The Significance of France in the Writings of Hbinrich Mann
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FRANCE IN THE WRITINGS OF HBINRICH MANN A Dissertation Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By ELIZABETH DQSRSCHUK O'BEAR, A.3. , A.M. The Ohio State University 1953 Approved by Adviser ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I & d greatly Indebted to Professor Bernhard Blume* Chairman* Department of German, The Ohio State University, for hie assistance in the ^reparation and writing of this dissertation. 1 i i TAB IS OF CONTENTS Chanter I INTRODUCTION ............................ 1 II EARLY CONFLICTS ......................... 17 Part I, Rejection of Germany......... 17 Part II, Flight to Italy ............. 25 Part III, The Problem of the Artist 40 Part IV, Transition .................. 51 III AT HOIS IN FRANCE ....................... 60 Part I, The T\rrn to France ...... 60 Part II, French Ideal* ............ 6 8 Part HI, French Ideals Exemplified in Literature and Politics....... 9® Part Ivt French History in Two Plays ... 118 IV THE EMPIRE AND THE DEATH OF REASON ...... 13** V FRANCE AND GERMANY BETWEEN TWO W A R S ...... l6 l VI KINO HENRI IV CCF F R A N C E ................. 187 VII DER A T E M ................................ 222 VIII REFUTATION IN F R A N C E .................... 23° CONCLUSION.............................. 265 BIBLIOGRAPHY............. 276 AUTOBIOGRAPHY............................ 291 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Heinrich Mann la a Gernan writer whose Inspiration appears to have come largely from outsiuti his native land. Characters and settings in early works of this author are preponderantly Italian, Moreover, the thought and manner have marked resemblance to those of the Italian aesthete and Renaissance— worshipper, Gabriele d'Annunzio, Even in the first books, however, influences from Prance can be traced, and by the time Mann had reached thirty—five years of age, his interest had shifted completely to that other Latin country. Prom then until the time of his death, be consistently upheld French history and French writers as models for life and literature. For a German writer to be attracted to Italy ic nothing new in German letters. So was Mann's illustrious predecessor, Goethe, to mention only one name, Neither is It surprising to find a German making a close study of French literature, for the history of German literature is also partly the history of French literature. Furthermore, many among Mann's generation of writers in Germany were at odds with their own nation and commented, in one way or another, on the corruptness of the society to which they belonged. Biit the striking tni.ig about Heinrich Mann is the coicple teness with which he rejected his own country end the vehemence of his admiration for another. It Beene logitimate to ask why so many characters in his books are French* why so many essays are devoted to praising French life and literature at the expense of iJenaany; and why he wished to introduce into Germany the social novel In the French style. The nature of Mann'o French interert and its origins form the subject of this ntudy. Jiiven tne earliest criticism of Heinrich Mann1!! work asks whether ne can ho considered a "iJerman11 writer. Throughout tne years, as his work took on more and more the character of e reproach to the German people, criticism could not leave out of account hi« anti-national viewpoint. -Sgfore 1915* criticism was largely confined to scattered book reviews. A few longer articles described the stories and novels that had appeared before that time and attempted some evaluation of them. Between the beginning of the first World ■;ar and the advent of the Hitler regime, Mann assumed more general importance, both as a writer and as e personal figure. Consequently, every new book that appeared occasioned a fairly 1 surge number of reviews* and from time to time more penetrating discussions of his work appeared In the newspapers end literary magazines. A number of the latter were written on the occasion cf Mann's sixtieth birtnday in 1931* '-Inhere also appeared at this time a book on Heinrich Harm by Walter SchrBder.