ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the aspirations of the younger generation of writers and to suggest reasons why they were not fulfilled. The sub-title of Der Ruf was ‘Unabhangige Blatter fur die junge Generation’. This sub-title not only reflects the illusory belief that the post-war years presented the opportunity for a new generation to rebuild Germany from the beginning, it also implies a certain political attitude, along with a concern for the affairs of youth. In the 1950s, the pejoratively used term ‘restoration’ became current to describe what happened; whatever its objective merits, it clearly reflects the frustrations of post-war reformers. When talking of the new generation of writers after the war, it is normal to claim that the political and moral bankruptcy of Nazi Germany in 1945 led such people to proclaim that a new kind of literature and a new kind of writer were required.
