Until the 1960s Wiechert was one of the most widely read and also internationally acknowledged German authors. In his memoirs "Forests and People" and "Years and Times" the lonely landscape of his homeland Masuria is reflected, a basic motif of his writing. For him nature, in particular, was a parable for humanity, a positive counterpoint in his work, which was often marked by cultural pessimism and melancholy.
During National Socialism, he withdrew into inner emigration. His critical attitude towards the regime led to imprisonment in a concentration camp in 1938. He processed this time in 1939 in "The Forest of the Dead", which was not published until 1945.
Wiechert was a teacher at grammar schools in Königsberg and Berlin, from 1933 a freelance writer. Among his most important works are the novels "The Major’s Wife", "The Jeromin Children" and "Missa sine nomine".
Illustration:
Postcard from Ernst Wiechert from the concentration camp Buchenwald to his "dear Amsellein", 17th July 1938
Wiechert was monitored since 1934, his readings initially obstructed by assigned troublemakers, and from 1937 completely banned. After he had stood up for Pastor Martin Niemöller, a leading representative of the Confessing Church, he was imprisoned on 3rd July 1938 and released again at the end of August after protests from abroad. Subsequently, he was presented to Reich Propaganda Minister Goebbels, who wrote in his diary: "I have the writer Wiechert brought from the camp and give him a dressing-down he won't forget in a hurry. I will not tolerate a Confessing Front in the domain that I oversee. I am on my best form and punch him down intellectually. A final warning! I leave no doubt about it. …Any new offense will only lead to physical annihilation. We now both know that." (Goebbels, Tagebücher, Part I, vol. 6, 32., Translation: The „Politics of Literature in Nazi Germany: Books in the Media Dictatorship“ von Jan-Pieter Barbian)