Between France and Germany: René Schickele and “Geistiges Elsässertum”

Abstract

This article focuses on the bilingual Alsatian author, René Schickele (1883-1940) who grew up speaking French at home but wrote principally in the German language. Schickele’s bicultural heritage and the turbulent times he lived through when Alsace was annexed to the Second German Empire, before returning to live under French rule after the traumatic experience of World War I, had a deep and lasting influence on him. As an astute observer of contemporaneous European political events, he believed Alsace had a crucial role to play as the ideal cultural mediator between its rival neighbours to ensure harmonious Franco-German relations and peace in Europe. This mission, which he called ‘geistiges Elsässertum’, is a leitmotif, which is clearly discernible in much of his writing. This study examines Schickele’s promotion of ‘geistiges Elsässertum’ in his controversial wartime drama, Hans im Schnakenloch, and follows with some comparative references to his interwar trilogy of novels, Das Erbe am Rhein.

Keywords

• René Schickele
• Alsace
• geistiges Elsässertum
• cultural mediation
• world war