The war (george)

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Stefan George 1910, photograph by Jakob Hilsdorf

The war is a poem by Stefan George . Written in 1917 and published for the first time, it presents the author's critical view of the First World War . In 1928, the war was included in George's last volume of poetry, The New Reich .

background

The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 was enthusiastically welcomed by a large part of German journalism. Only historical research since the 1970s has shown that this enthusiasm for war, later often referred to as the August experience , was mainly limited to the educated middle class and the peasant population and the working class had a more distant view of the war. During the First World War and far beyond, however, the topos of a general enthusiasm for war was widespread, and in fact when the war broke out, most German intellectuals had signed and signed enthusiastic appeals for war. For Max Weber , the war was “great and wonderful”, Georg Simmel finally saw the “completion of 1870” coming: the external consequence that emerged from the founding of the empire was finally also the internal unity of the Germans. Thomas Mann wrote in retrospect: “War! What we felt was a purification, a liberation, a tremendous hope ”.

“To experience such a unity is worth a world war”: Friedrich Gundolf, around 1916 (photography by Jakob Hilsdorf)

The national elation did not stop at the members of the George Circle , who shortly before in the yearbook for the spiritual movement (1910–1912) had clearly distinguished themselves from their time. Friedrich Gundolf , Karl Wolfskehl , Friedrich Wolters , Berthold Vallentin , Ludwig Thormaehlen , Kurt Hildebrandt and Edgar Salin were particularly enthusiastic . They also orientated themselves on verses of George from the poetry book Der Stern des Bund from 1913, where it says something like: “You should spit the rotten one out of your mouth / You should carry the dagger in a bouquet of laurels / According to the step and sound of the nearby whale. “George, who was in Switzerland in August 1914, reacted very soberly to the beginning of the war. He told his closest friend Gundolf, who had sent him a letter enthusiastic about the war: “nothing is eaten as hot as it is cooked”, shortly afterwards it said: “and I call out to all of you: whether it goes well or badly: - that the most difficult comes FIRST AT THE BACK !! "

Nevertheless, some members also publicly took sides for the war and for Germany, for example in the debate about the destruction of Lion by German troops, which the Georgeans resolutely supported. The war, which allows the nation to “feel its collective will as the only impulse”, could, so the expectation, finally create the long-awaited internal and external unity of the Germans. When the hope for a quick victory for the Germans was not fulfilled and the war was still in full swing after years, the enthusiasm of most of the district members also subsided. George's concern for the youth grew, especially for his own disciples, with whom he wanted to build his "state". He feared "that will be seen by either side, are when stopped needs ," he wrote to Hans Brasch . In 1917 he finally wrote the poem Der Krieg , in which he provided the interpretation of the war that was valid for him and his family.

content

See full text at Wikisource

The poem is introduced by a quote from Canto 17 by Dante's Paradiso from the Divine Comedy in a translation by George, which acts as a motto . The first stanza describes the feeling of broad sections of the population at the outbreak of war as a "breath / of the unknown feeling" (v. 6f.). With this, George already here qualifies the war as what it is in his opinion, as a “breath”, a “confused premonition” (v. 8), ie a prediction of the goal to be achieved, but by no means its fulfillment: “This are the signs of flame · not the customer ”(v. 23). The second stanza introduces the main character of the poem: the "settlers on the mountain" (v. 13). By placing this figure on a mountain, he not only alludes to biblical motifs such as the prophet Elijah ( 2 Kings 1.9  EU ), but also emphasizes the rapture from the rest of the world that is characteristic of the “seer” (v. 25) . Last but not least, George is alluding to his own biography, because at the beginning of the war he was actually in the mountains, namely in Saanenmöser in Switzerland. In fact, the "settler" is easy to identify as George himself.

The settler - according to George's self-conception as poeta vates (poet-seer) - has foreseen the war for a long time, his "tears / cried in advance ... today I can't find any" (v. 18f.). That is why he distances himself equally from war and enthusiasm: “I do not take part in the quarrel as you feel it” (v. 24). Yes, and this is where the third stanza begins, the crowd who asked him for advice respond with “mockery / And stones”: “The seer will never be thanked” (v. 25f.). From its lofty perch the seer sees through the National stereotypes used in the German war propaganda, which he rejects: "He can not rave / of domestic virtue and welscher malice" (v 31f.). It is not the external enemies who are to blame “for our sons and grandchildren / glazed eyes and tattered bodies” (v. 35f.), But rather the inner decadence of modernity such as feminism , the bourgeoisie and the aging of society - “that woman complains · the satiated citizen · / the gray beard ”(v. 33f.).

George's criticism of the war does not arise from a pacifism or a humanism that would lament the death of so many people: "What is HIM [ie the seer] murder of hundreds of thousands / pre-murder of life itself?" (V. 30f.). A “murder”, according to Georges Klage, which modernity perpetrated on people, but which even war could not cure.

