren befreiten Tndividuen so gut in den Gemeinschaftskolonnen des autori- tären Staates marschieren, dazu hat die affirmative Kultur ein gut leil beigetragen". (28) The relevance of Marcusers train of thought for Bennrs case is clear i but it is not directly applicable to Benn. On the one hand, the reproach can be made from Marcusers and Benjaminrs point of view that Bennrs principle of artistic autonomy, by failing to take due account of empirical realities, misinterprets these realities and so leaves itself open to misuse by political power. But on the other hand: rro matter how much one is irritated by Benn and his pure "Geist", the fact remains that it does not readily lend itself to "Einordnung in das Bestehende" in Marcusers sense: when confronted with the inescapably empirical realities of Nazi totalitarianism, Benn becomes decidedly recalcitrant. In approaching art and politics with similar crj-teria in 1933/34, in "aestheticising" politics, he tried to adapt political reality to his view of art rather than adapt himself as an artist to the political powers of the day. He tried to take National Soci-a1ism on his own terms in the face of the Nazisl pretensions to intellectual and spiritual hegemony, an impossible procedure. The inconsistencies in Bennrs treatment of the individual components of his artistic theory i.e. of the creative "anthropologische Substanz" and of the

(27 Herbert Marcuse: Ilber den affirmativen Charakter der ) Ku1tur, in H. Marcuse: Kultur und Gesellschaft I, edition suhrkamp lol 1r (28 ) rbid. , P.93. -r59^

"formal" principle are a consequence of his incompatibility with a basic tenet of Nazi cultural policy, - namely that the state, not the artist, should administer the Muses.

(3) Artistic Autonomv a nd National Socialism

"Es ist kennzeichnend für Benns Dilemmarr, writes Gerhard Loose, "daß angesichts schmerzricher Enttäuschungen und wachsender Bedenken er sich in dem Versuch, den sich immer hartnäckiger gebärenden widerspruch zwischen den politischen Forderungen, die er zu erfülren strebte, ohne dabei sein letztlich einziges und wahres Anliegen kom- promittieren zu wo11en, lösen, "l sich zu erschreckenden Aussagen hinreißen ließ". (1) presumably by Bennrs ,,Ietzt- lich einziges und wahres Anriegen" Loose means the primacy of art in Bennrs scare of values and the inviol_ability to extra-artistic dictates this had arways presupposed. But it is questionable to what extent one can speak of Bennrs "Bedenken" in 1933/34 in terms of the gradual, developing process suggested by Loosers remarks. There is evidence that Benn entertained certain doubts and reservati_ons armost from the outset. of course such reticence often stands in contradiction to other statements of Bennrs supporting National social-ism. There must remain a specurative element in evaÌuating some of his remarks under the Nazi régime.; it is often dif ficult to distinguish clearly between his own convictions and the things he felt constrained to say (or not to say) in view of the potiticar situation. A useful guide, however, is the fact that Bennrs private utterances reveal a less guarded scepticism than he generally affords himself in pubric statements; the mis- givings implicit in many of these public statements (which

(1) Gerhard Loose: r op. cit. , p. ]-24. -r6o- become perceptibJ-e largely through the incousistencies they contain ) are acknowledged quite explicitly in many of Bennrs private utterances. On 9 June 1933, for example, Oskar Loerke notes in his diary: Gestern Benn rief an, entsetzt von den negativen Ereignissen des Vortags, rdiesen-Wahlen, diesen Menschen. I rch beruhigte ihn. (2 ) The events referred to by Loerke are those of 7 June 1933, when the officialty reconstituted literary section of the Prussian Academy - henceforth to be known as the "Deutsche Akademie der Dichtung" - held its first meeting, at which the Prussian Minister for Culture, Bernhard Rust, suggested that the times, being "eine Zei-L vötkischen Er- wachens", had demanded "das Ausscheiden a1ler Mitglieder, die das volk nicht als vertreter seiner rnteressen ansehen konnte und andererseits/)\ eine grundlegende Neuordnung der Abteilungrr . \J/ simitar scruples about being manoeuvred into the position of a representative of "volk, and state become apparent in another privat.e remark of Bennrs this time in a letter of 19 September to Xäthe von porada j the reference is to the cancellation of a planned poetry-reading on the radio: Eben kommt der telefonische Anruf vom Rundfunk, daß die Lesung meiner Gedichte unterbleiben muß - Ursache : peinliches Schweige". (4) But Benn guesses the reason himself namery that hj-s work is not in accordance with Nazismrs ideological code: that, in other words, it does not satisfy the demands of those "völkisch" aspirations which Bernhard Rust had cited on T .fune as prerequisite for acceptable art. "wahre ursache", Benn surmises, "von mir erwartet: v/egen DefaitismusJ rch bin sehr froh darüber: ês gehört wirklich nicht ins Aufbau-

(2) Hermann Kasack, ed. : r 1939, op. cit., p.27 (3) Inge Jens: Dichter zwischen rechts und links, op. cit. , p.2O7. For Bennrs retrospective account of thiè meet- irg, see Doppelleben, IV BB. (4) r ed Be a1 n op. cj-t., p.1 - 161-

(5) programmrl A comparable situation, but this time with the initiative for the cancellation coming from Benn him- se1f, is described in a letter to fäthe von porada on 9 October 1933j it reveals Bennrs characteristic distaste for playing participatory roles in the communal sphere: Am L9. fseptember] sollte ich eigentlich in Augsburg vorlesen in der dortigen Literar. Gesellschaft, die mich eJ_ngeladen hatte. Aber ich habe eben abgeschrieben. Es wehte aus den Briefen so viel Bildungsdrang u. Aufbau- willen, daß mir schlecht wurde bei dem Gedanken, den Abend hinterher mit ihnen verbringen zv mussen. (6 )

Some of Bennrs public statements, too, even where he himself appears unaware of the fact, betray a dichotoiny between his actual position as an open supporter of the Nazi régime and his own self-concept as a "pure" , politically unsullied, uncompromising artistic I'antj--type". This dichotomy is evident from first to last in his pubric utterances during f933/34. One of his earlj-est statements in open court under Nationar socialism, his Antwort an die Iiterarischen Emiqranten on 24 tuay 1933, for all irs fulsome praise of the "new state" and the almost aggressively affi-rmative tone of his "Antwort" ("und die muß natürlich unzweideutig sein", TV 239), remains ambival-ent with respect to his own position as a public figure; he takes care to emphasise that he has not adopted the position of the literary felrow-traveller, that he has not joined forces with "der öftentlichen, also opportunistischen sphäre" (cf . p.9o above) which he had dismissed in the weimar Republic from the absorute standpoint of the "aristocratic", "reserved" type represented by the artist:

kei cht mit neuen Freunden. Es ist meine fanatische Rei_n- heit, von der sie [i.e. Kraus Mann] in rhrem Brief so ehrenvoll fur mich schreiben, meine Reinheit des cedankens und des ceführs, das mich zu dieser Darstellung rreibt. (rv 247)

$) Iþl_d. (6) rbid., p.141f . -162 -

Another, even more pathetic attempt by Benn to rescue his compromised integrity appears in Lebensweg eines InteI- lektualisten (1934), shortly before his withdrawal from pubtic life; he insists: Ich habe für mich gelebt, außerhalb von kapita- listischen Betriebenr. Behörden, Presse, Literatur, Vortragssalen, ich habe aIIein ge- tebt. (rv 63 ) Bennrs statement is quite transparently untrue ; it is the result of wishful thinking: he reached a wider audience in his radio-talks in support of the new régime than he would have reached in any l-ecture-ha11. And the speech with which he welcomed Marinetti as the herald of fascism did not remain confined to the four wal1s of the banquet- ha11 of the Union nationaler Schriftstel-l-er, but was published in the Deutsche Allqemeine Zeitunq on 3O tularch f934r ês was his Antwort an die li-terarischen Emi-qranten (i.t the form of an open letter) on 2J May 1933. The cliscrepancies between Bennrs own views about the nature and function of art and the attitudes propagated by National Socialism become tangible above all where the question of the "Eigengesetzlichkeit" or autonomy of art is concerned. In trying to bring artistic autonomy and the Nazi censorship apparatus into harmony in Die Dichtunq braucht inneren Spielraum (;anuary, 1934), Benn flat1y contradicts himself: "Was die Zukunft angeht", he writes, "so erscheint es mir selbstverständlich, daß kein Buch in Deutschland erscheinen darf, das den neuen Staat verächt- lich macht".(I 259) But on the other hand the arts need "inneren Spielraum" (r 259) and literature "eine gewisse Experimentierbreite". (I 259) The unity Benn tries to up- hold the unity superimposed on art and the state from the point of view of art collapses: although art is "gewiß auch politisch, ja sogar eminent politischr' (r Z6o), it is so in "anderem sinne, als alle übrigen kulturellen und politischen außerungen es sind. Sie Iart] ist politisch innerhalb jener tiefsten Seinsschichten, in denen die wahren Revolutionen entstehe.t". (I 260) fn effect, Benn is adding nothing to what he had said in r9 3f in Eine ceburtstaqsrede und die Fo1clen, where he had delimited artistic -ús-

"radicalism" from the political sphere, insisting "daß ich die Kunst für viel radikaler halte als die politik sie allein, nicht die Polit.ik, reicht bis in j<:ne seelischen Schichten hinein, in denen die wirklichen verwandlungen der menschrichen Gesellschaft sich vorl- ziehen, die verwandrungen des stirs und der Gesinnung' (rv 232, cf. p.B9f. above). rn the same manner art, according to Dicht t innere lra l-s I'politicari' onry on condition that it is not answerabl-e to any empirical, poritical forces; it is more "primary" than the political authorities in the here and now. The work of the artist can be "politicar" only as rong as the political world itserf is an expression of those "tiefsten seinsschichten" of the "Geologie des rch, i.e. only as long as the artj-stic and poritical spheres are associated by way of the "depoliticisation" of politics described in the first section of this chapter: Totaler staat, dieser großartige und neue Begriff, kann daher für sie lart] nicht heißen, daß iñr rnhalt und Thema nur dieser totar,e staat sein dürfe. Der totale Staat selbst ist ja ein Ab- granz jener welttotalität, jener subãtanti-eIlen Einheit a1ler Erscheinungen und Formen, jener transzendenten GeschlossenheÍt eines in Áicrr ruhenden Seins (r z6o) The "identity" between art and politics is thus removed to a transcendentar plane; if art is politicar "in anderem sinne" than politics as it is generally understood, then there can be no convincing identity between art and the politics of the day. rt is the latter, however in concrete terms the Nazisr trenchant ideological propagand_ ism and their censorship apparatus - which confronts Benn at every step in his attempts to redefine politics (7) by way of his "ceologie des rch". Thus he concr-udes Die

3) Erlen some of gennrs most effusive utterances in support of the Nazi ,régime are not.unequivocar-. As .ãiry 3o April 1933, he concludes hi-s cðntribution to a séries"" of article-s_celebrating the I ruray i-n the Berli_ner Taqe- blatt as follows 3 wenn di-ese beiden wahrhei_ten sich treffen, wenn der politische und der ästhetische Aspekt vereinen, dann kann in der Tat die ga.ze Nation"i.ú sich erheben, um das Bild Deutschlandõ so großarti-g, -164 -

Dichtunq braucht inneren Spielraum with the suggestion that art be lerss subject to political control: Man sollte sie al-so weniger kontrollieren, aIs sich ihrer Intuition und Weltgestaltr-rng über- lassen. (r 26:-)

It might well be asked what becomes of Benn's adherence to the primacy of art, j-ts "unrepresentativeness" and its freedom from ideological strictures in the face of the following excerpt from Zucht und Zukunft (October, 1933 ) : der Sinn der Züchtung kann nur das Volk selber sej-n, das ZíeI aller Begabung ist wiederum nur das VoIk. Talente - was soIlen sie denn ausdrücken -, doch wohl etwas, r¡/as die Allgemeinheit will und füfrft. Die Kunst wer soll sie denn aufnehmen, doch nicht a11ein jener Kreis international-neurotischer Ästhe- ten aufnehmen soII sie doch vor a1lem die kul-ture1le und geistige Gemeinschaft, aus deren Leben der einzelne, auch der Kunstschaffende, auch das Genier_ und wäre es das esoterischste, entstand. (r 46ot. )

(l continued) so genial darzustellen, wie es seiner vielfäItigen, nahezu unausgeschöpften produktiven Substanz ent- spricht. Dann wird der Kunstler am ersten Mai kameradschaftlich neben dem Arbeiter gehen und auf den straßen das crün tragen, das ihm der neue staat an diesem historischen rrühlingstag gibt. (r'Zl-3) For all his rhetoric, Benn refrains fróm saying that the political.and the aesthetic spheres have mel; in fact the "wenn" suggests that they have not. Furthermore, and more significantly, Benn prefaces and quarifies his remarks with the insistence on "eine Absolutheit des F'orma1en, die zur substanz der menschlichen Rasse gehört. Das bedeutet hinsichtlich der Kunst eine Eigengesetzlich- keit des Geistig-Konstruktiven, das bedeutet, áaß nicht all-es Artismus ist, was sich nicht programmatisch zum vorksriedhaften bekennt, daß nicht alres rnterlektuaris- mus ist, was sich nicht an Feiertagen der Nation plastisch verwenden rägt, daß nich! arres destruktiv ist, was sich ni-cht für die aktuelle poritik als konstruktiv erweist, das heißt, es gibt Bereiche, die sich der ver- wirklichung entziehen. " (r zr3) rt is with some justice, therefore, that Dieter lrreltershoff entitles Bennïs article Die Eiqenqesetzlichkeit der Kunst. -ß5-

Zucht und Zukunft, ít should be remembered, hlas a very public event (a radio-tal-k) and precluded Benn from a forth- right, undissembling expression of his opinions. He goes on to modify, indeed to relativise his seemingly unequivocal statement that the artist expresses "was die Allgemeinheit will und fühlt": Diese Fragen führen vor die tiefsten weltanschau- lichen Schwierigkeiten, die es heute gibt. Auch wir können sie an dieser Stelle nicht entscheiden. (r 46r¡ Such "weltanschauliche Schwierigkeiten" were not shared by the Nazi leadership; neither it nor most writers still pubtishing in Germany in 1933 were in much doubt about the nature of the artistts relationship to "Vofk" and state. lfhile Nazi cultural policy was ostensibly favourable to a "metaphysical" conception of art, it was so only on condition that the validity of this "metaphysj-c" be pre- scribed by the state in,the substantive ideological interests of the state. \a/ This of course did not leave room for the "esoteric" in Bennrs sense; and even 1ess acceptable to Nazismrs ideological build-up was the view put forward by Benn in Zucht und Zukunft that "das Genj-e wohl individuelle Züge und zeichen trägt, die auf Auflösung aller menschlichen Bindungen, aller kollektiven Ordnütr9, ja jeder züchterischen Moral- hindeuten". (I 46f¡ On the other

