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“A Few Bars Of The Hymn Of Hate”: The Reception Of Ernst Lissauer’S “Haßgesang Gegen England” In German And English, Richard Millington, Roger Smith

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

“The poem fell like a shell into a munitions depot”: with these words Stefan Zweig recalled the impact made by Ernst Lissauer’s Anglophobic poem “Haßgesang gegen England” (A Chant of Hate Against England) upon first publication in August 1914. The poem’s success derived from the rhetorical power with which it encapsulated a national emotional response to the outbreak of war. In Germany it initiated an outpouring of Anglophobic verse, but lost favor as it became clear that the patriotism it epitomized would not carry the Central Powers to a swift victory. Even after its disappearance from public attention …