The Loyal subject novel, published originally in 1988 under the title “Man of Straw” gives Heinrich Mann’s satirical connection of the nineteenth century European literal works. The writer of this novel derives the word subject from the word “Der Untertan” in German language. The novel highlights the difficulties encountered during nineteenth century Europe. As early as the 1950, Heinrich Mann’s novel plays a major role in the European’s history. The novel goes beyond the art bounds in its polemics and its structure fits into neither its modern challenge nor its realist tradition. Otherwise, the loyal subject follows Diederich Hessling’s life. This paper discusses what the loyal subject reveals about the nineteenth century Europe. Otherwise, the novel is an indictment of the Wilhelmine regime.1
Diederich Hessling was an ordinary but otherwise a hapless German that mimicked aristocratic actions, revered authority blindly and knowingly employed his self-pro-monarchial and patriotism sentiments in order to make progress in his career. Heinrich’s account of Diedrich’s encounter with the spectacle of fin-de-siècle Berlin involves characters drawn from different social classes. The characters of this novel range from the unemployed, miserable, and object of the Hesling’s uncritical loyalty just like Kaiser himself. The loyal subject reflects on how the civil war complicated the cultural emotional value, particularly the ideal of sympathy. In this novel Heinrich attacks on nationalism, militarism and the authoritarian structure of the German society, which resulted to his exile in 1933.Heinrich Mann wrote the novel during the nineteenth century however; the Germans blocked its re-publication due to its critical view of the German ultra-n...
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... revolutions and in deprivation of a strong monarchy. Nevertheless, it comes out later on that the benefits of the Sonderweg were far much numerous and still on the contrary they harmed the Germans in both spiritual and material aspects. In conclusion, scientists that rejected the Sonderweg are deceived as the real facts favor it. The Sonderweg theory interrelates well with the German history in the Heinrich’s novel during the nineteenth century; however, it is difficult and painful to bear with at times.4
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Mann, Heinrich. The Loyal Subject: Heinrich Mann. London, New York City: Continuum, 1998.
Gluckel's diary gives the reader the understanding of the typical life of what a widowed Jewish woman faced in a Christian dominated Germany. It’s a vivid description of what happened to the Jews of her time accounting the personal and public perspective in the 17th and 18th century. In her diary she reveals the fear she lived with, as a mother would have over her children. She also explains the relationship she experienced from her first and second husband and the responsibilities she faced as a trader.
Hagen W (2012). ‘German History in Modern Times: Four Lives of the Nation’. Published by Cambridge University Press (13 Feb 2012)
2 Charles S. Maier, ed., The Cold War in Europe: Era of a divided Continent (New York: Markus Wiener Publishing, Inc., 1991) 27.
Reading the book “The Trial of Tempel Anneke” raises interesting questions, and details the clashing of anxieties that took place within Early Modern German communities, both in economic and religious justification. Some central questions posed by myself is proposed below.
Storm of Steel provides a memoir of the savagery and periods of beauty that Ernst Jünger’s experienced while serving the German army during the First World War. Though the account does not take a clear stand, it lacks any embedded emotional effects or horrors of the Great War that left so few soldiers who survived unaffected. Jünger is very straightforward and does remorse over any of his recollections. The darkness of the hallucinations Jünger reports to have experienced provides subtle anti-war sentiment. However, in light of the descriptive adventures he sought during the brief moments of peace, the darkness seems to be rationalized as a sacrifice any soldier would make for duty and honor in a vain attempt for his nation’s victory. The overall lack of darkness and Jünger’s nonchalance about the brutality of war is enough to conclude that the account in Storm of Steel should be interpreted as a “pro” war novel; however, it should not be interpreted as “pro” violence or death.
Smith, Tony. The End of the European Empire: Decolonization after World War II. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1975. Print.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish people’s outlook on life. Wiesel’s identity transformed dramatically throughout the narrative. “How old he had grown the night before! His body was completely twisted, shriveled up into itself. His eyes were petrified, his lips withered, decayed.
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In this essay I will look at the film and the narrative techniques it uses, probing whether it portrays the East German nation as positive or negative, concluding that though many negatives are identified, some positives are deduced from Honecker's state. I will also consider why, in recent times, East Germans have come to regard their former state with nostalgia, or as the Germans would put it, nostalgia, an act of Goodbye Lenin! (2003) explores the. Not a doom laden, emphatically political treatise on the reunification of East and West Germany but a touching and sometimes comedic insight into the gargantuan changes impacting on the small scale, day to day life as experienced by an East German family, Christiane Kerner and her two children Alex and Ariane. Awaking from a coma, Alex fears his mother?s condition may worsen if she learns of re-unification, going to increasingly elaborate lengths in maintaining the illusion of the GDR?s omniscience.
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