(B) A few weeks after Bennrs radio-talk Goebbels, at the official opening of the Reichskulturkanuner on ID November, Þrocráimed : "Dffiividuerlen Freiheitsbegriffes liegen an den crenzen des völ- kischen Freiheitsbegrif fes. " euoted from lrlalther Hofer, ed.: r Dokume 1q45, Fischer Bu cherei I72 (Frankfurt, I95T P. o Alreadyrrnationa on B t"tay 1933 GoebbeLs had promised that the lso zialistische Idee will die ge samte Kultur in eine Verbindung mit bewußter polir isch- weltanschaulicher Propaganda setzen, sie aus der ver- fallsnahen, individualistischen Bindungslosigkeit des jüaisch-liberalitischen Kunstbetriebes . . . eiIösen" and that (.= K.D. Bracher feports) art "das Gesunde und Starke, das Typische und für aIle Verpflichtende darzustellen habe. " Karl Dietrich Bracher, Wolfgang Sauer, Gerhard Schulz: 1s te t e c rr- chla , Schriften des Instituts fur politi-sche Wissenschaft 14 (Köln,/opladen, L96o) , p.2 B9r. -166- hand, Benn concedes, the "Genie", despite his deviation from "zucht" and "ordnung", can return to the "Kreislauf des volkesr'. Brrt Bennrs own conception of "vork" has tittre in common with the Nazis' biologistic "Züchtung" nor with their dictum that art directly reflect or rather idearize the "vörkisch" order of things. - The spiritual enrichment of the "Volk", Benn says in Zucht und Zukunft, would not be possible "\n/enn jede Generation von vorne begänner \^/enn sie nicht die Erlebnisse und die Arbeit der Vorfahren summarisch in sich trüge wie lückenhaft der einzelne, wie brücken- haft das rch, wenn die urform aufsteigt, die Entelechie'r. (r 4621 The 'ridentity" between artj.st and "voIk" in Bennrs sense thus takes prace in the context of geologicar time, indirectry, through a bridging of the empiricar here and now - through the metaphysical "Erbmasse" or I'anthropologische Substanz" which, although I,atent in the "volk", can be creatively activated only by the artist on his own terms and not on the terms of an extraneous, ideological or political authority. As before 1933, the artistrs "Ver- ankerung im Überindividuellen" (cf. p.j9 above ), his release from the conditionar and changeable experience of the empirical, biographical- "rch" does not mean absorption into a poritically organised collective; artistic creativeness for Benn is by definition a refusar to work in accord with the shifting empirical surface of things, to adapt himsetf to the requirements of given historicar circumstances. - As had been the case in his artistic theory in 1929, "schöpferische Akte" in 1933 still originate "im rrrationalen, das kein Dogma erreicht" (.f. p.T6 above). Benn translates "vork" into his own terms i-n a manner compar- abre with his redefinition of "history" and ttre rrstate" as discussed in sections I and z respectively of the present chapter. The distinctions Benn had made in 193I and at the beginning of 1933 between his own "artistic" irrationalism and "völkisch" or nationalistic ideas do not vanish in 1933/34; they are reasserted repeatedly during these years and amount to a demarcation of artistj-c territory from political and "völkisch" territory. Bennrs abortive -ro t- attempts to associate his own artistic theory with National Socialism are accompanied by repeated reaffj-rmations of artrs exclusiveness and freedom from extraneous pressures and controls. Although h j-s utterances in 1933/34 are i-nterspersed with Nazi vocabulary and jargon, the meaning he intends diverges from "völ-kisch" Nazi ideology and not. infrequently contradicts it, an especially eye-catching example of the latter being the suggestion in Lebensweg eines rntellektuatisten that "Entartung" is "BIut und Boden des schöpferischen" (cf. p.131 above). Bennrs poetry in f933/34, too, removes history from the dominion of a particular politicaL authority and omits eulogies on the Nazi state. Perhaps the best-known of the poems Benn wrote during 1933/34, Dennoch die Schwerter hèlteg (published 1933), not only diverges from but contradicts Nazi conceptions of "Volk" and collectivism: Der soziologische Nenner, der hinter Jahrtausenden schlief, heißt: ein paar große Männer und die litten tief. Heißt: ein paar schweigende Stunden in Sils-Maria-Wind, nrfü11ung ist schwer von Wunden, wenn es nrfültungen sind. Heißt: ein paar sterbende Krieger gequält und schattenblaß, sie heute und morgen der Sieger-: \^/arum erschufst du das? Heißt: Schlangen schlagen die Hauer das cift, den Biß, den Zdnn, die Ecce-homo-Schauer dem Mann in Bl-ut und Bahn- heißt: so viel trümmer winken: die Rassen wollen Ruh, lasse dich doch versinken dem nie Endenden zu- und heißt dann: schweigen und walten, wissend, daß sie zerfäIlt, dennoch die Schwerter halten vor die Stunde der welt. (rrr 182) Possibly it was the "heroic" overtones and the militant images which prompted Horst Haase to call Dennoch dj-e Schwerter halten "die spezifisch Bennsche Variante -168- /o\ faschistischer Ideologiett . \r ) But one should add that Benn's particular "variant" of Nazi ideology is one which omits a vital component of Nazi ideology i.e. the "vö1- kischr' , collectivist homage to racial and national solid- arity. Às the reference to Nietzsche and the productive (to) solitude of Sits-Maria suggesa, Dennoch die Schwerter halten emphasises the isolation and spiritual self- reliance of the créaLi-ve thinker. Artistic self-differentiation - artrs quality as "Gegenkunst" and its necessity to exist autonomouslyr orr its own terms - can be traced back to Bennrs beginnings in Expressionism. It is not surprising, therefore, Èhat his main expositions of his relationship to Nazi culture in L933/34 should involve retrospective views of his o\^¡n early work and of the literary movement with which it was associated: in Bekenntnis zum Expressionismus (1933) and

Lebensweq eines rntellektualisten (1934) .

III

ft was Borries von Munchhausenrs attack on Express- ionism, which appeared under the title of Die neue Dj_chtunq on 7 October 1933 in the Deutscher Almanach auf das Jahr 1934, that provoked Benn into exploring some of the fundamental problems wtrich had concerned him since his own Expressionist days. A letter to Käthe von porada written on 3 Uovember 1933 (two days before the publication of Bekenntnis zum Expressionismus ) reveals more open scepticism about his relationship to the National Socialists than he permits himself in the essay j-tse1f :

(9 ) Horst Haase: nnes DeT GI ck sieben Las en (eerlin, 19 t p tr (ro) See Friedrich Wilhelm Wodtke 1s commentary on Dennoch die Schwerter halten in F.W. Wodtke, ed.: Gottfried Benn. Selected Poems , Clarendon German Series (Oxford University Press, I97O), p.t65tt. -L6g-

Ich habe uberhaupt keine Stellung bei der Partei oder bei irgendwem, ob ich sie haben könnte, ist eine andere Frage, aber ich bin mehr als ie ganz auf die innere Wirklichkei t zuruckgezogen, nur fur sie fuhre ich diese au ßerlich so schwierige Existenz (11 ) The dissonance Benn displays here between his own private, inviolate "innere Wirktichkeit" and the inescapable political order of the day typifies his pronouncements on art and its relationship to politics in Bekenn l_s zum Expressionismus . The essay, being a "Bekenntnis" to Bennrs own past and at the same time an attempt to clarify his position in relation to the National Socialist present, is of vital importance for an understanding of the nature of (12 this relationship. ) Benn begins Bekenntnis zum Expre s s ionismus with concessions to the Nazi régime: Das Maß an Interesse, das die Führung des neuen Deutschlands den Fragen der Kunst entgegenbringt, ist außerordentlich. Ihre ersten eeistei sind és, die sich darüber unterhalten, ob in der Malerei Barlach und No1de als deutsche Meister gelten durfen(l3) die mit einem Wort die xunst als

(11 ) op. cit., p.1 3 (12) Benn himself remarks on the importance of the essay two days after its publication: "Der Aufsatz erregt hier das allergrößte Aufsehen. Er ist ja auch grund- legend. Er hat mich viel innere Leistung gekostet. I' rbid. , p. 144. (13) Hildegard Brenner sees the controversy about the permissibility of modern art as part of a power- struggle between Àlfred Rosenberg and Goebbels. See Hildegard Brenner: nst ri sozialismus, rowohlts deutsche enzyk lopadie I 7 168 (neintret< bei Hamburg, 1963), p.32-95 . The Nazi- leader- shiprs_discussion about Barlach a nd Nolde is treated on P.o(x. A fact which Benn-criticism does not appear to have taken cognizance of is that on 22 October 1933 (a fortnight before the publication of Bekenntnis zum Expres- s l_on smus ) tfre painter Oskar Sch lemmer wrote a letter to Benn poi-nting out Nazismrs fundamentar hostility to Expressionism and to any genuine artistic activj_ty at all. lVhether Schlemmer's letter, comj_ng as it did a fortnight after the appearance of von Münchhausenrs article, contributed to Bennts decision to write his essay on Expressionism, is a matter for conjecture. Schlemmerrs letter is published in Tut Schlemmer, ed. : S ie fe r (tuünchen , Ig5B), P. r5- 17. -170-

eine Staatsangelegenheit ersten Ranges der öffentlichkeit fast täglich nahebringen. (r z4o) " ... Diese großartige Bereitschaft für oinge der Kunst", Benn writes with cautious diplomacy, "wird sicher geneigt sein, den geringen Einwand gelten zv lassen, den ich im folgenden über ein bestimmtes Kunstproblem aussprechen möchte". (t 24or..) rn fact Bennrs "geringer Einwand", as the rest of the essay revears, is a life-and-death matter for his own functioning as an artist for, in spite of the Nazist "großartige Bereitschaft fur Dinge der Kuns;t", they present "eine starke Front von Ablehnung des Stils und Formwillens der letzten deutschen Epoche" (I 241): i.e. against Expressionism, which Benn confesses "ars mir einge- boren zu empfinden". (t 24r) Thus, whi-Ie Benn on the one hand considers his support for National sociatism in r%3/ 34 as a natural consequence of his pre-1933 thinking¡ âs "das Resultat meiner fünfzehnjährigen Entwicklung" (cf. p.133 above ), he is also moved to defend the same "continuity" in his thinking aqainst National Socialism. rn Bekenntnis zum Expressionismus the I'compatibre" elements between National sociarism and Bennrs artistic theory are described above alr in terms of the "anti- riberal" qurlity discussed in the previous section of this chapter. Benn defends Expressionism in terms vtrich he believes ought to make it agreeable to the Nazi rágime. Bet\,\reen 191o and 1925, he writes, there existed "kaum ü¡er- haupt einen anderen als den antinaturalistischen stir" (r 245); and this style was motivated by culturar criticism, it was also an "anti-liberal" style: rm Grunde war ja doch dieser Expressi-onismus das unbedingte, die antil-iberale Funktion des ceistes Da war doch jedenfalls Kampf, ja klares, geschichtliches cesetz. (r Z4T) rn the light of this "anti-liberar" impurse and the rejection of "die erbärmlichste bürgerliche weltanschauung" (r z4T) which Expressionism and National social-ism share, Benn wonders: Diese letzte große Kunsterhebung Europas, diese letzte schopferische spannung, die so schicksal- haft War, daß sich aus ihr ein Stil entrang, wie merkvnirdig diese Ablehnung, die man ihr herlte entgegenbringtJ (r 247) -T7T- rranti-liberaI But Bennr s ef forts to make the " , quasi- political aspect of his artistic theory acceptable to National Socialism end either as a defence via Expressionism of his own artistic theory and of the artistj-c self-deter.nin- ation it had always presupposed, or even as a veiled attack on National Socialist cultural attitudes. Indeed, the former: entails the latter: that Benn is at cross-purposes with Nazi ideas about the nature and function of art becomes apparent in the fact that Bekenntnis zum Expressionismus is for long stretches "pure " Benn à Ia Zur Proble matik des Dichterischen or Der Auflcau der Personlichkeit. He describes Expressionism in terms of his theory of the "Geologie des rch" which he had discussed most extensively in the latter two essays in 1930 and which had meant a refusal on the part of the ¿rrtist to accomodate himself to the demands of any empirical "collective" or "Glaubensgemeinschaftrr whatever; art had been "supra-personal" only in the sense that it transcended the ephemeral, biographical, empirical "rch". It is in this sense that Benn in Bekenntn l- zum Expressionis- mus describes Expressionism as "einheitlich in seiner inneren Grundhaltung aIs Wirklichkeitszertrümmerung, aIs rücksichts- Ioses An-die-Wurzel-der-Dinge-Gehen bis dorthj-nr wo sie nicht mehr individuell und sensualistisch gefärbt, 9êfälscht, verweichlicht, verwertbar in den psychologischen Prozeß ver- schoben werden können, sond.ern im akausalen Dauerschweigen des absoluten Ich der seltenen Berufung durch den schöp- ferischen Geist entgegensehen". (t 243) Not only before but also during f933134 tfre I'absolutes Ich'r in Bennrs artistic theory presupposes an "Ich schöp- ferischer Freiheit" ( Nach dem Nihilismus t cf . p.75 above ) . Artistic "radicalism" the release from the "bedingten Tat- sachen, die Geschichte haben" ("f . p.58 above) and the resolve to penetrate to the metaphysical root of things - is expressed in the above examp Ie from Bekenntnis zum Express ionismus by the "rücksichtsloses An-die-Wurzel-der- Dinge-Gehen"; and such refusat to be conditioned by historical forces means that there can be no pre-established harmony between the demands of artistic expression and the requisites of the social and political world within which -IT2- this expression takes prace. Benn touches on this point l_n Bekenn t is zum Express r_onl_smus : the characteristic Expressionist "schwierige [r ] weg nach innen zu den Schöpfungsschichten, zu den Urbil-dern s zt) clen Mythenil I'radikal (r 248) was und tief " (r z4B); and suich a need for radical artistic self-reliance, he concedes, may be difficult to comprehend in the light of contemporary political- rea lity : Es ist heute leicht, das als abnorm und zer- setzend und volksfremd zu bezeichnen, nachdem diese großartige nationale Bewegung an der Arbeit ist, neue Realitàten zu schaffen, neue Verdichtungen, neue Einlagerungen von SubsLanz in die vötfig defekten Scfricfrtén vorzunehmen und sie offenbar die moralische Härte hat, einen Grund zu legen, dem eine neue glück- lichere Kunst entsteigen kann. (r 248) Bennfs plea for a sympathetic understandj-ng of Expression- ism in spite of its "abnorm", 'rzersetzend" and "volksfremd, qualities is thus prefaced by a show of deference to the Nazi régime. - "Aber wir reden ja von einer zeit,t , he continues, "wo das noch nicht dawar, al1es leer h/ar, wo nicht der Geist Gottes, sondern der uihilismus über den wassern schwebte r wo Nietzsches wort für eine Generation von Deutschen ga1t, daß die Kunst die einzige metaphysische tätigt

