The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts INTOXICATION, REJUVENATION, COMMUNITY: LITERARY EXPRESSIONISTS AND RADICAL WEIMAR CONSERVATIVES IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY GERMANY A Dissertation in German by Michael C. Wallo 2010 Michael C. Wallo Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2010 ii The dissertation of Michal Wallo was reviewed and approved* by the following: Daniel Leonhard Purdy Associate Professor of German Graduate Program Officer for the Department of German Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Sophie De Schaepdrijver Associate Professor of History Martina Kolb Assistant Professor of German and Comparative Literature Thomas Oliver Beebee Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and German *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT This dissertation compares and contrasts postwar literary Expressionists and radical conservative writers of the Weimar Republic. Both Expressionists and radical Weimar conservatives believed that the world engendered chaos, pain, fear, horror, fragmentation, and other emotions that could shock an individual into abstraction, or into a psychologically distant state from normal perceptions and the order of the world. Related to abstraction and littered throughout Expressionist and Weimar right-wingers‟ works are the terms “intoxication,” “Tat,” („activity/action”) “Leben” (“life”), and “Aufbruch” (“break through/departure”). These terms entail people‟s uprooting from their submissive, everyday existences making them more active individuals who seek discharge for their actions. To designate a person‟s acceptance of their new ideas, Expressionists and Weimar‟s ultraconservatives use the term Wandlung, or other words such as Verwandlung (“metamorphosis”/”change”), Erneuerung (“rejuvenation”), Wiedergeburt (“rebirth”), and the “New Human Being,” which stand for everything that Expressionists and radical Weimar conservatives viewed as positive. After the rebirth of the human being, an all-encompassing rebirth of humans will lead to the Gemeinschaft or “community.” Despite being both groups‟ teleologies, the birth of the “New Human Being” and ultimately the “Gemeinschaft” are methods to propagate their own very different ideologies. In other words, they are structures or significations that are conceptualized through more important ideas or content. Late Expressionism consisted for the most part of either leftist or apolitical pacifists who often fought in the German Revolution of 1918/1919, who pleaded for a loving and more humane world, and who preached a European or international fraternity of human beings. Conversely, radical Weimar conservatives praised the First World War, reprobated the Revolution of 1918/1919, celebrated the German nation, and demanded that a dictatorship seize power in Germany. Both Expressionists and radical Weimar conservatives used these signifiers with radically different content to disseminate their ideologies because they best appealed to the commonality of feelings, experiences, and sufferings of Germans during this time period. Since the National Socialists used many of the same constructs as late Expressionists and radical conservatives of the Weimar Republic in promoting their fascist ideology, this dissertation helps explain the etiology of National Socialism among a disillusioned German populace. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements v INTRODUCTION 1. Looking Back towards the Future 1 2. Signs of the Times: Profiting from the German Crises from 1914-1933 and Similarities between Expressionists and Extreme Conservatives 21 PART I. GROUPS 3. Literary Expressionism: Peace and Internationalism within the Utopian Community 71 4. Radical Weimar Conservatives: Violence and Nationalism within the Utopian Community 150 PART II. INDIVIDUAL WRITERS 5. Georg Kaiser‟s Rejuvenation of Humanity as Social Transformation 228 6. Political and Social Transformation: Ernst Jünger‟s Totalitarian Ethos 295 CONCLUSION 7. Precursors to National Socialism? And Faults, Failures, and Successes 351 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I must express my great gratitude to the German Academic Exchange Service, the Philipps-University in Marburg, Germany, and the Research and Graduate Studies Office at the Pennsylvania State University for their financial support of this dissertation. I would also like to thank University Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign and Sharon Romaniello at the Pennsylvania State University‟s Worthington campus library for help in securing numerous tomes and articles. Special thanks are also in order for the many teachers and professors who have been part of my education. They all have contributed to this dissertation on one way or another. I would especially like to single out Professor Arthur McCardle at Gettysburg College, Professor Ernst Schürer, and my committee members Dr. Sophie De Schaepdrijver, Dr. Martina Kolb, and Professor Thomas Beebee at the Pennsylvania State University. In particular, I would like to express gratitude to Dr. Daniel Purdy for patiently reading through the chapters of this work. In addition, I am grateful for my grandmother‟s influence on my life and her encouraging me to become a “doctor.” I would especially like to thank my mother whose patience, support, and encouragement ─ “Get your paper done already!” ─ has been truly amazing during the writing of this dissertation. I would like to thank Olesia for her moral support, careful readings, and love during its writing. Foremost, I would like to thank God for giving me guidance, patience, and strength. Without you, this dissertation would have not been possible. 1 Chapter 1 Looking Back towards the Future Many scholars have written numerous tomes on National Socialism, and despite their contributive efforts, humanity still does not have a comprehensive picture about the movement‟s growth and appeal among the German populace.1 The real losers of this deficiency are current humanity because the horrors that occurred during National Socialist rule still occur today in various countries and lands. Much money is consumed, effort is wasted, and, even considerably worse, countless lives are lost when racist governments and leaders reach power and engage in genocide. Other nations, rightly wary of war, violence, and even more loss of life, eschew any military action to stop these horrors. This inaction is difficult to condemn because their thinking – violence does often breed more violence – is not necessarily illogical and results from morally honorable intentions; however, a profitable alternative to military intervention would be to prevent these atrocities through disparate nonviolent measures before they ever begin. To undertake this task, the sources of these racist governments must first be exposed so that we can begin to recognize and stop these governments‟ emergence and the bigots who support and lead them.2 With this goal in mind, this volume strives to bring us closer to understanding the origins and growth of German fascism in the hopes that we 1 The plethora of explanations – Marxist interpretations, individual actors, or monocausal explanations such as constitutional weakness, sociology, culture, science, intellectual theories, and even psychology or the occult (Bracher, “Power Vacuum” 190) – indicate the tremendous progress and, yet, the work that is still to be completed. Each explanation brings us closer to the truth, but is far from bringing complete understanding. 2 The origins of racist, dictatorial governments are much more complex than to proscribe them all one uniform development; however, careful studies can expose several common factors that help spawn many of these regimes as Hannah Arendt has tried in her comparison and contrast between National Socialist and Soviet totalitarianism in her still seminal The Origins of Totalitarianism. Other studies are Friedrich and Brzezinski‟s Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy and Perlmutter‟s Modern Authoritarianism: A Comparative Analysis. 2 can prevent similar recurrences of the crimes that transpired from 1933 until 1945. Although the “hopes” may be lofty, they are attainable in my opinion. Towards realizing this end, but in no way claiming to offer the final word on the development of pre-1933 National Socialism, this dissertation will examine two antithetical and yet similar literary groups – late Expressionists and extreme conservatives – writing in early twentieth- century Germany.3 At first glance, postwar literary Expressionists and radical conservative writers of the Weimar Republic seem to have little in common. Late Expressionism, which lasted approximately from 1918 until 1925, consisted for the most part of either leftist or apolitical pacifists who often fought for workers‟ rights such as in the German Revolution of 1918/1919, pleaded for a loving and more humane world, and preached a European or international fraternity of human beings. 4 On the other hand, radical Weimar conservatives, who were middling authors, academics, journalists, politicians, and philosophers and wrote from the end of the First World War until 1933, praised the First World War, reprobated the Revolution of 1918/1919, celebrated the German nation, and demanded that a dictatorship seize power in Germany.5 Despite these drastic differences, both groups advocated similarities such as an extreme vitality revolving 3 Obviously, this study cannot give a comprehensive examination of the growth of National