And what about Culture?

This chapter discusses Bernhard Diebold, otherwise known as “Bernhardo Dieboldo.” According to the chapter, he was one of the most capricious figures ever to frolic at the forefront of German culture—a journalist who is still permitted his freedom thanks to his nimble manoeuvrings. In the Frankfurter Zeitung, Diebold draws parallels between National Socialism and Kraus's activity, prompting them to take stock of his work and encouraging him to take the movement seriously. Kraus was reluctant to do so since he preferred to occupy himself with the German language, adapting it to the French libretti that inspired Jacques Offenbach's operettas. But Kraus had also always liked to avail himself of the press as a spur to heroism, which stimulated him to undertake “new deeds”—as Richard Wagner advocated. Diebold, this chapter shows, is intent on promoting Wagner as Offenbach's polar opposite in order to make Goebbels suspicious of Kraus while at the same time ingratiating himself.