DOCSLIB.ORG

Robert Von Hallberg, Ed.: Literary Intellectuals and the Dissolution of the State

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Robert Von Hallberg, Ed.: Literary Intellectuals and the Dissolution of the State 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.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Representations of the Staatssicherheitsdienst and Its
    Representations of the Staatssicherheitsdienst and its Victims in Christa Wolf’s Was bleibt, Cornelia Schleime’s Weit Fort, Antje Rávic Strubel’s Sturz der Tage in die Nacht, and Hermann Kant’s Kennung Emily C. Bell Advisor: Professor Thomas Nolden, German Studies Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Prerequisite for Honors in German Studies April 2013 © 2013 Emily C. Bell Acknowledgements I would like to thank many people for their help and support with this thesis. I wish to express my deep appreciation to Professor Thomas Nolden, my thesis advisor, for his guidance, patience, and dedication throughout this process. Our discussions on this challenging topic and his insightful comments and questions on my numerous drafts have helped shape this thesis. I also want to dearly thank the German Department for their support. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude toward Professor Anjeana Hans who helped me conceive the idea of writing a thesis on the Stasi and Professor Thomas Hansen for reading my first semester draft and giving me useful feedback. I also am grateful for my family and friends for their support, especially Yan An Tan whose friendship was invaluable throughout this process. Table of Contents Introduction 1 I. The Beginnings: the SED and the Stasi II. Representing the Stasi after the Wende III. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Das Leben der Anderen IV. The Stasi in Literature Chapter 1: Stasi figures and their victims in Christa Wolf’s Was bleibt 9 I. Introduction II. Fear and Repression in Was bleibt III. Jürgen M. and the Face of Stasi Informants IV.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Remembering East Germany: Contested Heritage 1 the Media of Testimony 2 Literary Autobiography and the Stories
    Notes Introduction: Remembering East Germany: Contested heritage 1. It should be noted, however, that archival evidence reveals these occupations to have been more negotiated and ambivalent in their aims and methods than is commonly recognised (see Rudnick, 2011). 2. Cited in Beattie, 2011, p. 26; Bruce, 2009, p. 25; Cooke, 2005, p. 33; Kritz, 1995, xxiv; McAdams, 2001a, p. 7; 2001b, p. 240; Müller, 2001, p. 262. 3. Hubertus Knabe used this term in his introduction to a seminar focusing on the effects of political imprisonment on the second generation, held at the Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship in Berlin on 14 February 2012. 4. See Sabrow, 2007, p. 8 for a list of members. 5. I take the term ‘state-mandated’ in reference to memory from Beattie, 2011, who attributes the concept to Sabine Moller. 6. Nicht, 2011, investigates both fictional and non-fictional representations. 1 The Media of Testimony 1. For example: van Dijck, 2007; Esposito, 2002; Erll, 2011a, 2011b; Erll and Rigney, 2009; Garde-Hansen, 2011; Hoskins, 2009b; van House and Churchill, 2008; Huyssen, 2003; Landsberg, 2004; Neiger, Meyers and Zandberg, 2011; Olick, 2007; Radstone, 2010; Sick and Ochsner, 2004; Sturken, 2008; Zierold, 2006. 2. Van Dijck (2007, p. 24) herself points towards this research avenue when she notes that ‘beyond immediate family circles, material inscriptions may become part of a more public project – for instance a documentary – and thus add to a shared collective remembrance’ and that there is a ‘a current accen- tuation of personal memories in official “memory institutions”, such as the museum’ (2004, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Die Freunde Als Stasi-Spitzel" - Die Eröffnung Der Gauck-Behörde
    Sendemanuskript Kontraste 06.01.1992 "Die Freunde als Stasi-Spitzel" - Die Eröffnung der Gauck-Behörde Berlin, am 2. Januar 1992. 