[Rezension »The Pre-Nazi Architects of Hitler's Atrocities«] E-Book

Thomas Mann

• Herausgeber: FISCHER E-Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Fischer Klassik Plus
• Sprache: Deutsch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 15

Beschreibung

»How could race-madness become a greater political power in Germany than anywhere else?« Thomas Mann bespricht hier ein Werk des deutschen Soziologen Paul W. Massing, der 1939 in die USA emigriert war. In ›Rehearsal for Destruction: A Study of Political Anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany‹ (1949) untersucht Massing die Umstände, die den Aufstieg der Nationalsozialisten ermöglicht hatten. Wie das Tagebuch verrät, stammt die Rezension jedoch nicht eigentlich von Thomas Mann – vielmehr hatte er mit der Arbeit daran begonnen, sie dann aber an seinen Sohn Golo übertragen, der zu jener Zeit Assistenzprofessor für Geschichte in Claremont war und den Text wohl auf Basis der Notizen des Vaters in dessen Sinne fertigstellte. Als Autor erschien in der New York Times Book Review vom 11. Dezember 1949 jedoch wieder Thomas Mann selbst. Den Anstoß zu der Rezension hatte Max Horkheimer gegeben, der Jahre später für die deutsche Übersetzung (erschienen 1959) gemeinsam mit Theodor W. Adorno das Vorwort verfasste.

Leseprobe

Thomas Mann

[Rezension »The Pre-Nazi Architects of Hitler’s Atrocities«]

Essay/s

Fischer e-books

In der Textfassung derGroßen kommentierten Frankfurter Ausgabe(GKFA)Mit Daten zu Leben und Werk

{731}[Rezension »The Pre-Nazi Architects of Hitler’s Atrocities«]

For quite some time I have been attracted by the work of a group of thinkers and writers carrying on a labor of enlightenment, so necessary in times of growing darkness such as ours. I speak of the Institute of Social Research, formerly of Frankfurt on the Main, now of New York, and directed by Prof. Max Horkheimer. Here, in planful teamwork, a few distinguished sociologists, psychologists and philosophers investigate background and causes that made possible the shameful catastrophes of our time. These scholars want to help – not by intuition and prophecy but by scientific compilation, comparison, and evaluation of facts. Their scientific undertaking is based on a philosophical belief of ages: that passions are curbed by analysis. Skeptics may smile but cannot deny that, today, abandoning mankind to its passions would spell its doom.

Of the »Studies in Prejudice« series, edited by Max Horkheimer with Samuel H. Flowerman, two volumes have just appeared, both originated in the institute. Paul W. Massing’s »Rehearsal for Destruction,« an excellent example of the institute’s endeavors, deals with a topic as important and timely as any in this series. His theme ist not the Hitler era’s anti-Semitism. Its unspeakable manifestations aroused – for a time at least – the world, and perhaps enough has been written about it. Dr. Massing analyzes Jew-hatred in the Germany of Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II.

There were no spectacular horrors then. From my own youth I remember only too well Court Chaplain Stoecker, Rektor Ahlwardt, Itinerant Preacher Boeckel, and other such figures. They were but provincials, virtually unknown outside Ger{732}