GDR Literature in the International Book Market: from Confrontation to Assimilation Mark W
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World Languages and Cultures Publications World Languages and Cultures Fall 1990 GDR Literature in the International Book Market: From Confrontation to Assimilation Mark W. Rectanus Iowa State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/language_pubs Part of the European History Commons, German Literature Commons, and the Political History Commons The ompc lete bibliographic information for this item can be found at http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ language_pubs/29. For information on how to cite this item, please visit http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ howtocite.html. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in World Languages and Cultures Publications by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GDR Literature in the International Book Market: From Confrontation to Assimilation Abstract In the West, the designations "East German author" or "GDR author" have often been misused as labels to accentuate ideological boundaries, but they have also been used quite productively to inform readers on new publishing programs (i.e. authors and their works), which offered different aesthetic and thematic perspectives. And for many readers in the Federal Republic this dialogue with the "other Germany" has served an important function within the overall context of the question of national identity. Whether German authors in the reunified Germany are perceived as "former GDR authors," "German authors," or simply as "authors," it would appear that this dialogue will continue, in its multifaceted forms of expression, but within a markedly international environment. Keywords politics, publication, Socialism, Marxism Disciplines European History | German Literature | Political History Comments Copyright © 1990 The oJ hns Hopkins University Press. This article first appeared in GDR Bulletin, Volume 16, Issue 2, Fall, 1990, pages 11-18, doi:10.4148/gdrb.v16i2.961. Posted with permission. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/language_pubs/29 GDR Bulletin Volume 16 Article 4 Issue 2 Fall 1990 GDR Literature in the International Book Market: From Confrontation to Assimilation Mark W. Rectanus Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: http://newprairiepress.org/gdr Recommended Citation Rectanus, Mark W. (1990) "GDR Literature in the International Book Market: From Confrontation to Assimilation," GDR Bulletin: Vol. 16: Iss. 2. http://dx.doi.org/10.4148/gdrb.v16i2.961 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in GDR Bulletin by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rectanus: GDR Literature in the International Book Market: From Confrontati 2 'Gisela Helwig, ed. Die DDR-Gesellschaft im Spiegel ihrer Literatur Günter Grass, Christoph Meckel and Hans Werner Richter). (Köln: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1986); Irma Hanke, Alltag und However, the socio-critical profile of the "Quarthefte" and his Politik, see note 17 above. commitment to leftist politics soon led to new problems: 22Cf. Wolfgang Emmerich, „Gleichzeitigkeit: Vormoderne, Moderne und Postmoderne in der Literatur der DDR" in: Bestandsaufnahme Das erste Jahr brachte dem Verlag aber auch die ersten Gegenwartsliteratur, 193-211; Bernhard Greiner, „Annäherungen: Schwierigkeiten. Die eine bestand im Boykott der konser• DDR-Literatur als Problem der Literaturwissenschaft" in: Mitteilungen vativen Presse (hauptsächlich wegen der Veröffentlichung des deutschen Germanistenverbandes 30 (1983), 20-36; Anneli Hart• von Stephan Hermlin, dessen Bücher bis dahin von west• mann, „Was heißt heute überhaupt noch DDR-Literatur?" in: Studies in deutschen Verlagen boykottiert worden waren, aber auch GDR Culture and Society 5 (1985), 265-280; Heinrich Mohr, „DDR- wegen der Veröffentlichung von Wolf Biermann). Die Literatur als Provokation der Literaturwissenschaft in der Bundesrepu• zweite bestand in einem Herrn, der sich zu Silvester 1965 blik Deutschland" in: Deutschland Archiv 21 (1988), 844-849. mit mir konspirativ im Cafe Kranzler traf, um mir mit• "Günther Rüther, Hg. Kulturbetrieb und Literatur in der DDR (Köln: zuteilen, daß, falls ich weitere Publikationen von Wolf Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1987, 2 1988) (Veröffentlichung der Biermann unterlasse, die DDR offenstehe für Lizenzen Konrad Adenauer Stiftung), 29. Cf. Jürgen Scharfschwerdt's 1982 obser• jeder Art, umgekehrt aber leider... So kam es, daß ich ab vation „...nicht wenige Zeitgenossen [meinen] heute noch immer ihr 1966 für sieben Jahre weder in die DDR noch sogar durch 2 ideologisches Süppchen bevorzugt mit Hilfe der Literatur kochen zu kön• die DDR reisen konnte. nen." [Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft in der DDR (Stuttgart: Wagenbach's experience was symptomatic of a general climate Kohlhammer, 1982), 13]. 