Wrobel - Der Tucholsky-Podcast · Frank Dittmer

Kurt Tucholsky: Wo waren Sie im Kriege, Herr -? (1926)

·11 min·1 clip

A national newspaper fired a black-white-red rag into Paul Kassierer's grave after his death.

The episode features Frank Dittmer performing Kurt Tucholsky's 1926 text. It opens with a reference to Paul Kassierer's death and a national newspaper's disrespectful tribute. Tucholsky questions why Germans feel compelled to justify their wartime roles. He distinguishes between young volunteers misled by propaganda and those who knowingly participated. Many pacifists, he notes, defensively explain their actions rather than admitting cowardice. Some even pride themselves on past murders to legitimize their current anti-militarism. Tucholsky cites an exception: a republican secretary in Braunschweig who correctly mocked militarism. He criticizes the tactic of claiming ignorance as an excuse. Tucholsky then personally admits to dodging the war for three and a half years, regretting he lacked Karl Liebknecht's courage to refuse service. He used various means to avoid shooting and being shot. His opposition stemmed not from moral or biblical grounds but from indifference to a state and war he never wanted. He argues that nationalism, like religion, is only relevant to fight against. The text denies the state's right to demand lives for its wars. It mocks contemporary pacifist organizations like the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten for compromising and mimicking militarism. Tucholsky asserts that individuals own their lives and need not account to the state. He concludes that the only person rightly questioned about the war is the Kaiser, a coward who broke his oath. The answer for others is simply: in a monkey jacket.

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