Literary prizes also played a significant role as tools used to promote suitable literature. They were intended to encourage German writers to produce works for the Third Reich and to contribute to drawing proven authors into the literary establishment of the regime. At the same time they also provided a source of financial support for writers, and offered the organisa-tions and individuals who awarded the prizes the chance for publicity and self-promotion. Award ceremonies, moreover, provided an opportunity for cultural propaganda. While large cultural events allowed Nazi leaders to present the principles of cultural life in the Third Reich to the public, award ceremonies were a chance to demonstrate these principles in practice and at the same time to claim specific writers for the regime. The propa-ganda effect of literary prizes was further enhanced by the publicity they attracted; newspaper articles described the events and presented the lives and works of writers to the wider public, at the same time spreading Nazi values. The award and regulation of prizes was thus an important compo-nent in Nazi Literaturpolitik.
Prizes were, however, not new. In the Weimar period they already served as a way for organisations and political parties, as well as press, film and radio corporations, to encourage writers to deal with specific themes and to promote particular political and social issues in the public consciousness.87 The adaptation of existing prizes for the cultural policies of the Third Reich, therefore, had the additional advantage of allowing the Nazis to claim
86 Ibid. p. 420.
87 Barbian, Literaturpolitik, pp. 450, 458.
continuity with the longer cultural history of the German Volk. During the Weimar Republic, many literary prizes had furthered republican ideals and those honoured were frequently representatives of the literary modernism abhorred by the völkisch-nationalists and the Nazi Party. After 1933 prizes, like other literary institutions, were either gleichgeschaltet, abolished or newly established. Helga Strallhofer-Mitterbauer has noted that relatively few prizes fell into the first category: she lists the Goethe-Preis in Frankfurt am Main, the Literaturpreis in Munich and the Erzähler-Wettbewerb of the journal Die neue Linie as examples.88
The creation of new prizes took place on national, regional and local levels. Considerable weight was also given to literary prizes at the highest ministerial levels. As part of the earliest attempts of the Nazis to inculcate the population with the National-Socialist ideology, and to gain promi-nence in German life and culture, as well as politics, in July 1933 Goebbels instituted the National Book Prize worth 12,000 Reichsmarks, also known as the Stefan George-Preis, claiming the legacy of the poet who died in Switzerland the same year. The winners of this prize were: 1934: Richard Euringer for Deutsche Passion; 1935: Eberhard Wolfgang Möller for his volume of poetry Berufung der Zeit; 1936: Gerhard Schumann for his cantate Heldische Feier; 1937: Friedrich Bethge for the drama Marsch der Veteranen; 1938: A volume edited by Baldur von Schirach entitled Das Lied der Getreuen. Verse ungenannter österreichischer Hilter-Jugend aus den Jahren der Verfolgung 1933–1937; 1939: Bruno Brehm for his Austrian trilogy Apis und Este, Das war das Ende and Weder Kaiser noch König.89
Likewise Hanns Johst was rewarded for his dedicated work for the National Socialist cause with the Deutscher Nationalpreis für Kunst und Wissenschaft in 1938, a prize that was established to replace the Nobel Prize for Literature, which Germans were forbidden to accept following its award to Carl von Ossietzky in 1936. In recommending Johst, Ihde, the Geschäftsführer of the RSK, wrote:
88 Helga Strallhofer-Mitterbauer, NS-Literaturpreise für österreichische Autoren: Eine Dokumentation (Vienna: Böhlau, 1994), p. 12.
89 Barbian, Literaturpolitik, p. 459.
Hanns Johst is one of very few writers who most seriously sought to follow the politi-cal pioneers in his literary work and, clearly rejecting social-national [DNVP] ways of thinking, early on recognised in the teaching of National Socialism the rebirth of Germany. The fundamental principles of National Socialism and the work of the National Socialist movement itself became the redemptive moment for Hanns Johst. From this point his own literary work begins to grow. He lays it at the feet of his Führer in thanks.90
Following a commentary on Johst’s works, Ihde concluded by assuring a second nomination for Johst from Max Amman, Director of the NSDAP’s Eher Verlag, and stating: ‘“Dichter” and human being are unified in Hanns Johst through National Socialism and in this relationship Johst stands alone. Johst’s writing always testifies to the most intense experience, and this experience was for him National Socialism.’91
On a more regional level, for example, as part of the first Kulturwoche in the Gau of Saxony, the Reichsstatthalter, Martin Mutschmann, donated two prizes. The first was to be awarded to a Heimat novel set in Saxony that por-trayed the characteristics of the Lausitzer, the populations of the Erzgebirge or the Vogtland, or the Dresdner or Leipziger. The second would be given for a comic drama that revealed the true humour of the German Volk.92 Thus, it was hoped a canon of National Socialist literature would emerge.93 Moreover, the literary institutions of the Nazi government sought to encourage the donation of prizes from private sources. During his time as President of the RSK, Blunck cultivated several potential benefactors for cultural and literary prizes. Significant among them were the prizes for the works of Auslandsdeutsche, awarded by the foundations established at the end of 1935 by the Hamburg businessman Alfred Toepfer, and his industrialist
90 Ihde to Goebbels, 1.07.1938, ‘Betr. Deutschen Nationalpreis für Kunst und Wissenschaft 1938’ in B.Arch.R56V–31.
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid. pp. 451–452.
