The Stolen Republic [antikvár]

These writings of CARL VON OSSIETZKY, Germán joornalist and author who died a victim of Nazi vengeance in 1938, are a living commentary on the eventful years in Germany's history from before the First World War to the eve of Hitler's coming to power. Throughout the whole period Ossietzky was never afraid to use his pen for the cause of democracy and anti-militarism. A deep humanism permeates the articles in this selection, though they vary in tone from the deadly serious to the almost frivolous. He wrote in a lively style interspersing mocking humour and picturesque analogy with shrewd and at times profound political analysis. In The Erfurt Verdict-íor which Ossietzky was sentenced for slandering a military court-he attacks the harsh sentence imposed on seven drunken soldiers. The purpose of The National Pederasts is to attack and satirize the deification of "Germanic Man". There is a poignant description of public reaction to the marriage of a Germán girl to a Negro in The Public Nuisance. Amongst his last articles were: I Must Do Time, written in May 1932, in which he analyzes the political situation at length and telis why he has decided to serve a prison sentence rather than flee abroad; and the moving piece A Round Table is Ready in which he urges the Left to forget sectarian differences and form a united front against fascism. "What is necessary is~not to be right; what is necessary is to save all parts of the organized socialist working class from destruction." Ossietzky was arrested by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933. A world-wide campaign for his release from concentration camp forced the Nazis to transfer him to a Berlin hospitál, where he was guarded day and night by the Gestapo. In 1936 he was awarded the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize for 1935, but Goering forbade him to travel to Oslo to receive it.