Friedrich Griese (1890–1975) was a German novelist. He was associated with the nationalist literary movement during the Third Reich.
Griese wrote mostly about peasant life in northern Germany. His most important books were
written before the advent of the Nazi government in 1933, so he cannot be considered so much a
proponent of Nazi ideologies as a precursor to them.[1] He
wrote his autobiography, Mein Leben, at the height of his popularity in 1934.
Griese's novels are nostalgic both in their interest in medieval German
literature and their enthusiasm for an idealized conception of the spirit of the German peasant. In this sense they are
solidly within the Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) school popular during the Third
Reich. However, according to Charles Albert Schumann, he is more interested in connection to one's ancestors than in race as it
was popularly conceived at the time.[2] His best-known
novels are Winter, Feuer (Fire), and Die Weissköpfe (The Grey Heads), all stories of agrarian
life in 19th and 20th century Germany.
After the war, Griese was briefly interned at the infamous Prisoner of War camp at
Fünfeichen.[3] However, he
was able to write, principally as a translator and a scholar of Fritz Reuter, during the postwar years. He published one novel, Der Zug der Grossen Vögel (The
Path of the Great Birds), during this period. Like most popular Third Reich authors, he is largely forgotten in contemporary
Germany.
Major works
Fiction
- Die Letzte Garbe, 1927.
- Winter, 1927.
- Tal der Armen, 1929.
- Der Ewige Acker, 1930.
- Der Herzog, 1931.
- Der Saatgang, 1932.
- Das Korn Rauscht, 1934.
- Wind im Luch, 1937.
- Die Flucht, 1939.
- Bäume im Wind, 1941.
- Die Wagenburg, 1941.
- Alte Glocken, 1942.
- Das Letzte Gesicht, 1942.
- Die Weissköpfe, 1943.
- Feuer, 1944.
- Das Kind des Torfmachers, 1944.
- Der Zug der Grossen Vögel, 1951.
Nonfiction
- Mein Leben, 1934.
- Rede Gehalten Bei der Stehr-feier der Deutschen Akademie der Dichtung, 1934.
- Fritz Reuter, 1942.
References
- ^ Mankiewicz, Frank, "German Literature 1933-1938" (The German
Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 4. (1939), 179-191), 186.
- ^ Schumann, Charles Albert, Christian and Germanic Elements as
Interpretive Keys to the Novels of Friedrich Griese (Doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas, 2002).
- ^ Chronology of Griese's life from the Jost-Reinhold-Stiftung.
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