"Leben wie gott in Frankreich": German identity and the myth of France, 1919-1945
Description
France, although an enemy in the recent war, had always provided a reliable model in times of crisis, and since the seventeenth century, it had remained a static presence in the German consciousness. In the wake of the First World War, France, as an established nation with respected cultural traditions and enduring national myths, functioned as an important 'other' nation against which the Germans could compare their own national development This dissertation examines the Germans' understanding of France as a cultural counter identity in the years 1919 through 1945, calling attention to their repeated recourse to French cultural symbols in their cultural production of these years. The dissertation begins with an analysis of the broader German conceptions of France and its enduring cultural traditions. Chapters 2 and 3 investigate the myth of France in general terms, exploring its persistence as a geographical and cultural presence in the German consciousness. As this dissertation will show, many of the traditional French symbols and ideals (the French Revolution, the French Resistance, French patriotism, the notions of the artiste engage, those of liberte, egalite, and fraternite) converged for the Germans in the symbol of Paris and the cultural heritage of France, both of which united for them the broad concept of the 'nation' with particular political, philosophical, and literary traditions. The two following chapters take a much narrower approach to the question of identity/counter-identity, examining the French symbols and heroes which populated German writing of the interwar years and their roles in helping the Germans negotiate their own road to nationhood. The concluding chapter, 'Ewiges Frankreich (Eternal France),' synthesizes the evidence presented in the five preceding chapters and attempts to elicit from these views a better understanding of the German expression 'Ewiges Frankreich,' a phrase which appears repeatedly in the writings of German exiles and soldiers in the 1930s and 1940s