Verabschiedung der Gegenwart

'Reich' is a fundamental concept in the political and social debates of the interwar period in Germany and Austria, the significance of which has been underestimated to date. As very different ideas could be associated with this term, it had to be redefined each time it was used, which gave rise to historical reconstructions as well as political and retropical imaginations of all kinds. In the literary, scientific, political and essayistic texts written between 1918 and 1939 in which the ‘Reich’ is mentioned, Moritz Strohschneider's study identifies a discourse that is at odds with the common interpretations of the time. Thus, forgotten texts and previously overlooked authors such as Gertrud von le Fort or Albert H. Rausch as well as rather surprising points of contact in the thinking and writing of writers come into view who, like Joseph Roth and Stefan George, are almost never treated together in literary studies.