Horst Lange - Knowledge

200:(harmonia praestabilitata) with which all men are bound, Lange expressed the deep conviction "that all their hands and feet are tied". In this poetic work the story begins with the adolescent first-person narrator, plagued by his awakening sexuality. A sect dominates the local population of the area the protagonist left in his youth. While on a holiday on a country estate the narrator predicts but cannot prevent a murder he has seen in a vision. An innocent man is sentenced, while the murderer whips the local population into a hysterical frenzy. 204:, such as red snow, are interpreted as pointing to the end of time. Personal relationships are also infected with morbidity. All the while the origin of the protagonist's guilt is often his perceived sexual deformity. In the novel Lange confronts the reader with adultery, incest, faithlessness, lust, rape, and the feelings of guilt and self-incrimination. All these feelings reach far back into the past. The protagonist returns to the estate many years later, tortured by his conscience and the desire to atone his guilt in some way. 318:, the contrast between light and darkness, spirit and body, love and sexuality. On 29 July 1943 Lange wrote in his diary "The apocalypse has already existed for a long time next to our bourgeois cosiness, the plush sofa. Fire falls from the skies and the disorder which man has caused is growing to infinity." On Christmas Eve of 1943 he wrote in his diary: 289:

in 1940 and worked as a writer in a training unit. Frustrated with his work he willingly accepted a posting as a soldier-reporter to a 6th Army pioneer unit in September 1941. Shortly before beginning his military service Lange noted in his diary on 22 May 1940 "I... submit to whatever may happen".

332:, Lange noted in resignation on 5 March 1945 "Nothing more can be hoped and nothing can ever be put right. That has to be eradicated". He laments Himmler for "washerwoman-superstition" and his "low-down manner of deprivation of man". In Lange's imagination the last days of the world preceded the 339:

But like many young German poets Lange defied the technical and military coldness of everyday life. He and others set a gentle and warm harmony of feeling above the world of facts. Lange published eleven prose pieces in newspapers and magazines from 1936 to 1944. Lange was regarded as a

380:, is preceded by an inner spiritual passivity. Hermes is a successful organist-composer who volunteers for front duty following a creative crisis. The whole frontline experience is for the character a revelatory detour on an already begun journey of self discovery. 322:

Today no gods are visible. And if they were visible, one would not believe in them anymore. This mankind is therefore so helpless and so abandoned that it falls prey to its seducers without resistance, because they are no longer capable of separating good from

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During his front service Lange was wounded, losing the sight of one eye. In 1944 Schaefer's son from her previous marriage was reported missing in action. Lange and Schaefer lived in Berlin and intensified their creative efforts. Both wrote poems, Lange's

500:) was published in 1956 and was set in Berlin during the air-raids. It described a doomed young couple in the last phase of the war. Ultimately Lange was marginalized in the post-war German literary scene. He died on 6 July 1971 of a haemorrhage. 356:

was very popular. Their works received excessively positive reviews in the press and Nazi publications. Lange benefited from the lack of uniformity in Nazi literary policy. Provided the author did not openly criticise the Nazi state or the

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On 8 October 1944 Lange noted in his diary "The hysteria is increasing from hour to hour. The madness festers behind every normal expression of life. The apocalyptic beasts are ready to devour us all". Following a speech he had heard by

282:). In it he wrote "one had to be exposed to whatever the ... dark and formless powers had decided, one could not free oneself, and one was obliged to accept it, even if it meant death itself, which would thrive upon it." 479:

wrote to Lange on 2 March 1946 that "The old emigrants are concerned with a naturalistic working through of the Nazi period. But now we need another frame of mind". Lange published two significant novels after the war.

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with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. They had an open relationship and both pursued other affairs, which inspired their writings. In 1931 the couple moved to Berlin, openly opposed the

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in Berlin the Nazi regime concealed its radical tendencies and aesthetic modernism was tolerated so long as it was not political. But in the summer of 1937 the Nazis' exhibition on

90:, Gropius advised him to focus on developing his literary talent. Lange returned to Liegnitz, finished school and in 1925 began studying art history, literature and theatre at the 114:

and would continue to publish non-conformist literature after the Nazis seized power. Lange briefly joined the Communist Party, and left Berlin to study art history in

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Dark visions of the present were reinforced by Lang's fatalism. His most important work and his first novel was published in the autumn of 1937 under the title

133:(nature magic), where a magic sense unfolded within the realm of an ambivalent nature. This movement was connected with writers who published in the journal 400:. Thus the couple did not witness the fall of Berlin a month later. Mittenwald capitulated to the US Army and the couple stayed there until they moved to 126:

and distributed anti-Nazi stickers. When the Nazis seized power in March 1933 they were denounced by their neighbour and their apartment was searched.

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as older and established poets who had stayed in Germany and upheld a tradition of "bourgeois classicism". Andersch counted Lange alongside the poets

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in Weimar. He dreamt of becoming a painter and was given an office job in the school by his uncle who taught architecture. At the school he met

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among the younger generation who stayed in Germany and contributed to the resistance against Nazi authorities with their literary work.

1309: 70:, then a Prussian province. His father was chief clerk in the Prussian army, but suffered a nervous breakdown while serving during 2398: 2322: 1319: 173:. As intellectuals they remained in Germany and opposed the Nazi regime in varying degrees of openness. In 1935 the historian 376:, a collection of three stories with intensive regard for characters. The fate of the foredoomed central character, named 242:

novel. This literary movement comprised young authors who had stayed in Nazi Germany, were bitterly disappointed with the

310:) to draw the picture of "sinking worlds". In his perception the world suffered from the enduring absence of God, while 1344: 994: 969: 930: 905: 880: 855: 830: 805: 780: 755: 730: 705: 680: 635: 610: 571: 1190: 1114: 1370: 1482: 1200: 1049: 1185: 50:

fusion literary style that remained important in post-war Germany and was developed further by authors such as

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While studying and living in Berlin Lange published poems and short stories. His literary friends were

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caused a shift in cultural policy. Lange wrote to a friend "I remain what I am: a degenerate artist".

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tried to persuade the couple to follow him into exile, but Lange "felt tied to the German language".

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The publication of Lange's war diaries in 1979 generated new interest in his work. In the 1980s

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family and instilled in Lange a love for poetry. In 1921 Lange ran away from home to join the

1893: 1778: 1683: 1467: 1261: 449: 259: 226:. Until then a level of cultural and journalistic pluralism prevailed in Germany. During the 51: 1733: 2393: 2388: 2352: 1918: 227: 91: 1226: 8: 2332: 1848: 1718: 1562: 1299: 1236: 1149: 472: 433: 315: 2216: 2342: 1923: 1843: 1648: 1527: 1421: 1089: 1084: 987: