War, Weimar, and Literature

The Neue Merkur, a leading literary and political magazine published in Munich from 1914 to 1916 and from 1919 until 1925, was one of the most influential European journals of its type during the early 1920s. The contributors included such prominent writers and thinkers as Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Jakob Wassermann, Alfred Weber, Martin Buber and Bernard Shaw. The Neue Merkur also introduced German readers to some of the previously published works of other European writers, such as Pirandello, Isaak Babel, and D. H. Lawrence. Its influence was political to the extent that it launched an international dialogue on a French-German rapprochement; one of the magazine’s special issues was reprinted and distributed by the German Foreign office.

After extensive archival research in Europe and the United States, including careful study of the editorial files—miraculously preserved in their entirety—and interviews with more than forty personalities formerly connected with the journal, Professor Stern has written a searching and highly readable account of the dissemination of some of the most significant ideas and ideals of the 1920s. Professor Stern has written a searching and highly readable account of the dissemination of some of the most significant ideas and ideals of the 1920s.