The highly successful play
Draussen vor der Tür[
Outside the Door] by Wolfgang Borchert, first broadcast as a radio play (13 February 1947), subsequently premiered on stage (21 November 1947), and published in the same year, was one of the first literary works in post-World War II Germany to address the situation of the defeated country: its privation, losses, and burden of guilt. It is associated with the slogans
Trümmerliteratur(
literature of the ruins) and
zero hour. The latter term refers to the postulate that the nation and its culture had to make a fresh beginning after the devastation of the war and the oppression and genocide of the Nazi era. Borchert was a former German soldier and anti-Nazi dissident who wrote this play and over forty highly acclaimed short stories while…
1918 words
Citation: Saur, Pamela S.. "Draussen vor der Tür". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21634, accessed 23 November 2024.]
