GermanExilliteratur (German pronunciation:[ɛˈksiːl.lɪtəʁaˌtuːɐ̯],exile literature) is the name for works ofGerman literature written in theGerman diaspora byrefugee authors who fled fromNazi Germany,Nazi Austria, and the occupied territories between 1933 and 1945. Thesedissident writers, poets and artists, many of whom were ofJewish ancestry or heldanti-Nazi beliefs, fled into exile in 1933 after theNazi Party came to power in Germany and after Nazi GermanyannexedAustria by theAnschluss in 1938, abolished thefreedom of press, and started to prosecute authors andban works.
The exodus included most writers of prominence.
Many of the European countries, where they first found refuge, were later invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany, which caused the refugees to look for safety elsewhere again, for example by fleeing occupied Europe, taking cover in the "Resistance", or withinInner emigration.
Between 1933 and 1939, prolific centers of anti-Nazi German writers and publishers emerged in several European cities, includingParis,Amsterdam, Stockholm, Zürich,London, Prague,Moscow as well as across the Atlantic inNew York City,Los Angeles, andMexico City. Well known for their publications were the publishersQuerido Verlag andVerlag Allert de Lange in Amsterdam,Berman-Fischer Verlag inStockholm, and Oprecht in Zürich.
Likeanti-communist Russian writers and publishing houses in Berlin, Paris, London, and New York after theOctober Revolution, some anti-Nazi German writers and intellectuals saw themselves as the continuation of an older and better Germany, which had been perverted by theNazi Party.[1]
With this in mind, they supplied theGerman diaspora with both literary works and withAlternative media critical of the regime, and, in defiance ofcensorship in Nazi Germany, their books, newspapers, and magazines were smuggled into the homeland and both read and distributed in secret by theGerman people.
Bertolt Brecht, arefugee member of theCommunist Party of Germany, ended up in Los Angeles and noted in his poem "The Hollywood Elegies", that the city was both heaven and hell.[2]
Other exiled German writers often had difficulty expressing what they were truly feeling. In his political thrillerThe Blond Spider (1939),Hans Flesch-Brunningen, writing under thepseudonym Vincent Burn, wrote a story involving two Germans.
[Flesch-Brunningen created] an older, wiser, and somewhat mysterious German in the character of Martino. He is the archetypical, valiant antifascist and spared any of the ambiguities of Borneman's ultimately vanquished Müller. Yet, as committed and exemplary as Martino may be, he occupies a limited role, overshadowed by the brutal antics of the central German character, the Nazi spy Hesmert. As much as the simple fact of Martino's existence in the novel is indicative of the author's desire to raise British awareness of a "good" Germany, his marginality in the plot may well be equally suggestive of Flesch-Brunningen's sense of caution in dwelling upon anonpopularist view of German culture.[3]
As a highly effective tool of reeducation afterAmerican entry into World War II, the libraries of the camps used to internGerman prisoners of war in the United States very often included Berman-Fischer's paperback editions ofGerman literature banned undercensorship in Nazi Germany. Particularly in demand among POWs were banned novels by refugee writers such asErich Maria Remarque'sAll Quiet on the Western Front,Thomas Mann'sZauberberg, andFranz Werfel'sThe Song of Bernadette. In an article for inter-camp journalDer Ruf, German POW Curt Vinz opined, "Had we only had the opportunity to read these books before, our introduction to life, to war, and the expanse of politics would have been different."[4]
Lion Feuchtwanger, a prominent author in exile in the United States, purchased a mansion inPacific Palisades, Los Angeles, calledVilla Aurora, and used it as a meeting place for exiled German-speaking poets, writers, and intellectuals. Not everything was easy for Feuchtwanger while in exile.
In his bookMoskau 1937, Feuchtwanger had lavishly praised life in theSoviet Union under thedictatorship ofJoseph Stalin. Feuchtwanger also defended theGreat Purge and theMoscow show trials which were then taking place against both real and imagined members of theanti-Stalinist Left and other alleged enemies of the state. Feuchtwanger's enthusiastic praise ofStalinism triggered outrage from fellow anti-Nazi exilesArnold Zweig,Franz Werfel,[5] and, over the years since, fromTrotskyists, who have called Feuchtwanger naive at best.[6]
During theMcCarthy era, Feuchtwanger was investigated as an allegedStalinistpropagandist by theHouse Un-American Activities Committee of theU.S. Congress. Fearing that he would not be readmitted if he travelled abroad, Feuchtwanger never left the United States again. After years of immigration hearings, Feuchtwanger's application for naturalization as an American citizen was finally granted. Ironically, the letter informing Feuchtwanger of the fact only arrived on the day after his death in 1958.[7]
The best known exile writers includeTheodor Adorno,Günther Anders,Hannah Arendt,Johannes R. Becher,Bertolt Brecht,Hermann Broch,Ernst Bloch,Elias Canetti,Veza Canetti,Alfred Döblin,Lion Feuchtwanger,Bruno Frank,Oskar Maria Graf,Max Horkheimer,Heinrich Eduard Jacob,Hermann Kesten,Annette Kolb,Siegfried Kracauer,Else Lasker-Schüler,Emil Ludwig,Heinrich Mann,Klaus Mann,Erika Mann,Thomas Mann,Ludwig Marcuse,Robert Musil,Robert Neumann,Erich Maria Remarque,Ludwig Renn,Joseph Roth,Alice Rühle-Gerstel andOtto Rühle,Nelly Sachs,Felix Salten,Anna Sebastian,Anna Seghers,Peter Weiss,Franz Werfel,Bodo Uhse,Max Brod,Stefan Zweig, andArnold Zweig.