Wolfgang Borchert, Draussen vor der Tür [The Man Outside]

Pamela S. Saur (Lamar University)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1947

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

The highly successful play Draussen vor der Tür [Outside the Door] by Wolfgang Borchert, first broadcast as a radio play (13 February 1947), subsequently premiered on stage (21 November 1947), and published in the same year, was one of the first literary works in post-World War II Germany to address the situation of the defeated country: its privation, losses, and burden of guilt. It is associated with the slogans Trümmerliteratur (literature of the ruins) and zero hour. The latter term refers to the postulate that the nation and its culture had to make a fresh beginning after the devastation of the war and the oppression and genocide of the Nazi …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1918 words

Citation: Saur, Pamela S.. "Draussen vor der Tür". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 April 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21634, accessed 25 April 2024.]

Save this article