Some of Germany's most valuable creative works went up in flames on May 10, 1933. The mass book burnings marked a turning point in the Nazis' ideology campaigns. And they were largely organized by university students.
On the evening of May 10, 1933, some 70,000 people gathered at the Opernplatz in Berlin. Students had carted over 20,000 books to the public square, including works by famous German authors like Heinrich Mann, Erich Maria Remarque and Joachim Ringelnatz.
The Nazi student leader Herbert Gutjahr held a contemptuous speech. "We have turned our actions against the un-German spirit. I turn everything un-German over to the fire," he cried.
The seething bonfire below him was already swallowing up thousands of books as the 23-year-old threw another handful of volumes into the flames.
Students took the lead
Scenes like this one played out all over Germany on May 10, 1933. In the cities with major universities, students burned works by authors who didn't uphold their racist ideology. Students had already spent weeks lugging condemned manuscripts out of the libraries.
In their eyes, the books contained "un-German" thoughts, or their authors were considered enemies of National Socialism. Most of the authors were socialists, pacifists or Jews.
The students didn't have to fear resistance: Library employees and many professors went along with the emptying of their collections, even if they didn't all agree with it.
After the Nazis took power in January 1933, Adolf Hitler received dictatorial authority. That marked the beginning of his campaign to win the minds of Germans. The German Student Union, an umbrella group for all student organizations, announced in April 1933: "The state has been conquered! But not yet the universities! The intellectual paramilitaries are coming in. Raise your flags!"
With hardly any involvement from the Nazi party, the Nazi student organization took the lead and culminated their campaign with the book burnings on May 10.
Author's eye-witness account
The central book burning event took place at the Opernplatz in Berlin and was broadcast live on the radio. Many students arrived dressed in the SS or SA uniforms worn by the Nazis' paramilitary groups. A number of professors turned out as well.
Selected students threw books into the fire again and again as ideological proclamations were shouted into the crowd. One of the statements was: "Against decadence and moral decay! For breeding and convention in the family and state! I turn writings by Heinrich Mann, Ernst Glaeser and Erich Kästner over to the fire!"
Erich Kästner, the author of internationally renowned children's books including "Emil and the Detectives" (1929), was present that night at the Opernplatz and bore witness to the hideous spectacle.
"I stood in front of the university, wedged between students in SA uniforms, in the prime of their lives, and saw our books flying into the quivering flames," Kästner later wrote. He concluded: "It was disgusting."
Comprehension questions:
- What year did the book burning take place?
- Why were books burnt by the Nazis?
- What does the word ‘ideology’ mean? Look it up in a dictionary and give a definition and a synonym
- What people were considered ‘enemies of the German State’?
- Erich Kästner saw the event take place; what was his opinion on the event?
- Look again at the phrase in paragraph 3 ‘The seething bonfire below him was already swallowing up thousands of books’ What language technique has the writer used here? What is the effect on the reader?