Benn barely altered his pro-Nazi essay when republishing it in 1950

Evidence

In the first edition of 1934, the text read has shaped' (geprägt hat’) instead of is attempting to shape' (zu prägen versucht’). This was how little Benn felt it necessary to alter his essay when editing it for republication, not as a historical document, but as an earlier piece that had not lost its relevance. So little had he changed that he even had fresh hopes that what he had immediately welcomed enthusiastically in 1933 would return. The spirit of the new age, which in 1934 he saw coming to life as a single command, in the art of George and in the marching columns of the brown-shirted battalions', he still saw in 1950 as a single command, in the art of George’. All that he left out was `and in the marching columns of the brown-shirted battalions’, since, at the time of republication, their marching had in fact ceased. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2234

Categorization

• CANDY: The tiny edit — dropping only ‘and in the marching columns of the brown-shirted battalions’ — captures Benn’s vindication in a single comic-horrifying gesture.
• XREF: Connects to chapter 57’s theme that postwar German folk standards and institutions preserved Nazi influence.