Impressionism and New Romanticism literature appeared in Germany at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, and Expressionism literature emerged during the First World War. These are the 3 main schools of German decadent literature. The first two belong to symbolism literature.
20th century German literature includes parts of German (modern times are divided into East and West Germany), Austrian and Swiss literature.
In the 20th century, the first outstanding achievement in German literature was traditional realist literature. In addition to Thomas Mann who wrote "The Buddenbrooks" (1901), Hesse (1877~1962) When he wrote "Under the Wheel" (1906), he should recommend the creation of Heinrich Mann (1871~1950). In the early 20th century, Heinrich Mann wrote the novels "In the Paradise of Lazy People" (1900, also known as "A Novel about Gentlemen"), "The Trash Professor" (1905), and "Little Town" (1909). ), "Servant" (1911~1914). His novels criticize capitalist society, expose Germany's reactionary education system and hypocritical and degenerate intellectuals, and show the conflict between democratic forces and reactionary forces. They are very powerful. "The Servant" and the later "The Poor" (1917) and "The Head" (1925) form the "Empire Trilogy". The former reveals the typical loyal and obedient slave of the German Empire through the despicable character of the son of a paper mill owner who bullies the weak and fears the strong; the latter two describe the conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. In the 1930s, he also wrote the historical novel "Henry IV" (1935~1938) and so on. He wrote 19 novels, 55 short and medium-length novels, 11 screenplays, and a large number of essays and political commentaries throughout his life.
From 1919 to 1933, under the influence of the Russian October Revolution, the proletarian literary movement in Germany surged. It not only had the Revolutionary Writers Union and the "Left Wing" magazine, but also a large number of writers emerged. Germany's main proletarian revolutionaries Merlin (1846~1919), Zetkin (1857~1933) and Luxemburg (1871~1919) all wrote many literary and artistic works. Proletarian writers including Beshear, Wolfe, Toller and others switched from expressionism to a proletarian stance. Female writer Anna Seghers (1900~), her famous works include the novel "Companions" (1932), which widely reflects the political and social life of various countries in the 1920s, and the anti-fascist novel "Moon Road" (1935). In terms of literary form, novels include Grünberg's "The Fire of the Ruhr" (1926), Turek's "The Autobiography of a Proletarian" and so on. Poems include Beshear's collection of poems "The Corpse on the Throne" (1925) and so on. In terms of drama, there are Wolf and Brecht. Wolf (1888~1953), whose representative work is the play "Professor Mamen" (1933~1934) that exposed fascism, and "Potassium Cyanide" is also his work. Brecht (1898~1956) was a famous playwright and drama theorist. He established a unique drama theory system called "narrative drama". His main works include the plays "The Three Centime Opera" (1928), "Mother" (1932, adapted from Gorky's novel), "The Gun of Madame Carrard" (1937), "The Life of Galileo" (1939) and "In Praise of Paris" Commune's "Days in the Commune" (1948), etc.
Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. The famous works of this period include Czech-German writer Kirch’s reportage “Mysterious China” (1933), Wolf’s play “Professor Mamen” (1935) and “Boss” Horse House" (1941), Beshear's poem "The Motherland of 1937", Bledel's novel "Fathers" (1941), Seghers' novel "The Seventh Cross" (1942), etc.
Some of the traditional realist literature of this period was ideologically influenced by left-wing literature, and some were artistically influenced by modernism. The last two parts of Heinrich Mann's "Empire" and Thomas Mann's "Joseph and His Brothers" tetralogy are all masterpieces. Other famous writers include Feuchtwanger (1884~1958), who wrote the "Waiting Room" trilogy: "Success" (1930), "The Obermann Brothers and Sisters" (1933), and "Exile" (1942). The formation and development of the Nazis criticized the evils of fascism.
