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LXII Motifs of Cultural Eschatology in German Poetry from Naturalism to Expressionism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Detlev W. Schümann
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Extract

When Gottfried Keller in his poetic rejoinder to Justinus Kerner's romantic plaint extolled the world-transforming forces of technology, he expressed the dominant faith of his time in a possible synthesis of the spiritual and the utilitarian, of idealism and materialism. To use the vernacular: he did not doubt but that he could eat his cake and have it. To Kerner it was a bad dream that after the steamship and the locomotive the next step would be aviation, that in the future leaking airborne oil vats might sully the pure atmosphere, the last element to remain undefiled by man; he wished to lie in the grass and gaze up into the serene blue depths while yet he might. Keller replied that there was nothing to prevent such idyllic escape, but that he for one preferred to identify himself with the dynamism of the new “fire dragon.” In fact, was not only now the magic of Kerner's old parchments at last being transformed into reality by the forces of nature in the service of the human spirit? Were they not building for man a “brave new world?”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 58 , Issue 4_1 , December 1943 , pp. 1125 - 1177
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1943

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References

page 1125 note 1 “An Justinus Kerner—Erwiderung auf sein Lied ‘Unter dem Himmel‘” (1845).

page 1125 note 2 Cf. Julius Hart, Der neue Gott (1899), p. 46: “Das Triumph- und Siegeslied vom Zeitalter der Maschinen klang am hellsten und frohesten um die Mitte dieses Jahrhunderts bis in die siebziger Jahre hinein [...] Die Maschine trug uns in ein goldenes Zeitalter, in ein Land neuer Seligkeiten und Glückszustände hinüber.” [Since several of the authors discussed in this paper use a series of periods for purposes of punctuation, omissions are indicated by dots within brackets.] If Julius Hart here has the period of unqualified optimism end in the eighteen-seventies, the connection with the great depression after the Gründerjahre is apparent.

page 1126 note 3 Julius Hart himself, incidentally, clings to the (postulatory rather than reasoned) hope that the twentieth century will bring a new beginning, an harmonious reconciliation between science and religion, knowledge and imagination, the rational and the irrational, the mechanistic and the humanistic.

page 1126 note 4 This term, to be sure, he disclaims, insisting on the specific tasks and challenges of our age, late though it be. Actually, he rejects nostalgic quietism rather than pessimism.

page 1126 note 5 The following analysis would have been impossible without the generous cooperation of Miss Edith Blanchard (reference librarian, Brown University) re interlibrary loans and the kindness of Dr. Kurt Pinthus (now of the Library of Congress), who put his valuable private collection of modern German poetry at my disposal. I am deeply grateful to both.

page 1126 note 6 Cf. Heinrich Hart, Literarische Erinnerungen, in Gesammelte Werke, iii, pp. 33, 36.

page 1127 note 7 The poem “Berlin”—cf. Martin Sommerfeld, Anthologie deutscher Lyrik 1880–1930 (1931)—shows a definitely positive attitude towards the dynamism of the city.

page 1127 note 8 This contrast between heroism and pity in a peculiar way anticipates the later expressionistic ethos. In fact, Heinrich Hart's juxtaposition of Christ and Alexander the Great (“Gespräch mit dem Tode”) points to Werfel's “Held und Heiliger—Prophezeiung an Alexander” (Einander). Especially “expressionistic” in the tenor of the earlier poem is also the violent condemnation of the Ego as the source of all evil:

Ein Traum von Ichthum, voller Fieberpein,

Ein Kranken an dem Ich ist euer Sein.

Schlepp weiter, weiter Dein armsel'ges Ich

Und Hölle wird die Ewigkeit für Dich.

Das Ich ist eurer Sünden Quell allein, etc.

page 1128 note 9 Significantly, H. Hart's first lyrical collection (1879), although it contains the gloomiest forebodings (e.g.. the above mentioned “Wacht auf”), is entitled Weltpfingsten.

page 1128 note 10 Cf. also the end of “An die oberen Zehntausend.”

page 1129 note 11 Cf. also “Sturmsegen” in Henckell's Gesammelte Werke (vol. ii: Buch des Kampfes).

page 1129 note 12 Here and in the following the double dates signify the period within which each poem falls, as indicated by the author at the end of the volume.

page 1130 note 13 It had appeared in 1892; the full text does not seem to be available in this country. Von Khaynach later became relatively well known as a painter.

page 1131 note 14 Remarkable in this context is his antireligious fury:

Zuck' nieder Blitz, und räche dich, Natur,

Spült, Feuerstürme, weg die Heuchelei!

