German-language exile press (1933–1945)

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The German-language exile press between 1933 and 1945 is the entirety of the publications that were published by German and Austrian emigrants in their country of refuge during the Nazi era . Research knows more than 400 journalistic products from the exile press. Most of them did not appear for more than a year, and many only published a single issue. Only a few appeared on the period from the beginning of exile in 1933 to the beginning of World War II in September 1939. Since mostly no international news agencies could be obtained for reasons of cost , there was no large network of correspondents and research in Germany could not be carried out, the journalistic working conditions were very difficult.

history

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, writers and journalists who were not acceptable to the Nazis were persecuted. These included, on the one hand, authors who the Nazis claimed to be Jews, and on the other, authors who had campaigned against the emergence of Nazi Germany or for democracy, were pacifists, and sympathized with communism or a monarchy or were not acceptable for other reasons. The authors who had fought against Nazism politically were in mortal danger after the Reichstag fire . Some of them were arrested on the night of the Reichstag fire or could only escape arrest by fleeing immediately, others were attacked, mistreated and robbed at work or at home by SA or other National Socialists. All have been fired from their jobs. Publishers declared the collaboration ended. What all authors had in common was that they were banned from continuing their writing activity. With that they were robbed of their possibility of existence. For all these reasons, the authors had to flee Germany, in 1938 also from Austria and in 1938/1939 from Czechoslovakia . They lost their readership, their income, their language area, their entire living environment. For linguistic reasons, but also because of rigid immigration laws  , they found hardly any work opportunities in the countries of refuge . They had turned away from Germany and were nevertheless often viewed with suspicion as Germans in a world that was no longer suitable for Germans.

In the European neighboring countries there were initially no publishers in which the German authors were printed in German. The biggest problem was that the German sales market for books to be produced in German had been lost. This difficulty persisted throughout the exile. It was therefore quite risky for publishers to print books in German because they had to expect to be left with parts of the print run. Nevertheless, there were helpers in need. Immediately after the seizure of power, two Dutch publishing houses that wanted to support the fight against the Nazi dictatorship set up German-language branches, the Querido and Allert de Lange publishers in Amsterdam . The publisher Oprecht in Zurich printed many books by German authors who had been sold. Exile publishers were also founded in Austria and Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium and Great Britain and in other countries, some of which published in German. One must also include the Soviet Union. These publication possibilities were gradually lost with the warlike expansion of Germany. First Austria, then Czechoslovakia and in 1939/1940 the Western European countries fell out. While exile publishers could still count on a few thousand customers in 1933, this number fell considerably. The potential buyers fled mainly to the USA, Israel and the Soviet Union . But since these countries restricted immigration, the refugees had to make do with countries around the world.

Most of the emigrants had to give up their traditional profession. Some tried to keep writing by founding German-language magazines and to create a mouthpiece for themselves - always in the hope that the exile would only last a short time. In these publications authors came together who had little in common at home, and who often even opposed each other politically. Because the emigrants were not a homogeneous class, they were Jews and non-Jews, communists, socialists and commoners, politically committed and pure aestheticians. The only thing that connected them: The Nazis persecuted them, and they rejected the spirit of the Nazis and feared for their lives by persecuting them.

Exile media (selection)

Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung

Weekly magazine. Published in Berlin from 1921 to 1933, in exile in Prague from 1933 to 1938, from 1936 under the name Volks-Illustrierte . Publisher and editor-in-chief: Willi Münzenberg ; Editor-in-chief in exile: Franz Carl Weiskopf . Collaboration until 1938: John Heartfield .

construction

(Subtitle until late 1940: Serving the interests and the Americanization of the immigrants). December 1934 to December 2004 New York, since January 2005 Zurich. Ed. And editor-in-chief was Manfred George for 26 years on the editorial board and employees: Richard Beer-Hofmann , Albert Einstein , Lion Feuchtwanger , Bruno Frank , Nahum Goldmann , Leopold Jessner , Emil Ludwig , Thomas Mann , Franz Werfel .

Construction authors were u. a. also: Hannah Arendt , Max Brod , Martin Buber , Oskar Maria Graf , Heinrich Eduard Jacob , Pem , Alfred Polgar , Curt Riess , Hans Sahl , Gershom Scholem , Carl Zuckmayer .