Did Kunst, dies enorme Probleml Seit zahllosen Generatíonen war die abendländische Menschheit: auf Kunst angewiesen, maß sich an ihr, überprürte bewußt oder instinktiv aIIe kultureIIen, recht- Iichen, erkenntnismäßigen Grundlagen immer wieder an deren geheimnisvollen Wesen und nun sollte sie plötzlich in allen ihren Leistungen ausschließ- liih volkstümlich sein ? Man griff die Kunst, die sj-ch ihren Stoff nun in ihrem eigenen Innern suchte, einfach aIs abnorm und volksfremd aufs åußerste an. Man sah nicht das Elementare, erstaunl-ictr Rigorose dieses eklatanten Stil- willens, sondern entledigte sich der zweifellos vorliegenden Schwierigkeiten, indem man immer wieder sagte: das isL rein subjektiv, unverständ- lich, unvêrbindlich und vor allem immer wieder: rrein formalistisch' . Diese Vorwürfe si-nd äußerst paradox im Munde von Zeitgenossen, die ein solches Wesen mit der modernen..Physik trieben . . . ; aber wenn sich ei-n Dichter uber sein besonderes Wort- erlebnis..beugt, ein Maler über seine persönlichen Farbenglucke¡ so muß das anarchisch, formalistisch, gar eine verhöhnung des volkes sein. (r 249f.) Bennrs remarks are ambiguous; they refer mainly to an indefinj-te time past: but the displeasure they reveal with reference to demands that art be "ausschließlich volkstüm- lich" and complaints that Expressionism is "abnorm" and "volksfremd" suggests a veiled attack on the National Socialist present. The confidence Benn had expressed in the Nazi leadership at the beginning of his essay is attenuated; it becomes an appeal, but not without an undertone of scepticism as to its likely outcome: Einen solchen Widersi-nn wird das neue Deutschland bestimmt nícht mitmachen, die Leute, die es führen, selber ja artistisch produktive Typen, wissen z1r viel von der Kunst um nicht auch zu wissen, daß die Kunst eine speziatistische Seite hat, dafò diese spezialistische Seite in gewissen kritischen ZeiLen ganz besonders in Erscheinung treten muß und daß der Weg der Kunst zum Volk nicht immer der direkte einer unmit.telbaren Aufnahme der Vision von der Allgemeinheit sein kann. (r ZDO) Rather than adapting himself and his artistic theory to Nationar socj-alist ideas about what is erigible for consideration as "art", Benn is attempting to accomprish the reverse i.e. to persuade the Nazis to relinquish their hegemoniat pretensions in the culturar sphere and to approach art on its own terms. This, needless to sâ!: was kicking against the pricks. -L',14-

Bennrs tendency to baulk when he sees the actual political scene contradicting his o!^/n interpretation of it is especially clear in the final section of Bekenntnis zum Expressionismus. He agrees that there had been "auffälIig viel biologische Minusvariantenr' (r 253) among the Expressionists; but rather than deploring this fact as a good Nazi should have, Benn tends rather to affirm it: "Aber gegenüber so summarischen Behauptungen, wie Deserteure, Zuchthäusler, Verbrecher, entartet, zuchtlos, faule Aktien, betrügerische Börsenmanöver", he writes with reference to (14) Börries von Münchhausenls articI., "drärrgt sich geradezu die Frage auf: sah nicht vielleichL Kunst von nahem immer so aus?"(r 253) Benn thus stands by his pre-1933 theory (outlined in most detail in 193O in Genie und Gesundheit and Das Genieproblem) tfrat the artist is a "bionegative" typ.. rt is a theory which had been integral to his conception of the artist as an "unrepresentativerr typer ês a I'Gegenkomplex von der Idealität der soziologischen und medizinischen Normil (cf. p.62 above) - as a type who is not assimilable to the vox populi and who has no desire to refrect its idears and values or to find himself corroborated by them: an idea Benn had already expressed at the outset of his own Expressionist years when: oD 2 September I9I3, he wrote to Paul Zech: "tr{as Allgemeingut wird, ist gerichtetr' (gr. 12, cf. p.44 above). It is in the same tenor that Benn continues his discussion of the artist as a "biologische Minusvariante" in Bekenntnis zum Expressionismus: i.e. with an unambigu ous endorsement of the sine a non of his artistic theory; he emphasises his persuasion, already prefigured in his own work during the Expressionist years, that art cannot be ideologicalry determined, that it is by its very nature "Gegenkunst" and therefore cannot form an organic part of a "volksgemeinschaftrr or expect patronage and much less direction from the body politic: Es gab doch wohl nie eine zivit und gepflegt entstandene Kunst, seit Florenz keine mehr, keine, die unter dem beitättigen cemurmel der Offentlichkeit von irgendeiner anerkannten

(14) See von Münchhausen: Die neue Dic tung t i-n Paul- Raabe, ed. : Express l-smus. Der Ka f um eine lite rarische Bewegung , op. cit., pp.229, 232. -L7 5-

Baumart der Erkenntnis fiel, Kunst war in den letzten Jahrhunderten immer Gegenkunst ( f 253\ This pronouncement of Bennls amounts to a retraction of his conciliatory remarks earlier in the essay namely that Nationar socialism had worked a change in the isolated position of the artist (p. 1/r above ); Benn adheres to his conviction that art, since the Renaissance at least, has always been autonomous and thus unthinkable without intellectuar and spiritual serf-determj-nation on the part of the artist. Bennrs Bekenntnis zum E xpressLonl_smus incl-uding as it does an attempt at making Expressionism congehlal to the Nazi leaders, contains some compromising remarks: the obviousl¡z untrue suggestion, for exampre, that Expression- ism was a purery "Aryan" phenomenon. (t 242) But the essay is not an attempt to make Expressionism acceptable to Nazism at all costs. In the final- analysis, Bekenntnis zum Expres s r-onISmus is just what its title suggests: a "Bekennt- nis" to Bennrs own past and at the same time proof that he is at cross-purposes with National socialism. peter de Menderssohn grossry oversimplifies the essay when he craims that i-t was "eine einzige eemühung, die Kunstbewegung des Expressionismus in die Tyrannis des Nationalsozialismus einzubauen und sie in ihm organisch aufgehen zrr lassen" and that Benn "den Expressionismus umbaute, damit er in den (15 Nationalsozialismus passe " . ) On the contrary, Bekennt- nis zum Expressionismus was not least an attempt to rescue

(f5) peter de Mendelssohn: rh e re Vers ttfr e in P. de Mendels- sohn: Der Ceist in der Despotie ( Berlin, rg53), pp.253f ., 273. rn f953 Georg Lukacs added a one-sentence postscript to his f934 essay Große und Verfa'l l des Flxoresq ac)n I s- mus, j-n which he had drawn a direct line f rom Express- ronr_sm to reactionary politics: "Daß die Nationa 1- soziali sten spater den Expressionismus als rentartete Kunstr verworfen haben, andert nichts an der historischen Richtigkeít der hier gegebenen Analyse. " G. Lukacs: ße I S , oP. cit., p.1 9. Lu csr apodictic pronouncement does not alter the fact tha t Expressionism was irksome to the Nati-ona I Socialists from the beginning, i.e. in 1933, before Lukacs had even written his essav. It is not clear what he means by "später" in his f953 postscript. -r76-

Expressionism from the "Tyrannis des Nationalsozialismus". It is truer oh the other hand, that Benn finds in National Socialism a po\^/er friendly to art: partly in the common denohrinator of cultural criticism he discovers between his own artistic theory and the Nazisr rejection of "liberalism" (cf. part 2 of this chapter), and partly in National Socialismrs val-ue as custodian of the creative "Erbmasse" or "anthropologische Substanz" (part 1). Yet he was moved to defend his own notion of artistic creativeness against National Socialism. His attempt to redefine "freedom" in his radio-talk Der neue Staat und die Intellek- tuellen helps to demonstrate the nature of this ambivafence: political movements such as National Socialism, Benn says, are usually directeà against "eine cesellschaft, die über- haupt kej-ne ¡,laßstäbe mehr schaf.fi-, kein transzendentes Recht mehr errichtet, und verdient denn eine solche Gesell_- schaft etwas anderes als Joch und neues Gesetz?" (I 444); "der Liberale", he continues, understands "freedom" as "unumschränktheit in Geschäften und Genuß". (r 444f. ) Such is the conception of freedom Benn rej ects in Der neue Staat un d die Intellektuellen when he says: Geistesfreiheit, um sie fur wen aufzugeben? Antwort: fur den StaatJ (I 447) Benn was to find that this answer did not prove workable under National Socialism. He found himself in opposition not only to the "Iiberal" ideology of the years before I9J3; he arso had to contradict the concrete forms which the Nazi staters ovrn "anti-libera1ism" took on. - Above all he had to contradict the régime's ideas about what constitutes "culture". rt was primariry due to Nazi cuLtural attitudes and procedures that Benn in the course of f%3/34 found himself being manoeuvred into the position of the despised "representativerr type, the "Mehrzahltyp", the ideological fellow-traveller he had considered typical of the cultural and political world in the Weimar Republic.

Under National Socialism Benn was no less averse to the employment of art in the service of politj-car propaganda -177-

than he had been in his attacks on Marxist writers in the Iate Weimar Republic, when he had adopted Max Herrmann- Neissers phraseology to convey his distaste for the " Iiterarische Lieferant politischen Propagandamaterials rl (cf. p.99 above). Art for Benn in 1933/34 coutd be "politicaI" only on condition that it did not surrender itself to the political and ídeological exigencies of the day: "Nicht in der Propagierung und plakatierung gewisser im Moment besonders brauchbarer und augenfäIliger Erscheinungen von Dichter und Werk erblicke ich einen nationalen Sinn", he writes in reply to a question from the ts e All ine ZeíL n on 3o ,.]uty 1933, "sondern, daß es ein kleiner Efeu- und Fichtenzweig war, mit denen ein unsterbriches zeitalter [ancient creece] seine höchsten sieger krönte". (tv 25o) perhaps the pithiest expressj-on of this idea in the whole of Bennrs work is in his 1934 introduction to Der neue staat und die rntell-ektuerlen, where he affirms his pre-1933 "antj-ideo]ogical" understanding of art with the words: "Das schöpferische ist weder rechts noch Iinks, sondern j_mmer zentral". (tv 393) "Ich kann auch heute nicht umhin", Benn writes in the above-mentioned contribution to the Deutsche Arrgemeine Zeitunqr "eine tstärkere praktische Annäherung zwischen volk und Dichtungr nur in der Richtung zu wünschen, daß nicht die Dichtung populärer und alrgemeinverständl_icher wird, sondern daß der staat öffentriche Einrichtungen, Akademien, Hochschulen, seminare dazu hergibt, die Nation damit zu durchdringen, in der Dichtung die wahre eigenge- setzliche Transzendenz, die tiefe geheimnisvorre Hiero- glyphe des eigentlichen Volkswesens zrr sehen". (tv 249) "Auch heuter': Benn, in other wordsr euite consciousry adheres to his pre-1933 persuasion that tÌ¡e writer works independentry - which means that he preserves for himsel_f the right to forswear pressures from political quarters that he solicit popular sentiment for a specific ideorogical cause; it means that he reserves for h j_s work the privilege to be esoteric: "die wahre e j-gengesetzliche Transzendenz" which Benn claims for art in f933 entails his adherence to a tenet he had expressed in 1926 in his essay Medizinische -r78-

Krise - namely that "nicht mehr die naturwissenschaftliche ceneralisierbarkeit des Einzelfa1ls, sondern der schöpfe- rische Akt individueller Perspektive aIs Kriterium der Wahrheit giIt" (.f . p.Tz above ). As noted j-n chapter 2 above, Bennrs revolt against rationalism and the natural sciences is onry the point of departure for a much broader cultural- criticism; Benn rejects the "gesamte modern- zívilisatorische Komplex" (p.46 above ) and its degradation to a "stândardisierte Mythologie" or cultural "Einheits- idol " (p. 50 above ) . Nat-ional Socialism was the consummation of just such a "standardised" culture : not "individuerre perspektiven", but ideological dictates provided the "Krj-terium der !{ahrheit". Bennrs resj-stance to pressures urging the artist to adapt himserf to such a normified cultural scene is evident in his remarks about the creative writerrs relationship to the generality in his article in the Deutsche Allqemeine Zei-tunq in Juty 1933. - If anyone is going to do any compromising, Benn indicates, then it is the state and "Volk"; art is not to pass muster before the latter: the suggestion that the Nazi state help the peopre to approach literature exclusi-vely on literaturers own terms is either naivâté on Bennrs part or a deliberate refusal to abandon his insistence on the unrepresentative and autonomous quality of art. The literary section of the prussian Academy, which had been officially reconstituted seven weeks previously and renamed the "Deutsche Akademie der ¡ichtung", is obviousry not one of the "öffentliche Einrichtungen" Benn has in mi-nd and not i-n spite of, but because of its now predominantry "völkischr'-nationalistic members (on whom he had arready given his verdict privately in conversatj_ons with Oskar Loerke on 21 April and B June , cf. pp. Il5 , I59 above ). The aim of the new Acad€fty, as Bernhard Rust had said on 7 Juner wâs to represent tl:e interests of the "volk". National socialismrs aim was that art serve the state and that the state support art only insofar as the latter identifies itserf with the "vorksgemeinschaftrr and thus makes itself usefur to the officialry sanctioned ideology. with this approach to art Benn is at odds throughout 1933/34. -r7g-

"Elitist" themes, it is true¡ wê'.ê also a province of National socialist culture - but only to the extent that they helped to fulfil propagandist aims: "Der demagogische Charakter der Nazi- rWeltanschauung "', writes Ernst Loevqy'r "Iieß aber das Elitäre nur in gewissen Dosen, d.h. nur zrt gewissen Zwecken und in gewissen Momenten zu. Es mußte sich auf konfuse und widerspruchsvolle Vüeise mit VoIk- haftiqkeit verbinden, durch die allein der eppell an die Massen Erfolg versprach. Es ga1t, das Romantische zu popu- Iarisieren und in eine Sprache zu übersetzeB, die auch dem rr ( 16 ) Ietzten HinterwäIater noch ge läuf ig \n/ar . B..rr, ' " own understarrding of art was not compatible with such a functional and tendentious form of "e1itism"; thus he was moved to a redefinition of "Volkhaftigkeit" in terms of his own. But such terms were at odds with Nazi realities and meant in the final analysis that Benn was a foreign body in the National Socialist cultural wor1d. In 1927 -Benn had remarked in his essay Kunst und staat that t'Kunst" is "vieI seltener, als es scheintrr. "Dieser scheinr', he had continued, "hängt mit dem ver- breit,eten lrrtum zusammen, daß Kultur, Zivilisation, Bildung und Kunst im Grunde identisch seien. Kunst aber ist ein isoliertes Phänomen, individuell unfruchtbar und monoman. Das bestimmt ihren Rang" ("f . p.95f . above ). National social-ism, already in 1933/34 in the process of making art a state-affair and of propagating an "official" German culture under the aegis of the Propaganda Ministry and its various subsidiaries (tfre establishment of a Re ichskulturkammer had already been decided upon in September 1933), was inimical to Bennrs conviction that art moves on a qualitatively different level from "culture", Art, for Benn, is an anomalous quality and does not tread the beaten and popular track which in his view rePresents "cul-ture". rt j-s thus in contradiction to National Socíalismrs course of supervis- ing and regulating cultural activities, and in accordance with his own pre-1933 views, that, Benn invokes the delimit- ation of art from culture in Lebensweq eines Intellek-

