Culture in Dark Times: Nazi Fascism, Inner Emigration, and Exile
Jost Hermand
Synopsis "Culture in Dark Times: Nazi Fascism, Inner Emigration, and Exile "
"What makes this volume particularly valuable is the book's comprehensiveness. Its encyclopedic range will enable students to get a real sense of the complexity of the arts under German fascism...n sum this well-written volume by a master in his field will be an extremely useful guide to interwar German culture...Essential." · Choice "Hermand is to be congratulated on successfully bringing together a significant amount of information in a study which covers a great deal of ground. The resulting book...is a tribute to Hermand's vast knowledge of the topic, and his ability always to be in control of his material. A worthwhile select bibliography rounds off a useful volume, which is further enriched by a number of fascinating illustrations." · Bulletin of the German Historical Institute London "As in all his books, Hermand impresses...with a wealth of information as much as stylistic elegance. He offers the reader a more precise insight into all that posturing normally described as opportunism, blindness, adjustment, escapism, public spirit or resistance." · Das Historisch-Politische Buch BETWEEN 1933 AND 1945 MEMBERS OF THREE GROUPS-THE Nazi fascists, Inner Emigration, and Exiles-fought with equal fervor over who could definitively claim to represent the authentically "great German culture," as it was culture that imparted real value to both the state and the individual. But when authorities made pronouncements about "culture" were they really talking about high art? This book analyzes the highly complex interconnections among the cultural-political concepts of these various ideological groups and asks why the most artistically ambitious art forms were viewed as politically important by all cultured (or even semi-cultured) Germans in the period from 1933 to 1945, with their ownership the object of a bitter struggle between key figures in the Nazi fascist regime, representatives of Inner Emigration, and Germans driven out of the Third Reich.