93 For culture and literature prizes see also Jan Zimmermann, ‘Von deutschen Jugendherbergen zu europäischen Kulturpreisen’ in Georg Kreis et al. (eds), Alfred Toepfer, Stifter und Kaufmann: Bausteine einer Biographie–Kritische Bestandaufnahme (Hamburg: Christians, 2000), pp. 226–229.
brother Ernst, based in New York. Between them they donated 1.25 million Reichsmark for initially eight and later ten prizes each worth between 5,000 and 10,000 Reichsmark. These were administered by two foundations, the Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe-Stiftung and the Hansische-Stiftung.94 The focus of these prizes corresponded with Alfred Toepfer’s particular concern for the status and wellbeing of Germans living outside the borders of the Third Reich. Thus, with the establishment of prizes for Germans in each of Germany’s neighbouring regions, and those peoples considered racially related, literature prizes once again reflected and propagated the Nazi ideol-ogy. While Blunck was closely involved in the foundation and administration of the prizes as President of the RSK, both Toepfer and the Nazi govern-ment went to great lengths to ensure that they retained the appearance of independence from the political arena, which would have weakened their effectiveness abroad. To heighten the image of autonomy from the govern-ment, they were awarded through German universities, which also lent them academic prestige. Nonetheless, the selection committees for these awards were heavily influenced by the RSK, and the awards reflected the concern for the ‘pan-German’ Volk that also informed Nazi attitudes to foreign affairs, as well as an older völkisch emphasis on the Great German Reich.95
A number of literary prizes and honours were similarly associated in the first instance with specific universities, or with cities or regions.
Identification with a specific locality could also be a reason for choosing a specific writer as the recipient of a prize, as was the case with Wilhelm Schäfer and the Rheinischer Literaturpreis in 1937.96 These associations remained strong between 1933 and 1945. Thus the Rheinischer Literaturpreis
94 For the extensive correspondence between officials in the RSK and Toepfer regarding the establishment and administration of prizes, see B.Arch.R56V–91.
95 Barbian, Literaturpolitik, pp. 461–462; Zimmermann, ‘Von deutschen Jugend-herbergen zu europäischen Kulturpreisen’, pp. 211–251; Helga Strallhofer-Mitterbauer, NS-Literaturpreise für österreichische Autoren: Eine Dokumentation (Vienna: Böhlau, 1994, pp. 31–47.
96 Gertrude Depl-Kaufmann, ‘Der Rheinische Literaturpreis 1935–1944’ in Bernd Kortländer, Literaturpreise: Literaturpolitik und Literatur am Beispiel der Region Rheinland/Westfalen (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1998), pp. 67–100.
was established in 1935 on the initiative of the Landeshauptmann of the Rhine Province, Heinz Haake. It was first and foremost a Nazi initiative and remained strongly tied to Party structures throughout its history. It was first awarded at the Rheinische Dichtertagung in Düsseldorf and Krefeld in October of the same year to Heinrich Lersch. Gertrude Cepl-Kaufmann has noted that from the time of the informal foundation of the Bund rheinis-cher Dichter in 1926 such events had gained substantial significance in the province. She goes on to argue that the prize served the Nazi government as a way of drawing existing institutions and structures into its ideological sphere of influence, noting that of the nine recipients of the prize between 1935 and 1943, only two, Hermann Stegumann and Curt Langebeck, had no apparent connection with the Bund rheinischer Dichter.97 From 1937, the year in which Wilhelm Schäfer was honoured, the prize-giving ceremony was held annually in the Gürzenich in Cologne, taking on an increased Nazi character that reflected not only the intensification of the Party’s control over literature prizes by the end of the 1930s but also the manner in which they could be used as instruments as propaganda.98
Existing prizes were also deployed in the service of the new regime, emphasising ongoing continuity in German culture. The Gleichschaltung of the Goethe-Prize was swift. In January 1933 writers like Edmund Husserl, Wilhelm Schäfer, Hermann Hesse, Rudolf G. Binding and Martin Buber were under consideration; with the appointment of the Nazi Fritz Krebs as mayor of the city and the simultaneous takeover of the presidency of the prize committee by Bernhard Rust, however, that year’s prize was finally awarded to völkisch Hermann Stehr. In the following years, the committee, which after 1934 also included Goebbels and the playwright and Gaukulturwart der NSDAP, Friedrich Bethge, selected, among others, Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer (1937) and Wilhelm Schäfer (1941) as the recipi-ents of this prize.99 Willi Emrich’s account of proceedings on the occasion
