in "das schlafende heer" she depicted the alleged racial division between poles and germans, focusing on character of polish women, obsessing with the distinction between blonde and black, white and dark and portraying them as plotting the demise of german men, who needed to be warned in advance. the poles were living according to viebig in a state of "animalistic and barbaric state", from which only german "civilizing mission" could save them, the solution to this "polish problem" was exclusive colonization (preferably combined with expulsions), viebig warned that "polish degeneracy" was "contagious". kristin kopp from university of missouri writes that viebig's novel represents a "prominent example" of narrative strategy that presents polish characters whose external "whiteness", conceals hidden "blackness", which allows them to infiltrate german culture and undermine german colonial projects.