24quoted in Helwig, p. 14. within the publishing industry and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels during the 1950s and early 1960s, which 25 Cf. Christoph Hein's keynote address at the X. Schriftstellerkongreß reflected the confrontational nature of political and cultural poli• der DDR in 1987. „Die DDR wird gelegentlich als Lescland bezeich• tics during the Cold War.3 The foundation for the ideological net... Das ist, bei aller erwiesenen Qualität, jedoch nicht das Verdienst confrontation, which had so thoroughly permeated the collective unserer Literatur, sie ist nicht besser und nicht schlechter als die anderer Länder. Auch wird bei uns nicht mehr und nicht weniger als in anderen consciousness by the late 1960s, had already been established Ländern gelesen. Es werden hier jedoch weit mehr als in anderen Län• through the economic and political policies of the occupation 4 dern Bücher gelesen. Die korrekte Bezeichnung wäre also: forces from 1945 to 1949. While a number of leading authors Buchleseland. Das Verdienst dafür gebührt unserer Presse, unseren (including Brecht, Plivier, Seghers and Tucholsky) were pub• Medien," 233. (X. Schriftstellerkongreß der Deutschen Demokratischen lished in both the East and the West, they were the exception to Republik. Arbeitsgruppen, hg. vom Schriftstellerverband der deutschen the rule. Attempts to bridge the East-West gap by publishing Demokratischen Republik (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 1988). Volker Braun works of contemporary German authors, irrespective of their also made trenchant remarks at the international conference on GDR momentary residence, were not only restricted by chronic mate• literature in Pisa. rial shortages, complicated rights questions and distribution 26Cf. Emmerich and Greiner, note 22 above. problems, they were virtually eliminated after the monetary 27Edward W. Said, Orientalism. (New York: Vintage Books, 1979; Orig. reform and the Berlin Blockade in 1948.5 Thus, Klaus Wagen- Random House, 1978), 206. bach's experiences in the early 1960s illustrate the extent to 28Cf. Klaus von Beyme, „ Attitudes of German Youth toward Relations which ideological positions within the GDR and the FRG had between the Two German States" in: West Germany, East Germany and hardened during the 1950s and were further entrenched during the German Question ( = German Issues I, publ. by American Institute the early 1960s, particularly after the construction of the Berlin for Contemporary German Studies, Washington, D. C), 33-43 Wall. 29Ralf Schnell, Die Literatur der Bundesrepublik (Stuttgart: Metzler, These attitudes changed gradually during the late 1960s and 1986),7. then more rapidly in the 1970s as a result of the liberalization of 30Müssener, 23. political philosophies regarding the GDR and the subsequent nor• 3 'Russell Berman, „Writing in the Republic" in: German Politics and malization of relations.6 Wagenbach's programmatic decision to Society 16 (Spring, 1989), 31. publish works by GDR authors and his recognition of works from the GDR as a significant body of literature, which should be published and read in the West, symbolized his response to the GDR LITERATURE IN THE INTERNA• Cold War and marked the beginning of a new willingness to pub• lish GDR literature in the Federal Republic. The fact that TIONAL BOOK MARKET: FROM Wagenbach's publishing house was immediately beset with prob• CONFRONTATION TO ASSIMILATION lems, precisely because his program represented a literary and political statement, reflected an increased consciousness among Mark W. Rectanus many authors (e.g. Heinrich Boll, Günter Grass, Peter Härtung, Iowa State University Franz Xaver Kroetz, Siegfried Lenz, Martin Walser and Gabriele Wohmann, among others) that literary and political spheres could In 1961 Klaus Wagenbach was a young editor at S.Fischer Ver• not be divorced from one another. The dynamics of new socio• lag working on an anthology of contemporary German authors political forces, including the APO, the internationalization of the entitled Das Atelier. His attempt to include authors from the student movement, as well as Ostpolitik, were accompanied by GDR was rejected by the Bermann-Fischers, although they did extensive socio-economic changes in the literary marketplace.7 allow him to mention their censorship in the afterword. Shortly The Systemkritik of western, capitalist societies and the interest thereafter, S. Fischer