97 Ibid., p. 67.
98 Ibid., p. 81.
99 Friedrich Bethge to Hans Hinkel, 28.7.1936, B.Arch.R56I–3; Barbian, Literaturpolitik, pp. 460–461.
of Schäfer’s award in 1938 remains relatively uncritical. He quotes the formal wording of the award, which stated: ‘Die Ehrung gilt dem dichterischen Gestalter deutscher Landschaft und deutschen Volkstums, dem Künder der deutschen Seele und Meister geprägter Sprachform, in dessen Leben und Werk sich der Begriff des Klassischen im Goetheschen Sinn rein und zuchtvoll verkörpert.’100 In accepting the award, Schäfer in turn placed significance on the line of continuity it represented from Goethe’s genius to the leading writers of the contemporary, Nazi-led era.101
Another significant recipient of the Goethe Prize was the East Prussian poet, Agnes Miegel, who had already been honoured with the Herder Prize, as well as a plaque donated by the NS-Kulturgemeinde to be mounted on the house of her birth. In addition, she was a member of the Literature Section of the Prussian Academy of Arts and had received an honorary doctorate from the University of Königsberg by the time she won the Goethe Prize in 1940, the same year she formally joined the NSDAP.102 The reports of her award demonstrate the way in which significant literary prizes had a wider significance in the Third Reich, providing opportunities to spread an ideological message, not least through the press.
In Miegel’s case, particular emphasis was placed on the theme of Heimat, which was imbued with particular significance in time of war.
Thus, one newspaper commented that in committing her life and work to East Prussia, a region charged from early on in history with a heroic fate, Miegel was expressing her commitment to Germany.103 Out of love of the Heimat, and in its hour of need, the role of literature was, therefore, to give expression to the ultimate sentiment: duty to one’s Heimat. Agnes Miegel was responsible for making East Prussia, its landscapes and cities, known to Germans throughout the German Reich. Through her ballads and songs,
100 Quoted in Willi Emrich, Die Träger des Goethepreises der Stadt Frankfurt am Main von 1927 bis 1961 (Frankfurt a/M: Osterrieth, 1963), p. 171.
101 Ibid., p. 171.
102 ‘Der Goethepreis 1940 für die Dichterin der ostpreußischen Heimat,’ undated clip-ping from an unnamed newspaper (possibly the Volksblatt), 1940, DLA – A: Miegel, 3: Zum Leben und Werk.
103 Ibid.
she connected of the ‘new Reich’ with centuries past, whilst giving constant expression to the German present and future as only a women with her particular calling could do. The article further noted that she dedicated a number of ballads to those who had died in the Second World War, her poetry bestowing immortalilty on them.104
A clipping of a further article that has remained with Miegel’s papers, a handwritten note attributing it simply to the General-Anzeiger, emphasised similar themes. The reporter went to particular pains to link Goethe to Miegel, stressing the continuity in the German spirit that the award embod-ied.105 In presenting the award, Oberbürgermeister Staatsrat Dr. Krebs, on behalf of the city of Frankfurt, emphasised its significance for the Germany’s situation in the Second World War, in which the Germans were once again fighting for their future ‘with blood and iron’. Krebs noted that Miegel’s East Prussian homeland had been united once more with the rest of Germany as a result of German military victories:
She [‘Mother Germany’] did not forget the wistful call for help that could be heard coming from this German heartland over the course of many years of separation, the same call for help that found such moving expression in the poem by Agnes Miegel,
‘Ueber die Weichsel drüben’. It is, therefore, no coincidence that this year the unani-mous choice of the curatorium for the Goethe-Prize fell on the poet Agnes Miegel from Königsberg, for alongside the recognition of her art in the spirit of Goethe it is also a strong recognition of East-Prussian Germanness, which through her work is brought in such a special manner to the consciousness of the whole community of the German Volk, with its single shared fate.106
In her response, Miegel thanked Krebs. She noted that the Goethehaus was the house of Goethe’s parents and remembered her own. The news-paper used this opportunity to communicate a racial message in line with
104 Ibid.
105 ‘Feierstunde im Hirschgraben’ (Frankfurter?) General Anzeiger, 28.08.1940, DLA – A:
Miegel, 3: Zum Leben und Werk.
