List of banned authors during the National Socialist era

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In May and June 1933 , in the first year of the National Socialist reign, demonstrative public book burnings were carried out in many German cities in a large-scale student “action against the un-German spirit” . The selection of "burnable" works was based on so-called " black lists " which were drawn up in March 1933 on behalf of the Propaganda Ministry and which formed the basis for the looting of libraries and bookshops (see list of burned books in 1933 ). The persecution and censorship of unpopular authors continued officially soon after the student book burnings. On May 13, 1933, the Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel published a first list of 12 well-known German authors who were "to be regarded as damaging to the German reputation".

List of so-called "harmful and undesirable literature"

Extensive seizure actions to secure so-called "harmful and undesirable literature" took place as early as 1933. Private libraries, lending libraries, publishers, bookstores, second-hand bookshops and works libraries as well as the libraries of persecuted organizations (trade unions, parties, workers' education associations, religious communities, lodges) were affected. Confiscated books were often sent to the libraries designated for archiving this literature by the police, mayor's offices and district offices.

On a “list of harmful and undesirable literature”, which has been published regularly since 1935 by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda , more precisely by the “ Reichsschrifttumskammer ”, there were finally 12,400 titles and the complete works of 149 authors who, because of their humanistic, democratic or socialist sentiments or because of their Jewish origin were persecuted and banned.

In 1935 the Nazi organ "Die Bücherei 2: 6" gave a list of the literature that was forbidden or that was to be sorted out:

  1. The works of traitors, emigrants and authors from foreign peoples who believe that they can fight and disparage the new Germany. ( HG Wells , Rolland ).
  2. The literature of Marxism , Communism , Bolshevism .
  3. The pacifist literature.
  4. The liberalist-democratic tendency and opinion literature and the propagandists of the Weimar state ( Walther Rathenau , Heinrich Mann ).
  5. All works on history that are designed to belittle the origin, nature and culture of the German people, to dissolve the German national order in its type and race, to negate the power and importance of great leaders in favor of the masses due to the idea of ​​equality and to deny their size in to pull the dirt ( Emil Ludwig ).
  6. Writings of an ideological and life-science character, the content of which is the false scientific explanation of a primitive Darwinism and monism ( Haeckel ).
  7. Books about arts, whose representatives of the degenerate anemic, purely constructive “art” are positively appreciated ( Grosz , Dix , Bauhaus , Mendelsohn ).
  8. Writings on sex education and on sexual enlightenment, which serve the indulgence egoism of the individual and thus have the highest degree of national and racial destruction ( Hirschfeld ).
  9. The decadent, corrosive, harmful literature of the "asphalt and civilization literati" ( Graf , H. Mann , Stefan Zweig , Wassermann , Franz Blei ).
  10. The literature of Jewish authors, regardless of the field.
  11. The social and entertainment literature in which life and goals in life are presented in a superficial, untrue and sweetish way based on a bourgeois or feudal view of life.
  12. The nationalist, patriotic kitsch in literature ( PO Höcker ).

SS book ban

On June 9, 1941, the Reich Security Main Office (the ideological department of the SS for “combating the opponents of the National Socialist Weltanschauung ” under the direction of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler ) issued a decree according to which “publications that are not in the list of harmful and undesirable Literature have been classified “, were forbidden. This decree was only published in the "Command Sheet of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD " of June 9, 1941. The more than 300 titles were mainly religious, philosophical, sometimes metaphysical and often at first glance banal titles. The Gestapo confiscated until February 1945 Books like The crime as a disease of George Bonne (1927), The Lord God in the trenches of Max beaver or medicinal herbs in the service of beauty . Almost all authors on the list have been forgotten, their works are often not even included in the list of writings that were not allowed to be displayed from 1933 to 1945 (publisher Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig). The fact that Heinrich Himmler - contrary to what is often assumed - played an active role in Nazi literary politics is proven by the preamble of the “List of harmful and undesirable literature”, in which Himmler was given censorship power and, in addition to the prohibitions, Joseph Goebbels as President issued by the Reich Chamber of Culture , could issue an "additional ban".

Prohibited authors

The following list shows authors whose works were on lists of books that were banned from books during the Nazi era and come from, among others:

  1. List of harmful and undesirable literature as of December 31, 1938 (online at berlin.de )
  2. Annual lists 1939–1941 . Unchanged reprint of the Leipzig 1938–1941 edition, Vaduz 1979

Authors were on the list because they or their ancestors were of Jewish descent ; because politically they disagreed with the regime; because they spread pacifist or communist views or were suspected of doing so. Authors who have already died were also on the list. There are numerous archival lists from all possible areas in the German Federal Archives under item R 56-V / ...

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G

H

I.

J

K

L.

M.

N

O

P

R.

S.

T

U

V

W.

Z

swell

  • List of harmful and undesirable literature. As of 1935, 1936, 1938 ( digitized version of the University and State Library Bonn).
  • List of harmful and undesirable literature. As of December 31, 1938 ( digitized version of the University and State Library of Münster).
  • List of harmful and undesirable literature. Annual lists 1939–1941. ( Digital copies of the University and State Library of Münster).
    • An unchanged reprint of the Leipzig 1938–1941 edition appeared in Vaduz 1979.
  • Unwanted literature in France. Ouvrages littéraires non désirables en France. 3rd edition, Paris 1943 ( online at Gallica ). Issue up to 1940 see Otto list , also online there
  • Annual list of harmful and undesirable literature. Status 1939 - 1943 ( digitized version of the University and State Library Bonn).

literature

  • Dietrich Aigner: The indexing of "harmful and undesirable literature" in the Third Reich. Librarian Training Institute of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, 1968.
  • Hans Benecke : A bookstore in Berlin. Memory of a hard time. Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-596-12735-1 .
  • Wolfgang Berghofer (Ed.): Selected texts and biographies of victims of the book burning in 1933. (CD).
  • Achim Bonte: Books with a Past. The Heidelberg University Library as a collection point for ostracized literature in the “Third Reich” . In: counter 2001.1, pp 45-51.
  • Sören Flachowsky: The library of the Berlin University during the time of National Socialism . Logos, Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-89722-480-1 (Chapter 8.2: The archiving and “secretion” of “harmful and undesirable literature”, p. 129 ff.)
  • Jürgen Serke: The burned poets. Reports, texts, pictures of a time. Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim / Basel 1977. ISBN 3-407-80750-3 .
  • Volker Weidermann: The book of burned books. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-462-03962-7 .
  • Edda Ziegler: The burned female poets. Writers against National Socialism. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-538-07253-4 .
  • Erich Kästner : About the burning of books. Atrium, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-85535-389-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angela Graf: April / May 1933 - The "Action Against the Un-German Spirit" and the book burnings . (PDF; 4.1 MB) p. 14, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung , accessed on November 17, 2011.
  2. ↑ Frank Gerstenberg: The book prohibitions of the SS. Archived from the original on August 9, 2014 ; Retrieved August 9, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Federal Archives R56V / ... Finding aid , e.g. B. works libraries : R 56-V / 72, the list there ordered on pages 40 to 102, only visible on site or possibly a copy.