Rereading East Germany: the Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More Information

Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information

REREADING EAST GERMANY

This volume is the first to address the culture of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as a historical entity, but also to trace the afterlife of East Germany in the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall. An international team of outstanding scholars offers essential and thought-provoking essays, combining a chronological and genre- based overview from the beginning of the GDR in 1949 to unification in 1990 and beyond with in-depth analysis of individual works. A final chapter traces the resonance of the GDR in the years since its demise and analyzes the fascination it engenders. The volume provides a ‘rereading’ of East Germany and its legacy as a cultural phenomenon free from the prejudices that prevailed while it existed, offering English translations throughout, a guide to further reading and a chronology.

karen leeder is Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in German, New College, Oxford.

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information

REREADING EAST GERMANY The Literature and Film of the GDR

edited by KAREN LEEDER

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Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107006362 © Cambridge University Press 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Rereading East Germany : the literature and ﬁlm of the GDR / edited by Karen Leeder. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-107-00636-2 (hardback) 1. German literature – Germany (East) – History and criticism. 2. Motion pictures – Germany (East) – History. 3. Germany (East) – In literature. I. Leeder, Karen J., editor. pt3705.r44 2015 830.9′943109045–dc23 2015024724

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Contents

List of illustrations page vii Notes on contributors viii Acknowledgements xii Chronology xiv Abbreviations, references and translations xvi

Introduction 1 Karen Leeder 1 The GDR and its literature: an overview 8 Wolfgang Emmerich 2 Resurrected from the ruins: the emergence of GDR culture 35 Stephen Brockmann 3 DEFA’s antifascist myths and the construction of national identity in East German cinema 52 Seán Allan 4 From Faust III to Germania III: drama in the GDR between 1949 and 1989 70 Holger Teschke 5 Autobiographical writing in the GDR era 88 Dennis Tate 6 Gender in GDR literature 106 Georgina Paul 7 Negotiating the politics and aesthetics of satire: satirical novels in the GDR and beyond 126 Jill E. Twark

vi Contents 8 The politics of dialogue: poetry in the GDR 143 Gerrit-Jan Berendse 9 Underground literature? The unoﬃcial culture of the GDR and its development after the Wende 160 Birgit Dahlke 10 Tinker, tailor, writer, spy: GDR literature and the Stasi 180 Alison Lewis 11 Intellectuals and the Wende: missed opportunities and dashed hopes 197 Carol Anne Costabile-Heming 12 After-images – afterlives: Remembering the GDR in the Berlin Republic 214 Karen Leeder

Guide to further reading 238 Index 249

Illustrations

1 The suffering antifascist body. Erwin Geschonneck as Heinrich page 61 Witting. 2 The heroic antifascist body. Erwin Geschonneck as Walter Krämer. 64 3 Re-imagining the antifascist body. Jaecki Schwarz as Gregor Hecker. 64 4 Helga Paris. From: ‘Müllfahrer’ [Dustmen] (1974). 111 5 Helga Paris. From: ‘Frauen im Bekleidungswerk Treffmodelle’ 118 [Women at the Treff-Modelle Clothing Factory, Berlin] (1984). 6 Invitation to the ‘Zersammlung’ event, 5–11 March 1984, using a 162 drawing by Cornelia Schleime (1984). 7 ‘Writers in Wilfriede Maaß’s studio for a reading organized by 163 Ekkehard Maaß, 20 September 1981’ (1981). 8 Christian Rudat, ‘Berliner Fernsehturm’ [Berlin Television Tower]. 227 9 Michael Wesely, ‘Potsdamer Platz’ (1990). 231

