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Books were one of the first casulties of the NAZI regime when Hitler seized power in 1933. The NAZIs organized mass burnings of books written by Jews or expressing objectional ideas. Virtually all books by Jewish authors were destroyed. Hitler Youth members enthusiastically committed masterpieces of the German language as well as many foreign texts to huge bonfires. The book burnings were carefully prepared. The NAZIS seized power in January 1933. Throughout the spring of 1933, NAZI student organizations, professors, and librarians compiled an extensive lists of books they determined to be "entartet" (degenerate) and should not be read by decent Germans. NAZI SA Stormtroopers and student groups armed with this list on the night of May 10, 1933, surged into libraries and bookstores all over Germany. They organized Wagnerian spectacles, marching in longlines by torchlight, singing Party songs, and chanting the twelve "theses,"--their manifesto for the "purification" of German literature and thought. They then threw the seized books on to huge bonfires. More than 20,000 books were burned on May 10 at the Berlin Opernplatz book burning alone. Many were works of Jewish authors such as Max Brod, Albert Einstein, Franz Kafka, Richard Katz, Sigmund Freud, and Franz Werfel. German-writing authors from Prague were Franz Kafka, Franz Werfel ("The Song of Bernadette"), Max Brod and Richard Katz. They were Jews, so their books were burned. Thomas Mann married a Jewish woman, Katja Pringsheim, so his children were half-Jews according to NAZI classifications. Most were by non-Jewish writers, including famous American (Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, and Sinclair Lewis), English (H.G. Wells), French, and German (Thomas Mann--whose wife was Jewish, Erich Maria Remarque, and Rainer Maria Rilke) writers who expressed idea differing from the NAZI world view. Erich Maria Remarque was born a Catholic (notice his middle name). His real surname was Kramer. (Remark in reverse). His books were burned on account of his anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front--the most important novel to emerge from World War I. Many of the banned authors still alive were were emmigrated, many to the United States. Also the books by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke were burned. He was too cosmopolitan, born in Prague, living in France as secretary of Rodin. Somebody like that thoroughly antagonized the NAZIs. The choice of degenerate authors provides a terrifying insight into the NAZI mindset. One such author was Helen Keller, the deaf-mute who became a writer. (The handicapped in German were to be targeted by the NAZIs as part of a eugenics program several years before the Holocaust.) Public and private libraries and book stores were advised to ensure that they did not have the "degenerate", "un-German" books.
Until Hitler, books had been revered in Germany perhaps more than any where else in Europe. The NAZI bookburings in May 1933 were one of the first shocking events of the NAZI regime. Unlike the arrests that had begun, the bookburnings were widely covered in the German and foreign press. And because the NAZIs were proud of their work, there was extensive film coverage which was shown in movie news reels (the primary outlet for photo journalism at the time) all over the world. The shock was not just that books were being burned, but that it was being done at German universities--some of the world's graet centers of academic learning. The world's revulsion is not difficult to understand. What is perhaps more troubling than the burning itself is the reaction of the German academic community. Such actions by NAZI thugs was not suprising. The book burnings, however, were carried out by German university students. There was almost know criticism by their professors, indeed many joined the students or endorsed their actions. [Davidson, pp. 46-47.] It was becoming apparent by May 1933 what happened to NAZI critics, still the regime had just begun its campaign against the domestic opposition. The virtual silence of the German academic community is shocking indeed.
Minister of Propaganda Goebbels in mid-March 1933 launched a campaign against art and books with an "un-German spirit". This meant books written by Jews or Marxists, actually the two in the NAZI-mind were inseperable. When the book burnings occurred in May, German newspapers now firmly under Goebbels control, triumphantly reported on the events.
University students like much of German society, becamne heavily politicized in the aftermath of World War I. Many university students were drawn to right-wing politics and gradually the NAZIs became the dominant right-wing group. There were in 1933 two important university student groups. The first predated the NAZIs. It was the Deutsche Studentenschaft which was founded in 1919 and to which all German university students had to belong. The second was the National Socialist Studentenbund, a NAZI Party organization. After the NAZI takeover in January 1933 competition between the two groups increased as it was increasinglu obvious that one of the two would be disbanded. There was little or no active student opposition to the book burings on the part of the Deutsche Studentenschaft, in fact many members tried to "out NAZI " the NAZI National Socialist Studentenbund. [Stratz, pp. 347-372.] One of the most disturbing aspect of the NAZI book burings was that it was not just conducted by SA thugs, but by some of Germany's brightest, most idealistic young people.
Books were one of the first casulties of the NAZI regime when Hitler seized power in 1933. The NAZIs organized mass burnings of books written by Jews or expressing objectional ideas. Virtually all books by Jewish authors were destroyed. Hitler Youth members enthusiastically committed masterpieces of the German language as well as many foreign texts to huge bonfires. The book burnings were carefully prepared. The NAZIS seized power in January 1933. Throughout the spring of 1933, NAZI student organizations, professors, and librarians compiled an extensive lists of books they determined to be "entartet" (degenerate) and should not be read by decent Germans.
