“Global Mission”: The Goethe Society of Weimar in the Third Reich

Summary

THE LORE AND EVEN the research surrounding the Goethe Society of Weimar (Goethe-Gesellschaft) in the Third Reich have generally been guided by an apologetic tendency, in spite of intermittent scholarly critique of some of the protagonists. This defensive posture is summed up in a statement by Hans Wahl from March 1946, when he was seeking to convince the Soviet Military Administration in Germany to allow the society to take up its activities again:

Ich darf hinzufügen, daß die Goethe-Gesellschaft während der vergangenen Jahre die übliche Gleichschaltung nicht erfahren hat, nach wie vor nach ihren alten Satzungen arbeitet und das Führerprinzip nicht eingeführt hat. Sie hat ferner keinerlei Förderung durch die NSDAP erhalten. Diese hat vielmehr die Gestalt Goethes und sein Lebenswerk als gegnerische Kraft betrachtet und behandelt.

[I might add that the Goethe Society did not experience the usual “coordination” [Gleichschaltung] during the last years, to this day it still has its old constitution [from 1928] and did not introduce the Führer principle. Furthermore, it received no [financial] support from the Nazi party, which viewed and treated the figure of Goethe and his life's work as an opposing force.]

This statement consists mainly of half-truths or outright untruths: the Goethe-Gesellschaft indeed did not experience the “usual” Gleichschaltung (coordination), but rather a “softer” version that gave them many benefits; the constitution of 1928 was retained, but it was repeatedly violated; the Führer principle was not introduced explicitly, but it certainly was implemented in practice, in modified form; the society did receive some modest financial support (for students to attend meetings). The most important untruth: the Nazi regime did not view Goethe as an “opposing force,” but rather as a genius who demonstrated the superiority of German culture.

In the following I want to show that the Goethe Society had a privileged place in the Third Reich, successfully achieving regime approval for its reinterpretation of Goethe as a precursor of the Third Reich. Despite this favored status, the society nevertheless practiced what the Germans call “vorauseilender Gehorsam” (preemptive obedience), voluntarily and eagerly adapting to party ideology and supporting the regime's aims, particularly in foreign policy.