Mephisto in the Third Reich: Literary Representations of Evil in Nazi Germany

The association of Nazism with the symbol of ultimate evil– the devil– can be found in the works of Klaus and Thomas Mann, Else Lasker-Schüler, and Rolf Hochhuth. He appears either as Satan of the Judeo-Christian tradition, or as Goethe’s Mephisto. The devil is not only a metaphor, but a central part of the historical analysis. Barasch-Rubinstein looks into this phenomenon and analyzes the premise that the image of the devil had a substantial impact on Germans’ acceptance of Nazi ideas. His...