Deutschsprachige exilliteratur in New York City nach 1933

After 1933 New York City became an important center for German intellectual exiles. Prior to the influx of refugees fleeing from Hitler's regime, there already existed a German-American community in Yorkville, with a sophisticated network of German clubs and newspapers, especially the Deutsche Staatszeitung und Beobachter. The confrontation between these well established German-Americans and the new exiles generated a heated debate about German national identity.;The degree to which literature defined the identity of the German exile community is demonstrated in the second part of the dissertation, which is an analysis of literary works of four German exile writers in New York in different stages of assimilation.;Oskar Maria Graf and Hans Sahl represent a group of exile writers who continued writing in German and were therefore deprived of an audience and publishing opportunities in New York City. Although their novels take place in New York, they rarely go beyond the experiences of the German exile community.;Stefan Heym and Klaus Mann published in English and were therefore able to participate in the public discourse. This study provides a detailed analysis of Heym's newspaper, Deutsches Volksecho and Mann's literary magazine Decision.;The first part of this dissertation investigates how this identity was defined in the German language media in New York City, particularly in the literary debate between the Staatszeittung and the Aufbau, which was the voice of the exile community. A detailed study of book reviews, essays, and short stories published in these newspapers shows how each group interpreted and created its own literary tradition in order to justify its own political position towards fascism in Germany. Literature is at the core of what constitutes a national identity and permits a coherent interpretation of historical events.;Such an exhaustive investigation of the German language media in New York City after 1933 has never been attempted before, and in connection with an analysis of the literary works produced in New York, this dissertation provides new insights into the role literature played in the political debate about Nazi-Germany.