(16 ) Ernst Loewy: Literatur unterm Hakenkreuz. Das Dritte l- u n , Fischer Bucherei I , 2nd ed. (Frankfurt , rg6g), p.g 6. -r8o- tual-isten (r934 ) : Ich bin der Meinung, daß man einmal scharf zwischen zwei Erscheinungen unterscheiden muß, namlich der des Kunsttragers und der des Kult ur- träqers Kunst ist nicht Ku1tur, Kunst hat eine Seite nach der Bildung, der Erziehung, der Kultur, aber nur, weil sie eben das afles nicht ist, sondern das andere, eben Kunst. (rv 50) T.S. Eliot, thanks largely to the lessons tàught by totalitarian rágimes ,('7 ) irr=isted after the second war that "culture" cannot be consciously controlled or directed i.e. that "culture of which we are wholly conscious is never the whole of culture: Lhe effective culture is that which is directing the activities otr*1=. wt¡o are manipul- rr r() ating that which they call culture . \ ) "cr-,lture ", in short, "the one thing that we cannot deliberately,airn / I () is\ aLt' .'-'' ) The parallelism between Eliot's and Bennrs thinking on this point is obvious; Eliot himself recognised it in l-953 when he referred to Bennrs lecture Probleme der Lvrik (I95l-), endorsing the view expressed in it that the voice of the poet is that of "the poet talking to himself or to nobody"(2o) .rrA that the initial stages of literary creativity invol-ve an irrational, indefinabl-e impulse (r'ein dumpfer, schöpferischer Keim"r âs Eliot quotes Benn)(2I) which does not set out with any cl-ear intentions of a didactic nature or otherwise. It is precisely in this directj-on that Bennrs thoughts are moving seventeen years before Probleme der Lyrik when he writes in his Lebenswes eines Intellektualisten that the artist does not seek to influence popular opinion: that the "Kunstträger" l_s

(17 ) T.S. E1iot: N st of Cu]t re (london, I94 t pp 19' t 90, 11 t r23.

(re ¡ Ibid., p.1O7.

(le ) Ibid. , p. 19.

(zo ) T. S. Eliot: Ttre Three \/o ces of Poetrv , in T.S. Eliot: On Poetrv and Poets , Faber paper covered editions (tondon, 1957), p.9 7. See also Probleme der Lyrik: das absolute Gedicht, das Gedicht ohne Glauben, das Gedicht ohne Hoffnung, das Gedicht an niemanden gerichtet, das Gedicht aus Worten, die Sie faszinie- rend montieren. " (r 524) (2L) Ibid. Compare Probleme der Lvrik (r 5c,6). -IBI-

I'statistisch asozial, weiß kaum etwas von vor ihm und nach ihm, lebt nur seinem inneren Material ... Er ist ganz uninteressiert an Verbreitung, Flächenwirkung, Auf- nahmesteigerung, an Kultur". (rv 5f) Ueither Bennrs remarks in PEobleme der Lyrik in I95I nor E1iot's commentary on them in his essay The Three Voices of Poetrv were made with reference to politics. But both are relevant to the problem of artrs position in relation to politics and to Bennrs sj_tuation in f9fi/34: both Benn and E1iot attest, to speak with the latter in his NÔ tes rds the Definition of Culture , that culture will not "be brought iqto,existence by any activity of poJ-itical demagogues ".(22) - ond it would only be stating the obvious to indicate that Bennrs remark in Lebensweq eines lntellektualisten that the artist "lebt nur seinem inneren lulaterialrr is at vari-ance with the support of a "culture" dictated from above. The "Kunstträger" for Benn is a primary phenomenon; his particular form of "irrationalism" is irreducible: it contains an indefinable, spontaneous , ungovernable force which in its very nature precludes it from being brought into any kind of ideologicat order j it cannot be made to function within the curturar- political framework of the National socialist state. The latter can on no account be authoritative for the artist; he is aberrant and out o f order in any totalitarian system. Bennrs confession of faith in the autonomous "Kunst_ träger" is al-I the more unequivocaÌ when seen in the light of the previous sect j_on (rv 3O-49 ) of @ rntellektualisten. He adopts a more defiantly posi_tive approach to Expressionism than he had in Bekenntnis zum Expressionismus - this time with specific and detailed reference to his own earry work: to the "Rönne"-noveÌras and to his early poetry and dramati-c sketches. Benn is aware that his devotion to the work of his Expressionist , years "in der heutigen stunde etwas kompromittierendes und l. Bizarres bedeuten".(rv 31) Also as in Bekenntnis zum Expressionismus, Bennrs avowal of a continuity between his j-deas work in 1933/34 and his before 1933 involves a (ZZ¡ T.s. Elior: Notes towards ct Definition of Culture op. cit., p.19. t _IB2 - deviation from National Socialism and its understanding of artrs position in relation to the political establishment. Benn neither denies this disparity, nor does he try to attune his interpretations of his early work to the National (23\ Socia list viewpoint. \--l He lays down as a universal principle the artist's incompatibility with the h j-storical world a situation which had already been prefigured in Rönneis estrangement from the world of the "Herr" in the early prose worksr âs discussed in chapter I above; allud- ins to his novella oie Reise (f9f6¡, Benn writes in Lebens- v/ecr eines In llektualisten: Für das Leben und die Erkenntnis, die Geschichte und den Gedanken, gibt es in der abendländischen WeIt noch ein solches monistisches Prinzip? r'ür die Bewegung und den Geist, für die Reize und die Tiefe gibt es noch einen Zusammenschluß, eine Betastuñg, ein G1ück? Jâ, antwortet Rönne, aber weither, nichts Allgemeines, fremde, schwer zu ertragende, einsam zu erlebende Bezirke -: er erblickt die Kunst. (rv 37) The imaginative "Gegenglück" which Rönne had embraced in response to his estrangement from the intel-Iectual and social modalities of the "Herr", and which is the forerunner of Bennrs artistic theory, is described in Lebensweg e ines rntellektualiste n as "das Primäre". "An das Pri- märe", Benn writes, "können diese Dinge mit Zeitcharakter doch nicht anknüpfen, und wiederum die voraussetzungen für Historisches besaß er Inönne ] nach Erfahrung und Anlage nicht".(rv 33) The Benn of f934, therefore, in confessing himself to the Rönne of L9L6, reaffirms the principle already implicit in the early novellas namely that the artist does not approach historical reality on its own terms,

(23) rhe rirst section of Lebens\^req eines Intellektualisten entitled Die Erbmasse (rv 19-29), is couched in Nazi genealogj-caI terminology. But this is due to tactical considerations on Bennrs part, i.e. by the necessity to prove his "Aryan" ancestry. In a letter of 3O.9.34 fre writes to Ina Seidet that Börries von Münchhausen "öffentlich in einem offízíellen Brief an das Büro mich als Juden hingestellt hatte u. i-ch wegen meines ärztl-ichen Berufs natür1ich jg.den derartigèn Zweifel im Keime ersticken muß, j-ch wurde meine Praxis u damit meine ganze wirtschaftliche Existenz verlieren, wenn ich nicñt mein Ariertum IOO,/o zur Geltung brächte. " (e.r.S9) -rB3- that he cannot speak with or for it: art is "primär" l'tot only in the sense that it originates in those primordial, creative layers of Bennrs "Geologie des lchr', but also in the sense that it is not subject to causal and empirical laws, not classifiable in ideological terms and not assimilable to "diese Dinge mit Zeitcharakter'r, including the political- present. To this unambiguous affirmation of the "Rönne"-typ. as a deviant from established, sanctioned realities, Benn adds his bel-ief also Prefigured in his early work and reaffirmed in Bekenntnis zum ExÞress ronl-smus ("f.p.f73 above) - that the artist 1s a "bionegative" type: that "das Produktive, \do immer man es berührt, durchsetzt ist von Anomalien, Stigmatisierung€n, Paroxismen". (IV 52) Benn in Lebensweq eines Intellektualisten openly rejects the claim to exclusiveness of the Nazis' "health!", "po"itive" biological and cultural precepts and norms: there can be little doubt in which direction his sardonic remark is aimed that "Erkenntnis" does not come "vom samenunfal-t der zwanzigjährigen". (rv 53) Lebensweq eines I nte llektua listen covers the whol-e range of Bennts artistic theory - his "Geologie des rchrr, his idea of the creative type as a "bionegative" typ" and his "constructive" or "formal" principle in relation to the historical present. The problem of form is singled out for special attention in section 3. (rv 50-6I) rorm is fundamental to Bennrs conception of the autonomous I'K,-rnst- träger"; like his "ceologie des rchrr, it played a significant role in the attraction National Socialism held for hj-m. Neither principle, however, \^/as totally and unreservedly identified with politicsi as \,ve have noted, Benn repeatedly shielded his own conception of art from the hegemonial pretensions of Nazism. T,ebe nsv/e cf eines rntelÌek- tua listen goes so far as to express the fear that the kind of art given patronage under National Socialism contravenes that very 'ranti-naturalistic" and t'anti-liberalr' styte Benn had hoped would become the mark of the new Germany. The "Kulturträger", he writes, has close affinities wj-th the "Romanschriftstel-ler" (rv 5I), and it soon becomes clear that he is not referring only to novelists in tJle years before 1933, but to contemporary writing: i.e. to writers -IB4_ in the Third Reich in 1934. "rntellektualismus'r -, l're asserts, "ist innerhalb unseres Themas die kaltschnäuzige Behauptung, daß Balladen und historische Romane allein nicht das gesamte Gebiet der deutschen schicksalhaftigkeit umgreifen". (IV 57) He goes on to define "Intellektualis- mus" as the COnscioirs, forming, constructive or "anti- naturalistic" aspect of artistic creativeness: it is "d.as bewußte und wil-Ientliche E]ement, das formsetzende, ab- brechende, bändigende und bildende Element des Schöpfe- rischen". (lV 57) Benn unambiguously affirms the impulse of self-differentiation and the freedom from ideological strictures which the "construcÈive" principle had always entailed in his artistic theorY: Intellektualismus gehört nicht zu einem bestimmten politischen oder moralischen System, sondern ist anthropologischer Grundtrieb, Râssen- weisung. (rv 57f.) Thisr âs Benn is aware, means a divergence from Pre\/ailing artistic observances in L934; it also means a rejection of them, and Benn does not hesitate to say so: diese prima Epiker, Anekdotenschnurrer Ballardenbarden, notorische Nachspieler .. .'' getarnter neuer Staat, in Wirklichkeit die stupiden alten Herren -: Mittelstand aIs vamþirismus. Am liebsten möchten sie aIIesr. was überhaupt noch seine Anschauungç.n in prag- nante Formen bringt a1s fremdgÇammig:-èchrift- urr- rassisch, undeut=óh de.tnnzieren(24) . . . (24) It is very probable that these remarks allude to Bôrries von Munchhausen. Apart from his hobby as an amateur geneticist, von Munchhausen was also a "Balladeñbarde". The terms in which Benn refers to such writers j-n Lebensh/ecr eines I nte 1 lektua listen ("nei bürgerlicher Lebens.haltung und hinter ver- s ch los se nen Turen, Obstbaume vorm Fenster und Filz um die Telefonglocke ,..", rv 59t.¡ calt to mind his letter of L5 oct. L933 responding to Munchhausenrs attack on Expressj-onism: "wie können sie es über sich gewinnen, aus rhrem gepflegten, eleganLen Grandseigneur-Dasein, das Ihnen fur Ihr Leben und fur Ihre Kunst das Schick- sal zuwj-es, mit diesen Terrassenr ãuf denen Sie Tee trinken, mit diesen Ritten von Damiette zum Teich Mensaheh, Ihrem Park, Ihren Türmen, Ihren Taxushecken, die qualvoIle, zerrüttete, erbitterte Existenz meiner expressionistischen Generation mit diesen beleidigenden Ausdrücl

ste1ler, die ihrem WeltbiId spracl-rlich nicìrt gewachsen sind, nennt ma:r in Deutschland Seher D¿rs ist die Kunst cler bürgerlichen Ara, und wenn man das abgestanden findet, dann ist man ein rntellektualist. (rv 59t.¡ Lebensweq eines Intellektuali.sten marks a decisive point in Bennts mésalliance with the National Socialist ideology. He openly and explicitly distances himsel-f from the Nazi cultural scene. Vfhile Bekenntnis zum Expressj-onismus had in comparison been defensive and had preserved a degree of tactfulness in the vain hope that the régime would adopt a more conciliatory approach to Expressionism, Lebens- \^/eq eines InteIlektuaIj-sten suggests that Benn has abandoned aJ-I hope of any possible accord between his own understanding of art and that promulgated under National Social-ism; he has gone over, quite unmistakably, to the offensive. An interview he gave on 23 September 1934, shortly before the publication o f Lebenswecr eines nLe 1l-ektualisten , throws into sharp relief the unconformable position in which he found himself : "Der Deutscher', he says, êlluding to the Nazist rejection of Expressionism, "sieht die Form leider oft ars etwas Nebensächriches an"; but Bennts own position with regard to the question of form is clear and uncompromising: "fch bin ein konzessionsloser vertreter der Formal- kunst".(25) ,n. same 'ranti-liberaI" impulse in Bennrs cultural criticism which had facilitated his association of artistic with political forms is now directed against National Socialism. And since Bennrs artistic theory remains, as ever, j-ndissorubre from hj-s cul-tural criticisrn, the "anti-naturalistic" or "constructive" principle

