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Man of Straw (Modern Classics)
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Man of Straw (Modern Classics) Customer Reviews
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a society at war against itself
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MAN OF STRAW is a politically committed satire against the upper middle-classes in the time of the empire of William II (Kaiser Wilhelm, 1859 - 1941, the German emperor and king of Prussia from 1888 to 1918 who asserted Germany's claim to world leadership and was made to abdicate at the end of World War I, at the time when this novel was written). As such, Man of Straw describes the kind of conditions in European society which led to World War I.
The novel's antihero Dr Diederich Hessling is the son of a small factory owner in the small town of Netzig. He is described as the archetype of the mediocre but "serviceable" loyal subject, and the negative journey that traces his development towards maturity and social recognition constitutes an indictment of the kind of citizen created by authoritarian Power in a time of increased commercialist and military values.
The action takes place in the 1890s, and even though the question of the origins of the Great War is still debated nowadays, it does much to expose the perilousness of the ideas that were taking root at the time. Diederich's morally reprehensible acts since childhood are his best asset to grow and prosper in society. His final oration on the occasion of the erection of a monument to the Emperor in town is a celebration of Germany's right to mastery of the sea. From the historical point of view, the novel is therefore an accurate reflection of the relevance of the threatening transformation of the relations between the states and the (arms) industry that had been taking place since the Industrial Revolution. Governments needed not so much the actual output of weapons, but the capacity to produce them on a wartime scale, if the occasion arose. This new and complicated state of affairs went hand in hand with the development of socialist ideology (with Ferdinand Lassalle in Germany), which was experienced as a source of terror on the part of part of society. The combination of these two novel results of the Industrial Revolution (the industrialisation of war and the arms race on the one hand, and the rise of the socialist and workers movements on the other) combined to produce a terrified moral state in sections of society who sought refuge within the ideological framework of a strong movement, Nationalism.
The role of the press as the link between Authority and the Citizen is originally presented in the novel. The newspapers, even those with a Liberal outlook, such as Netzig's, are fond of including royal anecdotes in their reports, that do much to encourage the belief of a direct, personal relationship between the subjects and the monarch. This over-simplification of affairs results in the citizens' readiness to wage war against England on the basis of trivial anecdotes in gossip columns: "We needed a strong fleet against England, which must be absolutely smashed; it was the deadliest enemy of the Emperor. And why? In Netzig they knew all about it. Simply because His Majesty had once, in a lively mood, given the Prince of Wales a friendly kick in a tempting portion of his anatomy." These flippant explanations, and the inevitable suspicious of England's commercial power, are the means that lead to a re-interpretation of history and national hatred. "I hate England as only Frederick the Great hated that nation of thieves and tradesmen," says Diederich. But the fact is that he had not particularly cared about these sentiments until the time of the introduction of the Army Bill that seeked to augment Germany's naval power. The sentiments of the loyal subject are therefore both constant and voluble: they seek to satisfy the whims of Authority, even if Authority changes its mind, and in order to know Authority's mental state - which is so necessary in order to know one's own opinions - the role of the press is priceless. As a matter of fact, in his zeal for impersonating the mind of the monarch, Diederich goes so far as to seek to anticipate the Emperor's ideas, which results in a comic series of events during the middle part of the novel.
The originality of the novel is also present in the depiction of the working classes and the Social Democrats in general "the men without a country", who are by no means seen as an unempowered group. The majority of the workers in Diederich's factory are politically committed and mature enough to see their chances to take part in parliamentary and power politics. The most serious thematic thread in the novel actually deals with the secret pact between the socialist workers and the nationalist patriots to outdo the middle-class Liberals in Parliament. This way, the German educated Liberals are seen as the true victims of the state of affairs in the town, previously a stronghold of Liberalism. The novel ends as a bitter criticism of the passivity and lack of adequate mental and practical resolution of this sector of society, that allowed itself to withdraw and be teased off all its power in the face of the progress made by radicals on both the right and the left. It is for this cause that the death of old Buck, the Liberal patriarch of the town, is presented at the very end of the novel and constitutes its conclusion. In his deathbed, his soul seems to suffer remorse for his failure to save educated, middle-class Liberalism from the trial that it suffered in Netzig and in this way Heinrich Mann conveys to us his belief that men's souls are not saved on ideas alone, but on ideas as combined with successful action, both in the family and social spheres.
Eric Hobsbawm describes the kind of historical background of the novel with clarity: "In practical terms, the danger was not that Germany concretely proposed to take Britain's place as a global power, though the rhetoric of German nationalist agitation readily struck the anti-British note. It was rather that a global power required a global navy, and Germany therefore set out (1897) to construct a great battle-fleet, which had the incidental advantage of representing not the old German states but exclusively the new united Germany, with an officer corps which represented not Prussian "junkers" or other aristocratic warrior traditions, but the new middle classes, that is to say the new nation:" That is to say the Hesslings and the whole bourgeois society which seemed unable to disentangle itself from the aspect of war that has been a feature of world history since that time.
A memorable section of the novel, in chapter V, involves the representation of a play "written" by the wife of the town's governor, during which a parody of the creative process is presented by putting it at the level of this woman's diminished abilities: "Afterwards one does't know how it happens. It is worked out so mysteriously in one's mind!" So-called bourgeois art is this way criticized, since the creative gift is in the opinion of the characters mysteriously bequeathed by military success: "If my great ancestor had not won the battle of KrA chenwerda, who knows if I should have written "The Secret Countess"?"
A more auspicious view of art is presented by old Buck, who in this section presents the conformist character of his aspirations, when he compares himself with the artistic pictures in the theatre building - a description of a particular style and time, aiming at permanence but not at reproduction: "I suceeded in having our modern street plan altered in order to save this house and this paintings. They may only have the value of descriptive records. But a picture which lends permanence to its own times and manners may hope for permanence itself." From this moment of acknowledged defeat towards the end, the novel loses some of its momentum, but overall does not fail to represent something more than just a representation of a certain time and place, since its alluring suggestiveness manages to encompass issues that are present to us in our times.
This book can be read together with:
J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe (1954)
Paul Kennedy, The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism 1860 - 1914 (1980)
Robert Wohl, The Generation of 1914 (1979)
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