Weekly Recommendation: Jugend Ohne Gott by Ödön von Horváth
Hey there!
Here’s your weekly German media recommendation from Monoglot Anxiety. This time, it's the novel Jugend Ohne Gott by Austro-Hungarian author Ödön von Horváth.
But first, a quick note from me:
This is the last newsletter of Austria Month. I hope you enjoyed. Next week it's back to business as usual. If you want to complain about (or perhaps, compliment) my recommendations, you can get in touch on Twitter @monoglotanxiety or by shooting an email to hello@monoglotanxiety.com. You can also get in touch, support the blog, or send a one-time donation from the Buy Me A Coffee page.
With that all out of the way, on to the recommendation...
Jugend Ohne Gott
The first "real" German novel I ever read, Jugend Ohne Gott is a short novella that acts as a chilling exploration of the lack of character, individual thought, and morality of children in Nazi Germany. The story is written from the perspective of an elementary school teacher who recounts how his students — who are only ever referred to by their first initials — wholeheartedly adopt Nazi ideology and behave in amoral ways he struggles to understand. One student ultimately kills another, and the events leading up to and following this murder are the core of the story. Published in 1937, the book was banned by the Gestapo in 1938. Despite the novel's heavy subject matter, it written in relatively simple language that intermediate and advanced learners of German should be able to understand without too much extra effort. My boyfriend told me that it is read in schools in Austria.
Ödön von Horváth
One of Austria's most important authors critical of the dangers of fascism, Ödön von Horváth was born in what is now Croatia to an Austro-Hungarian diplomatic family of Hungarian origin. He began writing plays and novels after beginning to study at the University of Munich, with his first works appearing in 1920. Many of his writings were critical of fascism and he was eventually expelled from Germany in 1936. Jugend Ohne Gott was published in 1937 in Amsterdam and was quickly banned in Germany, and after Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938 Ödön von Horváth fled to Paris to escape persecution. He died shortly thereafter after he was struck by a broken tree branch in a thunderstorm on the Champs-Élysées. Jugend Ohne Gott's success — the book was attracted international attention and was quickly translated into many languages — caught the attention of German filmmaker Robert Siodmak and Ödön von Horváth met his end the same day he had previously spoken with Siodmak to discuss plans for a film adaptation.
That's all for this week,
Elise from Monoglot Anxiety