(25) Nelly Ke iI: Menschen e t in Germania, 3 (2 9 p.5. The interview took place shortly before the appearance o f Lebensweo ei S Inte 1 1ek- tualisten in Bennrs volume Kunst u Macht which (he states in the intervj-ew) is due to appear rr in wenigen Tagen"; his letter of 3O Sept. to rnã- Seide 1 also mentj-ons that publication is imminent: see er.61. Already on 2f August Benn had announced in a 1etter to Ina Seide1 his inability to identify himself with the régime (er.58)., althou*gh without rêfererrc" to the specifically artistic problems he discusses in Lebens- weq eJ_nes Intellekt sten. -186 - continues to work in conjunction with his "anti-Iiberalism"; however, it is not now associated with but once and for all differentiated from National Socialism. Bennrs "antilíberale Funktion des Geistesr' (p.I42 above ) now includes an attack on what had exposed itself to him as only a pseudo "anti:1j-beralr' state: it is a "getarnter neuer Staat", as he calls it in the extract from Lebensweq eines Intellektualisten quoted above. Against this state and its culture Benn asserts his I'anti-naturalisticr', form-conscious artistic theory and, as in his Rede a uf Heinrich Mann in 193r (cf . p.75 above ), he aLl-ies the "constructive" principle to the rrantiideological" one: the artist, he writes, is a "Drillbohrer gegen naturalistisches Gewäsch und ideologischen Dilettantismus, Auflcrecher der Wahrheit, Einbrecher in die andere, die allgemeine, die unsichtbare We1t". (tv 6O) From Bennrs point of view, the prevailing literary and cultural climate has made no break in pri-nciple with the "bürgerliche jira " prior to 1933 ("notorische Nachspieler in Wirklichkeit die stupi-den alten Herren"): with an era, that is, which in Bennrs eyes had timited itself to purely rrnaturalistic" guide-Ii-nes, to the sterile empirical and social- surface of things - an era dominated by artistic dilettantism (lack of form-consciousness) and ín which the ideologically independent, autonomous artist was the odd-man-out just as in the National Socialist present; "mass"-culture continues to thrive in 1934. "Die Kunstr', Benn contends in Lebens we cf eines rntellektualisten, consists of "die Maßnahmen des Künstlers selbst, sich auszudrücken, also sein Konstruktives seine bewußte Anwendung von Prinzipi-en des Baus und des Ausdrucksrr (rv 54); true art, in other words, is I'nicht im geringsten das, was das bürgerliche Deutschland vom ersten Augenblick an bis heute verächtlich 'Artistik' nennt und nannte, sondern es war tief .r r€ligiös und sakramentalrr . (rv 54f . ) "eis heute nennt und nannte'r : that is until 1934, in the Nazi here and noh/. Benn raises to a uni-versal- and incontestable principle the derimitation of the "Kunst- träger" from the social and politicar worrd in obvious -IB7- contradiction to Nazi cultural policy. That the "bürger- Iiche Welt" from which the artist dissociates himself through his form-consciousness includes the National 'sociatist state becomes very clear in two laconic remarks Benn makes in his note-book in early December f934: "Form unterscheidet vom Gesindel", he notes - and leaves little doubt as to which "Gesindel" he means: " die Dummheit (26) - das ist das eigentliche völkische Ko1lekti.r". of course Benn could not afford to use such a tone in public; but Lebensweq eines Intellektualisten already expresses the same attitude to art - albeit in somewhat more civil language as the enLry in his note-book some two months Iater. Bennrs emphasis on the artistfs independence of "the" state in general, then, includes a decl-aration of independence from the current political order: rjnendlich klar ist die Linie der ablehnung, die von Plato bis ins zwanzigste Jahrhundert in der öffentlichkeit gegen den Kunstträger besteht; in einen geordneten Staat, in einen Staat, der auf eine untadelige Verfassung näft, gehört er nicht hinein der Kunsttrager ist aus seinem natürlichen Wesen heraus eine gesonderte Er- scheinung. (rv 51) The artist as a 'rgesonderte Erscheinung" in BennÌs sense means not only that the "Kunstträgert' cannot, but also that he will not accomodate himsetf to the state, much less speak for it; "Kunst" for Benn remains "Gegenkunst" and means that "der Kunstträger" in person irgendwo hervortreten oder mitreden nicht solIe, runter Menschen war er aÌs Mensch unmöglicht - seltsames Wort von Nietzsche ü¡er Heraklit das gitt für ihn".(rv 53) The "autonomous" principle underlying Bennrs artistic theory and his cultural criticism thus loses the appearance of the "Einordnung in das Bestehende" which according to Herbert Marcuse results from the self-annul-ment of the "innere Freiheit" peculiar to European culture since the Renaissance (cf . p.I56t. above ). Benn in Lebensweq e j-nes

(26) Benn-Nach1aßr op. cit. Benn does not provide the exact date. However, an entry dated 16.l-2.34 follows,very few pages later in the note-book. -1BB-

Inte llekt ualisten has decisivel y and conclusiveJ-y delimited the whole range of his artistic theory from tl.e established Nazi political-cu1turaI order. His assertion of artrs 'autonomy against the National Socialist state signifies at once a repudiation of Nazi cultural desiderata and a confession of faith in his own pre-f933 thinking and in the independent or I'antiideol-ogicalil conception of art it involved: und vielleicht ist mancher nicht damit ein- verstanden, mich bei dieser rätigkeit zrt sehen. (r'r,' 62)

The effect of Bennrs National Socialist episode on hj-s work after 1934'and the interpretations of this episode which his later work contains would be a worthwhile study in itself. The work of his "innere Emigrationil and its attitude to the cultural world during the remaining decade of the Third Reich is circumscribed i-n a remark he makes on 30 september 1934 in a letter to rna seidel: mir ist ja Abneigung aus gewissen Kreisen ganz a.ufrichtig lieber wie Zustimmung, ja mir sind uberhaupt die meisten Geistigen, die heute prominent sind, nur a1s cegner ertraglich. (8r.59f. ) This adds little to what Benn had already intimated in ben eines Intellektualisten i it is only stated in terms he could not afford to use in public. The emphasis in Bennrs work after 1934 on the "absoluteness" of art, his insistence in f935 for example that there are "zwei Ordnungen, eine physische und eine metaphysische" (lv 255) and that "Geist" is a "Todfeind der Geschichte" (rv 26L),(27) is not a new course decided upon

(27) Both quotations are from Sein und Werden, whj-ch is a review of Ju1ius Evola's book Erhebung wider die moderne I^Iel-t (19 35). The review contains a positive reference to Nat ional Socialism (w Z6O) which, however, was motiva ted by tactical considerations: "Habe allerdings sehr modifizieren müssen, Sie ver- stehn", Benn writes in a letter to Max Bense on 17.2.35 (8r.63). -IB9- as a resul-t of his experiences with historical reality j-n f933/34. His 'rpoIj-ticalrr episode confirmed his pre-I9j3 artistic theory and did not cause him to evolve a new one. The "Radardenkerts" insistence in 19492 Die Kausalität liegt in rhnen Die äußere Kai.rsalitàt schafft nichts heran (rr 26l-) had already been implicit in Rönners situation in Dj-e Eroberunq in I9I5 and quite explicit in the essay Das moderne rch of L92o (cf . p.25 above ) . Bennr s "Doppellebenr' , furthermore, is not a new discovery made after f934 asa result of his experiences in the political- world; as our discussion of the novella DÍe Eroberung in chapter I above indicated, Bennrs "Doppelleben" is prefigured in his early work. Peter de Mendelssohn is of another opinion: So wird aus dem, vor Einbruch der Macht nicht vorhandenen, aber jetzt a posteriori behaupteten Dualismus Schriftsteller-Arzt nach dem Einbruch der Macht die Dgppe Iform tHande Lnder-Denkender t hergeleitet. ( 28) If a careful reading of Bennrs "Rönne "-novel-l-as and early dramatic works do not confirm that the "Dualismus Schrift- steller-Arzt" was present in his thinking before 1933, then at least Das moderne lch (I92o), summa summarum (1926), Medizinis che Krise (1926) or (to cite the most obvious example ) Irrationa lismus und moderne Medizin ( 1931 ) make it plain beyond a doubt. But the continuity between Bennrs pre-1933 thinking and that after his break with National- socialism is not unprobrematical-. Peter uwe Hohendahl touches on an important (and tickl-ish ) point when he comrnents on an articre by Werner Mitch in the post-war yearbook Der Bund(29), ,,Da er fMirch ] nenns weltanschauung unzweideutig zu den

(28) Peter de Mendelssohn: Ve l_n- baren, op . ci-t., p.27 BC nnrs first explicit refe I ence to h is "Doppell-ebenrr is in a letter of 26.4.34 to Ina Se idel (st.57 possibly in connection with the ideol ogical "schulungsabendeil of the National Socia list Arztebund which he attended to avoid suspicion and to safeguard his medical practice. see also Doppelleben (TV 9tf. ). (29) werner Milch: rn ist t in Der o Bund. Jahrbuch (19 t P.90-1o9. -190-

geistigen Vorformen des Faschismus rechnete und zugleich auf der Kontinuität von Benns Denken insistierte", Hohen- dahl remarks, "war die ideologiekritische Frage nach dem - gesellschaftlichen Stellenwert von Benns späten Schriften (3o) nicht abzuweisen". ,rntik. Milch's article, the present study has attempted to show that Bennrs Wel-tanschauunq does not unambiguously belong to the "geÍstigen Vorformen des Faschism.rs": that his pre-1933 thinking contains impulses which would just as readily suggest antipathy to National Socialism as support for it. Nevertheless the "reiner Geistrl (rv 26l-) which, in f935, in Sein und werden, Benn detaches from the historical world and from the standpoint of which he had heaped contumely on the political world in the l-ate Weimar Republic - \^ras, as noted in chapter 3 above, not the politically immune quality that he liked to believe. The fact that it persists in his theoretical work after his experiences in the Nazi state makes Hohendahl-rs com¡nent relevant in the context of the present study too. Among a profusion of other problems, it would raise the question of the extent to which Benn adheres to his own theories: it is difficult, for example, to reconcile his theoretical pronouncements about artrs political abstemiousness with the extqemely "politicaI" (and, it should be added, courageous) act of writing, privately publishing and sending to friends and acquaintances his Zweiundzwanziq Gedichte (1943), some of which are anti-Nazi diatribes; perhaps one of the best- known is the poem Monolog (written 1941 ), which opens with a not-very-positive reference to Hitler: Den..Darm mit Rotz genährt, das Hirn mit f,ügen erwahlte Vo1ker Narren eines Clowns, in Späße, Sternelesen, Vogelzug den eigenen Unrat deutendJ Sklaven aus kalten ländern und aus gIühenden, immer mehr Sklavenr pngezieferschwere, hungernde, peitschenuberschwungene Haufen : dann schwillt das Eigene âfl¡ der eigene Flaum, des Propheten J :::'ii,1'27¿r'Tä,.T"""

(3o Peter Uvùe Hohendahl, ed. : Benn- Wirkunq wider Will-en, ¡ op. cit., p.56. (J1) The poem is qu:roted by Benn in Doppelleben (rv Io9- 112)., with a brief commentary on the circumstances l_n which he wrote the Zweiund z,watl io Gedichte (rv to9). -19r-

ln his t-heoretical work, however, especially after the collapse of the Third Reich in Ir45, Benn perseveres in his tendency to belittle the entire political sphere (albeit j-n a general, abstract sense, without attacking specific parties or persons on the contemporary scene ) from the sovereignly "autonomous" standpoint of art. The vicious circle he describes in Doppel-leben t for example: Politische Apathie wird verurteilt, aber politische Handlungen sind nur möglich unter Macht- und Expansionsaspekten (rv 85) is, in the mutual exclusiveness it assumes between political action and "Geist", as spurious as Bennrs attempt in 1933 to approach concrete political real-ities on metaphysical terms. But in one point, it should be added, he has modified his approach to politics since late Weimar: although artistic creativeness for Benn after f945 stil1 entails dissociation from historical processes, the polemical vehemence which between l-929 and 1933 naa thrown him into the turmoil of the political worl,d in spite of hj.s "autonomous" and "reserved" self has been quelled somewhat. Bennrs "Doppel- Ieben", although still involving a refusal to be defined in extra-artistic terms, has become more stable and bai-anced; the incompatibility between art and politics is described in terms of a Nebeneinander rather than of a Geqene inander. This is evident in the conciliatory tone of an undated prose fragment in his Nachlaß; temper, theme and Bennrs evident intention to use it in public ( it begins: "Aber vielleicht hört uns ein Jugendlicher zu " ) place the fragment in the post-f945 years: wir leben in einer ZeíL unversöhnlicher Gedanken, nicht zu vereinbarender Antithesen, Form und Korperinhalt, Kunst und Politik, Intellektualismus und Moral sind nicht zu vereinen, aber wir müssen im gleichen Raum leben, in der gleichen Stadt, im gleichen ZeíLa1ter, ja sogar in der gleichen Wahlzelle, - also man muß sich begegnen, nicht ausrotten, sondern dulden die Einsamkeit und das Abstrakte i-n die inneren Gesetze, aber die Verträglichkeit in das Nebeneinander - man muß das zu ertragen lernen (32 )

(32 ) Benn-Nachlaß op. cit. -1 a2-

Comparably in his Berliner Brief (.rury 1948) eenn call-s democracy "als staatsprinzip das beste" (w ZBz); "aber" , he cont:Lnues, "zum Produktiven gewendet absurdJ -."Ausdruck entsteht durch Gewaltakt in Isol-ation" (rv 282). This brings us back to the "nicht zu vereinbarende Anti- thesen" Benn mentions in his prose fragment. He aPpears to be aware that a tiberal-democratic order is necessary for the intellectual self-determination essential to meaningful artistic activity i.e. that a democratic order is the only one which can hope to guarantee the artist freedom from the "ästhetisches sing sing" (r 3lTz Kunst und Drittes Reich 1941) which had been the National Socialist state. But Bennr s continuing antithetical "either-or" approach means that as in the Weimar Republic - he fails to make a distinction between critical participation in and subjugation to the political world (.f. p.92 above ). "Das Abendlandrr, he writes in his Berliner Brief , rrgeht meiner Meinung nach gar nicht zugrunde an den totalitären Systemen oder den SS-Verbrechen, auch nj.cht an seiner materiellen Verarmung oder an den Gottwalds und Molotows, sondern an dem hündischen Kriechen seiner rntelligenz vor

den politischen Begriffen ".(lv 28tf. ) In concrete terms, this woul-d mean that Benn is un- willing to play a part in the furtherance of. political conditions on which his own sacrosant artistic autonomy depends. Theoretically, it makes him a parasite. What he would ín fact have sai-d and done (as distinct from his theoretical pronouncements ) in the face of a further total- j-tarian menace is a hypothetical question. - And to do fu1l justice to Benn and hj-s I'post-Naziil thinking would necessitate a detailed examination of his writings in the years of his "innere Emigrationrr and in the years after f945i it would also requi-re a consideration of the changed historicaL context. But in the perspective of the present study Bennrs attitude to politics during the Weimar Republic and in the initial period of the Third Reich one specific criticism must be made of his continuing practice of relegating politics to a subordinate status in the scal_e of values. His clai-m in the Berl-i-ner Brief that the social -r9 3- and political world is "peripheral" that "einer, der seine innere Grenze überschreitet und ins AJ-Igemeine möchte, unberufen, unexistentiell und peripher vor dieser stunde erscheint" (rv ZB4) - is not conducive to a self- critical retrospective view of his o\i\¡n experiences in the political arena between L929 and 1934. (rtris is not to claim'that the sol-e criterioñ for the quality of post-war German literature is its relative degree of Verqanqenheits- þewaltiggng.; v\¡ere this the case, Gottfried Bennrs work would doubtless have been consigned to the mothballs long since ) . Bennrs Doppelleben , his extensive attempt to render an account of his political interlude, tends to shrug off responsibility for failing to recognise the political realities of 1933 for what they were. He makes the tenuous claim that a "Begriff U?:."*inration" did not exist in Germany in 1933 (rv 69)(JJ) and the even more dubious remark that the Nazi régime had come to power "legafly" (fv TO). However, the most symptomatic and in our context the most relevant - part of Bennrs retrospective explication of his position in L933/34 is his comment about the party Programme: he had not read it; he knew j-t contained anti- semitic points - but: " wer nahm politische parteipro-

