Wolfgang Koeppen—“Poet of Failure”

Among the fresh perplexities of our age is the recrudescence of what Thomas Mann defined as the “German problem”: a pact between “the German spirit” and “the demonic.” It is manifested variously: in the genocidal philosemitism of many in Germany’s political and intellectual classes, including the philosopher Jürgen Habermas; the brutal crushing of protesters against the limitless German license to Israeli fanatics; and the electoral resurgence of a neo-Nazi far right boosted by American white supremacists while Germany embarks on its most ambitious rearmament program since 1945.