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Notes on contributors

sean allan is Reader in German Studies at the University of Warwick. He has also been a visiting scholar at the DEFA Film-Library (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) and at Smith College. He is the co-editor of DEFA: East German Cinema 1946–92 with John Sandford and has published widely on GDR and post-unification German cinema, including essays on Konrad Wolf, Kurt Maetzig and, most recently, the documentary work of Jürgen Böttcher. gerrit-jan berendse is Professor of Modern European Literature and Culture at Cardiff University. He has published Die ‘Sächsische Dichterschule’. Lyrik in der DDR der sechziger und siebziger Jahre (1990) and Grenz-Fallstudien. Essays zum Topos Prenzlauer Berg in der DDR- Literatur (1999), as well as numerous articles on poetry in the GDR. In 2014 he edited a special number of German Life and Letters on German poetry. He is currently writing a monograph on surrealism in the GDR. stephen brockmann is Professor of German at Carnegie Mellon University and was President (2011–2012) of the German Studies Association. He is the author, most recently, of A Critical History of German Film (2010), as well as of Nuremberg: The Imaginary Capital (2006), German Literary Culture at the Zero Hour (2004) and Literature and German Reunification (1999). From 2002 to 2007 he was the mana- ging editor of the Brecht Yearbook, and in 2007 he won the DAAD Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in German and European Studies / Humanities. carol anne costabile-heming is Professor of German and Chair of the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of North Texas, in Denton, Texas. She has published widely on Wende literature and post-Wende Berlin, including Textual Responses to German Unification: Processing Historical and Social Change in

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Notes on contributors ix Literature and Film (2001) and Berlin, The Symphony Continues: Orchestrating Architectural, Social, and Artistic Change in Germany’s New Capital (2004). In 2012, she was named the Outstanding German Educator for the Post-Secondary level by the American Association of Teachers of German. birgit dahlke is Visiting Professor of German Literature at the Humboldt University, Berlin. She is the author of Wolfgang Hilbig. A Biography (2011) and Papierboot. Autorinnen aus der DDR – inoﬃziell publiziert (1997) and co-editor of volumes on German Life-Writing in the Twentieth Century (2010); Kerstin Hensel (2002); Zersammelt. Die inoﬃ- zielle Literaturszene der DDR nach 1990. Eine Bestandsaufnahme (2001); LiteraturGesellschaft DDR. Kanonkämpfe und ihre Geschichte(n) (2000) and the bi-annual journal for new literature, essays and criticism Moosbrand. neue texte with Klaus Michael, Lutz Seiler and Peter Walther (1996–99). She is currently setting up a new research centre on Gerhard and Christa Wolf at the Humboldt University, Berlin and investigating authors’ personal libraries as the subject of research. wolfgang emmerich is Professor Emeritus of German Literature, History and Culture at the University of Bremen. In 1989 he founded the Bremen Institute for German Cultural Studies (IfkuD). He is the author of Kleine Literaturgeschichte der DDR (1982/1989/1996), as well as volumes on Heinrich Mann (1980), Paul Celan (1998)andGottfried Benn (2006) among others; co-editor of Lyrik des Exils (1985/1997), Mythenkorrekturen. Zu einer paradoxalen Form der Mythenrezeption (2005)andLiterarisches Chemnitz. Autoren – Werke – Tendenzen (2008). karen leeder is Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Oxford, and Fellow and Tutor in German at New College, Oxford. She has published widely on GDR literature, especially poetry and the literature of the Berlin Republic, and has translated work by a number of German writers into English, including Volker Braun, Rubble Flora: Selected Poems, 2014. Her most recent outing with Cambridge University Press was The Cambridge Companion to Rainer Maria Rilke in 2010 (with Robert Vilain). An edited volume, From Stasiland to Ostalgie: The GDR – Twenty Years After, appeared in 2009, Brecht & the GDR: Politics, Culture, Posterity (with Laura Bradley) appeared in 2011 and the volume Durs Grünbein: A Companion (with Chris Young and Michael Eskin) appeared in 2013.