Die Flamme friβt die letzte Götterspur,

Auf daβ Erinn'rung nur noch übrig sei.

Baal, Wotan, Zeus beherrschten diese Flur,

Brahma, Jehova—alles einerlei [...]

page 1131 note 15 “Gomorrha,” in her Gesammelte Gedichte (1910).

page 1131 note 16 In Henckell's Buch der Freiheit under the title “Das Ende.” Our text follows the Gesammelte Gedichte.

page 1132 note 17 This antirationalistic slant is especially surprising in the naturalistic period.

page 1132 note 18 “Nur Zeit! wir wittern Gewitterwind, / wir Volk.”—“Es fegt der Sturm die Felder rein, / es wird kein Mensch mehr Hunger schrein.”

page 1133 note 19 All quotations follow the Gesammelte Werke.

page 1133 note 20 Cf. also especially p. 278: “Die groβen Städte sind nicht wahr [...]”

page 1135 note 21 Cf. the late Rilke: “Es gibt weder ein Diesseits noch Jenseits, sondern die groβe Einheit [...]” (Briefe aus Muzot, p. 333).

page 1135 note 22 In this connection mention should be made of a brief eschatological passage (p. 220) in the First Book (1899). Here God significantly allows only one “hour” to the cities, two to the churches, seven to the work of the husbandman, before He appears in the guise of primeval forces and finally resorbs all existence into Himself.

page 1135 note 23 Briefe aus Muzot, p. 335 f.

page 1136 note 24 Cf. also i, no. xix and ii, no. x (end).

page 1136 note 25 Der Stern des Bundes, p. 43. All quotations are from the Gesamt-Ausgabe. Der Siebente Ring (1907) will be cited as SR, Der Stern des Bundes (1914) as Sdb. Poems without titles will be identified according to pages.

page 1136 note 26 SdB, pp. 89, 63, 85 resp.

page 1137 note 27 Cf. the end of “Templer” in SR.

page 1137 note 28 Gundolf protests against such criticism (Stefan George, 1920, pp. 204 f.).

page 1137 note 29 Altogether the “Zeitgedichte” are characterized by the presentation of timeless symbols of integrated, formed existence.

page 1137 note 30 For a more detailed analysis of the poet's cultural criticism than is possible within the limits of this survey cf. Wolfgang Heybey, Glaube und Geschichte im Werk Stefan Georges (1935; no. 3 of the series “Religion und Geschichte,” ed. Joachim Wach).

page 1138 note 31 Bild und Gesetz, gesammelte Abhandlungen (1930), p. 29.

page 1138 note 32 i, 3 (1893); reprinted Werke xvii, 30.

page 1138 note 33 Op. cit., p. 91.—We may interpret Algabal as the attempt to wrest from decay and doom certain aesthetic values, a livable form of existence. In the Bücher der Birten- und Preisgedichte, der Sagen und Sänge und der hängenden Gärten (1895) the poet then creates three integrated worlds which, without the slightest didactic emphasis, present themselves as positive foils to the modern age.

page 1138 note 34 Cf. also “Böcklin” (2nd stanza: vulgarization of art), “Hexenreihen,” “Einem Pater” (equalitarianism), “An Verwey” (the amorphous masses), “Heisterbach: der Mönch.”

page 1138 note 35 Cf. also the second “Jahrhundertspruch.” Closely related is, of course, the prophecy of a coming World War in the fourth “Jahrhundertspruch.”

page 1138 note 36 Gundolf (op. cit., p. 91) also designates the poem “Einzug” as apocalyptic; this, however, seems rather far-fetched. More convincing is Ernst Morwitz' interpretation in his commentary Die Dichtung Stefan Georges (1934), p. 104.

page 1140 note 37 Cf. especially also p. 36 (“Weltabend lohte....”).

