GDR Bulletin Volume 26 Issue 1 Article 12 1999 Robert von Hallberg, ed.: Literary Intellectuals and the Dissolution of the State. Professionalism and Conformity in the GDR Kristie A. Foell Bowling Green State University Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/gdr This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Foell, Kristie A. (1999) "Robert von Hallberg, ed.: Literary Intellectuals and the Dissolution of the State. Professionalism and Conformity in the GDR," GDR Bulletin: Vol. 26: Iss. 1. https://doi.org/10.4148/ gdrb.v26i0.1280 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by 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 cads@k- state.edu. Foell: Robert von Hallberg, ed.: Literary Intellectuals and the Dissolut 62 GDR BULLETIN zweiter Hand und mögen durch viele Filter—bewußte und Hallberg, Robert von, ed. Literary Intellectuals and the unbewußte—gegangen sein, ehe sie mit ihrer Druck• Dissolution of the State. Professionalism and legung an die Öffentlichkeit kamen. Aber wer selber in Conformity in the GDR. Trans. Kenneth J. Northcott. den siebziger und achtziger Jahren in der DDR gelebt hat, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. 366 pp. wird aus eigener Erfahrung das Urteil Englers bestätigen können. "Frauen bildeten die emotional praktische Avant- This volume is not a treatise that sets out to argue a gard der DDR-Gesellschaft, in die Männer eigentlich nur particular theory about the relationship between literary kooptiert werden konnten. Sie lösten das uralte Rätsel wie intellectuals and the dissolution of the state. Instead it is a man seine Würde wahren und dennoch echt sein kann." fascinating collection of interviews with many of the main Wer das nicht erfahren hat, mag es nicht für möglich players in the East German literary scene, both scholarly halten, aber dem fehlt—und hier kann man einmal sagen: and artistic. It is divided into four parts: an introductory leider—eine sehr DDR-spezifische Erfahrung. Deren essay by von Hallberg, a substantial collection of inter• Voraussetzungen und Folge beschreibt Engler auch in views with literary scholars, an equally wide-ranging diesem Kapitel umfassend, bis in die Abgründe der ost• series of interviews with writers, and three follow-up deutschen Anstands- und Sozialpädagogik. Das Kapitel interviews "after the surprising revelations" of Stasi "Form und Seele" von Sitte und wahrer Lieber gehört zu collaboration by Sascha Anderson and others. Most of the den amüsantesten Exkursen in die Alltagsgeschichte der interviews were conducted in Berlin during and after the DDR, vor allem, was die Analyse der Aufklärungs• "Wende" (August-September 1990 and February 1991); schriften der fünfziger Jahre betrifft. Es enthält aber auch the follow-up interviews took place in March of 1992. jenen Abschnitt, der als Kernthese von Englers Buch The volume is thus a remarkable snapshot of the state of gelten kann und dessen Argumentation sich durch alle mind of a nation's literary intellectuals at a critical Texte zieht. Es ist die These von der Widersprüchlichkeit juncture in their history. des ostdeutschen Modernisierungsprozesses nach 1945, One of the most impressive and valuable features of die sich aus seinem historischen Ursprung ergibt: "Die the volume is the fact that von Hallberg somehow gained kulturelle Emanzipation faßte auch im Osten Fuß, und access to so many diverse literary figures, from Hermann man übertreibt nicht, wenn man sagt, daß sie dort in Kant to Hans Joachim Schädlich and Rainer Kunze in the manchem dramatischer und nachhaltiger ablief, als im older generation, from Katja Lange-Müller to Sascha reichen und demokratischen Westen. ... Sie (die Ost• Anderson among younger writers. Somehow he got them deutschen, H.T.) schüttelten über kommende Zwänge all to make meaningful and apparently honest statements althergebrachte Autoritäten im Himmel wie auf Erden about their views of the relationship among politics, samt der von ihnen geheiligten Verhaltenstraditionen ab society, and literature in the GDR. An equally broad und bekamen einen Vorgeschmack auf eine befreitere Art range, and equal frankness, exists among the scholars des Menschenseins, der umso bitterer ausfiel, je rabiater interviewed. sich die neuen Herrscher in die gerade erst geschaffenen In their discussion of the advantages and disadvan• Freiheiten und Freizügigkeiten einnisteten." tages of literary life in the GDR, the scholars and writers Genau darin liegt alle Widerspruchlichkeit der interviewed here confirm the strange combination of sozialen und politischen Entwicklungsprozesse begründet, security and discouragement that prevailed in much of aber genau dieses Wiederspruchsgeflecht sollte jeder GDR society. Many an unemployed or underemployed durchleuchten, der heute über jenes verlorene Land US academic will feel unadulterated envy at certain namens Deutsche Demokratische Republik schreibt. statements by scholars