x Notes on contributors alison lewis is Professor of German in the School of Languages and Literature at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She has published widely in a number of areas of German Studies, especially on the GDR, unification and post-communist writing. She is the author of three monographs: Subverting Patriarchy: Feminism and Fantasy in the Works of Irmtraud Morgner (1995), Die Kunst des Verrats: der Prenzlauer Berg und die Staatssicherheit (2003) and Eine schwierige Ehe: Liebe Geschlecht und die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung im Spiegel der Literatur (2009) and co-editor (with Alan Corkhill) of Intercultural Encounters in German Studies (2014) and Other Encounters: European Writers and Gender in Transnational Context (with Lara Anderson and Heather Merle Benbow) (2014). She is co-editor of the Australian yearbook of German Literary and Cultural Studies Limbus (Rombach). She is currently working on a project on the Stasi files: ‘Secret Lives and the Lives of Secrets: Secret Police Narratives’ and co-editing a monograph (with Valentina Glajar and Corina L. Petrescu), Secret Police Files from the Eastern Bloc: Between Surveillance and Life Writing. georgina paul is Associate Professor in German at the University of Oxford, and Fellow and Tutor in German at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford. She has an established reputation for her work on the literature of the GDR and eastern German literature after 1990, including ground- breaking articles on Christa Wolf. Her monograph Perspectives on Gender in Post-1945 German Literature, which included chapters on a number of GDR authors (Wolf, Müller, Köhler), appeared in 2009. Most recently, she published an edited collection: An Odyssey for Our Time: Barbara Köhler’s Niemands Frau (2013). She has an active interest in theories of gender and sexuality. dennis tate is Emeritus Professor of German Studies at the University of Bath. His research interests are East German literature before and after unification, autobiographical prose and competing forms of literary remembrance. His main publications include The East German Novel: Identity, Community, Continuity (1984), Franz Fühmann: Innovation and Authenticity (1995) and Shifting Perspectives: East German Autobiographical Narratives Before and After the End of the GDR (2007). He has recently co-edited Dislocation and Reorientation: Exile, Division and the End of Communism in German Culture and Politics (2009), German Life Writing in the Twentieth Century (2010) and Twenty Years On: Competing Memories of the GDR in Postunification German Culture (2011).

Notes on contributors xi holger teschke is a German author and director born on the island of Rügen in the former GDR. He studied Theatre Directing and Dramaturgy at the Ernst-Busch-School for Acting and Directing in Berlin and held positions as Dramaturg at the Senftenberg Theatre from 1985 to 1987, author and Dramaturg at the Berliner Ensemble from 1987 to 1999 and Guest Professor at NYU, Mount Holyoke College and University of Notre Dame, USA, from 2000 to 2009.He is well known for his work as a poet, dramatist and writer of radio plays and essays. He has won numerous prizes including the ‘Neruda-Preis für Lyrik’ (2004) and the ‘Hörspielpreis der Stadt Karlsruhe’ (2007). jill e. twark is Associate Professor of German at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She has published widely on the topic of humour and satire in post-uniﬁcation East German novels, as well as an article on Günter Grass. Her major publications include the monograph Humor, Satire, and Identity: Eastern German Literature in the 1990s (2007); the edited volume Strategies of Humor in Post- Uniﬁcation German Literature, Film, and Other Media (2011); and Envisioning Social Justice in Contemporary German Culture, co-edited with Axel Hildebrandt (2015).

Acknowledgements

This volume was made possible by the generosity of John Fell Oxford University Press (OUP) Fund. The editor would also like to acknowledge the assistance of The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford, New College, Oxford, and the Ludwig Fund, New College, Oxford. The Goethe Institute, London, sponsored Durs Grünbein’s visit to Oxford, for a symposium where contributors first aired the ideas, which would lead to this volume. The editor would like to thank Penny Black at the Goethe Institute, London, for making the visit possible, and Durs Grünbein himself for his generosity with time and ideas. Ralf Kukula from Balance Film, Berlin, allowed Oktoberfilm (2009) to have its first screening outside Germany at the same event and also allowed one of the images from the film to be used as the cover of this book. The book itself has had a long gestation and I am indebted to the contributors, whose enthusiasm for the volume and forbearance have ensured it comes into being. I am also grateful to the anonymous readers who offered such thoughtful support to the proposal, to Neil Leeder for the website and help with IT, to Nick Hodgin and Emily Spiers for help with translation, to Uwe Warnke for help in sourcing images and to Linda Bree along with Maartje Scheltens and Anna Bond from Cambridge University Press for their patience and careful advice along the way. The photograph on the cover from Oktoberfilm, Balance Film, Berlin (2009), is printed courtesy of Balance Film and Klaus Thiele; the photo- graphs from the series ‘Frauen im Bekleidungswerk Treffmodelle’ (Women at the Treff-Modelle Clothing Factory, Berlin, 1984) and from the series ‘Müllfahrer’ (Dustmen, 1974) in Chapter 6 are both reprinted ©Helga Paris VG Bildkunst; in Chapter 9 the invitation to the ‘Zersammlung’ event using a drawing by Cornelia Schleime (1984)is printed courtesy of Uwe Warnke and the image ‘Autoren im Werkstatt von Wilfried Mass’ (Authors at Wilfried Mass’s Studio, 1981) is reprinted ©Helga Paris VG Bildkunst; in the final chapter the photograph of the