page 1141 note 38 Cf. also the end of the last “Zeitgedicht” (SR) and SdB, pp. 82, 88, 91.

page 1141 note 39 It is noteworthy that C. N. Valhope and Ernst Morwitz, the latter speaking as an authorized interpreter, stress the chiliastic implication of the title by translating it The Kingdom Come (George, Poems, 1943).

page 1142 note 40 Cf. the title of the poem “Einem jungen Führer im Ersten Weltkrieg” (1921).

page 1142 note 41 In Das Neue Reich without this title (“Wenn einst dies geschlecht sich gereinigt von schande”).

page 1142 note 42 Certain aspects of this theme are foreshadowed in “Die Kindheit des Helden” (SR).

page 1143 note 43 “Stefan George: Das Neue Reich,” Logos, xx (1931), 96. Be it noted that the rebuilding of the temple is envisaged after the lapse of 500 years. George's cyclic conception of history here becomes especially clear.

page 1143 note 44 Op. cit. (cf. note 30 above), p. 138.

page 1144 note 45 Cf. also the end of “Burg Falkenstein.”

page 1144 note 46 Cf. “Franken” (SR).

page 1144 note 47 For the earlier issues I was restricted to the “Auslese” in three volumes; for series 9—11/12 (1910–19) I had access to the complete text.

page 1144 note 48 Stefan George und die Blätter für die Kunst (1930), p. 166.

page 1144 note 49 Cf. Wolters, p. 130: “In fast allen Gedichten von Klages [...] lebt das Endgrauen und nie ein Aufgang.” Klages went so far as to reject all historical development in favor of that radical primitivism to which he was inspired by Bachofen's Mutterrecht (cf. Wolters, pp. 250 ff.).

page 1145 note 50 Gundolf expresses ideas that have a direct bearing on our problem in his essay “Wesen und Beziehung” in vol. ii of the Jahrbuch für die geistige Bewegung, edited (1910–12) by him and Wolters as a mouthpiece of the George circle. He inveighs against the hybris of modernity and deplores the social (in the widest sense) ills which it has wrought. Actual mass insanity would seem to underlie our craze for ever greater speed. This civilization is bound to destroy itself—the question is only whether humanity can survive this deterioration and whether, after another century of “progress,” beings deserving the name of man will be left. In any case the illusion of the conquest of nature will be thoroughly led ad absurdum. Resistance against the forces of the age is a categoric imperative, even though victory should be impossible. For similar ideas cf. also Berthold Vallentin, “Zur Kritk des Fortschritts” (Jahrbuch, i) and “Einleitung der Herausgeber” (Jahrbuch, iii).

page 1145 note 51 Wolters, pp. 240 ff., 265 ff.

page 1145 note 52 Cf. “Osiris” (end) and “Um die Mutter,” Blätter (Auslese) i, 116 and ii, 88 resp.—also in Wolfskehl's Gesammelte Dichtungen, erste Reihe (1903).

page 1145 note 53 Cf. also, in the Jahrbuch für die geistige Bewegung, Wolfskehl's essays “Die Blätter für die Kunst und die neuste Literatur” (i, 1910) and “‘Weltanschauung’ des Jahrbuchs” (ii, 1911); in the latter he gives a very interesting historical survey of cultural pessimism from Goethe to Nietzsche.

page 1146 note 54 The cycle antedates the outbreak of the war (cf. Wolters, p. 408).—George in “Der Krieg” also briefly alludes to the “longest winter” which precedes the Norse Ragnarök. Otherwise Wolfskehl, the Jew, seems to be, among the authors discussed in this paper, the only one to refer to Germanic eschatological lore; he does so, to be sure, only in a very general manner.

page 1146 note 55 Evidently = Brückenbogen. The first three lines refer to a world traffic that leaves nothing untouched. Wolfskehl's imagery is not always very concrete.

page 1146 note 56 First published, together with “Finis initium” and “Die Zeichen.” in the last issue of the Blätter (11th/12th series, 1919).