(3:¡ See Bennrs radio-discussion with Thilo Koch and peter de Mendelssohn on 22.3.I95O, in Thilo Koch: Gottfried Benn. Ein biographischer Essay mit neuen Texten. Briefen und einem Nachwort I97o t dtv. TOT, 2nd ed. (Munchen, L97o) , p.111-I25, especially p.1l-3-116, where de Mendelssohn comments on the question of emigration and its tradition in Europe and Germany. rn fairness to Benn, a remark of de Mendelssohnrs in another place should be corrected. He writes (with reference to Klaus Mannrs letter to Benn in 1933 an¿ the latterrs comments on it in Doppelleben): rrNirgends in seinem maßvol-len Brief wirft der junge Schriftsteller dem um so vieles Älteren vor, daß er nicht das Exil- gewätrlt habe. Dieses Argument taucht nicht auf, und es war auch gar nicht die damalige Alternative. Es ist des- halb bemerkenswert, daß Gottfried Benn sich in Iängeren eusführungen gerade gegen diesen, überhaupt nicht ér- hobenen Vorwurf verteidigt.rr p. de Mendelssohn: Das Verharren vor dem Unvereinbarenr op. cit., p.2j9f. The insinuation is that Benn consciously misinterpreted Klaus Mannrs letter. But his comments on emigration are made without reference to this l-etter - 194-

(34 gramme ernst? " ( rv 7r) ) His 1933 Antwort an die literarischen Emigranten, he says, was "weniger ein plädoyer für den NS. als für ganz etwas andefes, und jeLzt nähern wir uns dem Kernpunkt des Problems: nämlich für das Recht eines volkes, sich eine neue Lebensform zu geben". (rv Bo) Without a doubt, the disparity between National Socialism and Bennrs olvn ideas was a central factor in his position during 7933/34. But in-Ð.olElleben he overlooks what is the real "Kernpunkt" of the problem: his effort to see National Socialism for what it was not and the method of approaching politics which enabled him to make this effort in the first place. It was Bennrs refusal to do justice to the inescapably empirical phenomenon of history (including his unwillingness to take political programmes seriously) that enabled him to approach National Socialism from an essentially ahistorical standpoint and wil-fully to adapt it to his own cultural-critical and artistic requirements. He had, he writes j-n Doppelleben, sought in National Socialism an "Ausweg aus Rationalismus, Funktionalismus, zivilisato- rischer Erstarrung". (tv 78) Benn had reacted to the intellectual mass-stultification and the ideological stand- ardisation he considered a condition of the development of modern manls rational faculties by summarily disclaiming the entire soci'c-economic and political complex. His cultural criticism did deliver fruitful- impulses for his literary activities; but it was anything but constructive when viewed in the social and political frame of reference which moved Horkheimer and Adorno to the exhortation: die Aufklärung muß sich auf sj.ch selbst besinnen (cf. p.50 above )

Bennrs exclusive approach to art played a central role in making his relationship to National Socialism the ambivalent phenomenon we have described. The I'reactionary" quality which some critics find in artistic "autonomy", how-

(34; See also Bennrs remark in his note-book on 5 March 1933: "Das Proqram¡n einer neuen Bewegung kann man nie erfahren" (cf. p.I29 above). -L9'r ever., takes on another hue when one considers Bennrs case and his actual position in the National Socialist state: here he appears as something of a pox on the totalitarian body politic. On the other hand his adherence after i-945 to the same exclusj-ve view of art, his insj-stence that there are "nur noch zutei Typen ... : diejenigen, die handeln und hochwollen und diejenigen, die schweigend die Verwand- lung erwarten, die Geschichtlichen und die Tiefen, Ver- brecher und Mönche" (rv ZB4), hinders the recogni-tion that "die Tiefen" are not immune to hj-story and that "Mönche", too, not least by the sin of omj-ssion¡ câÍr get mixed up with "verbrecher". The truth of this is not invalidated by a theorem Benn had come round to as a result of his experiences wj-th Nazism in f933/34; in April 1936 fre comments in his note-book: ich kann den Staat nicht wichtig nehmen, jedenfalls nicht wichtiger als er sich mir èuf- ãrängt: so wichtig muß ich ihn ja nehmen. (35) Some of Bennrs Zweíundzwanziq Gedichte and essays such as

Züchtunq rr (194o) and Kunst unrl ittes Reich ( 194r ) indicate just how seriously Benn did take the Third Reich in the years after L934: but (and therers the rub) only after it had well and truly established itself i.e. when it was too late. Bennrs thinking was and remained of a kind which could not forfend reactionary politics. Seen from a political point of view, this is a minus point for Benn. But on the other hand his thinking was and remained of a kind which tended to incommode and was not assimil-able to a totalitarian order or readily convertible to propagandist abuse: an ingredient which is probably the sine gua non for al_l art worthy of the name. Benn was a mediocre-to-average burgher and a good writer. But that is the problemj it is the enigma concerning the relationship between political credibility and artistic rank. In art, Benn says in a I9D4 radio-talk entitled Altern a1s Problem für KünstIer, "geht es ja nicht um l,{ahrheit, sondern um Expression". (I 2TB)

(35 ) Benn-Nachlaß t op. cit. -Lg6-

The mutual exclusiveness between art and empirical truth remains as firmly a component of hi-s artistic personality as ever. But he cannot suppress an important question. The fact that he cannot supPress it suggest,s that the persists artist Bennr oo,4¡ttçr.how -intransigently he in drawing the line between himself and the economic, social and political human lot, just as surely oversteps this line j he cannot avoid the question of artrs accountability: "Aber, als letzte Frage", Benn asks, "wie verhäIt' es sich mit dieser Expression, die sich vor die Tiefe drängt ist Ausdruck schuld? Er könnte es seinr'. (r 5TB) This, of course, does not clear up but only compound the problem of artrs ethical and political location. At the same time, however, ít does betoken the precariousness and the ambiguity which Bennrs conception of art shares with the rest of what is popularly known as the "human conditionrr. Furthermore it bespeaks an intrinsÍcally unsmug disposition wi-thout which art does not come into existence and wíthout which it cannot convince. -Lg7 -

BIBLIOGRAPHY ï Pr rv Sources (I) Works. Interviews. Uncollated Texts

Gottfried Benn: mmel l-n vae t ed. Dieter Wellershoff Wiesbaden, 19 -19 6 1). vol. 1 Essavs, Reden, Vorttaqe (195e ) . voI. 2 Prosa und Szenen (1958). vol. ? @ voI. 4 :Au e und verm Schriften 19 1

Ta nd Fra Nachlafò (wiesbaden, f95

t l_s t in Die neue her t Lg2 , P. 1 Rundfunk-Gesprach zwischen Johannes R. Becher und Gottfried Benn um l-93o, in Max Nieder- mayer, ed.: Johannes R. Becher. Lvrik. Prosa, Dokumente. Eine Auswahl , Limes Nova 9 (wíes- baden, 1965 ), p .77-BL. eL ische e tfried Benn Adolf Frise, in Deutsche Zn nft- Woehen- zeituns fur PoIitik, Wirtschaft und Kultur lBerlin);3 June, 1934, p.19. - Unpublished manuscriPts, fragments, aphorisms and sketches in Bennrs Nachlaß: Holdings of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv (Marbach a. Neckar ) . verbal and written utterances (1932/33) recorded in the archives of the Preußische Akademie der Künste: in the Sammlunq Gott- fried Benn at the Akademie der Kunste, Berlin. Published for the most part in Inge Jens: schen links rechts. Die Geschichte der Sektion fur Dichtkunst dér Preußischen Akademie der Kunste dar- ãèsteIIt nach den ¡okumentel (München, l-}Tl-), f . ,289 ,29r. Hanns Johst, An di-e Schriftsteller aIler LanderJ Aufruf Gottfried Benn: der 'Union Nationaler Schriftstellerr, in völkischer Beobachter (aerlin), I March 1934. Nelly Keil: Menschen unserer Zeít: Der Dichter. Ein Intervi in Germania eerlin), 2 3, 23 september 19 34, p.5. -198-

Thilo Koch: E n Fer mit Gottfried e Sender Freies Berlin, May I95 in Th ilo Koch: Gottfried Benn. E in bioqraphischer Essa E Te ten Briefe Nachwort IQ7o. dtv. 7O7, 2nd ed. ( Munchen, l-97o) , p.1o5-110. thilo Koch, Pêter de Mendelssohn, Gottfried Benn: Eine Rundfunkdiskussion : Schriftsteller und Enriqration, Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (eerlin), 22 March I95o, in Thilo Koch: Gott- fried Benn. Ein bi ocrraphischer Essav , p.11I- r25.

Georg Rudolf Lind: Interview mit Gottfrie , i-n Die Tat (zü . Hara Id Steinhagen, ed. : Gottfried Benn. Texte aus dem Nach- 1aß (1q33-t9qq), in Jahrbuch,der deutschen schil-lerqesellschaft, I3, 1969, p.9B-1r4.

(2) Letters

Max Rychner, ed.: Gottfried Benn. Aussewäfrtte Briefe ( wr-e s- baden, I95T). A select list of letters not included in the above volume follows ; Letters to: Akademj-e der Künste (eerlin), Al-ain Bosquet, Ellinor Büller-Klinkowström,,lürgen Egge- brecht, Albert Ehrenstein, Julius Gescher, Leonharda Gescher, Max KreIl, Else Lasker- SchüIer, ..Wilhelm Lehmann, Alfred Rj-chard Meyer, Kathe von Porada, Pamel-a Regnier- Wedekind, Marguerite Schlüter, CarI Schmitt, Herwarth Walden, TiIIy Wedekind, Kurt Wolff, in Paul Raabe, Max Niedermayer, eds.: Gott- fried Benn: Den Traum alleine tragen. Neue Texte, Briefe, Dokumente (wiesbadeã , r966j. Paul Fechter, Gert Micha Simon, EriLz Sorge, Johannes Wey1, ín Max Nj-edermayer, Marguerite Schluter, eds.: Gottfried Benn. Lvrik und Prosa, Briefe und Dokumente. Eine Auswahl-, Limes-Paperback, 2nd ed. (Wiesbaden, l-97f).

Adolf ¡'risé, in Gottfried Benn: D e nete lch. Briefe aus den h dtv Munchen, 19 2 , PP. , 113. Oskar Loerke, in Inge Jens: Dichter zwischen rechts und links. ri fur Dichtkunst der Preußischen Akademie der Kunste da e ste 1lt e Munchen, r9Tr), p.Z -rgg-

Letters to: Börries von Münchhausen (extract from a longer, unpublished tetter), in Paul Raabe, ed. : Expre s s ionismu s. Der Kampf um eine lite e Beh/e , dtv Sonderreihe 4r tr Munchen, I -) t p. 3o5.

F . W. oe lze (with a foreword by the addressee ), in Merkur, l-5, 19 6t , p.438-454

I1 . W. Oelze, in..Edgar Lohner, ed . : Gottfried Benn, Dichter uber ihre Dichtungen-3-Gffi:- chen , 1969). F.W. Oe1ze, in Harald Steinhagen: Die sta- tisehen Gedichte von Got t-f ried Benn . Ilie V I tischen rik r¡erof f entl ichungen der deutschen S iIl-er- ge se l- l-s cha ft 28- (stutrgart, 1969).

Karl Page1 (with a foreword by the addressee ) , in Neue DeuLsche Heftq, I33, 1972, p . z6-6t . Egmont Seyerlen, in Bennrs Nachlaß: Holdings of the Deutsches LiLeraturarchiv (tvtarbach a. LTeckar ) . Nel-e Poul Soerensen, in N.P. Soerensen: Mein Vater Gottfried Benn (wiesbaden, f96o ) . Carl Werckshagen l-n 2. Folge (wiesbaden, 1958 ) p

II. Secondarv Literature on Benn

Marion Adams: Gottfried Bennrs Critique of Substance, Melbourne Monographs in Germanic Studies 2 (Assen , L969).

Beda Allemann: Gottfried Benn. Das Problem der Geschichte 5 opuscula 2 (efutting€n, f963). Alfred Andersch:Die Blindheit des Kunstwerks, in A. Andersch: Die Blindheit des Kunstwerks und andere Auf- satze, edition suhrkamp 133 (Frankfurt, 1965), p. 21-33. Eranz Schonauer und der literarische Instinkt in Der Auqenbl-ick, 3 , rg51, þ,63-64. Hans-Dieter BaIser: Das Problem des Nihilismus im werke Gott- fried Benns t Abhandlungen zvr Kunst-, Musik- und Literaturwissenscha ft 4J t 2nd ed. (Bonn, r97o). endré Banuls: Heinrich Mann et Gottfried Benn t in Etudes Germanj-sues , 26, I9TI, p.293-3oT. -200-

Max Bense: Ptolemaer und Mauretanier oder die theolo- ration Koln rlin , I95o).

e rP S e Benns fru t in Gottfried Benn: e s nd Reden (wiesbaden, L95o), p.7-4

O. Biha : Die Ideol-ogen des inburqertums und die Krise. Ein Beitraq zur Analvse des Faschi- sierunqsprozesses in der Literatur, in rnternationale Litera tur. Zentralorcran der internationalen vereinigung revolutionarer ? riftste lle t 2, 19 t p .108-11 Bodo Bleinagel: Àlrsolute Prosa. ihre I{r'¡¡'¡2.e n.|-ion und Rea a- n i cottfrie , Abhandlungen ztJ Kunst-, Musik- und Lite ra turwi s sens cha f t 6z (aonn , 1969). Gunter Blôcker: Gottfried Benn, in G. Blocker: Die neuen Wirklichke iten. Linien und Profile der modernen Literatur (eerlin, L957), p.149- 165. PauI Bockmann: Gottfried Benn und di e Sorac-he des Flxores- sionismus, in Hans Steffen, ed.: Der deutsche Expressionismus. Formen und Gestalten , Kleine vandenhoeck-Reihe 2oB s (cöttingen, 1965), p. 63-87. Herbert Braun: Wandl-unsen des kunstlerischen Ichs bei Gott- fried Benn. Untersuchungen z1J einer inneren Bi a ie des Dichters (oiss. , München, I9 Hanspeter Brode:Studien zu Gottfried Benn I. Mvtholoqie. Naturwissenschaft und schi t l- Ca und Inselmotj-ve, Gehj-rnbeschreibunq und Kulturkreislehre bei Benn, in Deutsche VierLeliahrsschrift fur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte , 46, L9Tz, n.7y4T

EIse Buddeberg: Gottfried Benn (Stuttgart, 1961 ) . Probleme um Gottfried Benn. Die Benn- tor""hunq IaãO-f96O, Sonderdruck aus Deutsche Viertel-iahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte (stuttgart, 1962). Studien zrtr lyrischen Sprache Gottfried Benns (oüsseldorf , 1964).