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Acknowledgements xiii Berlin Television Tower by Christian Rudat is printed courtesy of Christian Rudat; the photograph ‘Potsdamer Platz’ by Michael Wesely is printed courtesy of Galerie Fahnemann, Berlin. We are grateful to the following for permission to cite poems: Suhrkamp Verlag for permission to cite Volker Braun, ‘Das Eigentum’ and ‘Das Lehen’ from Braun, Lustgarten Preußen: Ausgewählte Gedichte (Frankfurt/ M.: Suhrkamp, 1996), ©Surhrkamp Verlag GmbH and Barbara Köhler, ‘Rondeau Allemagne’ and from Barbara Köhler, Deutsches Roulette. Gedichte 1984–1989 (Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1991), © Suhrkamp Verlag GmbH; Kerstin Hensel for permission to cite ‘Schatten Riß’ from Kerstin Hensel, Schlaraffenzucht. Gedichte (Frankfurt/M.: Luchterhand, 1990), ©Kerstin Hensel; Andreas Koziol for permission to quote from the poem ‘addition der differenzen’, from his mehr über rauten und türme (Berlin: Aufbau, 1991), ©Andreas Koziol; and Druckhaus Galrev and Andreas Koziol for permission to cite ‘Tradition der Differenzen’, from Andreas Koziol, Sammlung (Berlin: Edition qwertzuiopü, 1996), ©Druckhaus Galrev and Andreas Koziol. We are grateful to Uwe Warnke, for permission to quote from ‘DIALEKTIK’, from Uwe Warnke, wortBILD. Visuelle Poesie in der DDR (Halle/S. and Leipzig: Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 1990), ©Uwe Warnke; and to Michael Wüstefeld for permission to quote from ‘ABWANDLUNG des DEUTSCHEN oder HERLEITUNG eines DEUTSCHEN’, from Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.), Die andere Sprache. Neue DDR-Literatur der 80er Jahre (Munich: edition text + kritik, 1990), ©Michael Wüstefeld.

Chronology

1945 Potsdam Conference: USA, USSR and Britain agree to demili- tarize, denazify and democratize Germany. The Allies assume control over Germany and divide it into zones. 1946 Formation of ‘Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands’ (SED) from Communist Social-Democratic alliance. Establishment of DEFA film company in Berlin. 1948 Currency reform. Berlin divided into two different currency zones. Berlin Blockade. The United States begins the Berlin Airlift to keep Berlin supplied with food and fuel. Brecht founds the Berliner Ensemble in Berlin. 1949 7 October: Foundation of German Democratic Republic (GDR). 1950 Walter Ulbricht elected General Secretary of the SED. 1951 SED campaigns against formalism and decadence in favour of the doctrine of socialist realism. 1952 Second Party Conference of the SED. Class War urged against churches, bourgeoisie and intelligentsia. 1953 17 June: Uprising of industrial workers in Berlin against raised work norms. Suppressed by Soviet tanks. 1956 Creation of the Nationale Volksarmee (NVA – People’sArmyof the GDR). Soviet revelations about Stalin. Hungarian Uprising fails and leads to renewed cultural repression. Death of Bertolt Brecht. 1957 Show trial of the so-called Harich group. 1959 24 April: Initiation of industrial campaign of ‘Bitterfelder Weg’. 1961 13 August: Building of Berlin Wall. Borders with the West are closed. 1963 Introduction of ‘New Economic System’. 1965 Eleventh Plenum of the Central Committee of the SED clamps down on media and signs of ‘dissidence’. 1968 New constitution of GDR comes into effect. The GDR army participates in Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia.