7.00 Uhr morgens. Eine neue deutsche Behörde öffnet ihre Türen für ein historisches Ereignis. Zum ersten Mal können Stasi-Akten gesetzlich geregelt von den Opfern eingesehen werden. Weit über 100.000 Menschen stellten bereits ihre Anträge auf Akteneinsicht. Doch die meisten werden noch Monate oder gar Jahre auf einen Blick in ihre Akten warten müssen, bis sie einen Platz im Lesesaal bekommen. Zu den wenigen, die an diesem Tag lesen dürfen, gehören Bürgerrechtler, die am meisten durch die Stasi verfolgt wurden. Aktenausgabe: Mehrere Dutzend Bände mit Tausenden Seiten hat die Stasi über die DDR- Oppositionellen, die heute kommen, gesammelt. Jetzt kann jeder erfahren, wer ihn bespitzelt, an die Stasi verraten oder ins Gefängnis gebracht hat: Bärbel Bohley, Mitbegründerin des Neuen Forums. Schriftstellerin Sarah Kirsch, auf die mehrere Dutzend Spitzel angesetzt waren. Gerd und Ulrike Poppe, langjährig führend in der DDR-Opposition. Der Schriftsteller Lutz Rathenow, Vera Wollenberger, die Bürgerrechtlerin, die erfahren musste, dass ihr eigener Ehemann sie bespitzelte unter dem Decknamen Donald. Täter und Opfer, beide hatten Decknamen. Sarah Kirsch „Hier OV Milan, das bin ich, weil es ein Gedicht von mir gibt, das heißt ‚Der Milan‘. Es ist sehr witzig, wie die ihre, ich möchte unbedingt wissen: Ein IM von mir ist Hölderlin und welches Schwein sich hinter Hölderlin verbirgt, das möchte ich wissen. In den Akten finden sich verschiedene Dokumente: Observationsfotos, Beobachtungsprotokolle, Charaktereinschätzungen, Maßnahmepläne und vor allem: zahlreiche Spitzel-Berichte. Ihnen gilt die besondere Aufmerksamkeit. Die Berichte dieser inoffiziellen Stasi-Mitarbeiter, sogenannte IM-Berichte, sind zwar unter Decknamen abgefasst, doch ihr Inhalt ist verräterisch.
    [Show full text]
  • Read and Download the Exhibition Brochure Here
    1 fun on the titanic Underground Art and the East German State Leere strasse, kalte acker—“empty street, cold fields”—the title of the underground ‘zine at left evokes the implacably gray façades of “really existing socialism” that inevitably confronted stray visitors from the West who set out to explore East Berlin in 1984, the year it came out. That any- thing so vibrant could survive that bleak pervasive cold, devoid of people, cars, color, and life, one could scarcely imagine. But insiders knew better. In out-of-the-way districts like Prenzlauer Berg, diverse communities of poets and artists, film-makers, musicians, and performers cultivated a thriving samizdat culture that was rooted in one conviction all of them shared in common. Working within the framework and institutions dic- tated by the Communist regime was hopeless. You had to build your own venues, set up your own channels of communication, find your own audi- ences, if you wanted to make a space for creative experiment and artistic self-expression. And you had to do it while avoiding all contact with the East German state. This was the Alpha and Omega of underground art and poetry behind the Wall. The line governing all manifestations of official culture was laid down at a meeting of Communist party functionaries in the small industrial city of Bitterfeld in the spring of 1959. Subsequently known as the “Bitterfeld Way,” the policy essentially held that only art and literature that contrib- uted directly to the task of building the new Socialist Society had a pro- Previous page: Robert Rehfeldt, “Bitterfelder Weg,” silkscreen print (detail), from Tina Bara, Oskar Manigk, et al., Bitterfeld 4400 (1989).
    [Show full text]
  • Punk Avant-Gardes: Disengagement and the End of East Germany
    Punk Avant-Gardes: Disengagement and the End of East Germany by William Seth Howes A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Germanic Languages and Literatures) in the University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Professor Julia C. Hell, Co-Chair Professor Johannes von Moltke, Co-Chair Professor George P. Steinmetz Associate Professor Vanessa H. Agnew Associate Professor Colin Gunckel For my father, William Craig Howes. ii Acknowledgements In order to write this dissertation, I availed myself of the support and patience of a great number of people. Foremost among these were the members of my extraordinary dissertation committee, whose bracing ambition for my work was outdone only by their saintly willingness to read multiple drafts of everything that made it into the dissertation. George Steinmetz and Colin Gunckel provided outstanding guidance as the dissertation reached its final stages, encouraging me to pursue new lines of inquiry just as the old ones started to frustrate me. Vanessa Agnew’s keen readerly insights and stimulating conversation continually opened new doors for the dissertation; it was at her encouragement that I began to learn how to really, really listen. As co-chairs, Julia Hell and Johannes von Moltke provided inspiration and humor in equal good measure. Due to their expertise and wit, I felt none of whatever torture is supposed to attend the dissertation-writing process. This project, which is as much a product of their wisdom as of my effort, was in incredibly good hands all along. At the Archiv der Jugendkulturen, Fr. Antje Pfeffer was of great help; at the archives of the BStU in Berlin, Fr.
