Erwin J. Warkentin Libros

Investigation of the work of Wolfgang Borchert, the Second World War German poet and dramatist.This book is a study of Germany's first post-war author, Wolfgang Borchert, including his pre-1945 literary works, and offering the first complete and comprehensive analysis of his unpublished oeuvre. It covers the dramatic and poetic works written during the period that Germany was preparing for, and then engaged in, the struggle that led to its devastation. Professor Warkentin identifies themes and ideas common to both published and unpublished works, arguing that the literature produced by Borchert in post-war Hamburg is not solely the product of a disillusioned soldier, but the result of a lengthy developmental process begun as early as 1938, when Borchert's first poem was published in Nazi Germany.

In May of 1945, the American army, along with those of its Allies, occupied the cities and towns of Hitlers Third Reich. While most American soldiers wondered how Germanys citizens were going to feed and shelter themselves, this volume introduces the reader to another group of men who were concerned about a different form of starvation. The men of what was to become the Information Control Division (ICD) in the American Zone were preparing an antidote to 12 years of National Socialist propaganda, which was to be a steady diet of carefully selected bits of information that were calculated to change the way the German people understood the world. It was designed to transform the Germans into staunch defenders of democracy. In addition to providing the first historical overview of the activities of the ICD and the methods they employed, the book offers a unique perspective on how the US occupation utilised psychologists, psychiatrists, anthropologists, sociologists and other academics to vet potential candidates for media licenses in Germany. The narrative takes the reader through the various steps of the process of becoming a literary publisher, newspaperman, magazine editor, radio programmer, and filmmakers, and reveals how the American Military Government in Germany used the establishment of new media empires to attempt the mass re-education of an entire nation.