page 1146 note 57 “Endchrist” is an old popular adaptation of “Antichrist.”—In his dissertation Karl Wolfskehl, stilkritische Untersuchungen seiner Lyrik (1928) Edwin Landau aptly compares (p. 56) the poet's “Fliegengott” ( = Beelzebub) with George's far more forceful “Gott des geziefers” (“Der Widerchrist”); furthermore, in the same poem, Wolfskehl's line “Kein blut: wir brauchen nur gallert und geifer” with George's “Das edelste ging euch verloren: blut” (“Porta Nigra”). “Der richtende Ton der beiden Gedichte Georges wird hier zu einem lauten Schimpfen, das die Wirkung schwächt.”—It should be mentioned in this connection that, according to Wolters (p. 244), Wolfskehl—in sharp contrast to George—felt strongly drawn towards expressionism; this would seem to tally with that lack of corporeal concreteness which we noticed in his style.

page 1147 note 58 E.g., “Drci sind vom feuer Gottes gepackt,” “Dem Bruder,” “Es ist ein feuer angegangen,” “Grabbrecher du mein Herr und Gott der wende” (Prayer to Maximin), “Nur wir,” “Nur er.”

page 1147 note 59 I do not know when it was written. It is found in Bild und Gesetz (cf. note 31 above). Also “Die neue Stoa” (ibid), bears on our problem.

page 1149 note 60 Cf. “Die atlantische Stadt” and the subsequent poems in Auf Erden. The parts dealing with the U. S. A. were later republished under the title Amerika (1925).

6l Cf. the significant extracts in Soergel, Dichtung und Dichter der Zeit, ii (1926), 209.

page 1149 note 62 More pessimistic in mood is the poem “Die Wolkenfahrt” (likewise in Held Namenlos). Here the Earth is seen as having degenerated from the primordial splendor of creation's youth, as slowly and consciously dying. Included in this decay is not only mankind, but even the Tri-une God. Only the Sun will remain in everlasting, timeless strength; thus the basic naturalistic pantheism of the author here becomes especially clear. Since the poem does not in any way elaborate the eschatological motif, it is of merely marginal significance for our study.

page 1150 note 63 Cf. p. 98 of the edition of 1925. An obvious exception is “Der Untergang,” as will be pointed out below.

page 1150 note 64 Cf. especially “Symphonie der Arbeit,” xii.

page 1150 note 65 This, together with the German inflation, forms the background of the story “Im Hungergebirge” (written Nov., 1923) in Trilogie der Zeit.

page 1150 note 66 In a few individual instances our characterization of the three periods may require partial modifications. In Der Ruf des Rheins Winckler informs us (p. 98) that the prose parts of the volume date (mostly? all?—it is not clear) from 1922, i.e., from the pessimistic period; nevertheless, the story “Der rauchende Berg” strikes an optimistic note in extolling what Winckler considers the ethos of the modern industrial technician: precision, discipline, devotion to the task at hand. Also elsewhere there are occasional exceptions to the general pattern outlined above.

page 1152 note 67 Most specifically condemnatory with regard to the ethos of present-day civilization are poems nos. 27 and 36. Even in this work there are occasional traces of Winckler's basic pro-technical attitude: in no. 28 he advises all poets, artists, students, priests, philosophers etc. to work in the mines for one year.

page 1153 note 68 A word should be said about the prose works of the pessimistic period. Der chiliastische Pilgerzug deals with the moral and social ills of mankind in general more than with the specific problems of modern civilization. The latter are taken up in the story “Mechanisierung” (in Trilogie der Zeit), which revolves around the robot theme. It ends on the note that humanity in desperate revolt destroys its own creation, the mass-produced machinemen of the “brave new world.” As the last one is melted down, an ecstatic “golden thunder” breaks forth from all hearts, and “wie Kinder nach dem Spielzeug griffen allesamt nach Hammer und Schaufel, Zirkel [!], Pflug! Wie neugeboren schien die Welt wieder zu blühn, der Raum schien zu wachsen für alle, das Leben triumphierte [...] Die Zeit des hemmungslosesten Materialismus war an sich selber zu Schanden geworden.”

page 1154 note 69 “Der Panamakanal” (iv), found in Pinthus' Menschheitsdämmerung (1919, henceforth quoted as Md), or in Rubiner's Kameraden der Menschheit (1919, symbol: KdM); cf. also “Die Weihe” in Kayser's Verkündigung (1921, symbol: Vk).—Wherever possible, references are to these anthologies, since they are more likely to be available to the reader than individual publications.