The New Day Book

July 1933 to May 1940. Paris, Amsterdam. Edited by Leopold Schwarzschild

Staff: Julius Bab , Ulrich Becher , MY Ben-Gavriel , Max Brod , Alfred Döblin , Lion Feuchtwanger , Bruno Frank , Max Herrmann-Neiße , Heinrich Eduard Jacob , Alfred Kerr , Hermann Kesten , Egon Erwin Kisch , Arthur Koestler , Emil Ludwig , Erika Mann , Heinrich Mann , Klaus Mann , Thomas Mann , Ludwig Marcuse , Walter Mehring , Alfred Polgar , Roda Roda , Walther Rode , Joseph Roth , Ernst Toller , Franz Werfel , Arnold Zweig , Stefan Zweig and others. v. a.

The word

Literary monthly. July 1936 to March 1939. Moscow. Ed. U. Red. Bertolt Brecht , Lion Feuchtwanger , Willi Bredel

Staff: Johannes R. Becher , Schalom Ben-Chorin , Walter Benjamin , Ernst Bloch , Max Brod , Alfred Döblin , Oskar Maria Graf , Walter Haenisch , Stefan Heym , Alfred Kerr , Egon Erwin Kisch , Rudolf Leonhard , Heinrich Mann , Klaus Mann , Thomas Mann , Ludwig Marcuse , Theodor Plivier , Ludwig Renn , Anna Seghers , Ernst Toller , Herwarth Walden , Erich Weinert , FC Weiskopf , Ernst Wiechert , Arnold Zweig , Stefan Zweig and others. v. a.

German sheets

For a European Germany, against a German Europe. January 1943 to December 1946. Santiago de Chile. Edited by Udo Rukser u. Albert Theile

Staff: Günther Anders , Stefan Andres , Julius Bab , Max Barth , Albert Ehrenstein , Oskar Maria Graf , Hermann Hesse , CG Jung , Alfred Kantorowicz , Hermann Kesten , Arthur Koestler , Thomas Mann , Gustav Regulator , FC Weiskopf , Ernst Wiechert , Carl Zuckmayer , Stefan Zweig u. v. a.

The new world stage

The new world stage in 1936

Weekly for politics, art, economy. March 1933 to August 1939. Vienna, Prague, Paris. Ed. Willi Schlamm , from March 1934 Hermann Budzislawski

Staff: Johannes R. Becher , Ernst Bloch , Bertolt Brecht , Lion Feuchtwanger , Stefan Heym , Alfred Kerr , Léo Lania , Heinrich Mann , Klaus Mann , Ludwig Marcuse , Walter Mehring , Pem , Gustav Regulator , Anna Seghers , Walter Ulbricht , Herwarth Walden , Arnold Zweig u. v. a.

The collection

The First Issue Collection / September 1933

Literary monthly under d. Patronage of André Gide , Aldous Huxley , Heinrich Mann . September 1933 to August 1935. Amsterdam. Edited by Klaus Mann

Staff: Johannes R. Becher , Ernst Bloch , Bertolt Brecht , Max Brod , Jean Cocteau , Alfred Döblin , Albert Einstein , Norbert Elias , Lion Feuchtwanger , Bruno Frank , AM Frey , Oskar Maria Graf , Thomas Theodor Heine , Ernest Hemingway , Stefan Heym , Heinrich Eduard Jacob , Alfred Kerr , Hermann Kesten , Else Lasker-Schüler , Golo Mann , Heinrich Mann , André Maurois , Walther Rode , Joseph Roth , Leon Trotsky , FC Weiskopf , Arnold Zweig and others. v. a.

Free Germany

Revista Antinazi. November 1941 to June 1946. Mexico. Red. Bruno Frei , Alexander Abusch

Staff: Johannes R. Becher , Egon Erwin Kisch , Thomas Mann , Albert Norden , Wilhelm Pieck , Theodor Plivier , Ludwig Renn , Anna Seghers , Bodo Uhse , Berthold Viertel , FC Weiskopf u. v. a.

International literature

German sheets. June 1931 to December 1945. Moscow. Red. Hans Günther , Johannes R. Becher

Staff: Lion Feuchtwanger , André Gide , Maxim Gorki , Alfred Kurella , Rudolf Leonhard , Georg Lukács , Heinrich Mann , Boris Pasternak , Erwin Piscator , Theodor Plivier , Anna Seghers , Erich Weinert , Walter Haenisch u. v. a.