"Who lived in the shameful / churned-up earth like goose ...": German soldiers in the trenches


It is not
appropriate to rejoice: there will be no triumph · Only many downfalls without dignity ..
The creator's hand escaped, races unauthorized
Unformed lead and sheet metal · Rod and pipe.
He himself laughs grimly when false heroic speeches That
sounded like pulp and lumps.
He saw the brother sink · who lived in the shamefully
troubled earth like bullies ..
The old god of slaughter is no longer.
Diseased worlds
feverishly come to an end In the frenzy. Only the juices are sacred.
Still poured flawlessly - a whole stream.

shape

The poem has twelve stanzas of twelve verses each, making a total of 144 verses.

reception

Gundolf, Wolters, Wolfskehl. Walter Benjamin commented on the poem in a letter that is lost. Gershom Scholem remarked that The War was “probably a well-versed pamphlet with the unwritten but clear title: What's that to do with me ?, a heading that I can only approve if it comes from the last legitimate refusal, which is obviously not the case here is. “ Gottfried Benn

expenditure

  • Stefan George: The war . Georg Bondi Verlag, Berlin 1917 ( digitized version ).
  • Stefan George: The war . In: Stefan George: The new realm . Georg Bondi, Berlin 1928, pp. 27–34 (= complete edition of the works. Final version, Volume IX; last edition ).
  • Stefan George: The war . In: Stefan George: The new realm . Edited by Ute Oelmann. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2001, pp. 21–26 (= Complete Works in 18 Volumes, Volume IX; currently the relevant critical edition with useful commentary, pp. 139–142).

literature

  • Jürgen Egyptien: The attitude of George and the George circle to the 1st World War. In: Wolfgang Braungart , Ute Oelmann, Bernhard Böschenstein (eds.): Stefan George: Work and effect since the "Seventh Ring". Niemeyer, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-484-10834-7 , pp. 197-212.
  • Momme Mommsen : “You don't know your Bible!” Echoes of the Bible and Horace in Stefan George's poem “The War”. In: Momme Mommsen: Living Tradition. George, Holderlin, Goethe . Lang, Bern et al. 1999, ISBN 3-906760-67-7 , pp. 1–26 ( Germanic Studies in America. 69).
  • Klaus Siblewski : "This time the kingdom of peace is sure to beckon". About Stefan George's poem "The War". In: text + criticism . Volume 168: Stefan George. October 2005, pp. 19-34.

Web links

Wikisource: The War (George)  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ To summarize about Hans-Ulrich Wehler , Deutsche Gesellschaftgeschichte. From the beginning of the First World War to the founding of the two German states, 1914–1949 , special edition for the Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2010, pp. 14–21.
  2. ^ All voices are quoted from Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftgeschichte. From the beginning of the First World War to the founding of the two German states, 1914–1949 , Bonn 2010, p. 14.
  3. ^ Friedrich Gundolf in a letter to Karl and Hanna Wolfskehl, in: Wolfskehl and Verwey, The documents of their friendship, 1897-1946 , edited by Mea Nijland-Verwey, Heidelberg 1968, p. 124, quoted here. nach Egyptien, The attitude of George and the George circle to the 1st World War , p. 201.
  4. ↑ See Egyptien, The attitude of Georges and the George circle on World War I , p. 198.
  5. ↑ Stefan George, Der Stern des Bundes [1913], Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1993, p. 92 (= all works in 18 volumes, volume VIII). Regarding George's reference to the enthusiasm for war, especially Gundolf and Wolfkehl, cf. Egyptien, The attitude of George and the George Circle to World War I , pp. 197–202; see. also Edgar Salin, To Stefan George. Remembrance and Testimony , 2nd edition, Munich / Düsseldorf 1954, p. 28.
  6. ↑ Stefan George to Friedrich Gundolf, August 13, 1914, in: Stefan George, Friedrich Gundolf, Briefwechsel , edited by Robert Boehringer and Georg Peter Landmann , Helmut Küpper formerly Georg Bondi, Munich / Düsseldorf 1962, p. 256.
  7. ↑ Stefan George to Friedrich Gundolf, August 26, 1914, in: George, Gundolf, Briefwechsel , p. 258.
  8. ↑ See Karl Wolfskehl, Open Letter to Romain Rolland , in: Frankfurter Zeitung , November 12, 1914; Friedrich Gundolf, Tat und Wort im Krieg , in: Frankfurter Zeitung , October 11, 1914. George, too, was of the opinion that “[if] he builds, he may also destroy”. In addition Egyptien, The attitude of George and the George circle to the First World War , p. 203.
  9. ^ So Karl Wolfskehl in an open letter to Albert Verwey , who published it in his magazine De Bewegungsing , quoted in Egyptien, The Georges and George Circle on World War I , p. 203.
  10. ↑ Hans Brasch, Memories of Stefan George , in: Hans Brasch, Bewahrte Heimat , edited by Georg Peter Landmann, Helmut Küpper, formerly Georg Bondi, Düsseldorf / Munich 1970, pp. 23–40, here p. 38. Quoted from Egyptien, The attitude of George and the George Circle to World War I , p. 204. Italics in the original.
  11. ↑ The translation can be found under the title Prediction of banishment in: Complete Works X / XI, T. 7–9.
  12. ↑ enumeration according to the currently relevant edition in the Complete Works .
  13. ↑ Momme Mommsen, “You don't know your Bible!” Echoes of the Bible and Horace in Stefan George's poem 'Der Krieg' , in: Momme Mommsen, Lebendige Tradition: George, Hölderlin, Goethe , Lang, Bern 1999, p. 1-26.
  14. ↑ The identification is not doubted in research, cf. such as Thomas Karlauf , Stefan George. The discovery of charisma , Pantheon, Munich 2008, p. 497; Egyptien, The attitude of George and the George Circle to World War I , p. 207.
  15. ↑ Gershom Scholem, Letters to Werner Kraft , edited by Werner Kraft , Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 60. Cf. Marion Picker, "How George worked into my life" - Walter Benjamin , in: text + kritik 168, 2005, Pp. 60–75, here p. 60.
  16. ↑ Gerhard Scholem to Werner Kraft, September 21, 1917, in: Gershom Scholem, Letters to Werner Kraft , edited by Werner Kraft, Frankfurt am Main 1986, pp. 29–32, here p. 30.