By 1922 Rüttgers had underscored the significance of national literature and folklore at a national children’s literature convention, while calling them representative of “German blood and German fate.”48 The literary critics Josef Prestel49 and Irene Graebsch50 early during the Nazi period still commended him for his strong stand on behalf of a renewal of the German national identity from the sources of German and Nordic Germanic folklore. Graebsch at that time expressed her admiration for his deep faith in “the one and only future” (die ganze und einzige Zukunft). In her view, Severin Rüttgers’ publications, along with Leopold Weber’s children’s books on Norse mythology and the Nordic sagas, Theodor Seidenfaden’s Heldenbuch (Book of Heroes), Will Vesper’s version of the Nibelungenlied, but also the regional “Volkish” tales of Blunck, Matthiessen, and Watzlik, had well prepared the ground for the new orientation under National Socialism. As the National Socialists did not yet have their own writers, she explained, it was only “natural” that they should turn to those older works that corresponded to their line of thinking.51 Prestel and Graebsch were remarkably uncritical in their evaluation of National Socialism and its uses of folklore, while presenting the case as if the Nazis were merely continuing a well established “natural” and innocent trend.
A closer examination of trends in children’s literature during the twenties will reveal, however, that they were still characterized by variety rather than uniformity, and that in the educational policy of the Weimar Republic some reform movements were underway that might have paved the way to democracy and a true concept of freedom. The folklore emphasis in the twenties was characterized by nationalistic tendencies, yet it was not yet exclusive of other cultures and traditions. A number of works appeared for children that introduced them to other lands as well. Rüttgers himself did not only publish works on Norse mythology but also on the legends of the saints, for example. His Gottesfreunde (The Friends of God) certainly did not correspond to “Volkish thought” of Nazism, and neither did Weismantel’s Blumenlegende (Flower Legends) or Arntzen’s Vom Heiland und seinen Freunden (The Savior and His Friends). Further, there was a movement toward contemporary themes in children’s books. Erich Kästner’s Emil und die Detektive (Emil and the Detectives) focused on self-reliant street boys in Berlin who in superb coordination tried to solve their own case problems. The Children’s Literature Association in Hamburg recommended this book in 1930,52 along with others that were concerned with modern problems, such as Scharrelmann’s Piddl Hundertmark (Piddl One-Hundred-Marks), Newerow’s Taschkent, die brotreiche Stadt (Tashkent, the Corn-Rich City), Beumelberg’s Sperrfeuer um Deutschland (Fire Surrounding Germany) and Remarque’s Im Westen Nichts Neues (All’s Quiet on the Western Front). It is remarkable that the last book was still recommended at this date, for three years later it was one of the first ones to be thrown onto the public bonfires and—on account of its pacifist theme—to be banished from all school and public libraries.
Translations from other languages, too, enriched the field of children’s literature during the twenties. Particularly at this time, Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn met with a great success, and also Kipling’s books for young people were very popular. Quite a number of books were translated from the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, too, among them Marie Hamsun’s Langerrudkinder (The Langerrud Children), Westergaard’s Per von der Düne (Peter of the Dunes) and Floden’s Harald und Ingrid (Harald and Ingrid), although we may speculate that these works corresponded again to the Nordic orientation of the “Volkish” trend. Nevertheless, the trend was still well balanced by the classics from many lands available to children and youth in various editions. In spite of nationalistic tendencies there were no restrictions placed on international literature, as far as the public schools or libraries were concerned.53
Between 1924 and 1925 the Prussian Ministry of Education published curricular guidelines for elementary and high schools in Germany, which had been worked out in cooperation with representatives of the teaching profession. These guidelines were not mandatory, however, and left each school enough freedom to work out variations. Great emphasis was placed on cooperative planning with students. For the first time in the history of German education the use of source materials was encouraged over the use of textbooks, and students were taught to enjoy discussions and debates. This was quite a welcome change in comparison with the previous emphasis on lectures, memorizing, and drill. There was also the introduction of so-called Wandertage (hiking days) and of camps and school houses in the country meant to accommodate youngsters on field trips arranged by teachers. Both of these innovations represented an inspiration of the German Youth movement.54
Side by side there existed in the Weimar Republic liberal and Volkish-conservative thoughts, and in that sense, the era may well be called one of experimentation. The Volkish thinkers, however, slowly gained the upper hand, in education too. Next to Rüttgers there were Otto von Greyerz and Martin Havenstein who not only emphasized the use of regional literature, German and Nordic Germanic folklore, along with German history, but who also rejected “foreign” influences on German culture and education, thus trying to confine children’s reading to national literature and folklore exclusively.55
To answer the question of why these educators gained such mass support in Germany, we would have to examine the emergence of various Volkish groups in the twentieth century that favored such an attitude. First, there was the Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-Germanic League), founded as early as 1894, which stated as its main platform the introduction of German folk culture into education and all spheres of life. Its constitution defined as one of its major objectives the promotion of education on the basis of German ethnicity and a simultaneous suppression of all factors deemed contrary to German national development. Among other things, this meant the prohibition of using foreign languages at club meetings, a rejection of “foreign” influences, and a replacement of foreign place names by German ones. The League consisted of 44,000 members in 1917 and had a strong impact on the “Volkish interpretation” of Gobineau’s principles of race and culture in Germany.56
Plate 2
The Wandervogel Mood Still Prevailed . . .
Another Volkish group that strongly influenced the “Nordic” orientation of German literature and culture in the twenties was the Thule Gesellschaft (Thule Society), founded in 1917 by Count Sebottendorf. It was designated as a German order of medieval knighthood in the Nordic Germanic style. Its symbol was the swastika, and its values combined nationalism with the Norseman’s code of honor. Particularly in their rituals and festivals the members of the Thule Society paid homage to the Nordic gods, while they practiced Nordic customs and traditions, including solstice celebrations in honor of Balder. The renowned publisher of folklore for young people, Eugen Diederichs, was an active member, and so were a number of prominent intellectuals who later formulated the Nazi Party program. The Society’s journal, the Völkischer Beobachter (The Volkish Observer)57, like Stapel’s journal Deutsches Volkstum (German Ethnicity), at this time made substantial use of Nordic folklore and Volkish thought for political purposes.58
In 1924, F. K. Günther published his work Ritter, Tod und Teufel (Knight, Death, and Devil) which later became the German bible of anti-semitism and was also instrumental in developing the so-called “Nordic Renaissance” in Germany that influenced the Reich Peasant Leader Walther Darré and National Socialist thought in general. The work was sponsored by the Deutsche Nationale Volkstums-Partei (German National People’s Party) which called for “a German rulership by