Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- PART I THE REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS
- PART II THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- PART III THE SECOND WORLD WAR
- 8 The Second World War: overview
- 9 War and victimization: Böll
- 10 War and accountability: Grass
- PART IV YUGOSLAVIA AND IRAQ
- 14 Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - War and victimization: Böll
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- PART I THE REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS
- PART II THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- PART III THE SECOND WORLD WAR
- 8 The Second World War: overview
- 9 War and victimization: Böll
- 10 War and accountability: Grass
- PART IV YUGOSLAVIA AND IRAQ
- 14 Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Auf die Gefahr hin, mich unbeliebt zu machen, muß ich hier eine Tatsache erwähnen, zu deren Verteidigung ich nur sagen kann, daß sie wirklich eine ist. In den Jahren 1939 bis 1945 hatten wir Krieg.
(“Nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit,” KWii: 13)(Regardless of the danger of making myself unpopular, I now have to mention a fact in defense of which I can only say that it really is a fact. From 1939 to 1945 we had a war.)
Nun, hier muß ich ein weiteres Geständnis ablegen: ich bin jüdischer Nationalität, und bestimmte, oder sollte ich sagen gewisse historische Ereignisse, die das Schicksal des jüdischen Volkes betreffen, verringern meine Sehnsucht, ein von Deutschen bewohntes Land zu besuchen, erheblich.
(“Geständnis eines Flugzeugentführers,” 92)(I now have one more confession to make: I am of Jewish nationality, and specific or should I say certain historical events regarding the destiny of the Jewish people considerably diminish my desire to visit a country inhabited by Germans.)
Unlike the slightly younger Günter Grass, who enlisted during the last months of the war, Heinrich Böll (1917–85) spent six years of his life as a soldier in Hitler's army. Unsurprisingly, a considerable portion of Böll's later work as a writer is dedicated to the subject of war and the travails of the immediate postwar period. Unlike much First World War literature, Böll's texts do not describe battles and conquests. If the experience of the front features at all, it is in the form of the everyday hardships to which a soldier is exposed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Representation of War in German LiteratureFrom 1800 to the Present, pp. 114 - 132Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010