„[…] warum schläft denn nimmer nur mir in der Brust ein Stachel?“ Ernst Wiechert’s prose works in the 1930s

Abstract

Ernst Wiechert’s prose written in the 1930s is best symbolized by Friedrich Hölderlin’s poem Abendphantasie (1799), in which the persona describes his loneliness and resignation, describing them as a thorn in his chest. The question of the identification of these feelings with the East Prussian writer is a major problem raised in the article. Wiechert certainly belongs to the group of writers associated with the so called Inner Emigration, and the studies by Herbert Wiesner, Ralf Schnell, Reinhold Grimm and Friedrich Denka support this thesis. Also, the method developed by Hubert Orlowski allows us to include or exclude literary works from inner emigration literature. This method turns out to be helpful in the interpretation of Wiechert’s works. Moreover, the question of Wiechert’s position on National Socialism is considered, which is full of contradictions, as well as his coming close to the Inner Emigration. On the basis of selected prose works created in the 1930s (e.g. Die Hirtennovelle, Die Majorin), the writer’s evolution from the ‘breakthrough of grace’ to becoming an inner emigrant will be presented. Particularly noteworthy are some relevant themes in his works such as World War I, the mother figure as a prefiguration of the ‘Great Mother’ myth, the writer’s stand on National Socialism or the Mazurian landscape.