Die Wandlung

Last updated

Die Wandlung was a monthly magazine published in Heidelberg between November 1945 and Autumn 1949. [1] "Die Wandlung" has no direct equivalent in English, but the gerund "The Changing" conveys the meaning sufficiently.

"Die Wandlung ist vom Diskurs eines radikalen Bruchs mit der Vergangenheit geprägt, während "Lancelot" die Kontinuität des französischen kulturellen Erbes, aber auch einer gewissen humanistischen Tradition Deutschlands hervorhebt. In dieser Reibung zwischen zwei gegensätzlichen Zeitschriften-Konzeptionen entsteht ein Potenzial deutsch-französischer Verständigung." [2]

"Die Wandlung is predicated on a radical break with the past, whereas "Lancelot" [,a contemporary equivalent journal that appeared in France between 1947 and 1950,] places emphasis on the French cultural heritage, along with a certain enduring humanistic tradition in Germany. In the tension that separates the underlying conceptions of the two journals there exists a potential for Franco-German understanding."

Patricia Oster, after studying a 1946 copy of "Die Wandlung"

History and profile

Die Wandlung was founded by the philosophers Karl Jaspers and Dolf Sternberger, the linguist-culturalist Werner Krauss and the sociologist-economist Alfred Weber. Appearing directly after the twelve Nazi years, the publication aspired to feed a spiritual renewal for Germans, both in the western and Soviet occupation zones. Dolf Sternberger took on the role of managing editor. [3]

Along with the journal's founders, contributors included Hannah Arendt, T. S. Eliot, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Gerhard Storz, Wilhelm E. Süskind and Viktor von Weizsäcker. Also included were documents relating to contemporary history, and in particular National Socialism.

In the lead article of the first edition Karl Jaspers wrote that, after National Socialism, there were no longer any valid universal standards left. He would dare to take responsibility to try to find a way through this monstrous moral lacuna. For that, memories could not suffice. He wanted to base the focus of the new journal not on history but on the present and the future. After undergoing the Nazi experience, Jaspers stressed: "We do not come with a programme". Key concepts were moral renewal, responsibility, liberty and humanism. [4]

In 1957 twenty-eight definitional contributions from Sternberger, Storz and Süskind were collected and published in a volume under the title "Aus dem Wörterbuch des Unmenschen" ("From the Dictionary of Inhumanity"). [5] Words and phrases identified were those from the propaganda and euphemisms of Nazi period that, in the eyes of the authors, should be consigned to oblivion, but ten years after being identified in "Die Wandlung" were still in common usage. [6] By the time the third edition appeared this "dictionary" had stretched to 33 "definitions".

Related Research Articles

Patrick Süskind is a German writer and screenwriter, known best for his novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, first published in 1985.

The term degree is used in several scales of temperature, with the notable exception of kelvin, primary unit of temperature for engineering and the physical sciences. The degree symbol ° is usually used, followed by the initial letter of the unit; for example, "°C" for degree Celsius. A degree can be defined as a set change in temperature measured against a given scale; for example, one degree Celsius is one-hundredth of the temperature change between the point at which water starts to change state from solid to liquid state and the point at which it starts to change from its liquid to gaseous state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonhard Ragaz</span> Swiss Reformed theologian (1868–1945)

Leonhard Ragaz was a Swiss Reformed theologian and, with Hermann Kutter, one of the founders of religious socialism in Switzerland. He was influenced by Christoph Blumhardt. He was married to the feminist and peace activist Clara Ragaz-Nadig.

