Unpassende Pässe? Reflexionen über Staatsbürgerschaft in Texten aus dem Prager Exil
Inappropriate Passports? Reflections on Citizenship in Texts from Exile in Prague

Summary/Abstract: During the Nazi era, Prague was both a place of refuge for those persecuted by fascism and, soon afterwards, an occupied city from which people had to flee. Passports issued by the still young Czechoslovak Republic helped many refugees to cross borders into safe foreign countries, sometimes even after the state as such no longer existed. If a passport testifies to belonging to a nation state, which traditionally claims to intertwine ethnic community, territory and state, this ‘trinity’ (H. Arendt) is decoupled and problematized under the conditions of exile. By analyzing (partly autobiographically inspired) passport stories by Heinrich Mann, Egon Schwarz, Hans Natonek, Ernst Krenek and Alice Rühle-Gerstel, it is demonstrated how they critically reflect on national affiliations and the paper instruments of control associated with them.

• Details
• Contents