106 From the speech delivered by Oberbürgermeister Stadtrat Dr. Krebs of Frankfurt am Main at the award ceremony to present Agnes Miegel with the Goethepreis der Stadt Frankfurt, reproduced in ‘Feierstunde im Hirschgraben’.
Nazi ideology, noting that nothing could have given more straightforward or more honest expression to eternal ancestry.107 The Stuttgarter Neues Tagblatt also reported on Miegel’s award in its women’s pages, presenting a slightly different angle, but nonetheless remaining within the boundaries of propaganda. The article describes the simplicity of Miegel’s life, rooted in Königsberg. It was this place and the surrounding landscape that had formed Miegel’s work. Combined with her love of the classical world, the foundation of German culture, and her mastery of form, Miegel was a suitable successor to those who had been awarded the prize before her;
what bound her to Goethe was the way in which ‘the smallest detail taken from everyday life can become the most complete portrait of the cosmos in her poetry, an eternal song of fate and the beauty of the whole world, of the sated fullness of existence.’108
Kolbenheyer was the recipient of the largest number of prizes of any writer during the Third Reich, receiving accolades at various levels from local to national. In 1933 he was awarded the Literaturpreis des Goethebundes Bremen, which, according to Helga Strallhofer-Mittermeier, was probably the only occasion on which it was awarded.109 More significant, perhaps, was the award of the Literaturpreis der Stadt München in 1936. First awarded in 1927, this prize counted among its pre-1933 recipients Hans Carossa, Willy Seidel, Josef Magnus-Wehner, Hans Brandenburg and Ruth Schaumann.
As far as the Propaganda Ministry was concerned it was counted among the ‘reichsweite Kunstpreise’. New regulations drawn up in 1935 decreed that it could only be given to a German-speaking writer of ‘Aryan ancestry’
for a work of poetry, drama or epic. In addition recipients must have been resident in Munich for at least five years and have demonstrated potential for ongoing literary success. Moreover, the city authorities viewed the ideological standpoint of the recipients to be of ‘decisive importance’.110
107 Ibid.
108 Dr. Ruth Hildebrand, ‘Agnes Miegel erhielt den Goethe-Preis’, Stuttgarter Neues Tagblatt, 31.08.1940, DLA – Dokumentationsstelle: Agnes Miegel 1: Material aus der Zeit vor 1945.
109 Strallhofer-Mitterbauer, NS-Literaturpreise, p. 87.
110 Ibid., pp. 30; 89–90.
Thus, the award of this prize, worth RM 2000, by the ‘Hauptstadt der Bewegung’ to Kolbenheyer was indicative of the regard he enjoyed in the Third Reich as an ideologically as well as culturally significant writer.
The following year, in 1937, he was similarly honoured with the Goethe Prize. According to Emrich, the prize was presented by Stadtrat Dr. Keller on behalf of the City Mayor at a reception on 28th August in the house of Goethe’s birth. Keller recognised Kolbenheyer as among the ‘best of the German Volk’ who had remained true to his German being. Keller added that as a German from the borderlands, in Kolbenheyer’s case the Sudetenland, Kolbenheyer’s path had been tougher than that of many others. His particular praise for Kolbenheyer’s historical novels, common in commentaries on his work at this time, reflects not only their status in these years, but also the fact that of all his works they were probably the most accessible and therefore best-known. For Keller, the heroes of these novels were ‘Faustian’ figures, ‘who at the turning points of history pointed the way towards the future and raised awareness of great changes on the way.’111 Thus Kolbenheyer’s work reflected the immutable nature of the völkisch character as it confronted historical turning points. The historical nature of völkisch existence was once again evident in the changes brought by the Nazi regime.112
Kolbenheyer’s post-1945 account of the award differs a little from that given by Emrich. Kolbenheyer noted that at the time the prize was held in high esteem and the list of prize-winners included a colourful range of writers. In selecting the recipient, he suggested, one of the main voices was that of the Regent of the Goethehaus, Prof. Ernst Beutler, who held this position from 1925 to 1960 and, according to Emrich, was a noted opponent of National Socialism. Kolbenheyer’s assumption was that Beutler had not personally read his work, but that Kolbenheyer’s position was such that he could not be ignored when considering possible laureates.113
111 Emrich, Die Träger des Goethepreises, p. 147.
112 Ibid., p. 147.
113 Kolbenheyer, Sebastian Karst, vol. III, p. 344.
The evening before the award ceremony, Kolbenheyer was required to present a lecture on Goethe. In Goethes Denkprinzipien und der biologische
The evening before the award ceremony, Kolbenheyer was required to present a lecture on Goethe. In Goethes Denkprinzipien und der biologische