Harmful and Undesirable: Book Censorship in Nazi Germany

Like every totalitarian regime, Nazi Germany tried to control intellectual freedom by censoring books. Between 1933 and 1945, the Hitler regime orchestrated a massive campaign to take control of all forms of communication. In 1933, there were 90 book burnings in 70 German cities. Indeed, Werner Schlegel, an official in the Ministry of Propaganda, called the book burnings "a symbol of the revolution." In later years, the regime used less violent means of domination. It pillaged bookstores and libraries and prosecuted uncooperative publishers and dissident authors.In Harmful and Undesirable, Guenter Lewy analyzes the various strategies that the Nazis employed to enact censorship and the government officials who led the attack on a free intellectual life, including Martin Bormann, Philipp Bouhler, Joseph Goebbels, and Alfred Rosenberg. The Propaganda Ministry played a leading role in the censorship campaign, supported by an array of organizations at both the state and local levels. Because of the many overlapping jurisdictions and organizations, censorship was disorderly and erratic.Beyond the implementation of censorship, Lewy describes the plight of authors, publishers, and bookstores who clashed with the Nazi regime. Some authors were imprisoned. Others, such as Gottfried Benn, Werner Bergengruen, Gerhart Hauptmann, Ernst Jünger, Jochen Klepper, and Ernst Wiechert, became controversial "inner emigrants" who chose to remain in Germany. Some of them criticized the Nazi regime through allegories and parables. Ultimately, Lewy paints a fascinating portrait of intellectual life under the Nazi dictatorship, detailing the dismal fate of those who were caught in the wheels of censorship.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. The Book-Burning of 1933 Part I. The Agencies of Control 3. The Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda 4. The Reich Chamber of Literature 5. Gestapo and SD 6. The Party Commission for the Protection of National Socialist Literature 7. Alfred Rosenberg: Hitler's Plenipotentiary for Ideological Education Part II. The Practice of Censorship 8. The Reasons for Banning Books 9. Jewish Books 10. The Purge of the Libraries 11. Wartime Censorship 12. The Battle for Turf Part III. The Impact of Censorship 13. The Inner Emigration 14. Conclusion Abbreviations and Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Guenter Lewy is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts. His books include The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany and The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Review :
"This is a welcome, thoroughly researched, persuasively argued, and highly illuminating account of the Third Reich's efforts to exercise book censorship to implement Nazi cultural policy... Lewy's fine study may now be the best for understanding Nazi book censorship from the top down." -- Gary D. Stark (Grand Valley State University), European History Quarterly, Vol. 47 "[A] valuable study. First and foremost, it offers a careful analysis of Nazi censorship policies and the agencies and individuals who devised and implemented them....Harmful and Undesirable is an interesting analysis of Nazi censorship that is concise yet detailed, well written, and effectively organized. Lewy provides an engaging narrative of Nazi censorship that affirms historical analyses, which have argued that the regime represented 'a system of feuding fiefdoms'..."--Kara Ritzheimer, Central European History "...Lewy's emphasis on overlapping and conflicting authorities provides a concise case study of the broader scholarly view of the polycracy of the Third Reich and demonstrates how censorship could, at times, remain effective, despite these interagency conflicts. A strength of the book is the level of detail Lewy provides..."--Willeke Sandler, HISTORY: Reviews of New Books "This admirably written book can be read both as a comprehensive history of National Socialist censorship and as a more abstract study of bureaucracy in the Third Reich...[R]eaders will enjoy a large number of surprising details and observations on issues such as self-censorship, paper shortages and economic mechanisms of the German book market."--Simon Unger, German History "Lewy's innovative narrative succeeds in its investigation of such a complex issue. This short book would be a welcome addition to graduate level (and possibly advanced undergraduate) seminars on intellectual life in Nazi Germany, particularly for classes that want to consider implementation as well as ideology. Harmful and Undesirable: Book Censorship in Nazi Germany will also inform researchers working on Nazi intellectual culture particularly the history of reading during the Third Reich."--Stuart Bailey, International Social Science Review "Recommended."--CHOICE "An intriguing, in-depth study of Nazi efforts to control every aspect of the printed word, from book burning to all forms of surveillance. This highly intelligent work brings light to a previously neglected field, in part of uncomfortable relevance. The author, a seasoned historian, concentrates on individuals, including Nazi chieftains who delighted in fighting each other."--Fritz Stern, author Five Germanys I Have Known "Guenter Lewy has written the first thoroughly documented and highly readable history of an aspect of Nazi rule hardly dealt with up to now. Harmful and Undesirable is an essential contribution to the history of the Third Reich."--Saul Friedlander, Professor of History Emeritus, UCLA "Nazi censorship was different from censorship in other totalitarian regimes, but it has escaped so far the attention of English language historiography. Professor Lewy's important study is therefore most welcome."--Walter Laqueur, author of Facism: Past, Present, and Future