Nazi Germany (1933–1945) The majority of Eich's literary output in this period were radio plays, which numbered 160. The most well known of these today is Rebellion in der Goldstadt, which was only recently discovered. The play was broadcast on 8 May 1940 in an anti-British radio campaign the Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry was waging. It deals with a South African mine and its workers striking against the poor wages they receive from the overtly capitalist British owner, Lord Pembroke. There is some contention surrounding Eich's complete authorship of the play as there is no broadcast text in his handwriting. Response to the Machtergreifung On 1 May 1933 Eich applied for membership in the Nazi Party but was not accepted. After the war, Eich made many public statements about the role of artists in standing up against oppressive regimes: "If our work cannot be understood as criticism, as opposition and resistance, [...] then we are positive and decorate the slaughterhouse with geraniums." and "Seid unbequem, seid Sand, nicht das Öl im Getriebe der Welt!" which translates as "Be inconvenient, be sand, not oil in the gears of the world!" These statements, however, stand in stark contrast to his actions during the Nazi era. His radio plays were often tailored to fit the propaganda needs of the Nazi party, extolling the Blut und Boden rural life and denouncing the decadent capitalism of the regime's enemies. It is believed that Eich had pragmatic reasons for writing all of his radio plays: Eichs Rundfunktätigkeit beschränkte sich auf den Hörspielbereich und diente dem Broterwerb. [...] Wie viele Hörspiele, Märchenbearbeitungen, Kalenderblätter Eich auch schrieb, niemals hat er damit «Karriere« gemacht. Eich's broadcasting activity was limited to radio plays and breadwinning. Like many of the radio plays, fairy tale adaptation and calendar pages that Eich also wrote he never tried to 'make a career' out of it. His collected works were published in four volumes in 1991. James Dickey opened his 1965 poem "The Firebombing," about a nighttime air raid on the Japanese town of Beppu, with this epigraph from Eich's work: Denke daran, dass nach den großen ZerstörungenJedermann beweisen wird, dass er unschuldig war. roughly: Think of this: that after the great destructions every man will attest that he was innocent. Literary prizes Eich received numerous literary prizes after World War II, including one from the literary association of which he was a member, Gruppe 47,