page 1154 note 70 Eschatological in a similar sense is also “Der rote Stier träumt” (Md). In “Schmerzensnacht” Berlin is viewed pessimistically, in “Hohe Zeit” the poet envisages the redemption and transfiguration of the “grim” cities by angelic hosts hovering over them. All poems here discussed are contained in Schickele's collection Weiβ und Rot (1920).

page 1155 note 71 “Der Marsch” (KdM). The poem ends on the somewhat scurrilous note: “Nun gab es ewig Musik und warmes Essen und das tausendjährige Reich!”

page 1155 note 72 Cf. in Die gottlosen Jahre (1914; symbol henceforth: GJ) “Städter” (also in Md) and “Drauβen”—and in Die Freundschaft (1917; symbol: F) “Das Herz” (also in Md) and “Der gute Kampf” (also in Md, KdM). Slightly more ambiguous are “Nacht in der Sommerfrische” ( = “Nacht im Dorfe” in Md) and “In der Stadt” (both in GJ).

page 1155 note 73 “Kameraden!” (F, Md, Vk); cf. also “Gang” (F). Be it noted that Wolfenstein, who is close to the “activist” wing of expressionism, substitutes a gospel of friendship for the usual one of cosmic love.

page 1155 note 74 “Die Friedensstadt” (F, Md). Cf. also the expression “Freundesstädte” in the poem with the significant title “Neue Stadt” (F, KdM).—It is noteworthy that Wolfenstein occasionally shows a peculiarly negative attitude towards nature; cf. “Die Friedensstadt,” “Nacht in der Sommerfrische” (GJ), “Scherzo der Einsamkeit,” viii (F).

page 1156 note 75 “Stadt in Eisen,” quoted from the anthology Das proletarische Schicksal, ed. Hans Mühle (1929).

page 1156 note 76 Der feurige Busch (1919); henceforth: FB.

page 1156 note 77 Also in Zech's Das schwarze Revier (Neue Ausgabe, 1922).

page 1156 note 78 Cf. also “Der Heiland der Armen” (esp. iii, end) and “Die Weissagungen Michas” (esp. iii), both in FB.

page 1156 note 79 Cf. also “Du bist noch so verträumt!,” “Die Kanzel euch!” and “Frieden auf Erden” (all in FB).

page 1157 note 80 Cf. Schumann, “The Development of Werfel's 'Lebensgefühl as Reflected in his Poetry,” The Germanic Review, vi (1931), and “Enumerative Style and its Significance in Whitman, Rilke, Werfel,” Modern Language Quarterly, iii (1942).

page 1157 note 81 Cf. “Der Krieg,” “Die Wortemacher des Krieges.”

page 1157 note 82 The poet included only a selection from the Gerichtstag poems in his collected Gedichte.

page 1158 note 83 In the following all quotations are from Trakl's posthumously published Dichtungen (n.d.).

page 1159 note 84 I take “steinernes Antlitz” to refer to the city; TrakI uses “steinern” as a standing attribute with “Stadt.”

page 1159 note 85 Only passing mention shall be made at this juncture of Hanns Johst (b. 1890), who in his early days was to be found on the periphery of the expressionistic movement. His Rolandslieder (1919) are violently anti-urban and anti-industrial. Addressing himself primarily to the national community, he bids his fellow-countrymen destroy the “Häuserpest,” bids them return to the earth, to the woods and fields, to brotherhood with the animals and all nature. He is hortatory rather than visionary.

page 1159 note 86 In this discussion all quotations from poems contained in Das neue Gedicht (1918; symbol: DnG) will follow the text of that volume. According to an introductory statement its six books represent selections from six originally independent publications: Verfall und Triumph (1912–14; VuT), Päan gegen die Zeit (1912–18; PgdZ), An Europa (1913–16; AE), Verbrüderung (1915–16; Vb), Die Schlacht (1917), Gedichte für ein Volk (1917; GfeV). Actually I have not been able to verify that Die Schlacht ever appeared separately.

page 1160 note 87 Mixtures are not infrequent. Thus in “Gruβ des deutschen Dichters an die Russische Föderative Sowjet-Republik” (KdM) we find the lines: “Das heilige Reich. Das Paradies. Die freie / Erhobenheit an Gottes einzig Herz.”

