IN 1924, ONE YEAR AFTER the Weimar Republic's first existential crisis in 1923 and two years before Dr. Heinrich Pfannl's and Sepp Dobiasch's calls upon German and Austrian mountaineers to expand their area of activity into the highest mountain ranges of the world, Friedrich Otten, in a youth novel titled Der Kampf um den Riesen (The Struggle for the Giant), outlined for a new generation of Germans two paths that would allow Germany to reclaim its lost glory as a nation. First, by focusing on its considerable scientific and technological achievements, and second— and for our purposes more important—by engaging in a patriotic enterprise that would allow it to compete once more with the victors of the First World War, albeit on a more symbolic and less bloody field of engagement, the field of high-altitude mountaineering; a sport “battling” and “conquering” the tallest mountains in the world, a vertical form of imperialism. The author clearly states this goal in a foreword to his novel:

Reflecting an acute awareness of both Germany's economic distress and its citizens’ lack of national pride and identity, Otten's statement suggests that the current crisis may be overcome by relying on German diligence and knowledge while, at the same time, nurturing one's patriotism.