In the Nineties of the 20th century, a debate on the “impossible” hypothesis of a victory for the Third Reich in the Second World War and what would happen after it ran through German historiography. This debate reflects a tendency toward normalization after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification. According to this interpretation, National Socialism would have been an extreme and unrepeatable phenomenon. After its definitive affirmation, a process of progressive moderation would have started. “If Hitler had won, National Socialism would be stifled in its radicalism, or it would have become bourgeois,” writes Alexander Demandt in Wenn Hitler gewonnen hätte (1995). Arne Lubos’ novel Schwiebus (1980) anticipates this debate by a decade and develops the motif of “Nazism after Nazism” in an all-historical key. It denies “normalizing” perspectives and outlines scenarios in which National Socialist hegemony has given rise to a regime in which repression and terror are not entirely evident but no less widespread and frightening. Our paper aims to explain his narrative strategies.
Impotenza, fuga e controidilllio: Schwiebus di Arno Lubos
alessandro fambrini
2023-01-01
Abstract
In the Nineties of the 20th century, a debate on the “impossible” hypothesis of a victory for the Third Reich in the Second World War and what would happen after it ran through German historiography. This debate reflects a tendency toward normalization after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification. According to this interpretation, National Socialism would have been an extreme and unrepeatable phenomenon. After its definitive affirmation, a process of progressive moderation would have started. “If Hitler had won, National Socialism would be stifled in its radicalism, or it would have become bourgeois,” writes Alexander Demandt in Wenn Hitler gewonnen hätte (1995). Arne Lubos’ novel Schwiebus (1980) anticipates this debate by a decade and develops the motif of “Nazism after Nazism” in an all-historical key. It denies “normalizing” perspectives and outlines scenarios in which National Socialist hegemony has given rise to a regime in which repression and terror are not entirely evident but no less widespread and frightening. Our paper aims to explain his narrative strategies.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