page 1160 note 88 Cf. also the “Kotstädte” of the first part of “Anrufung” (DnG) with the “Glückstädte” of the second; furthermore, “Beschwörung” (DnG, AE): “Da singet die Stadt wie gute Schalmei / ( ... einst Klaggeheul: rollend und düster ... ).”—Regarding the millennial city cf. also “An Europa,” I (DnG, AE—“Europas Völker wollen flieβen, flieβen, / Zu gröβten Städten”) and “An Zola” (DnG, Vb, Vk—“Um dich gruppieren sich die Neuen Städte [...] Um dich Fabriken klares Frühmeβ-Schmettern”). In “Berlin! Berlin!” (AE, Vk) even the existing metropolis is ecstatically eulogized:

Zementene Rose [...]

Du goldenen Südens langerweinte Braut!

Zerhackter Kindheit Traum. Katholische Legende.

Am Abgrundweg du freie Morgenwende.

page 1161 note 89 Cf. also “Der Sozialist” (DnG): “Gesättigt in der samtenen Wiege der neuen Utopialandschaft [sollst du] dich breiten, längst erschaut: geschliffene Ebenen aus einem präzisen Blau, Grün und Rot, zylindrische Berge darüber gestellt, glatte Azure unendlich.”

page 1161 note 90 Shortly before this publication we find poems (Die Gnade eines Frühlings, 1912) which remind, in their inane harmlessness, of Caesar Flaischlen.

page 1162 note 91 The motif of the destruction of civilization by the forest also occurs in Arinin T. Wegner (b. 1886), who similarly wavers between ecstatic glorification and condemnation of the city. His conception is considerably less strained when he envisages a slow, stifling expansion of the woods:

Die Steine zernagt ihr mit kauendem Wurzelmund.

Zu euren Füβen zerfallen Assur und Babylon,

Und zirpend von Hochmut und Habgier verstummt

der Menschen eifernder Grillenchor.

(“Zu den erdgefalteten Bergen schreit ich hinan,” v in Die Straβe mit den tausend Zielen, 1924).

page 1162 note 92 Cf. also “Traum von Babel” (GfeV).

page 1162 note 93 An ever-recurrent color motif of Becher's (cf. note 89 above).

page 1162 note 94 Cf. also (likewise in GfeV) “Dem Schauspieler” (“Der Städte Höllwerk klirrt—Triumph—zusammen. / Und Berge rollend auf, gespitztester Wucht”) and “Der Dichter” (“Zerschwirrt ihr Städte frevelhaften Baus”).

page 1162 note 95 E.g., in “Anrufung,” ii (DnG); “Auf Promenaden strömend Tier-Kapellen.” The motif can, of course, be traced back to the earliest beginnings of chiliastic literature; cf. Isaiah 11, 6 ff. and 65, 25.

page 1163 note 96 Cf. “Groβes Fressen” in Die hungrige Stadt (1928).

page 1164 note 97 Propagandistic in purpose are especially the three verse pamphlets Es wird Zeit, Deutscher Totentanz 1933 and An die Wand zu kleben (all published in Moscow, 1933).

page 1164 note 98 “Museum Paris” in Deutschland (1934); cf. also “Reichsgericht und Messegelände” (ibid.).

page 1164 note 99 “Ich sage ganz offen ...” in Deutscher Totentanz 1933. Incidentally, the rebound from chaotic formlessness is so strong that in Der Glücksucher und die sieben Lasten (1938) classical metres, and even alexandrines, appear.

page 1164 note 100 “Das Gastmahl der fünftausend,” in Der Glücksucher.

page 1164 note 101 “Das Holzhaus,” xx (ibid.).

page 1164 note 102 In Der Mann der alles glaubte. Noteworthy in this poem is the reappearance of the familiar contrast between the doomed “city of the rich” and the redeemed city of the new order.—Apocalyptic imagery also occurs in “An meine Zeit” (ibid.).

page 1164 note 103 Cf. also (in the same volume) “Über dem Eingang der UdSSR,” ii, where the technological aspects of the millennium are especially emphasized.

page 1165 note 104 “Ich bin des Lebens und des Todes müde” (Md). Our quotations follow Ehrenstein's collection Mein Lied (1931).

page 1165 note 105 Cf. also “Der Waldesalte” (KdM).

page 1165 note 106 Cf. “Der Kriegsgott” (Md, Vk) “Stimme über Barbaropa” (Md, KdM), “Das sterbende Europa.”

page 1165 note 107 Cf. also “Der Erlöser,” with the same motif of obliteration of the world by filth that we encountered at the end of Winckler's Irrgarten Gottes.

page 1166 note 108 Cf. “Der Arzt,” 2: “Die Krone der Schöpfung, das Schwein, der Mensch.” All our quotations follow the Gesammelte Gedichte of 1927.

page 1166 note 109 “Fleisch.” Cf. also “Untergrundbahn” (Vk), where Benn refers to himself as “ein armer Hirnhund” und “Ikarus,” 1 (“ein hirnzerfressenes Aas”).

page 1167 note 110 For the “lemures” cf. also “Das späte Ich” and “Dunkler—,” for the ocean as the symbol of the non-differentiation into which all being is ultimately resorbed, “Gesänge,” 2 (Md) and “Untergrundbahn” (Vk). Similarly to the poems here discussed also “Prolog 1920,” “Schädelstätten” and “Qui sait” hover on the verge between implicit suggestion and explicit prognostication.

page 1167 note 111 Cf. “Verfluchung der Städte,” v. In the following all quotations will follow the Dichtungen (1922), published ten years after Heym's early death in 1912.

page 1167 note 112 Cf. “Die Nebelstädte,” “Heroische Landschaft.”

page 1167 note 113 All contained in Md, the last three also in Vk.

page 1167 note 114 The ruthless speed of destruction is expressed by the short sentences in combination with the double enjambement which prevents a breathing pause at the end of the second and third lines.

page 1168 note 115 Cf. also the second, shorter poem of the same title (Dichtungen, p. 195) and “Nach der Schlacht.” The expectation of a World War and the eschatological mood here stem from the same mal de siècle. Helmut Greulich (Georg Heym = Germanische Studien 108, 1931) quotes from the poet's diary (p. 35/6): “Es ist immer das gleiche, so langweilig, langweilig [...] Sei es nur, daβ man einen Krieg begänne, er kann ungerecht sein, dieser Frieden ist so faul, ölig und schmierig wie eine Leimpolitur auf alten Möbeln.” In his forceful poem “Der Aufbruch” (Md, Vk) also Ernst Stadler (b. 1883) anticipates war as a release, while J. R. Becher develops the theme with a characteristically neurotic and decadent note:

Die Welt wird zu enge. Die Städte langweilig [...]

Wir stöhnen verkommend in kalkfeuchter Bude,

Daβ uns der Zusammenbruch rette und lab ! [...]

Wir horchen auf wilder Trompetdonner Stöβe

Und wünschten herbei einen groβen Weltkrieg [...]

Die Nerven gepeitschet! Die Welt wird zu enge.

(“Beengung,” in DnG VuT)

Such passages are significant in view of the revolutionary pacifism later adopted by almost all members of the expressionistic movement.

page 1169 note 116 Finally also the following poems should at least be mentioned: “Die Meerstädte” (deserted cities), “Die Stadt” (approaching doom), “Die Städte im Walde” (suggestion of both motifs).

page 1169 note 117 The generational span between Rilke and Heym is twelve years.

page 1169 note 118 “Die Stadt” (also in Md). More ambiguous is “Tristitia ante ....” (ibid.): “Ich hasse fast die helle Brunst der Städte.”

page 1169 note 119 For scattered eschatological motifs cf. also “Indianisch Lied.”

page 1170 note 120 “Unwetter,” in Lichtenstein's collected Gedichte (1919).

page 1170 note 121 “Unglaublich friedlich naht das groβe Grauenhafte” (“Die Fahrt nach der Irrenanstalt,” ii, ibid.).

page 1170 note 122 Cf. also “Der Sturm” (likewise in Vk).

