Volume 02 Issue 11-2022
20
International Journal of Advance Scientific Research
(ISSN
–
2750-1396)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
11
Pages:
20-24
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.478
)
(2022:
5.636
)
METADATA
IF
–
7.356
A
BSTRACT
Anna Seghers is one of the strongest, most active, most effective writers of German literature of the 20th
century. Anna Seghers is the pen name of the writer, whose real name is Netty Reiling. Even if fascism
reached its peak and threatened the whole world, the writer believed for a lifetime that the German people
would be saved from this calamity, and he actively fought with all his might for the restoration of such a
free-minded Germany. It is worth saying that Anna Seghers is a great thinker, both as a writer and as an
active organizer.
K
EYWORDS
Anna Seghers, 20th-century German literature, expressionist style, epic canvas.
I
NTRODUCTION
Nettie Reiling (Anna Seghers) was born in the
family of the owner of a store selling antiques and
applied art equipment in Mainz. Nettie Reiling,
who grew up with a great interest in art,
literature, and history from childhood, studied at
the faculties of philology and art history at the
universities of Cologne and Heidelberg and
successfully graduated from them. She deeply
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Research Article
A GLANCE AT GERMAN LITERATURE
Submission Date:
October 25, 2022,
Accepted Date:
October 30, 2022,
Published Date:
November 10, 2022
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/ijasr-02-11-04
Nargiza Yusupova
Chief Specialist, The State Test Center In The Cabinet Of Ministers Of The Republic Of Uzbekistan
Volume 02 Issue 11-2022
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SJIF
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studies Martin Buber's philosophy, and the works
of Balzac, Kafka, Tolstoy, and Rembrandt. She
took the pseudonym Seghers from the name of
the artist Hercules Seghers, who created in the
17th century, and in 1925, the first story "Dead on
the island of Djal", published in the "Frankfurter
Zeitung" newspaper, was published under the
name of Anna Seghers.
Nettie Reiling (Anna Seghers) has a deep
knowledge of the history of world literature, so
she has no difficulty in finding her own literary
direction, she does not wander in different styles,
but starts creating in the classical style, based on
social realism. Even in the 1920s, when the
expressionist style was gaining strength, and
under the influence of this style, she wrote
Grubetsch (1926) - a story about poor, helpless
people looking for work, and "Ziglers" (Die
Zieglern, 1927) - the plight of artisans who lost
their jobs. The writer's first step towards realism
can be felt in his novella and other works.
Her first major work - "Fishermen's Uprising"
(Der Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara, 1928)
published under the name of Anna Seghers,
achieved great success and received the high
prize of Weimar Germany - named after G. Kleist.
The story describes the efforts of hard-working
people, including the hero of the story Andreas
Bruin and his friends, who consciously
understand their rights and strive to restore these
violated rights, fight against injustice. And such a
theme became the main theme in almost all the
writer's works.
Fishermen live in extreme conditions and work in
extreme conditions, but the wages they receive
are not worth the work, let alone enough to live
well, not even enough to eat. Those who wanted
to feed their family well, devoted all their energy
to this work, and in the end, they would only
become pitiful. The writer very realistically
represented a poor settlement of fishermen, a
tract by the sea and the gathering of its
inhabitants.
But even in this story, the influence of the
expressionist style is felt, for example, Gull, the
leader of the rebels, is a brave, intelligent, fair
person, but his character and his higher goals are
not fully revealed because there are no
contradictions in his image. Also, because there
are some uncertainties in the principles of space
and time of the work, the events have a somewhat
abstract image.
Anna Seghers's novels about the revolutionary
struggles of workers in "Partners" (Die Gefährten,
1932) and "The Way Through Feral" (Der Weg
Durch den Februar, 1935) show that the skill of
the writer has increased even more.
The novel "The Seventh Cross" was created in
very difficult conditions, that is, it was written and
published secretly when the Nazis banned any
free thought, art and literature. The novel itself is
about the patriots fighting against the Nazi
regime, and it expresses the bitter truth: the most
courageous, intelligent, strong-willed people who
were against the war were tortured and shot in
concentration camp.
Volume 02 Issue 11-2022
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International Journal of Advance Scientific Research
(ISSN
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2750-1396)
VOLUME
02
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11
Pages:
20-24
SJIF
I
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FACTOR
(2021:
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)
(2022:
5.636
)
METADATA
IF
–
7.356
As a result, the German people were realistically
disillusioned, demoralized, and unable to fight
Hitler and his regime.
The novel is based on real events - about the
escape of seven prisoners from the Westhofen
concentration camp. The escape of seven people
from the concentration camp at once enrages the
Nazis. They take it as an insult. Because at that
time, seven people had not tried to escape from
any camp. So the camp management, especially
the barbarian Farenberg, decides to capture,
torture, and kill all the fugitives. He and his
partners really start to catch the fugitives one by
one, torture them and hang them on crosses.
However, their efforts will not end: six fugitives
will be caught and killed, but they will not catch
the seventh - Georg Geisler. The Gestapo is
symbolically defeated in this struggle.
