Erich Kästner
🧵1/n
“I... saw our books fly into the twitching flames and heard the corny little tirade of the wily little liar. Funeral weather hung over the town. It was disgusting."
Erich Kästner about the book burning on Berlin's Opernplatz on May 10, 1933
🧵1/n
“I... saw our books fly into the twitching flames and heard the corny little tirade of the wily little liar. Funeral weather hung over the town. It was disgusting."
Erich Kästner about the book burning on Berlin's Opernplatz on May 10, 1933
2/n on May 10, 1933, university students burned over 25,000 volumes of “un-German” books, presaging an era of state censorship & control of culture. On the evening of May 10, in most university towns, right-wing students marched in
3/n torchlight parades “against the un-German spirit.”
The scripted rituals called for high Nazi officials, professors, university rectors, and university student leaders to address the participants and spectators.
At the meeting places, students threw the pillaged & “unwanted”
The scripted rituals called for high Nazi officials, professors, university rectors, and university student leaders to address the participants and spectators.
At the meeting places, students threw the pillaged & “unwanted”
4/n books onto bonfires with great ceremony, band-playing, and so-called “fire oaths.”
But then Joseph Goebbels made an appearance after all, shouting: "The future German man will not just be a man of books, but a man of character." This German man, he went on to say, would even
But then Joseph Goebbels made an appearance after all, shouting: "The future German man will not just be a man of books, but a man of character." This German man, he went on to say, would even
5/n "overcome the fear of death."
Kästner:
"This scene and these words, which Goebbels hurled at his audience like missiles, encapsulated everything that was yet to come: burning synagogues, Auschwitz, Stalingrad and firing squads on the Eastern Front.
Kästner:
"This scene and these words, which Goebbels hurled at his audience like missiles, encapsulated everything that was yet to come: burning synagogues, Auschwitz, Stalingrad and firing squads on the Eastern Front.
6/6 Goebbels had already thought of everything.
All he needed was a few helpers."
The book burnings ended in October.
All he needed was a few helpers."
The book burnings ended in October.
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