Man of Straw (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

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Summary: Read this book and you will finally be able to understand...
Review: ... how Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust could happen. At least that's how I felt after reading it (and I'm German). The book describes the life of a man named Diederich Häßling, who grows up in pre-WWI Germany. He learns to respect, to love authority unquestioningly, even when it hurts him or is obviously unjust. And when he comes into a position of authority himself, he employs it just as brutally and unjustly. The reader looks on in horrified fascination and thinks: "if people really thought like that, then no atrocity is impossible..."

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Summary: The German "Babbitt"
Review: Heinrich Mann was the brother of the better-known Thomas Mann, author of the forbidding modernist masterpiece "The Magic Mountain." But don't be intimidated. "Man of Straw" is actually a very manageable little novel; the kind that can be read in a couple of afternoons.

Stylistically, Heinrich Mann has a lot in common with social realists like his American contemporary Sinclair Lewis. Like Lewis, he presents his main character, Diedrich Hessling, as an object of contempt rather than a person to sympathize with (although Lewis, arguably, shows some sympathy for his goofy realtor). Diedrich, simply put, is a real weasel with no redeeming qualities. We watch him grow from a small boy, fearful of a bullying father, into an arrogant and unscrupulous middle-aged man.

Diedrich is cowardly, irresponsible, and completely selfish--and what is worse, he goes to great lengths to make himself appear as a hardworking, honest, patriotic citizen. A lot of the time he is able to fool his peers and his betters. But there are a couple of critical moments when the facade threatens to drop away (for instance, when a doctor who helped Diedrich fake a medical condition in order to avoid the draft threatens to expose his patient as a coward) and we see Diedrich sweat and panic. But he somehow manages, slimy worm that he is, to wriggle out of these difficult situations and come through unscathed.

The novel is set in Germany shortly before the Great War. We see the Kaiser beginning to whip the country up into a frenzy of pseudo-patriotism and warmongering. Diedrich enthusiastically participates in all this so much so that he becomes a sort of prototype of the brownshirt thug who would terrorize Germany in the years leading up to the Nazi seizure of power.

All in all, a very solid portrait of a particular type of person whom we can all recognize. An enjoyable read, too.

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Summary: Mann warns of the dangers of blind nationalism
Review: Heinrich Mann's novel paints a portrait of the Second Reich through the eyes of Diedrich Hessling, an unconsequential little man who bullied his way into society using superpatriotism (he even curls his mustache so that it resembles the emperor's) and nationalism as a crutch, finally gaining status as a prominent conservative businessman, in the process being metamorphosed into a mini-Kaiser. His struggle was a reflection of the Second Reich's attempt at world domination through nationalism and Social Darwinism.

His use of patriotism to the emperor was used when he manipulates someone into stating that the Hohenzollerns were Jews, accusing him of lese-majeste. At that man's trial, Diedrich is accurately portrayed as "an average man, with a commonplace mind,... without courage so long as things are going badly for him and tremendously self-important as soon as they had turned in his favour"

Diedrich doesn't hesitate to make alliances when expedient and to boost his star higher, such as his association with his nemesis, Napoleon Fischer, a Social Democrat machinist at his factory. On one occasion, to cover up his own mistake in miscalculating the dimensions of the New Patent Cylinder Machine, he bribed Fischer to sabotage the machine so that he had a case to return it. Later, the two agreed to help each other in their political ambitions.

Thus Diedrich used his patriotism and anti-Social Democratic stance as ways to boost himself onward and upward, yet willing to make alliances with his alleged enemies, similar to the way Bismarck used nationalism as a tool to rally the Liberals against his wars against Austria and the south German states against France, all for his own personal power.

The importance of Wilhelm II's attempted surpassing of Bismarck must be reiterated. Diedrich's colleague warns people of the danger of any man emulating Bismarck: "Weak and pacifistic by nature, he becomes noisy and dangerous. Without a doubt the victories of his vanity will serve commercial ends. First his travesty of opinion brings a man to prison for lese-majeste. Afterwards he reaps his profit" So by virtue of the chain rule, Diedrich was in fact emulating Bismarck, making him not only a mini-Kaiser, but also a mini-Iron Chancellor. And this illustrates Mann's criticism of Bismarck's self-motivating political profit, perpetuated in the person of Diedrich.

Mann's novel is a portrait of pre-war Wilhelmine Germany (1888-1914). He thus saw as reasons for Germany's defeat in World War I the blind nationalism of the people and their obedience to the autocratic rule of the Kaiser. It's a warning to be heeded by any nation making rumblings toward war.