Literatur Und Krieg: Sechs Phasen Einer Intensiven Beziehung. Ein Essay

War has been one of the great themes of literature for centuries. Extraordinary events generate a great need for meaning. Intellectuals therefore get involved right from the start. First, they take a vocal stance, then they meekly differentiate. At times, people are fed up with the subject but afterwards comes the time for novels that take stock with a broader perspective. Some statements are caught in the spell of the moment while others go down in history. In each case, the timing of the literary statements about the events is revealing: in the run-up, at the beginning of the war, after some time when there is still no end in sight, at the end of the war, ten years later and in retrospect over the generations. Each point in time has its own pattern for making the war the subject of literature.