On the Re-Evaluation of German Literature

IT Is natural that changing literary taste should from time to time bring about a re-evaluation of individual literary personalities but it seems to be a phenomenon of our own times that a change in government with its consequent ideological changes should cause the reevaluation of an entire literature; yet this is apparently the case in various countries today. Especially in Germany many of the histories of literature are being rewritten and it is of interest to note just how far-reaching the results are. Because of its comparatively short length I have chosen Rahl's Geschichte der deutschen Literatur as being fairly typical of the new point of view and have compared the edition of 1930 with that of 1935 in order to see just how much the author has altered his opinions in the course of five years. The revision of the book has been undertaken in accordance with

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