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Chronology xv 1970 Gradual regularization of relations with the Federal Republic (BRD). 1971 Erich Honecker replaces Walter Ulbricht as SED leader. He gives his ‘No Taboos’ speech, initiating greater freedom for artists and writers. 1972 Cultural liberalization heralded by reception of Ulrich Plenzdorf’s Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. (The New Sufferings of Young W.) Signing of Basic Treaty between GDR and FRG. 1976 November: ‘Ausbürgerung’ (expatriation) of singer/songwriter Wolf Biermann. Reprisals for many who support him and gradual exodus of many writers and artists. Consolidation of ‘underground’ journals in many GDR cities. 1979 ‘Lex Heym’ and expulsions from the Writers’ Union; punitive measures taken against dissenting intellectuals. 1981 Cultural intelligentsia from East and West begin a series of peace conferences ‘Berliner Tagung zur Friedensforschung’. 1983 After Soviet Union has stationed SS20 missiles in the GDR occasioning major demonstrations in 1982, peace campaigner Roland Jahn is expelled. 1985 Gorbachev’s accession to power in the Soviet Union. His con- cepts of glasnost and perestroika promise to bring new political and cultural liberalizations. 1987 Writers, Congress debates censorship. A rock concert held in front of the Reichstag building in West Berlin leads to fighting with police. 1989 August onwards: Regular demonstrations outside Nikolai Church in Leipzig. 7 October: GDR celebrates 40 years. Demonstrations suppressed. 4 November: Over 1 million demonstrate in East Berlin’s main square, Alexanderplatz, for freedom of the press and free elections. 7 November: Resignation of Politburo. 9 November: Opening of the Berlin Wall. Dissolution of the Stasi. 28 November: petition ‘Für unser Land’ (For Our Country) from artists and writers. 22 December: Opening of the Brandenburg Gate. 1990 SED becomes PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) under Gregor Gysi. 18 March: First free elections to the Volkskammer with the CDU, the largest party. June: Christa Wolf publishes Was bleibt. Beginning of the ‘Literaturstreit’ (literary debate). Treuhand Agency set up to dispose of East German industry. 3 October: Unification of Germany. GDR joins Federal Republic in accordance with Article 23 of the Basic Law.

Abbreviations, references and translations

Abbreviations and terms used Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD) Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) Deutsche Demokratische German Democratic Republik (DDR) Republic (GDR) Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft GDR Film Company (DEFA) Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ) Free German Youth Movement Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter (IM) Unofficial Collaborator working for the MfS Ministerium für Staatssicherheit Ministry for State Security (MfS) / (Stasi) Nationale Volksarmee (NVA) GDR army (National People’s Army) Neues Forum An influential citizens’ initiative founded during the Wende Das Neue Ökonomische System der New Economic System Planung und Leitung (NÖS or introduced into the GDR planned NÖSPL) economy in 1963 Operativer Vorgang (OV) Integrated surveillance operation mounted by the MfS Ostalgie Nostalgia after 1990 for aspects of life in the former GDR Partei des demokratischen Party of Democratic Socialism, the Sozialismus (PDS) successor to the SED, later to become known as Die Linke (the Left Party)

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Abbreviations, references and translations xvii

Sovietische Besatzungszone (SBZ) Soviet-Occupied Zone Sozialistische Einheitspartei (SED) Socialist Unity Party Volkseigener Betrieb (VEB) Nationalized ﬁrm in the GDR (People’s Enterprise) Die Wende Name given to the period of change in 1989–1990

On the ﬁrst mention titles are given in German with an English translation; thereafter German is used. Quotations are generally given in English unless a special linguistic point is to be made. Such translations are by the individual contributors unless otherwise attributed.