Die a Hero in Langemarck: Flanders in the Nazi Poetry of Heinrich Anacker

Abstract: This contribution focuses on the representation of Flanders in the propaganda poetry of the Nazi writer Heinrich Anacker (19011971) and its role in mythologising heroes in National Socialism. The analysis of a selection of poems from Anackers anthology Die Fanfare. Gedichte der deutschen Erhebung reveals Flanders as an important topos in his poetry. The symbolic value of this topos will be explained from a literary theoretical point of view: the idea of Flanders/Langemarck as a German memory space in a World War I past will be linked to the debate on whether National Socialism should... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Van Hertbruggen, Anneleen
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
Schlagwörter: Literature
Sprache: Deutsch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27473724
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1475210151162165141

Abstract: This contribution focuses on the representation of Flanders in the propaganda poetry of the Nazi writer Heinrich Anacker (19011971) and its role in mythologising heroes in National Socialism. The analysis of a selection of poems from Anackers anthology Die Fanfare. Gedichte der deutschen Erhebung reveals Flanders as an important topos in his poetry. The symbolic value of this topos will be explained from a literary theoretical point of view: the idea of Flanders/Langemarck as a German memory space in a World War I past will be linked to the debate on whether National Socialism should be considered a political religion. Within this debate, Klaus Vondung identified the notion of blood as one of the six articles of faith of the Nazi creed, which appears in Anackers poetry in connection with the Flanders topos. This combination of blood and the Flanders topos serves to depict the death of the fallen soldiers as a so-called Nazi martyrdom