JOHST, HANNS

(1890-1978)

Playwright,dramaturg. Johst was a significantExpressionistplaywright, but he is best remembered as a fervent National Socialist and devotee of Adolf Hitler. HisSchlageterwas a highly effective treatment of the first Nazi "martyrs," premier-ing on Hitler's birthday in 1933, soon after he had been named chancellor;Schlageterwent on to be performed hundreds of times in the 1930s. His earlier work, such asDer junge Mensch(The Young Man, 1916),Stroh(Straw, 1916), andDer Einsame(The Lonely One, withChristian Dietrich Grabbeas the central character, 1917), employed many of the ecstatic outbursts and fragmented scenarios characteristic ofGeorg Kaiser, Walter Hasenclever, and Reinhard Johannes Sorge; Johst'sThomas Paine(1927) was a return to realism and traditional structure.Schlageterwas a curious combination of both Expressionistic and melodramatic techniques; some of the lines inSchlageterbecame oft-repeated Nazi aphorisms, for example, "When I hear the word 'culture,' I unholster my Browning!" and "We stand by Schlageter, not because he is the last soldier of the world war, but because he is the first soldier of the Third Reich!"