    [Show full text]
  • Noch Einmal Sascha Anderson
    Noch einmal Sascha Anderson Sascha Anderson, der generell als umtriebige Katalysatorfigur und vielseitiger „Gesamtkünstler“ 1[Andersons im Text erwähnte Bände werden mit den folgenden Siglen abgekürzt: Jeder Satellit hat einen Killersatelliten. Berlin 1982 = S; totenreklame. eine reise. Berlin 1983 = T; „Die Erotik / der Geier“. In: Waldmaschine. Berlin 1984 = W; brunnen, randvoll. Berlin 1988 = BR; Jewish Jetset. Berlin 1991 = J] (von der Malerei beeinflußter Dichter, Textschreiber, Sänger, Hersteller von Lyrik-Grafik-Mappen, Mitherausgeber von Zeitschriften) der „Prenzlauer-Berg-connection“ 2[Adolf Endler: Anläßlich der Anthologie Sprache & Antwort. Eine Rundfunksendung (vollständige Fassung), in: ariadnefabrik 4 (1988), S. 21] galt, schildert im dritten Prosastück des Bandes brunnen, randvoll eine Episode aus seiner Gefängniserfahrung, die aufhorchen läßt. Der Ich-Sprecher sieht sich einem Spitzel gegenüber, der Ekel in ihm auslöst, „angst vor einer berührung mit ihm“ (BR, S. 43). Kaum enttarnt, wird dieser Spitzel von seinen Zellengenossen gemeinschaftlich gerichtet und getötet. Mitte Oktober 1991 wurde Anderson selbst als rühriger Mitarbeiter der Stasi (IM) enttarnt und dem Gericht einer sprachlosen Öffentlichkeit ausgesetzt. Scheckbetrug, Gefängnisaufenthalt und darauf folgende Erpressung durch die Stasi führten unter den Decknamen „Menzer/Müller/Peters“ zu einem Doppelleben, das selbst nach Andersons Ausreise in den Westen im Jahre 1986 noch fortwährte. Enthüllungen über die Stasimittäterschaft von u.a. Rainer Schedlinski, Andreas
    [Show full text]
  • Punk Rock's Significance in the Soviet Union and East Germany
    W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 4-2017 Alternative Notions of Dissent: Punk Rock’s Significance in the Soviet Union and East Germany Gabrielle E. Hibbert College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Music Performance Commons, Other German Language and Literature Commons, and the Slavic Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Hibbert, Gabrielle E., "Alternative Notions of Dissent: Punk Rock’s Significance in the Soviet Union and East Germany" (2017). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 1064. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1064 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Alternative Notions of Dissent: Punk Rock’s Significance in the Soviet Union and East Germany A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in German from The College of William and Mary by Gabrielle Elyse Hibbert Accepted for ___________________________________ (Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors) ________________________________________ Bruce Campbell, Director ________________________________________ Paula Pickering ________________________________________ Sasha Prokhorov ________________________________________ Jennifer Taylor Williamsburg, VA April 24, 2017 © Copyright by Gabrielle Elyse Hibbert 2017 ABSTRACT The punk movement arrived in the late 1970s in the United States and United Kingdom, creating non-traditional and experimental ways in which to produce music. As the movement grew it developed a foundational ideology geared towards a more inclusive civil society.