Anna Seghers describes not only the
concentration camp and the various places where
the fugitive prisoners hid but also the events in
the camp. This makes the work even better. The
attitude of the people living in the German slums
to fascism is fully revealed. That is, it often
happens that more powerful and wealthy people
try not to bring fugitives close to them or sell
them, while poor and honest people try to help
them and hide them in safer places. Even with
this, the writer was able to express the
satisfaction of the regime of that time.
One of the fugitives, Georg Geisler, escapes from
the concentration camp and thinks that the
inhabitants of the city of Westhofen should be
ashamed and blush that there is such a shameful
prison in their area because they could not show
any resistance against the war. But when he starts
meeting people, he is even surprised to see that
peaceful, contented people live carelessly as if
they have nothing to do with the war.
But when he begins to pay more attention, he
begins to notice that there are people in the city
who do not support the Nazis and who are against
them, although they are a very small minority, but
there are people who believe in the future.
Anna Seghers carefully designed the plot of the
work in a very dramatic way. As the plot develops
dynamically, the reader reads without looking up
from it. In the play, Seghers deliberately used
different styles to fully express the events. For
example, when he is given the memories of a
prisoner in a very difficult and tense situation, the
writer describes the scenery of the Rhine in a very
lyrical style, that is, he expresses the situation
during the war in a very contrasting way.
The author's achievement in this work is that he
tried to show the German national character as
beautifully as possible, to depict it naturally. He
was able to show the behavior of the German
people, the way of living, the appearance of the
cities, in short, every national detail specific to the
Germans with great skill. That is probably why,
even in the writing style of the novel, in the
language, and in the dialogue between the
characters, the nationality, character, and outlook
of the Germans can be felt.
The story of "Saboteurs" (Die Saboteure, 1946) is
written according to the work "Seventh Cross", as
the conclusion of the novel. Characters such as
Volume 02 Issue 11-2022
23
International Journal of Advance Scientific Research
(ISSN
–
2750-1396)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
11
Pages:
20-24
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.478
)
(2022:
5.636
)
METADATA
IF
–
7.356
Franz Marnet, German Schultze, Kress, who
helped Geisler in the novel "Seventh Cross",
appear again in the story "The Destroyers". They,
the anti-war anti-fascists, try to damage the
weapons factory and try to stop it, but fail.
Because the factory workers do not understand
the goal of the anti-fascists, or rather, they refuse
to help them for fear of punishment.
Another famous work of Anna Seghers, The Living
Dead (Die Toten bleiben Jung, 1949) contains
historical events in Germany between 1918 and
1943: the defeat of the class struggles in Saxony
and the Ruhr, inflation and the presidential
election, the Reichstag related to the arson and
the Munich Agreement, World War II and the
Battle of Stalingrad, etc. Of course, Anna Seghers
revealed the essence of these events not as a
historian, but as a writer. He tried to express the
uniqueness of the different strata of the German
people. For example, bourgeois production
owners like Klemm and Castritzius pay the Nazis
to control the workers. And landowners like
Wenceslow, Lieven, and Nadler try to serve the
Nazis in the hope of getting possession of the
occupied lands.
The novel begins with the execution of Erwin, a
laborer. Erwin does not have time to tell his
girlfriend Maria that he is a revolutionary. Once
cheerful, loving life and nature, Maria does not
know where he has gone and is forced to marry
the worker Geschka, thinking about the future of
her son Hans, born to Erwin. Maria, who at first
does not understand anything and lives in
difficulty, gradually begins to realize that fascism
is deceiving and oppressing the workers,
preparing for an invasion and that they have wild
plans, and finally she decides to fight against the
war. As his son Hans becomes a big boy, he starts
to fight with a meaningful understanding of the
reality that is happening around him. Especially
the worker Martin, who was once a friend of
Ervin, who influenced his outlook, sets an
example for him. Hans changes completely. But he
was called up for military service and sent to the
front. At the front, when he was about to defect to
the Russian side in the Battle of Stalingrad,
Ventslov killed him. The same Wenceslaus who
killed Ervin now kills his son. Looking at the face
of the dead Hans, Wentzlow remembers Erwin.
Only then, Wenceslaus realizes that Hitler and the
fascist regime deceived him, his people, and
Germany. He admits that fascism, which promised
heaven and prosperity, a rich society, was nothing
but a disaster, that it created war and used the
German people only as a weapon. So, Wenceslov,
seeing that Ervin, who once expressed an anti-
war opinion and died, appears to him as a young
man in the form of Hans, who looks the same as
two drops, believes everything - the survival of
the dead, or rather, their anti-war ideas are
eternal.
Anna Seghers' novel "The Living Dead" can be
called an incomparable epic canvas. Through
these and other works, the writer was able to
reveal the deep roots of fascism and the reasons
for its emergence with many works. Even if
fascism reached its peak and threatened the
whole world, the writer believed for a lifetime
that the German people would be saved from this
calamity, and he actively fought with all his might
Volume 02 Issue 11-2022
24
International Journal of Advance Scientific Research
(ISSN
–
2750-1396)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
11
Pages:
20-24
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.478
)
(2022:
5.636
)
METADATA
IF
–
7.356
for the restoration of such a free-minded
Germany. It is worth saying that Anna Seghers is
a great thinker, both as a writer and as an active
organizer.
R
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