Language:
German
Year of publication:
2003
Titel der Quelle:
Exil
Angaben zur Quelle:
23,1 (2003) 5-15
Keywords:
Jews History 1933-1939
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
Abstract:
The anti-modern "Heimatkunst" movement was one of the cultural elements of the "völkisch" movement. It sentimentalized the German landscape and village life and the culture rooted in them, and denounced the Jews and those infected with the "Jewish bacillus" for corrupting and endangering Germany. The Nazi bookburnings of May 1933 were not simply another form of censorship, but rather an expression of "völkisch" ideology, a symbol of purification anad regeneration. This is seen in the ritual and the texts accompanying the burnings, which echoed "völkisch" phraseology, and in the choice of the writers whose books were burned: the very ones whom the "völkisch" movement branded as enemies. The aim was not cultural, but political and racial. The event was planned and carried out by the Deutsche Studentenschaft. Considers the bookburnings a prelude to the subsequent mass murders. Because of this event and the policy of persecution of which it was part, some 3,000 writers fled Germany.
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