Helmut Schoeck was an Austrian-German sociologist and writer best known for his work Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustav Knuth</span> German actor 1901-1987

Gustav Knuth was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1935 and 1982 and starred in the TV series Alle meine Tiere. He was married to the actress Elisabeth Lennartz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Schmiele</span>

Walter Schmiele was a German writer and translator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jürgen Habermas bibliography</span>

The works of the German sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas include books, papers, contributions to journals, periodicals, newspapers, lectures given at conferences and seminars, reviews of works by other authors, and dialogues and speeches given in various occasions. Working in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. Habermas is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'. His work focuses on the foundations of social theory and epistemology, the analysis of advanced capitalistic societies and democracy, the rule of law in a critical social-evolutionary context, and contemporary politics—particularly German politics. Habermas's theoretical system is devoted to revealing the possibility of reason, emancipation, and rational-critical communication latent in modern institutions and in the human capacity to deliberate and pursue rational interests.

Skot is an old and deprecated measurement unit of luminance, used for self-luminous objects. The term comes from Greek skotos, meaning "darkness".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Krolow</span> German poet and translator (1915–1999)

Karl Krolow was a German poet and translator. In 1956 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize. He was born in Hanover, Germany, and died in Darmstadt, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermann Merxmüller</span>

Hermann Merxmüller was a German botanist and taxonomist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabeth Kulmann</span>

Elisabeth Kulmann was a Russian-born poet and translator who worked in Russian, German and Italian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerhard Zwerenz</span> German writer and politician

Gerhard Zwerenz was a German writer and politician. From 1994 until 1998 he was a member of the Bundestag for the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Werner Krauss (academic)</span> German academic (1900–1976)

Werner Krauss was a German university professor.

Gerhard Storz was the son of a Lutheran pastor from Württemberg who at various stages distinguished himself in theatre productions, as a scholar, an educationalist, a politician and an author-journalist, sometimes pursuing one career at a time and sometimes several in combination. Throughout his adult life he liked to see himself as a "language therapist". "Human speech seems to have been encoded, sealed into formulaic structures, and pressed into service for mechanistic operations", he once wrote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helm Stierlin</span> German psychiatrist (1926–2021)

Helm Stierlin, born as Wilhelm Paul Stierlin, was a German psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and systemic family therapist. From 1974 to 1991 he was the medical director and chairowner of the Department for psychoanalytic basic research and Family Therapy at the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg. Stierlin contributed significantly to the establishment and further development of systemic therapy in Germany.

Kurt Karl Eberlein was a German art historian who was close to the Nazi ideology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wasserschloss Steinen</span> Fortified house in Germany

The Wasserschloss Steinen is a fortified house in the northern part of the village Steinen in the district Lörrach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freies Deutsches Hochstift</span> German literary society

The Freies Deutsches Hochstift is a literary association based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is the owner of the Goethe House, the place where the playwright and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born and spent his early years, which it operates as a museum. The Hochstift also manages the Deutsches Romantik-Museum, a museum dedicated to German Romanticism which opened in 2021.

Ernst Beutler was a German literary historian and Goethe researcher who served as the director of the Freies Deutsches Hochstift literary society between 1925 and 1960.

References

  1. Monika Waldmüller: "Die Wandlung. Eine Monatsschrift." Herausgegeben von Dolf Sternberger unter Mitwirkung von Karl Jaspers, Werner Krauss und Alfred Weber. Deutsche Schillergesellschaft, Marbach 1988
  2. Patricia Oster. "Die Zeitschrift als Ort der Konstitution eines ‚transnationalen' kulturellen Feldes: Lancelot – Der Bote aus Frankreich und Die Wandlung (Abstract)". Universität des Saarlandes. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  3. "Über Dolf Sternberger". Dolf Sternberger-Gesellschaft e.V., Heidelberg. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  4. Die Wandlung: Geleitwort (lead article): Volume 1, Nov 1945, pages 1-6
  5. Rudolf Walter Leonliardt (24 October 1957). "Der Unmensch ist unter uns: Ein Wörterbuch, bei dem die Seitenzahl der wichtigste Anlaß zu einer Kritik ist". Die Zeit (online). Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  6. "Sprache / Wörterbuch - Betreutes Deutsch". Der Spiegel. 1957. Retrieved 4 April 2016.