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INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photo graph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the original text directly from the copy submitted. Thus, some dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from a computer printer. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyrighted material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are re produced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each oversize page is available as one exposure on a standard 35 mm slide or as a 17" x 23" black and white photographic print for an additional charge. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. 35 mm slides or 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. AccessingiiUM-I the World's Information since 1938 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA Order Number 8812304 Comrades, friends and companions: Utopian projections and social action in German literature for young people, 1926-1934 Springman, Luke, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1988 Copyright ©1988 by Springman, Luke. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 COMRADES, FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS: UTOPIAN PROJECTIONS AND SOCIAL ACTION IN GERMAN LITERATURE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 1926-1934 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Luke Springman, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1988 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Helen Fehervary Michael Jones e^cx Adviser Henry Schmidt Department of German Copyright by Luke Springman 1988 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I express sincere appreciation to my adviser, Prof. Helen Fehervary, who has guided and encouraged me throughout my work as a graduate student and doctoral candidate, and who inspired me to escape the limitations that I had imposed on myself. I also offer my gratitude to Prof. Michael Jones and Prof. Henry Schmidt for their theoretical insights and kind efforts as readers on my committee. I thank the Institut fUr Jugendbuchforschung and its director, Prof. Dr. Klaus Doderer, for graciously allowing me to conduct my research at their institution and counseling me while I was organizing my thesis. I am indebted in particular to Ingeborg Daube, Diplom-Bibliothekarin, and Dr. Bernd Dolle- Weinkauff for orienting me in the history and theory of German young people's literature. I am also grateful to the Fulbright Commission for supporting me financially during my year at the Institut. Finally, this dissertation would have been a much more agonizing and laborious task without the helpful comments, editorial assistance and emotional support of my friends Lydia Kegler, Gregory Schneider, and Amy Kepple. VITA May 11, 1956.............. Born - Indianapolis, Indiana 1979...................... B.A., Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 1981-1987................. Graduate studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1983...................... M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1985-1986................. Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship, Institut fur Jugendbuchforschung, Frankfurt am Main, Federal Republic of Germany 1987-88................... Visiting Assistant Professor of German, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana PUBLICATIONS Translation: Burkhardt Lindner. Hallucinatory Realism': Peter Weiss' Aesthetics of Resistance — Notebooks and the Death Zones of Art." New German Critique, 31 (1983), 127- 57. Translation: Sigrid Weigel. '"Woman Begins Relating to Her self': Contemporary German Woman's Literature" New German Critique, 30 (1983), 53-95. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: German Literature TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......................................... ii VITA...................................................... iii INTRODUCTION: "BETTER REALITIES" IN GERMAN LITERATURE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 1926-1934.................................. 1 Notes.................................................... 27 CHAPTER PAGE I. REALISM, CULTURAL VALUES AND COMMUNICATION IN FOUR FICTIONAL CONCEPTIONS OF GROUPS: EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE, PER HITLERJUNGE QUEX, KAI AUS PER KISTE AND DAS ROTE U ........................................ 33 A Model Child: Erich Kastner's Emil und die Detektive......................... 33 The Apotheosis of a Hitler Youth: Karl Aloys Schenzinger's Per Hitlerjunge Quex........................... 55 From Street Youth to Advertising Magnate: Wolf Durian's Kai aus der Kiste............... 68 An Urban Adventure-Mystery: Wilhelm Matthiepen's Das Rote U ............... 82 Conclusion: Cultural Values and Communicative Action..................... 106 Notes.......................................... 116 II. THE STRUGGLE FOR A "HIGHER CULTURE": THE BOARDING SCHOOL AS THE MODEL FOR SOCIAL REFORM IN WORKS BY ERICH KASTNER, WILHELM SPEYER AND ERICH EBERMAYER.................................... 123 Demarcations of Justice: Erich Kastner's Das flieqende Klassenzimmer.................. 123 The Heritage of Blood, Beauty and Nature: Wilhelm Speyer's Der Kampf der Tertia and Die goldene Horde......................... 156 Charisma and the Covenant: Erich Ebermayer's Kampf um Odilienberg...... 186 iv Conclusion: Sexuality and Communication in a "Higher Culture" ................... 219 Notes................................... 226 III. COMMUNICATIVE ACTION AND THE INSTITUTION OF FRIENDSHIP: ERICH KASTNER'S PUNKTCHEN UND ANTON. ALEX WEDDING'S EDE UND UNKU AND LISA TETZNER'S ERWIN UND PAUL.................................... 240 Friendship as a Recovery of Purpose and Freedom from Modern Social Mechanisms: Erich Kastner's Punktchen und Anton.......... 240 Three Friends and their Families as an Ideological Triad: Alex Wedding's Ede und Unku.................. 262 Friendship as a Corrective to the Indifference of Social Mechanisms: Lisa Tetzner's Erwin und Paul................ 282 Conclusion: Enlightenment and Modernist Depictions of Friendship as Social Education.............................. 305 Notes.......................................... 320 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY................................... 327 v INTRODUCTION: "BETTER REALITIES" IN GERMAN LITERATURE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 1926-1934 The Weimar Republic was the critical juncture in modern German history; it was both the aftermath of a devastated imperial dream and the prelude to fascism. Yet the Weimar legacy of parliamentary government, of the workers' move ment, of corporatism1 and of cultural modernity lives on in the political, economic and intellectual institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Repub lic. Indeed, the present study on German young people's literature is indebted to the innovations in the aesthetic and critical theories of this period. In their time, however, these new cultural streams flowed against a power ful current of nineteenth-century traditions, a clash that affected the young people's book industry. In the later years of the Weimar Republic, "modern" literature for German youth reflected critically on the institutions of family, school and friendships, departing from the convention of presenting an ordered, secure world. New approaches to writing for young people emerged in the 1920s for a number of reasons: the influence of "Neue Sachlichkeit," political 1 2 indoctrination, efforts in the educational establishment to make literature more relevant to everyday life, the "cult of youth," and the widespread sentiment that the Weimar Repub lic was a failure. Differing systems of belief and views of the world were represented in this new German literature for young people, which increasingly assumed the pedagogical goal of changing the world rather than conforming to it, of improving reality for the future. Historical interest in the ideological conflicts of the Weimar Republic, as revealed in young people's literature, bears on attitudes toward youth today: Since the 1960s, the heritage of this new critical or "realistic" literature has reemerged in Germany, affecting how books are written for children and adolescents.3 In the decades spanning the late Weimar period through the 1960s, Erich Kastner overshadows all other authors in the genre of German novels for young people. Through.the translations and the many adaptations of his books to film and stage, Kastner has established a worldwide reputation as the "dean of German writers for children."3 Moreover, scholarly interest in his work and his influence on the children's book industry in Germany continue to surpass all others. Therefore, a study of the modern German novel for young people must confront the phenomenon of Kastner. 3 Historical works on young people's literature designate Erich Kastner's best known novels as "realistic." He pre faced his three early "milieu novels," Emil und die Detek tive (1929), Punktchen und Anton (1931) and Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (1934), with assertions that his characters spoke and acted as young people do, they live in present day Germany and they are not spared the troubles that young people suffer in real life. Kastner undeniably responded to issues affecting