Die Tat

   founded as a monthly in 1909, an important voice of neoconservatism. From 1912 Tat evolved under Eugen Diederichs into a distinguished cultural periodical. Among other things, it published the Greek philosophers and poets, the thought of medieval mystics, work from the Renaissance, the wisdom of the Orient, and German cultural history and folklore. Diederichs hoped that it might shape Germany's middle-class youth; however, despairing because his voice found no echo, he grew increasingly frustrated. Viewing Weimar democ-racy as the rule of petty individuals incapable of reshaping German life, he came to fear the corrupting influence of "Americanization" in his final years. Not surprisingly, he was a protagonist for a "revolution from the Right."

   Diederichs relinquished Tat in 1928 to Adam Kuckhoff. Hans Zehrer* became unofficial editor in October 1929 and assumed the official role in the fall of 1931. Tat prospered under Zehrer as it became more forcefully political, espe-cially in its stands against the Versailles Treaty* and the Republic. Its average circulation rose from 3,000 in 1929 to 25,000 by 1932. Its contributors included Wichard von Moellendorff* and Werner Sombart.* Meanwhile, Zehrer formed his Tatkreis (Tat Circle), a neoconservative group that included Ferdinand Fried (pseudonym of Friedrich Zimmermann), an economics expert who (influenced by Sombart) was devoted to autarchy and a planned economy; the sociologist Ernst Wilhelm Eschmann; and two Heidelberg sociology students, Giselher Wirsing and Horst Grüneberg, both influenced by Karl Mannheim* and Som-bart. The neoconservatism of the Tatkreis—antirestoration, anti-Republic, and proyouth—was compelling among middle-class intellectuals. In April 1932 it advocated a "third front" uniting Left and Right. This "revolution from above" envisioned the army, led by Kurt von Schleicher,* joining with the trade unions* and an NSDAP contingent led by Gregor Strasser* to form a broad authoritarian administration.

   Initially assuming that Hitler's* regime would be short-lived, Zehrer came to appreciate the dynamism of the Third Reich. Having cast his lot with the wrong Nazi, and retaining a low opinion of Hitler, he was forced to leave Tat in August 1933. Wirsing and Eschmann, committed Nazis, reorganized the journal, re-naming it Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert in 1939.

   REFERENCES:Lebovics, Social Conservatism; Jerry Muller, Other God; Sontheimer, "Tat-Kreis"; Stark, Entrepreneurs of Ideology; Struve, Elites against Democray and "Hans Zehrer"; Von Klemperer, Germany's New Conservatism.