Weimar – In front of the Eckermann bookstore in Weimar, “trash or filthy literature” (“Schund- oder Schmutzliteratur”) was written on the windowsill with an arrow on the bookstore’s window.
The term “trash or filthy literature” has already been used in the Weimar Republic and ended up in a “law for the preservation of youth” („Gesetz zur Bewahrung der Jugend“) and the introduction of “checkpoints for filthy and filthy literature” („Prüfstellen für Schund- und Schmutzschriften“). Shortly after the National Socialists took power in 1933, book burning took place in over 70 cities, which were victimized by the works of Jewish authors, as well as political critics. Shortly after, the so-called “Reichsschrifttumskammer” was founded, which, among other things, banned new publications by Jewish writers and their works from libraries and bookstores.
