Historical Counter-Image and Universal Values: Territorial and Inner Exile Exploration of Past and Present in Heinrich Mann and Werner Bergengruen

Against a background of increased historical writing in 1920s Germany, this chapter considers the continuity of historical fiction across the divide of 1933, in particular its prevalence among writers both at home and abroad. A genre that prompted fierce debate throughout the 1930s, historical fiction is shown to be a major literary point of contact between those who remained in, and those who fled, Nazi Germany. The chapter offers a detailed study of two representative bodies of work, one published in territorial exile (Heinrich Mann’s Henri Quatre novels 1935–38) and one in Nazi Germany [Werner Bergengruen’s novel Der Großtyrann und das Gericht (The Grand Tyrant and the Judgment, 1935)]. While acknowledging the two writers’ divergent ideological standpoints, the chapter points to similarities in literary approach across the exile divide, with the respective study of life under authoritarian rule constituting not a form of flight from the present but rather a humanist counter-image to it that offers consolation, provides reassurance, and strengthens resolve.