He also has three other works, "Josephus" (1932~1942), "The Counterfeit Nero" (1936), "Simon" (1945), and "Goya" (1951), about the Spanish painter written after the war. "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1929) by the pacifist Remarque (1898~1970) is as good an anti-war novel as Wren's "War" (1928). Remarque reveals the horrors of war through the painful trench life of eight ordinary soldiers. He also wrote the anti-fascist novels "Exile" (1941) and "The Arc de Triomphe" (1946). Austrian writer Zweig (1881~1942) is a writer with special literary contributions. His "Three Masters" (1920) and "Three Poets" (1928) are excellent biographies and profound literary criticisms. His novel collections "The Malay Madman" (1922), "Confusion of Feelings" (1927), and "The Story of Chess" are rich in content. The only full-length novel "The Restless Heart" (1938) is about the love and suicide of a paralyzed girl, which is very profound. Zweig is good at writing about the strange experiences of lonely people. "Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman's Life" and "Letter from a Strange Woman" analyze the psychology of bourgeois women in detail and have a profound impact.
In the 1920s, expressionism split between the left and the right, with the centrists making outstanding achievements in art. The most important writer among them is the Austrian Kafka (1883~1924), who influenced several generations of modern writers. Others include: Kaiser's (1878~1945) trilogy "Coral" (1917) and "Gas" (part two, 1918, 1920), which deal with the exploitation of gas workers. Toller's (1893~1939) "The Crowd and Man" (1921) and "The Machine Destroyer" (1922) show the struggle of the proletariat. Stesheim, Kou Koushka and others also wrote representative works.
The literature of the Democratic Republic of Germany is dominated by socialist literature. Among the famous poets, in addition to Beshear, there is Weinert (1890~1953). In many of his poems, this proletarian poet who became famous in the 1920s called for the fight against fascism and enthusiastically praised socialism. In addition to Bledel and Seghers, other accomplished novelists include Strittmatter (1912~), who wrote The Miracle Man (1957, 1973), and The Divided Sky (1963). The female writer Christa Wolfe (1929~), Prenzdorff (1934~) who wrote "The New Sorrows of Young Werther" (1972), etc. In terms of drama, the most outstanding works are Brecht's (1898~1956) "The Caucasus" (1946), "The Life of Galileo" (1947) and "Days of the Commune" (1948), which praises the Paris Commune. In the 1960s and 1970s, the most effective writers in the GDR included Reimann, Conte, Brauth, Neutsch, Kunert, etc.
The first thing to appear in the Federal Republic of Germany after the war was the "ruin literature" represented by Borchert (1921~1947). In 1947, the "Four Seventh Society" was established, and a group of writers quickly shocked the literary world, including Bohr, Grass, Walser, Schaluck, and Austria's Bachmann, Handke, etc. Heinrich B?ll (1917~1985)'s novels "Portrait of a Woman" (1971, Chinese translation: "Leni and Them"), "Katarina Brahm's Lost Honor" (1974 ) indicts Western society through the persecution of kind-hearted women. Gunter Grass (1927~)'s "Danzig Trilogy": "The Tin Drum" (1959), "Cat and Jerry" (1961), and "The Inhuman Years" (1963) not only reviews the history of fascist rule Cruel and exposed the ugliness of real capitalism. "German Lesson" (1968) by Siegfried Lenz (1926~) uses the form of a policeman's son reminiscing about the past in his German lesson composition, describing the pessimistic and desperate psychology of people during the Nazi period. The play "Caspar" (1968~) by the Austrian writer Peter Handke (1942~) expresses the search for the philosophy of life in the form of a fool's talk.
In 1961, workers' writers established the "Sixth Society", and in 1970 they established the "Labor Circle Literature Society" to promote workers' literature and documentary literature. In the 1970s, the development of documentary literature led to the popularity of diary and autobiographical novels.
Popular dramas include "The Midwife" (1971) by Hochhuth (1931~), "Death of a Hunter" (1976~) and "Malassaad" (1964) by Peter Weiss (1916~).
Modern Swiss German literature is most eye-catching with the novels and plays of Frisch and Dürrenmatt. Frisch's (1911~) farce "The Great Wall of China" (1947) brought characters from different eras to the same stage, including Qin Shihuang, Napoleon, Romeo and Juliet, and the comedy "Don Juan" and "The Return of the Old Woman" (1956) exposed the omnipotence of money in the West. phenomenon, "The Physicist" (1962) illustrates the encroachment of power competition on science. Their plays use exaggeration to describe alienation phenomena, and some people classify them as absurd plays.