NAZI SA Stormtroopers and student groups armed with this list on the night of May 10, 1933, surged into libraries and bookstores in university towns all over Germany. These events were also staged on May 11. They organized Wagnerian spectacles, marching in long processions by torchlight, singing Party songs, and chanting the 12 "theses,"--their manifesto for the "purification" of German literature and thought. The students proudly wore their caps with the colors of their university corps. SA ans SS bands in many towns provided suitable musical accompaniment. The students then threw the seized books on to huge bonfires. The events were choreographed. Students would announce the authors of the books and expalin crptically expalin why they wee being burned. One German newspaper reported some of these encantations. One student called out, "Against class warfare and materialism: for the volks community and an idealistic lifestyle, I deliver to the flames the works of Marx and Kautsky." Another shouted, "Against decadence and moral decay; for disipline and morality in family and state, I deliver to the flames the works of Heinrich Mann, Ernst Glaeder and Erich Kästner." [Davidson, pp. 44-45.] Note the idealistic retoric of these young Germans. More than 20,000 books were burned on May 10 at the Berlin Opernplatz book burning alone.
Tthe Deutsche Studentenschaft had drafted 12 Thesis "against the un-German Jewish spirit in books. The title of course was reminiscent of Luthur's "95 Thesis" making it sound suitably Germanic. The content was an effort to establish the organizations NAZI credentials. They demanded that only Germans (meaning Aryan Germans) be allowed to publish in the German language. Any Jew publishing a book would have to publish in Hebrew and books appearing by Jewish authors, whether written in German or not, would have to be labeled as translations. [Davidson, p. 45.] Note the lack of awarness here of the NAZI program and this early stage of Hitler's rule. Implicit in these thesis was an assumption that Jews would continue living in Germany and continue writing and publishing books.
The primary target of the NAZIs were Jewish authors. There were many Christian German and foreign authors also selected for the bonfires.
Jewish authors were all burned, no matter what the subject are point of view. Jewish authors included Vicki Baum, Max Brod, Alfred Doeblin, Albert Einstein, Lion Feuchtwanger, Sigmund Freud, Heinrich Heine, Emil Ludwig (Cohn), Magnus Hirschfeld, Franz Kafka, Karl
Kautsky, Richard Katz, Felix Salten, Kurt Tucholsky, Jakob Wassermann, Franz Werfel, and Stefan Zweig. German-writing authors from Prague were Franz Kafka, Franz Werfel ("The Song of Bernadette"), Max Brod and Richard Katz. They were Jews, so their books were burned.
Heinrich Heine (1797-1856): Heinrich Heine one of Germany's greatest poets. Heine was Jewish, although he converted to Protestantism when he was a student. In the NAZI scheme he was still Jewish so his books were burned. I am not sure that he really said or
wrote what you are quoting. Heine wrote poems that became part of Germany's
cultural heritage. Many of Heine's poems were set to music by famous composers like
Mendelssohn (another converted German Jew) and Johannes Brahms. It was
impossible for even the NAZIs to erase or forbid everything that came out of
Heine's pen. So they tried to proclaim that his poems were "unbekannt" (unknown). The German people however knew better, and songs like "Die Lorelei" were sung even during World War II. A French reader writes, "I love Heinrich Heine; I have read several times many of his poems . I have most of his work, printed in the Gothic script. How any one good burn his poems I will never understand. German poetry is probably the most precise and sensible in the world. The German language is very rich and well adapted for litterature and music.
Felix Salten: Felix Salten wrote the children's book "Bambi" that became a favorite Walt Disney movie).
Carl Zuckmayer: Another great writer and playwright was Carl Zuckmayer, classified
as a "Half Jew" by the Nazis, who also emigrated to the United States.
The works of many non-Jewish German writers also had their books burned. These writers had expressed ideas differing from the NAZI world view in some way. Some of the German authors targetted were: Bertolt Brecht, Hermann Hesse?, Erich Kästner, Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, and Rainer Maria Rilke. There were many more.
Hermann Hesse: I am not sure if the NAZIs burned the books by Hermann Hesse. I won't be surprised if they did on account of Hesse's humaniterian philosophy. He later
became a cult figure of the "Hippies".
Erich Kaestner: Erich Kaestner was not Jewish and wrote some delightful children's books like "Emil and the Detectives". I'm not sure why his books were banned. He must have expressed himself unfavorably towards the NAZI regime I suppose.
Thomas Mann: Thomas Mann married a Jewish woman, Katja Pringsheim, (so his children were half-Jews according to NAZI classifications) and his books were burned.
Erich Maria Remarque: Erich Maria Remarque was born a Catholic (notice his middle name). His real surname was Kramer. (Remark in reverse). His books were burned on account of his anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front--the most important novel to emerge from World War I.
Rainer Maria Rilke: Also the books by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke were burned. He was too cosmopolitan, born in Prague, living in France as secretary of Rodin. Somebody like that thoroughly antagonized the NAZIs.
The works of many foreign authors were burned. Some of these writers included famous American (Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, and Sinclair Lewis), English (H.G. Wells), and French authors as well as those from other countries. A coralary of this policy was, as part of their effort to destroy the Polish nation, to destroy books in the Polish language after they occupied Poland in 1939.
