Introduction: Commitment and the Illusion of Power

Abstract

The essays in this book were originally contributions to a conference at the University of Warwick in September 1989, held to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the German dramatist, orator and political activist Ernst Toller. Toller stands in a long line of political writers in Germany, which stretches back to Börne, Heine, Büchner and Freiligrath — and forward to Hochhuth, Weiss and Grass. The course of Toller’s career in the inter-war years typifies the close connection between writing and politics which was a central feature of Weimar culture.