Thomas Mann's "Lotte in Weimar" Criticized in Postwar West Germany (1946)

In 1946, at a historical nadir for Germany, Thomas Mann's novel "Lotte in Weimar" was first published in the country. The work provoked outrage from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and other outlets, which attacked Mann for exposing how Germans had willingly surrendered to Hitler and the Nazis. The novel portrays Goethe as a figure who is both a caricature and an idol, and who finds the "teutschen Michel" distasteful. By contrast, the Weimar society of 1812/13, especially the women, revered him as a "German hero" who stirred deep emotion. The setting is the era of the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon, against foreign rule and tyranny, when poets such as Theodor Körner called for flags and weapons. August von Goethe, the poet's son, was swept up in the patriotic fervor and, after some hesitation, volunteered. Goethe raged and stormed, saying, "You did sign up, volunteered—oh." The article appears in the current issue of Der Freitag.