German authors whose books were not burned were: Stefan George, Hans Grimm, Gerhart Hauptmann, and Ernst Juenger. They were not really NAZIs, but Goebbels could not ban all non-NAZI writers. Encouraged reading were the works by Friedrich Nietzsche (although most Germans could not comprehend what he wrote). Another favorite was Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an Englishman who wrote philosophical works (in German!) about race and "Volk".
Chamberlain was a great admirer of Richard Wagner and married his daughter Eva. He became a German citizen in 1916. Other foreigners who were in favor of and by the NAZIs were Sven Hedin, the Swedish world traveller and explorer and the Norwegian Knut Hamsun who's
novels were very popular. Interestingly, also some of the books by Flemish authors like Hendrik de Man, Stijn Streuvels, and Felix Timmermans were translated and read in
NAZI Germany. Hitler liked a series of nocels about Atlantics bordering on science fiction. I think the author was Leo Frobenius, who wrote Auf dem Wege nach Atlantis (On the Road to Atlantis). I know he he liked the books by Karl May, the author of books for boys about American Indians (Winnetou, Old Shatterhand, etc.). Karl May had never been in America. He spent some time in prison for embezzlement.
Many of the banned authors still alive were were emmigrated, many to the United States. Established authors often had the financial means to emmigrate. Many others either did not have the means to do so or did not choose to do so, not fully appreciating the dangers.
Communists and socialist authors ere targetted by the NAZIs. The word "socialist" was in the party name only to attract support from the working class, not because they had a socialist agenda. Bertolt Brecht was one of the most famous playwrights of the 19th century. Brecht was not Jewish. He was a Marxist and therefore an enemy of the NAZIs. He left Germany in 1933 and returned to East Berlin (the Soviet sector) in 1948. He wrote the text for Kurt Weill's "Three Penny Opera" with the famous song "Mack the Knife". Weill was a Jew and settled in Los Angeles where most of the exiled German writers and artists went to live during the NAZI era. (Hollywood was nearby!)
The non-Jewish authors that were burned were not only authors that wrote about politics. In fact, the choice of degenerate authors provides a terrifying insight into the NAZI mindset. One such author was Helen Keller, the deaf-mute who became a writer. The handicapped in German were to be targeted by the NAZIs as part of a eugenics program several years before the Holocaust. At first they were targetted for sterilization after assessments by heritary courts. After the War broke out in 1939, Hitler appreoved the euthenesia program which killed over 50,000 Germans.
Public and private libraries and book stores were advised to ensure that they did not have the "degenerate", "un-German" books. I do not have details yet, but I believe that the books in public, school, and university libraries were purged of books by the Jewish and other authors on the NAZI list. Many of the books burned in Berlin on May 10, 1933 came from the University of Berlin library.
We do not yet have details on what happened in people's homes. I am not sure that it was a crime to have these books. Certainly many educated Germans did not want to discard treasured books. It is likely that having such books woukd nake you suspect, so many Germans did discard them. A HBC reader tells us, "I have heard that some Germans managed to hold on to some of their beloved books by Jewish authors by simply covering them with a dust jacket of Hitler's Mein Kampf, Alfred Rosenberg's The Myth of the Twentieth Century or Houston Stewart Chamberlain's Die Grundlagen des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts.
I really don't know to what extent Hitler Youths were involved in the NAZI bookburnings that took place in 1933. We suspect that some of the older boys may have participated, but these seems to have been a night-time affair when the younger boys would have been home. Also this was done very soon after the NAZI take over and the organization was still relatively small. One question we have little information about is to what extent Hitler Youth boys and girls spied on neighbors and reported what books may be in the home. We have heard charges that this occurred, but have noted few actual accounts.
Americans and Europeans begining in the 1920s began to see motion pictue images of world events in movie newsreels. They were shown before feature films and in the years before television were the primary images of wokd events presented to the public. Beginning in 1933 the alarming scenes of NAZI Germany were presented. These included images of the book burings and outrages against the Jews. It was not just the public that warched these newsreels. The new American president, Franklin Roosevelt, after dinner in the White House would several times a week view movies with family and guests. These viewings included the newsreels. The brought the president pictorial and sound impressiins of national and internatioinal events. And some of the first images Roosevelt saw was the book burings and the beginning NAZI actions against the Jews. [Freidel, p. 287.]
A HBC reader who was a member of the Hitler Youth in the fional years of the War writes, "I never heard about this. I was about 1 year old when this happened. I do not remember having heard of this kind of burning even AFTER the Hitler time." Another reader writes, "It certainly was a dark page in Germany's history book!"
Davidson, Eugene. The Unmaking of Adolf Hitler (Univesity of Missouri: Columbia, 1996), 519p.
Freidel, Frank. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Launching the New Deal (Little Brown: Boston, 1973), 574p.
Stratz, Hans-Wolfgang. "Die Studentische `Aktion wider den undeutschen Geist' im Frühjar 1933," Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte Vol. 4, 1968, pp. 347-372. Note that the NAZI Einsatzgruppen used the same term, "Aktion" to describe the murder of Jews and other civilians in Poland and the Soviet Union during World War II.
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