Re: EJ a convert?

[John King <fs6y097@public.uni-hamburg.de>]

I'd like to add my voice to Günter's scepticism. Although the newspapers and
magazines, as well as a number of books, in the 1940s were full of claims
that EJ was about to convert to Catholicism/protestant Christianity
following his double reading of the Bible during his days in Paris as
documented in "Strahlungen", he never actually did. In many ways this would
have been the most appropriate time for a formal conversion given the
circumstances - "Der Friede" with its call for a new European order on a
"theological" basis, the death of his first son, and the depths of modern
nihilism and frequent attendance at religious services. But this did not
happen. And the entire thrust of his work from "Der Waldgänger" onwards was
against a personal commitment to a social force such as the established
churches.

I remember one of the interviews from 1995 when he explained that he was
"conservative" and thus still paid his Kirchensteuer to the
Lutheran/Evangelical church. This reminds me of Manuel Venator's presence in
the Condor's bar somewhat...

Mfg.

JK