Political changes between 1918 and 1939 had important implications for German writers. The essays in this volume focus on questions such as the writers' relationship to political parties and ideology, their treatment of the legacy of World War I, and their response to the rise of fascism.

Commitment and the illusion of power, Richard Dove and Stephen Lamb; artists, intellectuals and the German independent Socialist party - some preliminary reflections, Richard Sheppard; Rene Schickele and the 1918 revolution, Margaret Rogister; Kurt Tucholsky's analysis of the 1918-19 revolution, Ian King; Ernst Toller - the redemptive power of the failed revolutionary, Frank Trommler; Weimar and the political film - from Die Weber to Kuhle Wampe, John Warren; from social fascism to popular front - Communist Party policy as reflected in the works of Freidrich Wolf, Anna Seghers and Willi Bredel 1928-38, Anthony Grenville; politics and the war novel - the politcal conception reception of novels about the World War I, Hans-Harald Muller; "Militant Humanism" - a concept of the third way in exile 1933-45, Thomas Koebner; literary exile in Great Britain, J.M. Ritchie; forms of conviction - the problem of belief in anti-fascist plays by Bruckner, Toller and Wolf, Tom Kuhn; Ernst Toller and the exigencies of exile, N.A. Furness; Ernst Toller and Ireland, Joachim Fischer; adventurism, propaganda or commitment? German writers in the Spanish Civil War, Alexander Ostmann.