Literary Skinheads? Writing from the Right in Reunified Germany

 JAY JULIAN ROSELLINI

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=purduepress_ebooks

 Contents

PREFACE // ix

Thinking about contemporary Germany against the backdrop of cultural history.

CHAPTER 1 // 3

Predecessors and Predilections: A Problematic Legacy

Novalis and Political Romanticism. Nietzsche and the elitist as outsider. Stefan George’s

project of cultural renewal. Thomas Mann’s re¶ections on politics and culture. Hugo

von Hofmannsthal on literature and national identity. The antidemocratic warrior

Ernst Jünger. Gottfried Benn’s ill-fated ¶irtation with National Socialism.

CHAPTER 2 // 27

Long Forgotten, Now Feisty: Reuni¤cation and

the Right’s Quest for Respectability

Views of the literary right in the postwar period. Christian von Krockow on Jünger,

Schmitt, and Heidegger, Armin Mohler on the Conservative Revolution, HansPeter Schwarz on Jünger. East meet West on the right—the collaboration of Ulrich

Schacht and Heimo Schwilk. Attempts to in¶uence public opinion ¤fty years after

the German capitulation. Early writings by Schacht and Schwilk. The volume Die

selbstbewußte Nation as the manifesto of the intellectual New Right. An attempt to

reorient post-Wall Germany: For a Berlin Republic by Schacht and Schwilk.

CHAPTER 3 // 79

An Unexpected Detour on the Way to the Pantheon:

Strauß, Handke, and the Vagaries of High Culture in Germany

The “Literature Debate” and littérature engagée. Botho Strauß, his 1993 essay “Impending Tragedy” (Anschwellender Bocksgesang) and the mass media as arena.

Comparisons with Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Martin Walser. Peter Handke,

the poet’s perspective and the Bosnian con¶ict. Critical reactions to Strauß and

Handke. Royal reveries, political critique, and utopia on stage: Strauß’s Ithaka and

Handke’s Preparations for Immortality (Zurüstungen für die Unsterblichkeit). The

battle in the media, part two. Recent works by Strauß and Handke. The prospects

of a new generation of conservative writers.

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EXCURSUS // 137

Attacks on Americanization and Westernization and

One Problematic Line of Defense

German/American culture. European intellectuals and America. German analyses

of anti-Americanism. Herzinger/Stein and one way to defend liberalism. Rightist

anti-Americanism: one characteristic example. Questioning reeducation and the

American model. Resisting cultural and linguistic in¤ltration, homogenization, and

mediocrity. Liberalism as old and new enemy. Heimo Schwilk, the Gulf War, and

dreams of German resurgence.

CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS // 155

The Conservative Revolution: Reassessment and warnings. German developments

in European context. The former GDR as present staging area and possible longterm home of the New Right. Esthetics, ethics, and politics. Literature and democracy. From intellectual discourse to political platform. From literature to political

polemic. De¤ning left and right: beyond dichotomies? Ernst Jünger: end point or

inspiration? Germany, Enlightenment, Romanticism, and the future.

EPILOGUE // 173

Schröder, Walser, Bubis, and the Ongoing German Quest for Normalcy

The 1998 German elections and the generational shift. New manifestations of xenophobia. Martin Walser, Ignatz Bubis, and German-Jewish dialogue. Handke’s

crusade against the West. German troops in Kosovo and images of the past. The

Holocaust memorial and the new citizenship law.

NOTES // 195

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY // 271

INDEX // 29