ABSTRACT
A writer of prose, poetry and plays, Hans Blunck (born in Altona) became identified with Blut und Boden literature and the cult of North-German earnestness, mission and superiority. The trilogies Das werdende Volk (1920-3), Die Urvätersaga (1925-8) and Märchen von der Niederelbe (1922-30) continue the tradition of the Heimat-novel and contain familiar stereotypes. From 1933 to 1935 Blunck was president of the newlyformed Reichsschrifttumskammer; relations between him and Joseph Goebbels became strained, and Hanns Johst replaced him. A ten-volume edition of his writings appeared in 1938: he received the Goethe medal in the same year. Blunck’s poetry (Balladen und Gedichte (1937) and Die Sage vom Reich (1941-2)) is generally undistinguished and extols Teutonic greatness and North-German peasant life. Blunck was pronounced a Nazi sympathizer and collaborator by the Denazification Tribunal in 1949: he insisted that the verdict was unjust. Buch der Balladen appeared in 1950, Unwegsame Zeiten in 1952 and Sagen vom Rhein in 1957. The Gesammelte Werke in Einzelausgaben (fifteen vols) appeared from 1950 to 1956; Dramen und Lustspiele (two vols), also in 1956; Das Gesamtwerk (four vols) between 1960 and 1961. A Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Werkes von Hans Friedrich Blunck exists in Plön, Holstein.
