Kranjec’s Wutte, Svetina’s Wolf and Jančar’s Mischkolnig: The Image of a German Officer in Three Slovenian Novels

Abstract

The Wehrmacht was responsible for many crimes during the Nazi era, as it was considered the steel foundation of the regime. The German soldiers were instructed not to show benevolence in the fight against the partisans, but hatred, superiority, and a sense of ruthless extermination of the communists. What is the literary image of a German officer who was active on Slovenian territory during the World War II? In this article, I attempt to find the answer to this question in the novels of three Slovenian writers (Miško Kranjec, Tone Svetina and Drago Jančar) who started writing in different periods of time. What they have in common, however, is that they describe the events of the last years of the war, i.e. after the Italian surrender, when the German army concentrated on Slovenian territory. Kranjec’s Lieutenant Otto Wutte is part of his unfinished tetralogy Za svetlimi obzorji, Svetina’s novel Ukana introduces the Major Helmut Wolf, and Jančar’s novel In ljubezen tudi describes the figure of Obersturmbannfuehrer Ludwig Mischkolnig.