Astrid Claes: Der I rische S rachstil (oiss., KoIn, 1953). -20L-

Christoph Eykman: Die Funktion des Hässlichen in der Lyrik Georg HeYms. Georg Trakls und Gottfried Benns. Zur Krise der Wírklichkeitserfahrung im deutschen Expressionismus, Bonner Ar- beiten zur deutschen LiteraLur 11, 2nd ed. (eonn , L969). Per n. rf Benns rhaltnis zur Ge schichte , in C. Eyk- man: Geschich tsr¡essimismus in der deutschen sten Jahrhundert ( eern nchen, I97O p. 95-rr1. Albrecht Fabr:''-: Rede auf Gottfried Benn, in A. Fabri: Variationen. Essavs (wiesbaden, r95g) , p. 119-I33. Alex von Frankenberg: Umsonst?, in Die Wandlunq, I L946, p .2I3-2I5 . Horst îrítzz p. 383-4o2. Pierre Garnier: Gottfri-ed Benn (earis , 1959). Roger Goffín: Gottfried Benn et Ie National-socialisme, IN Revue Belqe de Philoloqie et drHistoire 38, L96o, p.795-BoB. Francis Golffing : A Note on Gottfried Benn in Poetrv, 50, 1952, p.2f I-Zf J Withelnr Grenzmann: Gottfried Benn. Der Nihil-ismus und die Form, in W Grenzmann: Dichtunq und Glaube. Probleme und Gestalten der deutschen Geclerr- wartsliteratur, 2nd ed. (eonn, 1952), p.70- 87. Reinhold Grimm: Bewusstsein a1s Verhänqnis. -über Cottfried Benns Weq in die Kunst , in R. Grimm, Wolf- Dieter Marsch,. eds. : Die Kunst im Schatten des Gottes. Fur und wider Gottfried Benn (eõtúinsen, 1962) , p.4o-84. Gottfried Benn. Die farbl-iche Chiffre in der Dichtuncr, Erlanger Beitrage zur. Sprach- und Kunsttissenschaft L, 2nd ed. (nürnbêrg, f962) Kritische Erqanzunqen zur Benn-Literatur, in R. Grimm: t e Literatur Gottingen, 19 3 , p.273-352.

Nichts - aber daruber G1asur t in Heinz Otto Burger, R€inhold Grimm: Evokation und Montaoe Drei Beitraqe zum Verstandnis moderner deutscher Lyrik , Schriften zvr Literatur I (cättTngen, rg6r), p. 28-43. Romane des Phanotvp, in R. Grimm: Strukturen P.74-94. -2o2-

El-mar HaIler: 1965).

Michael Hamburget 2 Gottfried Benn t IN M. Hamburger: Re,ason and Energv. Studies in German Literature (london, I95V), p.273-312.

Peter Hamm: Ein Brief über Gottfried Benn in Lvrische Blatter , 3, 1958, p:55-59. Gunter Hartung: t-llcer die deutsche faschistische Literatur l_n Weimarer Beiträqe, 14, Sonderheft 2h9 âe, p. r46-rj2. Werner Hegemann: Heinrich Mann? Hitler? Gottfried Benn? oder Goethe? in Das Tagebuch (eerlin), 11 ApriI I93I, p. l8o-588. Benns Geburtstagsrede und die Folqen , j-n Das Tagebuch, 2 5 April I93r ' p.674. Peter Heller: Eisgekühlter Expressionismus , in lvierkur, 9 , rg55, p.1o95-11oo. Clemens Heselhaus: Die rhvthmische Aus ruckswelt von Gott- fried Benn, in C. Heselhaus: der Moderne (nüsseldorf , 196I ' P.25 -2 Ã Wolfgang Heybey: ne r Mensr-lr vor der Zukunft. Fli e vercrle i- Gedichten Benns und Bertolt Brechts, in Die Padago- qische Provinz t 15, P.337-349. Bruno Hi-l-lebrand: tistik tthe r_e v Benn und Nietzsche Munchen, 19 Gottfried Benn im Spiecrel der Literatur. fIv .i r Q¡]¡ri f#+"mo I itis ^1^ e chs ^1^ '{ac se r_ rg4a, in L sensch fr buch, 5, L9 , P.3 I- Peter Uwe Hohendahl, ed and introd.: Benn - Wirkunq wider Wi1Ien. Dokumente z r Wirkuncrsqe s chichte Benns, I¡fi rkung der Literatur. Deutsche Autoren im Urteil j-hrer Kritiker 3 (Frank- furt , I}TI). Hohendahlrs book contains I24 (in the main, unabridged ) articles in four languages on Benn. The following is a list of those entries which are relevant in ttre context of the present study. !{e follow Hohendahl's arrangement of entries according to chronology and language. Date of appearance of tLre original is provided in brackets after each entry; further bi_ographical details are to be found in Hohendahl. Articl_es for which Hohen- dahl does not provide the full_ text, and which are especially rel-evant, are entered elsewhere in this bibliography. -203-

I{olfgang Martens: KI inische Lvrik ( 19t2 ) Hans von Weber: Gottfried Benn: rMorque und andere Gedichte' ( L9r2) . EmiI Faktor: F ittene r (rgrz). Rudolf Kurtz¡ Bei Geleqenheit Benns (1912) Ernst Stadler: rische I'1 t (1912). Hans Friedrich: Extract from a review of contemporary poetry in Janus, 1, I)IL/L?. Hanns Wegener: Gottfried Benn: 'Morque und andere Gedichtel (tgtz) . EIse Lasker-Schüter: Doktor Benn (1913). Ma rtin Sommerfeld: rDiesterwegl (1918 ) . Os kar Loerke: Neue Lyrik (1918). Carl Sternheim: Extract on Benn from Sternheim Prosa (vol. 6 of Wilhelm Emrich's edition of the cesamt- werk). (1918). Hans Franck: rDer Vermessungsdiriqentt (1920). Max KreI1: Gottfried Benn: Di-e cesarnmelten Schriften (r923). Rudolf RurLz: Gottfried Benn (]-924). Otto Flake: Gottfried Benn (f924). Max Herrmann-Neiße : Gottfried Benn (1925). t Ernst Lissauer: Benns rSPaltungr (l-926). oskar Loerke : Gottfried Benn: rspaltungr (1926).

Walter Petry : Gottfried Benn (1927 ) rGesammelte I Carl Einstein: Gottfri-ed Benns Gedichte t1927 ) Hermann Kasack; Notizen zu Gottfried Benns rGesam¡nelter Prosar f929). Max Herrmann-Neiße: Gottfried Benns Prosa (1929 ) . Klaus Mann: Gottfried Benns Prosa (1930). Ludwig Marcuse: Der Reaktionär in Anführunqsstrichen (193I). K1aus Mann: Extract from Kl. Mann: Auf der Suche nach einem weq (1931 ). Peter Hamecher: Dichter des lrrationalen (f932). Rudolf Arnhe j-m: Die F1ucht zu den Schachtel-halmen (1933). F.c. (author unknown): Politisch bioloqisch beqründet (193J). Friedrich Eisenlohr: Gottfried Benn: rDer neue Staat und die Intellektuef l-en' ( Ie33 ) Klaus lvrann: ottfried Benn. Oder: Di-e Geistes (1933). Erich Heller: Go{-,tfried Be s Hordenzauber (re33). Rudolf Muller: Gottfried Benn: rl)e neue Staat und die IntellektueIl-en' (1e33). -2C,4- ÉIohendahL (cont. ): Frank Maraun Inrwin GoeIz]: Auf dem Weq zum neuen Staat (Ie33). JuIius Lothar Schucking : Gottfried Benn: Zu seiner Schriften- reihe rDer neue Staat und die Intellektuellenl (re34).

Egon Vietta : Ause inandersetzurrs m j-t Benn ( 1934 ) . Rudolf Binding : Letter t_o_ pgrtho]d Widmann (1.9. 34 ) . Theodor Heuß: Kunst und Macht (1934). Frank Maraun ferwin Goelz]: Das Ethos der Form (1934). Max Bense: Gottfried Benn: 'Kunst und Machtr (1935). Frank Maraun furwin Goelz ] :Heroischer Nihi-lismus. Zum 50 Geburtstaqe Gottfried Benns (1e36). Anon .: Der Selbsterreqer (1936). Franke (Christian name unknown): Literatur. die wir ablehnen (extract on Benn from a longer article in the NSZ-Rheinfront ) . ( 1936 ) . Max Ry chner: Gottfried Benn. rNach dem Nihilismusl (L932). CarI Werckshagen: Gottfried Benn 60 .rahre (1946). Eugen Gurster: r ist Verzuteif lunq 19 I Peter Schmid: Hinweis auf Gottfried Benn_ (1947). KarI Korn: rDer Ptolemaerl (1949). Werner Helv/ig: Got t fried Be nn : rstatische Gedichte l (re4e). Egon Vietta: Kaf feehaus un{_q{.1-qke_it (l-949).

Ludwig Marcuse: Ein Brief an ottfried Benn ( 1950 ) Friedrich Sieburg: Ein Abendlànder ohne Anqst (1950)

Ernst Kreuder t Zur Lvrik Go tfried Benns ( 1950 ) oskar Jancke: Gottfried Benn (I95o). Wa1ter Mannzen: Die Stunde Gottfried Benns. Die Essavs (1950). Al-fred Andersch: eSt e nns. te ( rglo KarI Krolow: Juqendstil und Gottfried Benn (r952) Guenter Klingmann: fr dBe arist e Nihilismus 195 Leslie Meier Ieeter Rühmkorf]: Brief ü¡er Benn (1955). Hans Egon Holthusen: Rede auf G tfried Benn (1956). Ernst Nef: Poesie der Innerlichkeit (f906). Walter Muschg: schi rf e rg5 Johannes R. Becher: Extract on Benn from Becherrs book Das ' poetische Prinzip (L957). Reimar Ler.z: Auseinandersetzunq mit Gottfried Benn (1958) Thilo Koch: Mein Credo. Für Gottfrled Benn (1958). -2c5 -

Hohendahl (cont. ): Walter Jens: Benns Nachl-aß un{ É!!11q (1958). Ivo Frenzel-z Avantcrarde von Gestern (1958). Edga r Lohner: Muschg oder die moralische Betraqhtu¡4 d€@llgr(re5j/5e). Dieter wellershoff: Das Plus der ¡ ichtuncr. Grenzen der ideolocischen Kritik an Gottfried Benn (1961). Hans Magnus Enzensberger: tf c und vermischte Schriftenl 19 a Manfred Delling: Irrtum und Fehltritt des Gottfried Benn (Ie63). Bernt von Heiseler: Gottfried Benn (1965). Richard Exner: Jenseits von Sj-eq und Niederlaqe (1966). Edmond Vermeil: Gottfried Benn et les tendences anti-- intellectualistes du NationaÌsocialisme

François Erval: Gottfri-ed Benn ou 1a doubl-e vie des intellectuels al-lemands (L954). Eugene Jolas: Gottfried Benn (f927). Frank J. Warnke: An Exp¡gsSionistts Proqress ( tPrimal vision') (1960).

Curt Hohoff: Die Arzte des Expressionismus, J-n C . Hohoff: Schnittpunkte. Gesammelte Aufsätze ( stutt- sartl 1963l , pfizT

Ã in Wort und Wah rhe it 5 -)t

Brian Holbeche: The Development of Gottfried Bennrs Verse la12-la30 (oiss. , sydney , 196T). Hans Egon Holthusen: Das Schone und das hre in der Poesie Zur Ttreorie des Dich rischen bei sliot unrl Benn, in H.E. Holthusen: Das Schone und das re. Neue St n Literat Munchenr l 9 ' P.5- T. Helene Homeyer : Gottfried Benn und die Antike t in Zeitschrift fur deutsche Phi 1ol-oqie 79, 19 6O, p.113-124 Kurt Ihlenfeld: Deutsche Tradition. Vom Wachteramt des D j-chters , in Eckart , 1I, L9 35 , p.297 -3O4. Oskar Jancke: rach mit tfrie und Bertolt Brecht, in Neue deutsche Hefte o r95T, p.225-232. J'

Walter Jens: Sektion und Vocrelf us. Gottfried Benn- l_n W. Jens: t tur S t 6trr ed. (etutting€nr 19 2) , p.20 -225. -206-

Helmut Kaiser: n. Der We fried nns und Ernst Juncre rs (eerJ-in, 19 2). Hans Kaufmann: Got-t f ried Be nn s lr tlrakal , in H. Kaufmann: nd Wandlu en Literatur von Wedekind bis Feuchtwanqer leerri"/wej-mar, 1966), p. rB9-L97 . Walther KiIIY: Trakl nd Be in W. KilIy : Wandlungen des l-yrischen Bildes Kleine Vandenhoeck-Re ihe zz/zS (cöttinsen, 1956) , p. g5-r14.

Eìgon Erwin Kisch: E Erwin Kis : rfl Die neue Bucherscha , 7, L929' P.535-538. Johannes Klein: f ied Be l_n 4 T958, p.22 -2 Günther Klemm: cottfr Dichtung und Deutung 6 (wuppertat 19 Thilo Koch: Gottfried Benn. Ein bioqraphischer Essav, dLv 7oT, 2nA eo. (ttdfnchen, I97o). WiIli KohIer: Der Dichter cottfried Benn und der Adenauer- in Neues Deutschl-and 15 February

KarI Kraus: ed Heinrich Fischer Munchenr l 952) , p. 66-16. Horst Kruger: Gottfried Benns schopferischer Pessimismus in Eckart, 25, 1955/'56, p.433-435. Hans Kug1er: Künstler und Geschichte im Werk Gottfri-ed Benns, in H. Xügter: Weq und Weqlosiqkeit. Neun Essavs zur Geschi-chte der deutschen Literatur im zwanzígsten Jahrhundert ( He iaen- heim, I97O), p.77-ro4.