    [Show full text]
  • An Ort Und Stelle Zur Geschichte Der Konkreten Poesie in Der DDR
    An Ort und Stelle Zur Geschichte der konkreten Poesie in der DDR Von Nikolaus Wegmann (Princeton) ABSTRACT In den 70er und 80er Jahren hat in der DDR unter dem Titel Prenzlauer-Berg-Lite- ratur eine Wiederaufnahme der konkreten Poesie stattgefunden. Wie kommt es zu dieser Wiederbeschreibung einer angeblich nur noch anachronistischen Literatur? Ist sie nur epigonal oder als eigene Leistung zu rühmen? The 1970s and 1980s witnessed a reappropriation of concrete poetry in the GDR under the name of Prenzlauer Berg Literature. What led to this revisiting of an osten- sibly still anachronistic literature? Is its merely epigonal or ought it to be recognized as an achievement in its own right? Virtuose Berufsbezeichnung auf der Visitenkarte von Thomas Roesler alias Tohm di Roes Wir hatten unsere Zeit Topos der Dabeigewesenen (nach 1989) Die Erzählkraft der Literaturgeschichte ist geschwunden. Vielleicht war das angesichts des Fortfalls allgemeiner Bewertungen von Geschichte unvermeid- bar. Man denkt nicht mehr wie zu Zeiten der »bürgerlichen Gesellschaft« oder eines »real existierenden Sozialismus« in Kategorien von »Fortschritt« oder »Niedergang«. Was bewegt, ist die spannende Lektüre eines einzelnen Texts. Seine Rückbindung an eine allgemeine Geschichte scheint nicht nötig, oder man hält sie methodisch für nicht (mehr) machbar. Das ist der weithin akzeptierte Stand der Dinge. Im Folgenden ist daher auch nicht von einem neuen Ansatz die Rede. Gleichwohl wird an einer Verbindung von Geschichte und Literatur als Problem festgehalten. Um jedoch nicht noch einmal mehr in der Gegenstellung von allgemeiner Geschichte und singulärem Text zu enden, wird anders justiert. Das Interesse gilt auch jetzt der Literatur, aber weniger einzelnen Werken als je speziellen Paradigmen literarischer Kommunikation.1 Einzeltexte werden also nicht auf eine Ästhetik des singulären Werks gelesen.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Exposing Unofficial Collaborators
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-08312-7 - Transitional Justice after German Reunification: Exposing Unofficial Collaborators Juan Espindola Excerpt More information 1 EXPOSING UNOFFICIAL COLLABORATORS 1.1 THE DISCLOSURES OF RESPECT Joachim Gauck was sworn in as president of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2012, after his forerunner left office prematurely amid allegations of corruption. His only serious but very distant con- tender was Beate Klarsfeld, who made a reputation for herself by hunting Nazi criminals. Her appointment as the candidate of Die Linke (the descendent of the East German Communist Party) was a political strategy to symbolically counter Gauck’s political capital as one of the main architects of Germany’s communist Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past). Gauck was the first federal commissioner of the agency in charge of admin- istering the files of the East German secret police. That Klarsfeld and Gauck were running for the presidency was a truly meaningful episode in German history – an outstanding record in promoting Vergangenheitsbewältigung (either in its Nazi or communist version) became a crucial political asset. In his first speech after being sworn in as president, Gauck alluded to the generation of 68ers. According to him, it was thanks to this generation that Germans began to raise questions about their responsibility in the crimes of the past and about their obligations toward victims of political violence. In his words: “This fact-based and values-oriented reappraisal (Aufarbeitung)
    [Show full text]
  • Foucault in the Bush. the Social Life of Post-Structuralist Theory in East Berlin’S Prenzlauer Berg
    Foucault in the Bush 2 07 Foucault in the Bush. The Social Life of Post-Structuralist Theory in East Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg There was a murmur of applause. Hamlet was again a good story to them, but it no longer seemed quite the same story to me. Dominic C. Boyer Laura Bohannan Cornell University, USA abstract This essay seeks to make critical theory an object of ethnographic con- textualization and inquiry through an exploration of the social life of post-structuralist theory in 1980s East Berlin. The ‘Prenzlauer Berg Scene’ of artists and writers utilized post-structuralism as a distinctive register for defining their social identity and as an analytical and interpretive paradigm for articulating their alienation from the state- crafted language of GDR public culture. The essay discusses how the subversive prac- tice of post-structuralism in the Prenzlauer Berg came at the price of linguistic exclu- sion and political withdrawal from mainstream GDR society. In conclusion, it is argued that the Prenzlauer Berg case emblematizesthe difficulty of politicizing experttheoretical registers since these registers’ objective critical ‘power’ relies upon structures of epist- emic inequity that cultivate distinctions between critical experts and naïve practitioners. keywords Critical theory, intellectuals, dissident communities, East Germany y title is borrowed from one ofanthropology’s most wonderful parables, Laura Bohannan’s prescient ‘Shakespeare in the Bush’ (1 966). If you Mremember her essay,Bohannan discovered that the ‘universal’ message of Hamlet became impossible to convey to a gathering of Tiv as they persisted in negotiating her narration and in re-interpreting the events of Shakespeare’s drama according to their own cosmology of criticism.
