Reich Association of German Writers

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The Reich Association of German Writers EV (RDS) was a compulsory organization for German writers that existed in the German Reich from 1933 to 1935 . It was based in Berlin, Nürnberger Strasse 8.

history

Foundation and structure

The RDS was founded on June 9, 1933 as part of the co-ordination of the German writers' associations at the instigation of the Reich Propaganda Ministry. The Association of German Writers , the “Association of German Narrators”, the “German Writers' Association” and the “Cartel of lyrical authors” were incorporated into it. The RDS had the following structure: The Presidium consisted of the "Reichsführer" Goetz Otto Stoffregen , his deputy and secretary Hans Richter and the treasurers Heinz Wismann and Karl August Walther . The Presidium was supported by an advisory board that included Friedrich Arenhövel , Werner Beumelburg , Hans Martin Cremer , Franz Dülberg , Wilhelm Conrad Gomoll , Karl Heinl , Bruno Herbert Jahn , Gerhard Menzel , Hans Heinz Sadila-Mantau and Richard Schneider-Edenkoben . Members of the so-called Honorary Senate were Walter Bloem , Ricarda Huch , Ernst Krieck , Agnes Miegel , Rudolf Presber , Arthur Rehbein , Ina Seidel , Heinrich Sohnrey , Hermann Stehr , Lulu von Strauss and Torney and Fedor von Zobeltitz . Some members of these subdivisions also acted as speakers for departments. Other speakers from RDS departments were Ilse Hamel , Georg Irrgang , Robert Seitz and Albert Sergel .

Conditions for registration

A few months after the founding of the RDS, the association was integrated into the Reichsschrifttumskammer (RSK), which in turn was part of the Reichskulturkammer . According to § 4 of the “First Ordinance for the Implementation of the Reich Chamber of Culture Act” of November 1, 1933, it was mandatory for all German writers to belong to the RSK. In an additional order on the obligation to register for the Reichsschrifttums- and Reichspressekammer of December 10, 1933, it was made clear that compulsory membership applies to all full-time writers and that membership in the RSK is acquired by joining the Reich Association of German Writers. The RDS was thus a compulsory organization.

According to the RDS admission requirements announced on July 22, 1933, only “every German-blooded writer” who behaved “politically impeccably in the interests of the new German state” could become a member. These legal provisions resulted in the administrative exclusion of authors of Jewish origin, but also of other opponents of National Socialism, from German cultural life. Information on the “Aryan” or “non-Aryan” voting of the applicant was given on the membership applications. In addition, self-reports on attitudes towards the Nazi state, e.g. B. by guarantors, and expected to previous association membership.

resolution

Despite the ideological proximity to the Nazi regime, important actors in National Socialist cultural policy such as the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur were hostile to the association, as the RDS at its head was primarily composed of people from the environment of the German national media group of Alfred Hugenberg (Scherl Publishing house, UFA ). Therefore, the deputy chairman Hans Richter had to resign in March 1935 because of his lack of membership in the NSDAP . In addition, the administrative structures of RDS and RSK, some of which existed in parallel, proved increasingly inefficient. On September 20, 1935, the "Führer's Council" of the RDS decided to dissolve the association under pressure from the Reich Propaganda Ministry and the RSK. The approximately 12,000 RDS members were directly subordinated to the RSK. They were summarized there in the "group of writers".

literature

  • Jan-Pieter Barbian : Literary Policy in the 'Third Reich'. Institutions, competencies, fields of activity . Revised paperback edition, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-04668-6 , pp. 94–96 and pp. 207–210.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cuno Horkenbach (Ed.): The German Empire from 1918 to today . With objective support from the Reich authorities. Report booklet, Volume 3. Verlag für Presse, Wirtschaft und Politik, 1933.
  2. ↑ Cuno Horkenbach (Ed.): The German Empire from 1918 to today . With objective support from the Reich authorities. Report booklet, Volume 3. Verlag für Presse, Wirtschaft und Politik, 1933. P. 575.
  3. ^ " Die Neue Literatur ", August 1933.
  4. ↑ Archive for the history of books, volume 21. Booksellers Association, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-7657-0948-4 , pp. 625f.
  5. ^ Joseph Wulf : Literature and Poetry in the Third Reich. A documentation (= culture in the Third Reich , vol. 2). Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-550-07056-X , p. 202.
  6. ↑ Claire Goll , Yvan Goll , Paula Ludwig . "Once again I will be unfaithful to you". Correspondence and records from 1917 to 1966 . Edited and with an afterword by Barbara Glauert-Hesse. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-1046-9 , p. 270.
  7. ↑ Quoted from Murray G. Hall : Der Paul Zsolnay Verlag. From the foundation to the return from exile. Max Niemeyer, Tübingen 1994, ISBN 978-3-484-35045-8 , p. 372.
  8. ↑ Karsten Brandt in his doctoral thesis The Dissociation of a Writer in the Years 1934-1936: Ödön von Horváth and HW Becker , Humboldt University Berlin 2004, gives an insight into the process of entering the RDS - using the example of the writer Ödön von Horváth , S. 142. The dissertation can be viewed at https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/16072/brandt.pdf?sequence=1 - accessed on February 15, 2019