page 1170 note 123 Cf. “Die Fabriken,” “Die Teilnahmslosen,” “Mietskasernen,” “An die Maschine,” all in Das proletarische Schicksal (cf. note 75 above; symbol henceforth: PS), and many other poems in Gesang von Morgen bis Mitlag (1922), a cross-section through Petzold's lyrical production.

page 1170 note 124 In Barthel's collection Botschaft und Befehl (1926) we find unqualified condemnation of the city in “Lob auf die Landschaft” (also in PS), of mechanized progress in “Musik” and “Amerika”; on the other hand we encounter glorification of city and machine in “Der groβe Rhythmus” (PS), faith in an industrialized socialistic future in “Maschinen” and “Der groβe Hammer” (PS). A negative and a positive attitude may appear in one and the same poem. Thus in “Die groβe Stadt” (PS) the author execrates the mad heart-eating greed of the present city (“die den Verfall in den Gesichtern vieler Menschen hat”), yet presages the time when the masses will rise and transform it into

die geliebte Stadt,

Die aufersteht und Herz und Seele hat,

Ein Weltherz, lichtvermessen und von Zukunft angerührt,

Die in das Reich der Freiheit führt,

Zum Lobgesang des Daseins, hin zum Tier und zur Natur [...]

How this millennial synthesis of urban progressivism and idyllic primitivism might be achieved, is not specified.

page 1171 note 125 Compare “Frauen am Maitag” with “Das hohe Lied” and “Wir sind keine Hirten” (the first two in PS, the last in the anthology Um uns die Stadt, ed. Robert Seitz and Heinz Zucker, 1931).

page 1171 note 126 Compare, in PS, “Und immer wieder kommt der Tag,” “Die Fabrik,” “Vorstadtwohnung,” “Aufschrei” (anti-industrial) with “Die neue Maschine” and “Und doch” (proindustrial).

page 1171 note 127 Cf. “Mensch zu Mensch,” “Die Fabrik” (both in PS), furthermore “Ich will heraus aus dieser Stadt,” “Seele!”

page 1171 note 128 Cf. especially “Neuer Stolz des Weltmenschen” and “Weltgeist.”

page 1171 note 129 Cf. “Alles zu Allem.”

page 1171 note 130 Published by Jakob Kneip, the poet's friend, in the volume Vermächtnis (1937).

page 1172 note 131 Cf. Engelke's letter to Kneip, written a few days before his death (Vermächtnis, p. 300): “Der in den letzten Jahrzehnten in allen Ländern Europas riesenhaft aufgestandene Industrie-Materialismus stürzt in blinder Tierheit gegenseitig aufeinander los und zertrümmert sich selbst. Möge dieser Selbstmord vollkommen sein, damit der reinen Vernunft zum Siege verholfen werde und ein neues Leben der Menschheit auf den Ruinen Europas entstehe.”

page 1172 note 132 Here quoted according to the reprint in Das dichterische Werk (n.d.).

page 1174 note 133 I cannot agree with Theodor Jost (Mechanisierung des Lehens und moderne Lyrik [1934] = Mnemosyne, Arbeiten zur Erforschung von Sprache und Dichtung, Heft 16; cf. especially pp. 138 ff.) and Hans Eiserlo (Heinrich Lersch, ein Dichter des schaffenden Volkes [1938]; cf. especially pp. 88, 106, 116 ff.). Both authors give Lersch credit for successfully resolving the discrepancy in an ultimate harmony.

page 1175 note 134 Significant is the title of one of his first collections, Soldaten der Erde (1918; cf. especially “Der Soldat an die Erde” and “Erdenfahrt”).

page 1176 note 135 An actual glorification of the creative ethos of industrial work (even without anticapitalistic mental reservations) we have in such poems as “Lied der Arbeit” and “Legende vom Feuerofen” (PS).

page 1176 note 136 For the more recent developments of our problem see Schumann, “Motifs of Cultural Eschatology in Post-Expressionistic German Poetry,” Monatshefte für Deutschen Unterricht, xxxiv (1942).

page 1177 note 137 In closing, mention should be made of Friedrich Falk's thorough study Die religiöse Symbolik der deutschen Arbeiterdichtung der Gegenwart (1930), which came to my attention after the completion of this paper. On pp. 134–161 the author analyzes eschatological motifs, but without reference to our specific problem of “cultural eschatology.”