Anna Seghers, Friedrich Wolf, and the Austrian civil war of 1934

The Austrian civil war of February 1934 was a key event in the unfolding tr agedy of that country which culminated in the Anschluss of 1938. The litera ry response by Austrian writers was, however, very muted, in contrast to th e response amongst English and exiled German Socialist authors. This paper examines the varied aesthetic responses to the civil war of two German Comm unist writers, Anna Seghers in her novel Der Weg durch den Februar (1935) a nd Friedrich Wolf in his drama Floridsdorf. Ein Schauspiel von den Februark ampfen der Wiener Arbeiter (1936).