at the Central Institute for Literary Englers Buch ist, bei allen seinen Vorzügen, keine leichte History; as is well-known, many a former GDR intellec• Lektüre. Es verlangt vom Leser, weit Auseinander• tual is meanwhile yearning for the flesh-pots of Egypt. It liegendes zu verbinden, die Übergänge und Brüche der was much easier to make a living as a literary writer Darstellung mit eigenen Erfahrungen anzureichern und under GDR socialism than it is in a capitalist marketplace auch die eigene Kritik einzubringen. Daß daraus ein due to the conventions of the publishing industry and a fruchtbarer Dialog über die Geschichte der DDR entsteht, system of state-sponsored subsidies. Hermann Kant states möchte man dem Autor und seinem engagierten Buch im that, "With 80 percent of the Writers' Union freelance— zehnten Jahr der deutschen Einheit und aus gegebenem that is, living only on the earnings from their books—we Anlaß nachdrücklich wünschen. were quite alone. no one achieves the percentages that the GDR did" (153). There were less tangible "benefits" Holger Teschke to intellectual life in the GDR as well. Marianne Streisand Berlin states: "There was always the feeling that you had to change something here, and that something could be changed, because intellectual work had a fairly high Published by New Prairie Press, 1999 1 GDR Bulletin, Vol. 26 [1999], Iss. 1, Art. 12 BOOK REVIEWS 63 status" (67). Rainer Kirsch cites censorship as evidence of people at the university had to do more teaching. But the relatively greater respect accorded literary writing in there was very little readiness among university scholars the GDR: "you only consider someone dangerous if you to introduce things that we had published into their teach• think he's important. No one was done to death in the ing" (104). Petra Boden also confirms this: "Since I've GDR, but the idea that literature was important ... been at the Institute [for Literary History], and all the persisted" (156). while that I was at the university, there has never been But even this early, one or two years after unification, any cooperation, or if there was, it was as minimal as pos• both scholars and artists, including Hermann Kant, be• sible" (110). There is, of course, no reason to think that moaned the lack of excitement and ambition that accom• this situation was unique to socialism; but it is disappoint• panied their privileged status and relative economic secu• ing that a Utopian society that aimed for equality did not rity. As Streisand states, "There was a unity and a good make more progress in breaking down such boundaries. understanding among intellectuals. But this was only The interviewees, regardless of political position, are based on the fact that, somehow or other, you were anti. adamant that censorship, although oppressive and oner• ... [and therefore] you were right. The real differences ous, could be gotten around in the GDR. Commenting that existed between people . were hushed up. In this about a book with which she expected difficulties from way, a situation arose where real debate and the ability to the censor, but that in fact was published without a hitch, be in conflict were never learned in this country" (68). Christa Ebert muses, "It may mean that in general—and I Dorothea Dörnhof sums up the contradictions nicely: think that is the case—there was more fear than necessary. People could have probably done more in a lot Our great scholarly advantage was that we had of areas than they actually dared to" (121). Brigitte long periods for thorough, intensive, and solid Burmeister states, "we were unduly anxious, and discip• research without having to rush about pursuing lined, and willing to come to terms with prevailing condi• this or that development or having to adapt our• tions" (130), while Helga Schubert speaks openly about selves to this or that new trend. But there was "calculating the risk," especially to her family, before also a disadvantage, I must admit, for I often publishing. As Uwe Kolbe somewhat self-righteously lacked any thrust towards innovation. We knew states, "I always come back to calling the lot of us when we were working on a project that we had cowards. Only others more so than myself, and a lot of a publisher . but there was always the possibil• them especially so" (255). Overall, a picture emerges of a ity of going on working and, in spite of that, it rather complacent and privileged intellectual elite, most of was somehow unsatisfying. That is the ambiva• whom were, at the time of these interviews, still very lence of being socially secure in scholarship: on interested in justifying and differentiating their own the one hand, you had a lot of space to work behavior. thoroughly and do solid research, while, on the The atmosphere of accusation and self-justification other, a lot of it was just deadening. I mean it pervades discussions of the East German Writers' Union didn't demand original thought.