Measure and value

Measure and value issue from November / December 1938

Bimonthly publication for free German culture. September 1937 to October 1940. Zurich. Edited by Thomas Mann u. Konrad Falke. Red. First Ferdinand Lion , from November 1939 Golo Mann a . Emil Oprecht

Staff: Walter Benjamin , Ernst Bloch , Hermann Broch , Max Brod , Alfred Döblin , Alfred Einstein , Bruno Frank , AM Frey , Martin Gumpert , Hermann Hesse , Ödön von Horváth , Georg Kaiser , Annette Kolb , Federico García Lorca , Heinrich Mann , Klaus Mann , Hans Mayer , Robert Musil , Ignazio Silone , Hermann Rauschning , Curt Riess , Jean-Paul Sartre , René Schickele , Jakob Wassermann u. v. a.

New German sheets

Monthly for literature a. Criticism. September 1933 to August 1935. Vienna, Zurich, Paris, Amsterdam. Edited by Grete Weiskopf . Edited by Oskar Maria Graf , Wieland Herzfelde , Anna Seghers

Staff: Johannes R. Becher , MY Ben-Gavriel , Bertolt Brecht , Willi Bredel , Albert Ehrenstein , Lion Feuchtwanger , AM Frey , Stefan Heym , Robert Jung , Egon Erwin Kisch , Walter Kolbenhoff , Ludwig Marcuse , Walter Mehring , Theodor Plivier , Ernst Toller , Jakob Wassermann , Arnold Zweig u. v. a.

Orient

Independent weekly. Time issues, culture, economy. April 1942 to April 1943. Haifa. Ed. U. Red. Wolfgang Yourgrau

Staff: Ernst Fischer , Schalom Ben-Chorin , Hermann Hesse , Else Lasker-Schüler , Arnold Zweig a . v. a.

Socialist lookout

Sheets for Critically Active Socialism. May 1934 to May 1940 (publication changes, a total of 181 issues, circulation approx. 2,000). Paris. Published by the International Socialist Combat League (ISK) under the direction of Willi Eichler

Employees: Kurt Hiller , Walter Auerbach , Fritz Eberhard , Walter Fabian , Hilde Meisel , Fritz Sternberg , Jacob Walcher u. v. a.

See also

literature

  • Werner Berthold: Exile Literature 1933-1945 . Catalog for the exhibition of the German library, Frankfurt am Main 1965.
  • Richard Drews, Alfred Kantorowicz (ed.): Forbidden and burned. German literature - suppressed for 12 years . Heinz Ullstein-Helmut Kindler Verlag, Berlin / Munich 1947.
  • Hanno Hardt (Ed.): Press in Exile. Contributions to the communication history of the German exile 1933–1945 . Saur, Munich / New York / London / Paris 1979, ISBN 978-3-598-02530-3
  • Angela Huss-Michel, The Moscow magazines "International Literature" and "Das Wort" during the People's Front in Exile (1936-1939). A comparative analysis , Frankfurt am Main 1987 (dissertation), ISBN 3-8204-0019-2 .
  • Angela Huss-Michel: Literary and Political Journals of Exile 1933–1945 . Metzler, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 978-3-476-10238-6 .
  • Lieselotte Maas: Handbook of the German Exile Press 1933-1945 . Volume 4: The newspapers of German exile in Europe from 1933 to 1939 in individual presentations . Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1990, ISBN 978-3-446-13260-3 .
  • Hélène Roussel and Lutz Winckler (eds.), Deutsche Exilpresse and France. 1933-1940 . Lang, Bern and others 1992, ISBN 978-3-261-04491-4
  • Hans-Albert Walter: German exile literature - exile press. Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-476-00385-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Claus-Dieter Krohn (Ed.): Handbook of German-speaking Emigration 1933–1945 . Darmstadt 1998, pp. 1062-1072
  2. ^ Wilhelm Sternfeld , Eva Tiedemann: Deutsche Exilliteratur 1933-1945. A bio bibliography . Second improved edition, Lambert Schneider, Heidelberg 1970, pp. 9-11.
  3. Ursula Madrasch-Groschopp: The world stage. Portrait of a magazine. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1983, pp. 335-340