''Das Wort'' (, "The Word") was a monthly literary magazine which was published in Moscow in the period between 1936 and 1939. The magazine is known for its editors, including

Willi Bredel Willi Bredel (2 May 1901 – 27 October 1964) was a German writer and president of the East Germany, East German Academy of Arts, Berlin. Born in Hamburg, he was a pioneer of socialist realist literature. Life and career Born into the fami ...

Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Republic, Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht. ...

, and

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

. Its subtitle was ''Literarische Monatsschrift'' ().

History and profile

''Das Wort'' was launched in Moscow in 1936 following the recommendation of the

Seventh World Congress of the Comintern The Seventh World Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) was a multinational conference held in Moscow from July 25 through August 20, 1935 by delegated representatives of ruling and non-ruling communist parties from around the worl ...

. The first issue appeared in July 1936. Its editors were Willi Bredel, Leon Feuchtwanger, and Bertolt Brecht. Fritz Erpenbeck also briefly edited the magazine in 1936. Of them only Bredel was in Moscow. The goal of the magazine was to become a literary organ of German exiles who left Germany after the

Nazi rule Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictator ...

. It also attempted to support the Popular Front policy by gathering together the anti-Fascist Germans.

Maria Osten Maria Osten (born Maria Emilie Alwine Gresshöner; March 20, 1908 – August 8, 1942) was a German and Soviet journalist. She was born in Lemgo, Germany, but grew up in East Prussia. She took a pen name, Osten (German for "East") to indicate her ...

headed the Paris office of the magazine. ''Das Wort'' supported the concept of

world literature World literature is used to refer to the world's total national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European literature. ...

. It focused on the debate concerning the versions of

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *American Realism *Classical Realism *Liter ...

which were legitimate and needed to attack against

Fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

. However, it did not pay attention to the discussions about the controversial forms of

experimentalism Experimentalism is the philosophical belief that the way to truth is through experiments and empiricism. It is also associated with instrumentalism, the belief that truth should be evaluated based upon its demonstrated usefulness. Experimentalism is ...

common in German expressionism and early

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

. Between September 1937 and July 1938 the magazine featured various articles which contained discussions about expressionism. In these writings Bertolt Brecht,

Ernst Bloch Ernst Simon Bloch (; ; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinker ...

and

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was a German-Austrian composer. He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The ...

defended expressionism against

György Lukács György Lukács (born Bernát György Löwinger; ; ; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, literary critic, and Aesthetics, aesthetician. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an inter ...

and

Mikhail Bakhtin Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian people, Russian philosopher and literary critic who worked on the phi ...

. In the poems and fictions published in ''Das Wort'' the contributors argued that their true

heimat ''Heimat'' () is a German word translating to 'home' or 'homeland'. The word has connotations specific to German culture, German society and specifically German Romanticism, German nationalism, German statehood and regionalism so that it h ...

was the Soviet Union. Some parts of Bertolt Brecht's play entitled Furcht und Elend des III were first featured in the magazine. ''Das Wort'' ceased publication in March 1939.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wort 1936 establishments in the Soviet Union 1939 disestablishments in the Soviet Union Defunct German-language magazines Defunct magazines published in Moscow Defunct literary magazines published in Russia German-language magazines published in Europe Magazines established in 1936 Magazines disestablished in 1939 Literary magazines published in the Soviet Union Monthly magazines published in Russia