Inner emigration is a controversial concept of German writers who were opposed to Nazism, yet chose to remain in Germany after the Nazis seized power in 1933. The term inner emigration was coined by Frank Thiess in his response to Thomas Mann's BBC broadcast on the subject of German guilt. The concept may apply more broadly to similar situations in which people feel dissociated from their country or surroundings.
Origin of the concept
, wrote in 1839 about French aristocracy during the July Monarchy: Living in exile in the United States in the 1940s, the German writerThomas Mann was concerned with the issue of German responsibility for World War II and the Holocaust. He wrote several essays on the subject, including "Deutsche Schuld und Unschuld" and "Über Schuld und Erziehung". After reading about the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps in 1945, Mann said in a German-language BBC broadcast: Frank Thiess argued that only those who had experienced life in Nazi Germany had a right to speak for Germans about their guilt, and that, if anything, the "innere Emigranten" had shown more moral courage than those who had observed events from a safe remove. In response, Mann declared that all works published under Hitler stank of "Blut und Schande" and should be destroyed. As a result of this controversy, German literature of the period is still categorized in terms of the authors' moral status, rather than the political content or aesthetic value of their writings.
Controversy
The moral issues surrounding inner emigration have long been a subject of debate. Some argue that certain writers who stayed behind in Germany criticized the Nazi regime in subtle ways, allegorically or by implication, while others contend that such criticisms were "so subtle that they are invisible". The debate is further complicated by the varying degrees to which different writers were under threat, and the varying strength and nature of their protests. Some writers who claimed to be inner emigrants appear to have done quite well for themselves during the war, while others saw their works banned or were imprisoned. At the 1998 Deutscher HistorikertagPeter Schöttler, Götz Aly, and Michael Fahlbusch were involved in the debate concerning the role of German historians during the Third Reich. The trio challenged the defense of Theodor Schieder, Werner Conze and Karl-Dietrich Erdmann in terms of inner emigration arguing that they were more complicit with the Nazi regime than had been recognised by the next generation of German historians, many of whom were their students.
Other uses
The concept may apply more broadly to include others, such as visual artists, as well as writers. It can also apply to a situation more generally or metaphorically to mean a mental dissociation from one's country or surroundings. For example, Anglo-Irish people whose loyalties lay with England rather than their native Ireland have been identified as inner emigrants, and to residents of a 1960s commune.
