Added 20030128
Last updated 20030128

First Speaker:
Against class struggle and materialism, for Volk community and idealism,
I commit to the flames the works of Marx¹ and Kautsky².

Second Speaker:
Against decadence and moral decay, for discipline and morality in family and state,
I commit to the flames the works of Heinrich Mann³, Ernst Glaeser⁴, and Erich Kästner⁵.

#3
Against political irresponsibility an political betrayal, for dedication to Volk and State,
I commit to the flames the works of the pacifist Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster.

#4
Against the exaggeration of unconscious urges based on destructive analysis of the psyche, for the nobility of the human soul,
I commit to the flames the works of Sigmund Freud.

#5
Against falsification of our history and denigration of its great figures, for respect of our past,
I commit to the flames the writing of Emil Ludwig⁶ and Werner Hegemann⁷.

#6
Against un-German journalism of a Jewish democratic kind, for responsible cooperation in the work of national reconstruction,
I commit to the flames the works of Theodor Wolff and Georg Bernhard.

#7
Against literary betrayal of the soldiers of the First World War, for the education of the people in the spirit of truthfulness,
I commit to the flames the works of Erich Maria Remarque.

#8
Against conceited debasement of our German language, for the cultivation of our most precious property of the people,
I commit to the flames the writings of Alfred Kerr⁹.

#9
Against impudence and presumptousnness! For awe and respect before our immortal German Volk spirit! Devour, flames, the writings of Tucholsky⁸ and Ossietzky¹⁰.

1-- Marx, Karl (1818-1883)
Journalist, polemicist, leading Social-Revolutionary. Later deified by revolutionary "Communists" ("Marxist-Leninists") of the "Third International." Highly respected by many Social-Democrats.
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2-- Kautsky, Karl (1854-1938)
Marxist theorist and leader in German Social-Democratic Party. Founded (1883) and edited (until 1917) Marxist review Die Zeit. His "Erfurt Program" (1891) rejected both the radicalism of Rosa Luxemburg and the evolutionary socialist doctrines ("revisionism") of Edouard Bernstein. Opposing Germany's participation in World War I, he split from the pro-war SDP. After Russia's Bolshevik revolution (1917), he broke with Lenin and the totalitarian Left, later reconciling with the German Social Democrats. In 1924-1938, he lived in Vienna.
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3-- Mann, Heinrich (1871-1950).
Novelist and essayist, best known for attacks on authoritarian social structures in Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany (pre- 1918). His novel "Professor Unrat" was made into popular film "The Blue Angel," starring Marlene Dietrich.
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4-- Gläser.
(unclear)
Most likely Ernst Glaeser (1902-1963)


Writer, eg. dramatist, reader for publisher. Denounced for pacifist and Communist views. Emigrated to Switzerland 1933, but voluntarily returned in 1939. The official Nazi blacklist for 1938 only listed his works "through 1933," so apparently he had curbed his writing in exile, in hopes of returning home. In 1941 edited German army newspaper in Sicily.
His coming-of-age novel "Jahrgang 1902" (translated as "Class of 1902," the year the narrator was born) still has some appeal to modern readers. It provided ample grounds for the Nazi blacklist, eg: sympathetic portraits of left-wing boys and their left-wing fathers, sarcastic put-downs of antisemites, a depressing home-front view of World War I from boys too young to fight, occasional mild hints of homosexuality (though emphatically not in the narrator), and tolerant mention of what Nazis would call "Raßenschande" -- intimate relations between working-class German women and immigrant laborers.

Possibly Georg (Georges) K. Glaser (1910-1995).
German-French author, fled Germany to France in 1933, as French soldier captured by Germany in WW II. Since he survived, he was probably treated as a POW rather than a traitor. (In 1933, however, he had written less to attract attention of Nazi bookburners than Ernst Glaeser had.)

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5-- Kästner, Erich (1899-1974).
Satirist, poet, and novelist, especially known for children's books.
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6-- Ludwig, Emil (1881-1948).
(No self-respecting Nazi would forget his Jewish-sounding original name Emil Cohn.) Biographer, with a flamboyant, somewhat racy, journalistic style.
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7-- Hegemann, Werner (1881-1936)
International authority on urban planning and housing policy. Some possible reasons for blacklisting:

(1) Commented on deficiencies in Germany's housing policy from a sarcastic Left-wing viewpoint.
(2) Wrote book debunking Frederick II "The Great" (1712-1786), King of Prussia 1740-1786, a hero of Germany's nationalist Right. Among other things, WH pointed out that (a) as a spoiler preoccupied with fighting Habsburg Austria, Frederick left Germany's Western frontier undefended against French expansion, and (b) Frederick had contempt for Germany's language and culture. (This book was translated into English.)

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8-- Tucholsky, Kurt (1890-1935).
Satirical essayist, poet, and critic, best known for cabaret songs. Emigrated to Paris (1924), later to Sweden (1929). Contributed to Rote Signale (1931), a collection of Communist poetry, and to "Schaubühne" (later "Weltbühne"), a journal of pacifist Karl von Ossietzky.
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9-- Kerr, Alfred (original surname Kempner?) (1867-1948).
Writer, essayist, and theatre critic.
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10-- Ossietzky, Karl von (1889-1938).
German pacifist and journalist. As Editor of Weltbühne (1927), exposed German military's violations of Versailles Treaty. Convicted of treason (1931), amnestied (1932), awarded 1935 Nobel Peace Prize. Refusing to flee after Hitler's takeover (Jan 1933), he was sent to a concentration camp, eventually released to hospitals, and died of tuberculosis in 1938.
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