Die Heimkehr einer jüdischen Emigrantin

This study looks into the reception accorded to Else Lasker-Schüler in post-war West Germany. It sets out to examine the reaction of readers to a poetess whose work had been officially blacklisted for twelve years and was now suddenly reinstated as belonging to the category of great literature. Repression mechanisms become evident, rendering a historical appreciation of Else Lasker-Schüler impossible. Instead, myths were engendered, the sources of which can be traced with unerring accuracy - the Jewish variety to Werner Kraft, the Christian variety to Ernst Ginsberg, and the German variety to Gottfried Benn. The ideological premises from which these myths originated are identified, as are the 'authorities' responsible for their dissemination and the needs they fulfilled in West German post-war society.