Disputed Nonconformist and 'Zwischenreichautor': A Reassessment of Ernst Wiechert's Life and Work in Nazi Germany

Abstract

Following early apologist discussions, the more critical reception of Ernst Wiechert's life and work under National Socialism has emphasized his conservative cultural ideas, specifically his antirationalism and suspicion of democracy. They have been seen as confirming the fatalistic passivity of Germans under Hitler and justifying a retreat to an ineffectual sphere of spiritual values. The early fiction certainly reveals völkisch themes, and for several years Wiechert retained links with nationalist conservative circles and publications. From the late 1920s, however, his work abandoned extreme nationalist positions and embraced an apolitical conservatism shaped by a concern with ethics and Christian morality. Viewed with increasing suspicion by the authorities because of two high-profile speeches and the public reading of the allegorical-oppositional Der weiße Büffel (1937), Wiechert was temporarily imprisoned in Buchenwald following his protest at the treatment of Martin Niemöller. The subsequent novel Das einfache Leben (1939), for all its camouflage and ambiguity, posited a 'Gegenwelt' to Nazi Germany and offered its substantial readership a private oppositional space. A re-examination of fiction, public pronouncements, and key documents from the 1930s suggests a more balanced picture of the writer.