Frí|-z Landsberge r z Gottfried Benn in Die Weltbuhne t LJc? ' 1927, p.9oB-9oi,9 . Wa1ter Lennig: Gottfried Benn in Sel-bstzeuqnissen und BiId- dokumenten, rowohlts monographien 7I (nein- bek bei Hamburg, f962).

Alexander Lernet-Ho1enia : Àlr f.fcrrrl e rìlnaf ?.11 qroßen Zt¡tíec¡e- sprach. Offener Brief an Gottfri-ed Benn l-n Die neue Zeitunq, 228, 27/28 September 1952, p. 17.

HeImut Liede: Stil-tendenzen expressionistischer Prosa . Untersuchunqen zu Novellen von Alfred Döblin. Carl Sternheim, Kasimir Edschmid, Georq HeVm und Gottfried Benn (liss., Freiburg, 1960). -20'(-

Ferdinand Lion: Exkurs uber ttfried Benn 5 in Hermann Friedmann, Otto Mann, eds.: Deutsche itera r t ren und Ge sta lten (Heiaetberg, L9 I ' P,5I- Oskar Loerke: Taqebucher I9o3 L939, êd. Hermann Kasack

Edgar Lohner: Gottfried Benn und T.S. E1iot, in Neue deutsche Hefte, 3, f956, p. ]OO-1O7. Passion und In Benns Neuw d Berlin, L9 I Gerhard Loose: Die Àsthetik cottfried genns (Frankfurt, r96L). Joachim Maaß: Das lyrische Gedicht íU zeitqenossisqhqn rimatur. Ein Jahrbuch 5, 1934, p.139-I4o. Friedrich Märkel-: Gottfried Benn und der europäische uihilis- N, in Zeitwende - Die neue Furche, 29 , 1958, p. 3C,8-322.

Klaus l{ann: Gottfried Benn. Die Gêschichte einer Verirrunq t in Das Wort , 2, 9, 1937, p.35-42. Letter to Gottfried Benn, in Gottfried Benn: Doppelleben (wiesbaden, I95o), p.B4-BB. FriLz Martini: Gottfried Benn. Der Ptolemäer, in F. Martini: Das Waqnis der Sprache. Interpretationen deutscher Prosa von Nietzsche bis Benn

L.L Matthi-as: Erinnerunqen an Gottfried Benn, in Max Nj-edermayer, Marguerite Schluter, eds. : Gottfried Benn. Lvrik und Prosa. Briefe und Dokumente. Eine Auswahl, Limes-Paperback, 2nd ed. (wiesbaden, I97]-), p. 319-329. Hans Mayer: .sprechen und Verstummen der Dichter, in H. Maye t; Das Geschehen und das S chweiqen. , edition suhrkamp 342 Frankfurt, 19 a r P. 11-34. Peter de lvlendelssohn: Das Verharren vor dem Unvereinbaren Versuch uber Gottfried Benn, J-n P. de Mendels- sohn: S ie ( serlin, r-953) , p.2 -2 2. P. Michelsen: T)as l)ôt:Þellel¡en und di e asthetischen Anschau- n n ttfried Benns in Deutsche Viertel- 'iahrsschrift fur Li-teraturwissenschaft und ce iste sqe schichte 35, I96L, p.247-26I. Werner Milch: 24o, L935, p.257-2TI. -208 -

Werner Milch: U'lcer nachfaschistisches Denken, in Der Bund.

Ernst Nef: Das Werk Gottfried Benns (zürich, L95B). -Êckart Oehlen schlager : Provokatj-on und Vergeqenwartiqunq. Eine Studie zum Prosastil Gottfried Benns, Literatur und Reflexion 7 (Frankfurt, l-97L). Gerhart Pohl: Ü¡er aie Roll-e des" Schriftstellers in diese r ZeiL. Brief an Johannes R. Becher und E.E. Kisch, in Die neue Bucherschau, 7, 1929, p. 463-47o.

AIfred PüIlmann: Gottfried Be n Phan diese che Bestands- a n Arztliche Praxis, L2, 19 March 59-664.

Martin Raschke: Gesprache um Gottfried Benn 5 in Die Literatur, 36, 1933, p.8-r1. Rudolf ReIlau: t f Benns neuer Schrift, in Der Mittaq Dussel- dorf), 30 August 1933.

Paul Requadt ttf l-n Neophiloloqus '19 , P.50- Heinz Risse: PauI Cázanne r-rnd Gottfried Benn (Mrinchen, l-957 ) . Ludwig Rohner: Gottfried Benn: Dorische Wel_t, in L. Rohner: Essa Geschi und Asthetik eíner l-iterarischen Gattunct (weuwied/BerIin ), p. 259-28o. Nico Rost: o n Brief an n , in Groot Nederland, 19 ' P.352- I Joseph Roth: Dichter im 4fitten Reich, in Das neue Taqe- buch, 1, 1933, p.IT-L9. Max Rychner: Gottfried Benn. Züqe seiner di-chterischen We1t, in Neue Schwe izer Rundschau . lql+3 . p.148-18o.

Moderne Dichter als ce gner der Geschichte t il M. Rychner: Mitte satze zur Literatur ( Zurich, 19 ' P.57- D. B. Sands: Das UnaufLrorliche, in Monatshefte , 64, I, L972, p.2-I4. Oskar Schlemmer: t , in Tut Schl-emmer , ed.: Brie fe und Taqebücher (tuünchen, 5 , P. 15- 3r7. -209-

Albrecht Schöne :Úberdauernde Temporal-F,truktur. Gottfried Benn, in A. Schone: Sakularisation a1s s l_ t n e t 2nd ed. Gott j-ngen, L9 , p.22J-2 T

Franz Schonauer :Der Monolog eines Intellektua1j-sten 5 an Deutsche Rundschau, 86, t96o, p.B9o-894.

Der neue-Staat und die rntellektuellen .l_n F. Schonauer: Deutsche Literatur im Dritten Reich. Versuch einer Darstellunq in polemisch- didaktischer Absicht (O1ten und Freiburg/8t., I96L), p.38-6o. War Gottfried Benn ein Scharl-atan? , in Der .ugenb] ick.. 3, 1958, p. 45-52 . Kurt Schümann: Gottfried Benn. Eine Studie (Emsdetten, 1957 ) . KarI Schwedhelm:Das metaphvsische Abenteuer der Poesie. Der n t in Deutsche Rundschau, 77, I95I, p. 37- T Nele PouI Soerensen: Mein Vater ttfried Benn (Wiesbaden, r96o ) . Walter H. Sokel :The Writer in Extre is. Expressioni-sm in T\øentieth-Centurv German Literature (Stan- ford University Press, f959). Harald Steinhagen: l-lie stat ischen Ged i r.h von Gottfried Benn. Die Vollendunc¡ seine expressioni-stischen Lyrik, Veroffentlichungen der deutschen Schillergesellschaft 28 (stuttgart, f969). Joseph Strelka: Gottfried Benn. Der rboliker des Perspek- in J. Strel-ka : Rilke , Benn. Schon- er rne Wien nnover se1, 19 o), P'5 w. E. Suskind : Benn und Graf Keyserlinq uber das neue DeutEchland, in Die Literatur, 35, 1932/33, p .556 .

DEr E s nl_s S it in Die t P.r27. Frank Thiess: Der Staat und die Kunstler. Eine Antwort auf ? Gottfried Benn in Die litera ische welt t Jt 40, 1927, p.T-

He Imut IJhJ-ig : Gottfried Benn, Kopfe des @: - XX. Jahrhunderts 20 Egon Vietta: Die Gedichte Gottfried Benns. in Die i2. -2LO-

Jurgen P. Wallmann: t ied Ben t Genius der Deutschen lacker, L9 5) n itische :ro Semester- spieqel-, 9, O, 19 p.2I-22 . Jurgen P. WalImann, ed.: Absacre an G. Benn. Ein Brief von Prof. Dr. l,rÏ . Muschq t in Akropolis. Schul- zeituns des Burqgvmnasiums in Essen, )!5 L958, p.7. lAn F. C. IrüeiskoPf : Antwort auf eine twort'. Abrechnunq mit Gottfried BennJ, in Der Geqen-Anqriff (erague), 1, I Ju ne 1933. Ulrich Weisstein: Gottfried Benn and Expressiorlism, in The Folio, 19, f954, p.B9-toZ. Dieter Wellershoffz CottfrieÇ Benn. Phänotyp dieser Stunde. Eine Studie uber den Problemqehalt seines

Fieberkurve des deutschen Geistes. tlcer Gott- fried Benns Verhaltnis zur Zeitgeschichte, in Reinhold Grimm, Wolf-Dieter Marsch, eds.: Die Kunst im Schatten des GottÇs. Für und wider Gottfried Benn (cöttingen, 1962), p. rr-39. LuLz Weltmann: Nihitismus - reaktionär, in Die Literatur, 35, L932/33, p.31o. Ursula WirLzz e struk r rtf ied Benns. Ei e , Goppinger Arbeiten zvt Germanistik Gopp ingen, l-97l-).

Gunter Witschel:Haltunq Benns zrt Rausch und Rauschqift t l-n c. Witschel: Rausch und Rauschqift bei Baudelaire, Huxlev, Benn und Burrouqhs (eonn, 1968), p.65-9r. Friedrich WilheIm Wodtke: Die Antike i-m Werk Gottfried Benns (wiesbaden, 1963 ) . Gottfried Benn, Sammlung MeLzier 26, 2nd ed (Stuttgart, f97o). Friedrich WilheIm Wodtke, ed.: tfried Benn. ele Poems, Clarendon German Series (Oxford University Press , I97O), pp. 9-41, 1l-o-230 Joseph Wulf: Der Fa11 Gottfried Benn, in J. Wulf: Literatur und Dichtung im Dritten Rei-ch. Eine Dokumen- tation (critersloh, 1963), p.113-123. , rNun Bernhard ziegler lAlfred Kurella ] : ist dies Erbe zuende ... ', in Das Wort 2, 9, 1937, p.42-49.

WoIf Zucker: Gottfríed Benn oder oie Grenze der Literatur t l" Þi"._w.rt¡ürt" , 25; t9z9,g -zLI -

III. Background Reading lselect BibIi raphv )

Klaus Berger: Das Erbe des Expressionismus t in Das Wort t 3, 2' 1938, P.loo-1o2. Karl Dietrich Bracher: Die Auflösunq der Weimarer Republik. Eine r le falls in der De mokratie , Schriften des Instítuts fur Politische Wissenschaft 4 (stuttgartr/oüsse I- dorf, 1955). KarI Dietrich.Bracher, Wolfgang Sauer, Gerhard Schulz: Die nationa Isozia Ii stische Machterqre i qunq. tudien t des totali S sinDe Schriften des Instituts fur Politische wissenschaft 14 (xöfn/opladen, 1960) Hildegard Brenner: Die Kunstpolitik des Nationalsozialism , rowohlts deutsche enzykropäaie 16T/:-68 (nein- bek bei Hamburg, 1963).

Gordon A. Craig: Encracrement and Neutralitv in Weimar Ge rmãnv t in Walter Lacqueur, George L. Mosse, eds. Literature and Poli tics in the Twentieth Centurv, Journal of Contemporary History 5

Arthur Drews: S e Is zia Iis - in Nordische Stimmen t t 19 p.r72-

Andreas Flitner, ed.: Deutsches Geistesle tre nu ncl Nat iona I- S zialismus. E l_- vers l- ta m tv n Tu ingen, 19 )E He1ga Gallas: Literaturtheor nd riftste I I e r , Sammlung Luchterhand L9 Neuw IlerIin, r97r). Peter Gay: Weimar Culture. The Outsider as Insider (r,onaon, 1968) Sander L. Gilman, ed.: NS-T,iteraturtheor I e. Eine Dokrrme n- mit einer E Schnauber Schwerpunkte Germanistik (Frank- furt, I97L) Ronald Gray: Writers and PoI rics: 1918-1933 , in R. Gra The German Tra (cambridge university Press, 1965), p.46-77. neinhold Grimm and Jost Hermand, eds.: Die soqenannten Zwanziqer Jahre. First Wisconsin Vlorksh.op. Schriften zur Literatur 13 (eaa Homburg/ Berlin/zürich, L97o). -2r2-

AIasLair Hamilton : The Appea 1 of Fascism. A Studv of nte I S ISM I 4 London, I97I

Gunter Hartung: Ulce r die deutsch Literatur t l_ nWe t ,1 t L9 , PP. 7 542, 6 77-TO7, SonderhefL 2 /tg 6B p. L2I-L59 . Jost Hermand, ed.: See Reinhold Grimm above.

Walther Hofer, ed. : r Nati e Iq4ã, Fischer Bucherei 17 2 Frankfurt, f957 Inge Jens: der Preußischen A]

Eva Kolinsky: Encraqierter Express n ismu s . Pol itik uncl Literatur zwischen Weltkrieq und Weimarer Republik. Eine Analvse expressionistischer Ze itschriften (stuttgart, r97o). ceorg Kotowski, ed. : Historisches Lesebuch 3. l-914-1933, risctrér silchere i 8>Z (Frankfurt, 1968 ) . Ernst Loewy: Literatur unterm Hakenkreuz. Das Dri'tte Reich und seine Dichtunq. Eíne Dokumentation t rischef eìicherei i-o42 (rrankfurC, 1969) Georg Lukacs: Die Zerstörung der Vernunft (meuwied /eerLin, 1962). Ludwig Marcuse: Was Nietzsche a Nazi? in American Mercurvr 59, 252, December 1944, P.737-740. Armin Mohler: ie konservative Rev I ri l_n a , 2nd ed. Darmstadt, rg72

G. L. Mosse: Nazi Cu1ture. Intellectual, Cultural and Social Life in the Third Reich , Grossetrs universal Library IB7 (uew voit, f96B). Albrecht Schöne:tjl¡er Politische Lvrik im 20. Jahrhundert, Kleine Vandenhoeck-Reihe 228/229, 2nd ed. (cöttinsen, 1969). Kurt Sontheimer:Antidemokratisches Denken in der Weimarer Re blik. Die olitis n I Studienausgabe ( Munchen, 19

nietri-ch Strothmann: NTe1-'i crna'l sozi a I i el- i s, T,iterat-rr rr:ol i t i k - Ein Beitraq zur Publizistik im oritten Reich t Abhandlungen zur Kunst-, Musik- und Litera- turwissenschaft 13 (eonn , t)6o). -2r3-

Hans-Albert Walter: -l t voI. I, SammIu ng Luchterhand 7 (Darmstadt eu- wied, L9 72). itera Dich Dri- Joseph WuIf: ? Eine nta Guters Ioh, L9 J