    [Show full text]
  • Dossier Autonome Kunst in Der DDR
    Dossier Autonome Kunst in der DDR bpb.de Dossier: Autonome Kunst in der DDR (Erstellt am 27.08.2021) 2 Einleitung Über zwanzig Jahre nach dem Ende der DDR ist kaum eine Kunstentwicklung - die offizielle wie die unabhängige Ausstellungskultur - so ausführlich und gründlich dokumentiert worden wie die des zweiten deutschen Staates. In der Öffentlichkeit besonders bekannt für die Schaffung von Freiräumen für Kunst außerhalb der staatlichen Strukturen ist die heute sehr erfolgreich und international operierende Galerie Eigen+Art. Dieses Dossier zeigt, dass es eine Vielzahl sich autonom verstehender Kunstszenen in der DDR gab und die Eigen+Art nur ein Teil davon war. Dabei wird auch klar, dass diese autonomen Kunstszenen keine Horte künstlerischen Widerstands waren oder Orte der Einheit von Revolution, Kunst und Leben. Vielmehr müssen die offizielle Repräsentationskultur und die "alternative", "andere" oder "zweite" Kultur in der DDR "eng zusammen, als interferierendes Gleichzeitiges" (Uwe Kolbe) gedacht werden. Das Dossier widmet sich einigen wichtigen Ausstellungsräumen, Projekten und Initiativen sowie den Vermittlern und Protagonisten. Der Zeitraum beschränkt sich in erster Linie auf die Jahre 1970 bis 1990. Das Dossier enthält allgemeine Essays zum Thema Autonome Kunst in der DDR und Artikel zu den einzelnen Orten, die in der autonomen Kunstszene der DDR eine Rolle gespielt haben. Einen besonders spannenden Einblick bieten die zahlreichen Fotos aus der Zeit, die die Vielfalt der Kunstszene in der DDR anschaulich dokumentieren. bpb.de Dossier: Autonome Kunst in der DDR (Erstellt am 27.08.2021) 3 Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. Die DDR-Kunst im Kontext von Geschichte, Politik und Gesellschaft 5 2. Die Herausbildung der alternativen Kunstszene in der DDR 10 3.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 © 2014 the Middle Ground Journal Number 9, Fall 2014 See Submission Guidelines Page for Th
    1 East German artists as political refugees By Fabiola G.P. Bierhoff Summary: Analyses of refugees generally focus on political and ethnic refugees; this essay marks a bold departure by focusing on artists, a group that is generally acknowledged to be persecuted by totalitarian regimes, but does not often become the focus of academic research. In the period between 1961-1989 the regulated art system of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) led to a large scale exodus of at least fifteen hundred artists to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).1 Several young artists, who were born in the post-World War II period, did so in order to discontinue working according to the rigid confines of the art policy that favoured Socialist Realism as an ideal style for the construction of a socialist utopia. For this generation, who experienced the devastating impact of World War II only through the stories of their parents, the GDR was “a dead corpse, dead to an extent that you could only make fun of it”, as the performance artist Else Gabriel stated shortly after the collapse of the regime.2 Their utter disillusionment in the failing socialist society was expressed in autonomous artistic production that embraced Western modernist approaches such as performance art, and sought legitimation in its disturbing impact on a closed society.3 However, this nonconformist attitude put artists in the crosshairs of the secret police (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit/MfS or Stasi), that in turn criminalized their actions, and ultimately sought to dismantle or destroy artistic groups.4 In order to continue developing their modernist art practice and being recognized as artists, several artists were 1 Hartmut Pätzke, “Register Ausgebürgert”, in: Eingegrenzt, Ausgegrenzt, Bildene Kunst und Parteiherrschaft in der DDR 1961-1989, Berlin 2000, pp 557-694.
    [Show full text]