“Innocence is rampant like the plague.” Erich Kästner wrote this sentence in his diary on May 8, 1945 - the day of Germany's unconditional surrender. Kästner kept his notes during the Nazi era and especially in the last days of the war. I read a lot, and during this phase of intensive reading, Erich Kästner became particularly close to me as an author. His language, his humor, his clarity - I learned to appreciate and love all of that.

I am currently reading Notabene 45, Kästner's impressive diary from the last year of the war. At the same time, I'm also reading Uwe Wittstock's Marseille 1940: Die große Flucht der Literatur and Siegfried Lenz's Meistererzählungen. The books often pile up next to my bed, and late at night I work my way through my pile. The period between 1900 and 1950 is the focus of my reading. I live through, think through, suffer through these years - in an attempt to understand history and the people who were - and in some ways still are - part of this history.

On the back of Notabene 45 is a sentence that stays with me: “Erich Kästner's notes on the end of the Second World War - a unique account and a timeless call to humanity.”

Notabene, from the Latin: mind you. Composed of nota (sign, characteristic) and bene (good). Kästner's work is more than a testimony - it is a warning and an appeal. In my opinion: Notabene 45 should be compulsory reading. No young person, no pupil, should pass this book by. Why? To understand what happened - and why it happened. But above all, to remain vigilant. So that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.

In the last few days, I came across a video compilation with Helmut Kohl - rather by chance. The former German Chancellor, who governed from 1982 to 1998, had a doctorate in history. I have picked out three quotes from him:

On historical awareness:

“Those who do not know the past cannot understand the present and cannot shape the future.”
- Helmut Kohl

On German responsibility after the Second World War:

“The past must not be forgotten. It lives on in our responsibility.”
- Helmut Kohl

On the unity of history and the future:

“The future needs a past.”
- Helmut Kohl, after a thought by Odo Marquard

These words serve as a warning in the present day. For we live in a time in which public discourse is increasingly characterized by calls for rearmament and military strength. Many people have not personally experienced war - I myself am one of them. But you don't have to have lived through war to have an idea of what it means. Despite intensive reading, despite many sources and marginal notes, the picture always remains vague - and yet the responsibility is palpable.

I find the recent U-turn by Joschka Fischer, once a symbolic figure of green pacifism, particularly disturbing: He advocates massive rearmament, considers the suspension of compulsory military service to be a mistake and even considers the deployment of German soldiers in Ukraine to be conceivable. This is the new zeitgeist, driven by an elitist mindset that is increasingly distancing itself from the population.

But what do the people say? What are people saying - not at conferences or on talk shows, but in the reality of their lives? Much of what is currently considered to be without alternative would certainly meet with opposition if the implications were understood. Remembering is the only protection against forgetting. And forgetting is the breeding ground for repetition.

Unfortunately, many media outlets have long since joined in this chorus. Journalism has largely lost its role as the fourth estate, as a critical authority. Instead of friction, there is often only confirmation. Yet language is powerful - and journalists have a responsibility.

„Nihil est enim aliud eloquentia nisi copiose loquens sapientia.“
– Marcus Tullius Cicero

Translation and note on the Cicero quote: “Eloquence is nothing other than wise speech in abundance.” (literally: “For eloquence is nothing but wisdom speaking in abundance.”) He thus emphasizes that true eloquence is based on wisdom, which manifests itself in expressive language. Furthermore, good reporting requires more than eloquence. It needs courage, independence and wisdom. In the past, this was still noticeable - even in the friction between politics and the media. If you look at old recordings of Helmut Kohl today, you realize how different the tone used to be. The respectful debate, the struggle for sovereignty of interpretation - all that seems to have been lost. And with it a piece of democratic culture - and Cicero seems to have been completely forgotten.

“The past must not be forgotten. It lives on in our responsibility.” Reading Erich Kästner and his work Notabene 45 is a small building block that counteracts forgetting and ultimately appeals to our responsibility not to lay out a second red carpet for these unhappy times in Germany so that we don't have to relive the past. I ask myself: how quickly are we forgetting history?

Sapere aude!

S. Noir

The link to the original German text: https://www.ganjingworld.com/s/RZkO0W4WB0

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