Gottfried Benn und die doppelte Staatsgründung 1949 – zu ausgewählten Prämissen seines schwierigen Verhältnisses zu Staat an sich und zum bundesdeutschen (Teil-)Staat

• Authors: Maciej Walkowiak

Title variants

EN

Gottfried Benn and the formation of two German states in 1949: selected aspects of his complex attitude to the state as such and to West Germany

• Languages of publication: DE

Abstracts

DE

The paper is mainly concerned with Gottfried Benn’s complex attitude to the state and history. By means of introductory prefigurations, such as existential tensions related to the conflict between Protestant ethics and modern aesthetics, there emerges Benn’s difficult and complex relation to the state as such, seen as a product of history, and to its particular examples, starting from the Second Reich until the initial phase of West Germany. Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy, and in particular the philosophy of art, is of great importance in this context. This issue is discussed using Benn’s key works such as Roman des Phänotyp or Doppelleben. Benn’s literary and life self-creations played a vital role in his relations with the political reality and the state, which is discussed at the end of this analysis. His ambivalent relation to early West Germany has a strong biographical basis, i.e. his involvement with the history of the Nazi Germany on the one hand, and on the other – the period of his literary fame at the end of his life.

EN

The paper is mainly concerned with Gottfried Benn’s complex attitude to the state and history. By means of introductory prefigurations, such as existential tensions related to the conflict between Protestant ethics and modern aesthetics, there emerges Benn’s difficult and complex relation to the state as such, seen as a product of history, and to its particular examples, starting from the Second Reich until the initial phase of West Germany. Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy, and in particular the philosophy of art, is of great importance in this context. This issue is discussed using Benn’s key works such as Roman des Phänotyp or Doppelleben. Benn’s literary and life self-creations played a vital role in his relations with the political reality and the state, which is discussed at the end of this analysis. His ambivalent relation to early West Germany has a strong biographical basis, i.e. his involvement with the history of the Nazi Germany on the one hand, and on the other – the period of his literary fame at the end of his life.

PL

The paper is mainly concerned with Gottfried Benn’s complex attitude to the state and history. By means of introductory prefigurations, such as existential tensions related to the conflict between Protestant ethics and modern aesthetics, there emerges Benn’s difficult and complex relation to the state as such, seen as a product of history, and to its particular examples, starting from the Second Reich until the initial phase of West Germany. Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy, and in particular the philosophy of art, is of great importance in this context. This issue is discussed using Benn’s key works such as Roman des Phänotyp or Doppelleben. Benn’s literary and life self-creations played a vital role in his relations with the political reality and the state, which is discussed at the end of this analysis. His ambivalent relation to early West Germany has a strong biographical basis, i.e. his involvement with the history of the Nazi Germany on the one hand, and on the other – the period of his literary fame at the end of his life.

Keywords

EN

History of Germany; issues of the nation and of the state; Protestant ethics; expressionism; historiosophy; Nietzsche’s philosophy; the Nazi Germany; West Germany; History of Germany; issues of the nation and of the state; Protestant ethics; expressionism; historiosophy; Nietzsche’s philosophy; the Nazi Germany; West Germany

PL

History of Germany; issues of the nation and of the state; Protestant ethics; expressionism; historiosophy; Nietzsche’s philosophy; the Nazi Germany; West Germany

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Studia Germanica Posnaniensia
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 37
• Pages: 263-276

Dates

published

2017-04-15

Contributors

author

Maciej Walkowiak

• Instytut Filologii Germańskiej UAM

References

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• Benn, G. (1982a). Brief an Friedrich Wilhelm Oelze (Original 1949). In H. Steinhagen & J. Schröder (Hrsg.), Gottfried Benn. Briefe. Briefe an F. W. Oelze 1945-1949 (Brief Nr. 398, S. 181-183). Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer Taschenbuch.
• Benn, G. (1982b). Brief an Friedrich Wilhelm Oelze (Original 1949). In H. Steinhagen & J. Schröder (Hrsg.), Gottfried Benn. Briefe. Briefe an F. W. Oelze 1945-1949 (Brief Nr. 459, S. 277-280). Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer Taschenbuch.
• Benn, G. (1984a). Der Ptolemäer (Original 1947). In B. Hillebrand (Hrsg.), Gottfried Benn: Prosa und Autobiographie. In der Fassung der Erstdrucke (193-234). Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer Taschen-buch.
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• Taschenbuch.
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• Taschenbuch.
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• Benn, G. (2006b). Brief an Ernst Jünger (Original 1952). In H. Hof (Hrsg.), Gottfried Benn – Ernst Jünger. Briefwechsel 1949-1956 (Brief Nr. 26, S. 34-35). Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
• Brode, H. (1978). Benn-Chronik. München: Hanser.
• Lennig, W. (1986). Gottfried Benn. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch.
• Lethen, H. (2006). Der Sound der Väter. Gottfried Benn und seine Zeit. Berlin: Rowohlt.
• Mendelssohn, P. de (1953). Der Geist in der Despotie. Versuche über die moralischen Möglichkeiten des Intellektuellen in der totalitären Gesellschaft. Berlin: Herbig.
• Nietzsche, F. (1980). Der Wille zur Macht. Stuttgart: Kröner.
• Uhlig, Helmut (1961). Gottfried Benn. Berlin-Dahlem: Colloquium Verlag Otto H. Hess.
• Vietta, S (1990). Probleme – Zusammenhänge – methodische Fragen. In S. Vietta & H.-G. Kemper (Hrsg.), Expressionismus (S. 21-213). München: Fink.
• Walkowiak, M. (2005). Kunst, Geschichte und der Standort des Intellektuellen. Gottfried Benn und die Kontroversen der Moderne. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang.
• Wodtke, F. W. (1970). Gottfried Benn. Stuttgart: Metzler.

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/sgp.2016.37.20