Genocide and saga composition under the aegis of the `Greater German Reich' - Hanns Johst's friendship with Heinrich Himmler

Abstract

SS-Gruppenfuhrer Hanns Johst (1890-1978), who was already one of Germany's most successful nationalist-racist (''volkisch'') authors in the twenties and who became President of the German Chamber of Literature (''Reichsschrifttumskammer'') in 1935, was a close friend of Heinrich Himmler. He willingly accepted the latter's commission to write the saga of the ``Greater German Reich'' and became the chronicler of the battle for colonies in Eastern Europe. For this purpose, Himmler permitted him to observe the reality of the war of conquest and extermination, and throughout the war the poet spent weeks at a time in the field headquarters of the head of the SS.