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The German novelist Martin Walser's 1998 speech upon accepting the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade remains a milestone in recent German efforts to come to terms with the Nazi past. The day after the speech, Ignatz Bubis, leader of Germany's Jewish community, attacked Walser for inciting dangerous right-wing sentiment with controversial passages including the notorious statement 'Auschwitz is not suited to be a moral bludgeon,' thus igniting the protracted public battle of opinions known as the 'Walser-Bubis Debate.' The speech continues to loom large in Germany's struggle to acknowledge responsibility for Nazi crimes yet escape a suffocating burden of remembrance. But in spite of its notoriety, little attention has been paid to what the speech actually says, as opposed to the public outcry and debate that followed it. This book presents the text of the speech, along with several of Walser's other essays and speeches about the Holocaust and its impact on German identity, in English translation. It examines them as texts, a process that involves a discussion of literary complexities and an attempt to distinguish valid criticism of German intellectual life from what is justifiably problematic. And it places this textual examination in the context of Walser's and other postwar German intellectuals' attempts to deal with the Nazi past, of German-Jewish relations in the postwar era, and of the once hidden and now - due in part to Walser's speech - increasingly open discourse about Germans as victims during and immediately after the Nazi era. Thomas A. Kovach is professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona.

Walser, Martin, --- Political and social views. --- Germany --- Third Reich, 1933-1945 --- History. --- History --- Electronic books. -- local. --- Germany -- History -- 1933-1945. --- Germany -- History. --- Walser, Martin, -- 1927- -- Political and social views. --- LITERARY CRITICISM / European / German. --- German-Jewish Relations. --- Germans as Victims. --- Martin Walser. --- Nazi Past. --- Peace Prize Speech. --- 1927 --- -Political and social views.

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Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Christianstadt, Dachau. The names of Nazi concentration camps evoke images of radical destitution. The atrocities we call the Holocaust defy comprehension, while thinkers continue to ponder the possibility of 'poetry after Auschwitz.' And yet a number of people composed poems while imprisoned in the camps. Unlike most documents about the camps, these poems are self-representations that convey the perspective of the inmates who wrote them. 'Traumatic Verses' provides psychoanalytically informed close readings of a range of poems and discusses their significance for aesthetic theory and for research on the camps. It also tells the stories behind the composition and preservation of these poems and the history of their publication since 1945. Most of the poems appear here for the first time in English translation along with the original texts. This book fills a gap left by literary historians, who have mostly ignored writings from the camps and avoided careful scrutiny of literature produced under the Nazi regime. Studies of trauma have concentrated on post-traumatic experiences; discussions of aesthetics 'after' the Holocaust have neglected the issue of the artistic impulse 'in' the camps. On both counts this book constitutes a unique contribution to scholarship, showing that, when read attentively, the poems written in the camps are invaluable sites for confronting the Nazi past. Andrés J. Nader is Project Manager at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation in Berlin, and lectures at the Humboldt University. Winner, 2008 Modern Language Association Book Prize for Independent Scholars; from the statement of the Selection Committee: Leading a new generation of students of the Holocaust, Nader persuasively analyzes the psychological needs and motivations behind ... poetry composed in the concentration camps. Displaying a strong command of trauma and pain theory, as well as the prior history of Holocaust studies, [Nader] illuminates the role of poetry in the camp inmates' reclamation of the German language and cultural heritage. Offering many poems in English for the first time, in elegant translation, Nader's anthology and commentary add a significant new dimension to Holocaust studies.

Concentration camp inmates' writings --- German poetry --- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) in literature --- World War, 1939-1945 --- World War, 1939-1945, in literature --- Writings of concentration camp inmates --- Literature --- History and criticism --- Literature and the war --- Nazi concentration camp inmates' writings --- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Literature and the war. --- Writings of Nazi concentration inmates --- Aesthetic theory. --- Andrés J. Nader. --- Close readings. --- Concentration camps. --- Holocaust. --- Inmates. --- Nazi past. --- Poetry. --- Psychoanalytically.

