Heinrich Mann’s Manifesto

As was true in many other countries, intellectuals in Germany demonstrated tremendous solidarity with the Spanish Republic. Many of these artists, writers, and journalists had been in exile since Hitler’s rise to power in 1933.  

This solidarity took a number of forms, from fighting with the International Brigades to serving as a war correspondent to working as a journalist outside Spain. Writer Heinrich Mann is an example of the last approach. Since going into exile in France in 1933, Mann had fought the Nazi regime with articles and pamphlets. When signs of German military intervention in Spain emerged, he issued a public declaration, shown above, to the so-called volunteers which began, “German soldiers! A villain is sending you to Spain”. 

Intellectuals also showed their solidarity with the Republic by organizing and participating in the Second International Congress of Writers in Defence of Culture, which was held in Valencia, Madrid and Barcelona in 1937 before concluding in Paris. Along with the Spanish, French, and Soviet, the German delegation was one of the largest. Its twelve members included such notable figures as Mann, Bertolt Brecht and Anna Seghers, as well as Ludwig Renn and Hans Kahle who were in the International Brigades and could speak of the need for armed struggle directly from the trenches. Their organization, and many other interventions, were more concerned with the great themes of the momento than with aesthetic and literary questions, which earned the congress a reputation as a political propaganda event. 

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