^ A 2 monograph by Hermann Sinsneimer had previously appeared in 1921, The monograph published by Karl Lemke in 19^6 ie of almost no r> value, since it is no more than an eulogy,"’ The recent book by Herbert Jhering (19^1) is a more comprehensive account of MennU L, life and work, but it also is largely eulogistic. There are. In addition, chapters on Mann in most of the histories of modern German literature. Some of the early articles already made the charge that Mann's v;ork lacked "soul" and feeling . and that the lack of 6 depth and warmth in his writing was "un—German". His Latin 7 affinities were observed from the beginning. Even his virtues, those of plasticity and the ability to impart color and voluptousness to the German language, were said to be unusual 8 9 in a German writer. Mann was early admired as an aesthete , whose recurring theme Is the variously expressed contrast between 10 11 life and art, between the beautiful and the commonplace, 12 or between the ideal and the real. At the seme time, the critics deplored his divorcement from reality, which was 13 manifested by mannerism and csrlcature. The classic indictment of Mann's “un-Germanism" was made in 1919 by his brother Thomas, in Die Betracht-ungen eineb Un— polltlschep. ^ This was written as a reply to Heinrich Mann's anti-German and pro-drench pronouncenents, In some ways, despite its time-induced 'bitterness, this book Btili gives more insight into ileinrich Mann's problematical nature than anything that has been written. In defining what is "German", Thomas Mann identifies himself with the mermans and their undemocratic, cultural, musical, romantic, "soulful” character, as opposed to the French and their belief in politics, democracy, civilization, literery rhetoric, sociology, and aestheticism* The charge that Mann's espousal of foreign ways arises out of a longing for voluptuousness, a lack of discipline, and the need for producing an effect is a serious one. If Thomas Mann's statements twelve years later, on the occasion of his brother Heinrich*3 birthday celebration, correct and soften the earlier ones, they nevertheless emphasize Heinrich's "Latin" point of view and use of language. The difference is that now Thomas Mann has himself become "European" in his outlook and that he sees no reason why the "French" aspects of his brother's work should not also one day be considered "German", Thomas Mann now calls the very violence of his older brother's rejection of Germany an example of the German tendency to contain within onevelf 1*5 opposite extremes and to carry self-examination to the ultimate, ~ Gy 1925, Thomas Mann was approaching his brother's point of view; but other writers, like the author of a review of Per Kppf in that year, continued to wiBh that Heinrich Mann would become "unpolitical". This critic, Erich Dfirr, also raised the question of the importance to Mann of "success" and the failure of the 16 intellectual to achieve it, I>dlrr observes that, although Mann is ostensibly depicting society and reality, he is actually depicting only himself and the failure to make his "reason11 count. Twenty-five years later, Friedrich Sieburg, writing for the magazine Gegenwart. at the tine of Mann's death, takes the view that Mann's eternal chastisement of his country men, while perhaps justified, has in reality been only a hindrance to the Germans, since no one can live adequately when continually doubting himself. Sieburg too makes the point that the center of Mann's problem is the Buffering of the intellectual and that Mann would have ureferred to remain a pure artist. 17 It was as artist that Mann first attracted attention in the literary world. The chanter devoted to him in Otto Lessing's Masters ip Modern German Literature, published in 1912, is largely confined to a diecussion of the aesthetic aspects of 18 Mann's Novellan. Gottfried Senn, in the "Rede &uf Heinrich M^nn", a speech made to the Schutaverband Leutscher Schriftsteller in 1931* pays his respects to the meaning which Mann's work, viewed as that of the pure artist, had for many of his generation, -Benn considers Mann's contribution to have been an affirmation of the absolute value of the artist in the fact of the disintegration of all other values. 19 As a further witness to the artistic impact of Mann's early writing, Renn later attached to the published speech an excerpt from a letter by Rilke, written in 190?, Rilke at that time thought Mann's artistry excelled even thot of 1’laubert. In the small amount of existing criticism on Heinrich Mann, an Important subject is the ever—recurring theme of the cleft between the real and the ideal, or between society and the inte 11 actual or the artist. j*n example of a negative attitude toward Mann's treatment of this Bubject is an article by Anselma 21 Heine, writing for Das Diterorische Echo in 1917. She criticizes Mann's admiration for strength and revolution because it grows out of a decadent weakness that longs for its opposite. It is her opinion that imagination does not have much to do with producing real action. A different formulation of the Base thesis, which is important in a consideration of the attraction which foreign cultures have for Mann, is the repeated statement that hiB entire productivity arises from disgust and dis- 22 j llusioilment with his bourgeois environment. The literary historians are mainly concerned with Mann's early aesthetic period, with its depiction of exotic, amoral, powerful personalities.