Polacy o rzekomym narodowym socjalizmie Stefana Georgego

The controversy surrounding Stefan George as an alleged precursor of National Socialism is discernible in his Polish reception. The question of George’s links with National Socialism, or the possible lack thereof, is taken up in works by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Paweł Hertz, Wilhelm Szewczyk, Krystyna Kamińska, Aleksander Rogalski and Andrzej Lam, among others. This article presents their content in a cross-cutting manner. The attitudes of Polish audiences towardsthe problem of the ‘George – nationalist’ are very diverse. They include a strong condemnation of George as a co-creator of Nazi ideology, a distrust of George who unwittingly contributed to the later exploitation of his work and an apologia for George as a victim of the Nazi regime. The most recent reception of George is dominated by the narrative of a ‘George the humanist’, an opponent of nationalist and racist ideas whose name must be cleansed.