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George Orwell said that all writing is political; but the writers of some nations and some periods are more political than others. German writers after 1945 have exemplified such heightened politicization, and this book considers their contribution to the democratic development of Germany by looking principally at their directly political, non-fictional writings. It pays particular attention to writers and the student movement of the 1960s and '70s, when some proclaimed the death of literature and called for a turn to direct political action. Yet writers in both parts of Germany gradually came to identify with their respective states, even if the idea of one Germany never entirely disappeared. The unification of 1989-1990, in which this idea astonishingly became reality, posed a major (and some would say unmet) challenge to writers in both East and West. After looking at this period of intense political activities, the book considers the continuing East/West division and changing attitudes to the Nazi past, asking whether the intellectual climate has swung to the right. It also asks to what extent political involvement has been a generational project for the immediate postwar generation and is less important for younger writers who see the Federal Republic as a 'normal' democratic state. Stuart Parkes is Emeritus Professor of German from the University of Sunderland (UK).

Authors, German --- Politics and literature --- German literature --- Ecrivains allemands --- Politique et littérature --- Littérature allemande --- Political activity. --- Political activity --- History --- History and criticism. --- History and criticism --- Activité politique --- Histoire --- Histoire et critique --- Politique et litterature --- Litterature allemande --- Political and social views. --- Activite politique --- Pensee politique et sociale --- Politique et littérature --- Littérature allemande --- Activité politique --- Germany --- Politics and government. --- German authors --- Democratic State. --- East Germany. --- Generational Change. --- German Writers. --- Germany. --- Literature. --- Nazi Past. --- Political Action. --- Political Writing. --- Student Movement. --- Unification. --- West Germany. --- Writers and Politics.

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This volume features sixteen thought-provoking essays by renowned international experts on German society, culture, and politics that, together, provide a comprehensive study of Germany's postunification process of 'normalization.' Essays ranging across a variety of disciplines including politics, foreign policy, economics, literature, architecture, and film examine how since 1990 the often contested concept of normalization has become crucial to Germany's self-understanding. Despite the apparent emergence of a 'new' Germany, the essays demonstrate that normalization is still in question, and that perennial concerns - notably the Nazi past and the legacy of the GDR - remain central to political and cultural discourses and affect the country's efforts to deal with the new challenges of globalization and the instability and polarization it brings. This is the first major study in English or German of the impact of the normalization debate across the range of cultural, political, economic, intellectual, and historical discourses. CONTRIBUTORS: STEPHEN BROCKMANN, JEREMY LEAMAN, SEBASTIAN HARNISCH AND KERRY LONGHURST, LOTHAR PROBST, SIMON WARD, ANNA SAUNDERS, ANNETTE SEIDEL ARPACI, CHRIS HOMEWOOD, ANDREW PLOWMAN, HELMUT SCHMITZ, KAROLINE VON OPPEN, WILLIAM COLLINS DONAHUE, KATHRIN SCHöDEL, STUART TABERNER, PAUL COOKE. Stuart Taberner is Professor of Contemporary German Literature, Culture, and Society and Paul Cooke is Senior Lecturer in German Studies, both at the University of Leeds.

German literature --- Politics and literature --- History and criticism --- Germany --- Weimar Republic --- Germanii︠a︡ --- Германия --- BRD --- FRN --- Jirmānīya --- جرمانيا --- Nimechchyna --- Gjermani --- Federalʹna Respublika Nimechchyny --- Veĭmarskai︠a︡ Respublika --- Ashkenaz --- Germanyah --- Bundesrepublik Deutschland --- Federal Republic of Germany --- Deutschland --- Repoblika Federalin'i Alemana --- República Federal de Alemania --- Alemania --- República de Alemania --- Bu̇gd Naĭramdakh German Uls --- Kholboony Bu̇gd Naĭramdakh German Uls --- KhBNGU --- ХБНГУ --- German Uls --- Germania --- Republika Federal Alemmana --- Deutsches Reich --- Grossdeutsches Reich --- Weimarer Republik --- Vācijā --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955) --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : British Zone) --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : French Zone) --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : Russian Zone) --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : U.S. Zone) --- Germany (East) --- Germany (West) --- Holy Roman Empire --- Civilization --- Intellectual life --- ドイツ --- Doitsu --- ドイツ連邦共和国 --- Doitsu Renpō Kyōwakoku --- History and criticism. --- ドイツ レンポウ キョウワコク --- Deguo --- 德国 --- Gėrman --- Герман Улс --- Contemporary. --- Cultural. --- Discourses. --- Economic. --- Germany. --- Historical. --- Intellectual. --- Legacy. --- Nazi past. --- Normalization. --- Political.