University of Bath PHD Nature and technology in GDR literature Tomlinson, Dennis Churchill Award date: 1993 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 23. May. 2019 NATURE AND TECHNOLOGY IN GDR LITERATURE NATURE AND TECHNOLOGY IN GDR LITERATURE submitted by Dennis Churchill Tomlinson for the degree of PhD of the University of Bath 1993 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with its author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. This thesis may be made avilable for consultation within the University Library and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation. UMI Number: U541851 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U541851 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 UBVEBSfTY OF U T l i r * l ULItRABY tB ABY f ! k] 20SEPi993 Summary This thesis is concerned with the treatment of ecological issues in the literature of the German Democratic Republic. Although environmental criticism in East German literature can be traced back to the mid- 1960s, this study concentrates on the most advanced phase, between 1980 and 1989. The detailed literary analyses focus on selected works by a representative group of authors: the prose writers Jurij Koch, Helga Konigsdorf and Matthias Korner and the poets Wulf Kirsten, Heinz Czechowski and Richard PietraB. Comparative analyses of different works are undertaken within the three categories of essayistic prose, narrative prose and poetry. The introduction to the thesis briefly explains the distinct social role of literature in the GDR and the serious environmental problems there. Chapter 1 surveys changing attitudes towards technology and nature in GDR literature from 1949 to 1989. Chapter 2 examines essays on environmental topics by Koch, Korner, Konigsdorf and PietraB. Chapter 3 compares the literary treatment of environmental issues in three works of prose fiction: Koch*s Der Kirschbaum (1984), Konigsdorf1s Respektloser Umgang (1986) and Korner*s Die Totenkeule (1988). Chapter 4 studies poems on similar themes by Kirsten, iii Czechowski and PietraB. In spite of the uniform Marxist ideology of the SED, GDR writers in the Eighties developed a surprising diversity of standpoints as regards ecological issues. Writers' opinions on the environment also showed a general tendency towards radicalisation and the relaxation of self-censorship in the course of the decade. Before the 1980s, political restrictions had sometimes inhibited authors from publishing narrative or essayistic prose works on the sensitive ecological topic, while poetry had provided an alternative channel. In the Eighties, however, the political constraints on publication were more relaxed than they had previously been. But even so, the authors' environmental criticisms did not receive a fair reception until 1987-89. Contents Abbreviations viii Introduction 1. Aims, scope and organisation of thesis 1 2. Socio-political context of GDR environmental literature 5 Notes to introduction 8 Chapter 1 - Development of environmental literature and environmental debate in the GDR 1. Introduction 13 2. 1949 to 1965: commitment to 'progress* 14 3. 1965 to 1971: the ambivalence of 'progress* recognised 21 4. 1971 to 1976: 'progress* challenged 29 5. 1976 to 1979: the fading of belief in progress 38 6. 1979 to 1989: widespread critical discussion of 'progress* 47 7. Summary and conclusion 61 Notes to chapter 1 64 Chapter 2 - Essayistic prose 1. Introduction 91 v 2. The essays of Jurij Koch 95 3. Matthias Korner, 'Fragen eines schreibenden Abgeordneten* 107 4. Helga Konigsdorf, 'Das Prinzip Menschenwiirde' 110 5. Richard PietraB, 'Vom Vergehen der Arten' 115 6. Evaluation of the essayistic approach 125 Notes to chapter 2 128 Chapter 3 - Narrative prose 1. Introduction 137 2. Damaged nature 149 3. The human cost 158 4. The systemic causes 167 5. The question of progress 176 6. The central contradiction 187 7. Moral and ethical dimensions 198 8. The spiritual dimension 208 9. Reception 221 10. Evaluation of the narrative approach 238 Notes to chapter 3 244 Chapter 4 - Poetry 1. Introduction 259 2. Ponds and pools 273 3. Non-functional nature 296 vi 4. Dying villages 307 5. Man and other species 327 6. Reception 342 7. Evaluation of the poetic approach 358 Notes to chapter 4 364 Bibliography 386 vii Abbreviations CERN European Organisation for Nuclear Research DBD Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands DK Der Kirschbaum (Jurij Koch) DT Die Totenkeule (Matthias Korner) dtv Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 'FesA* 'Fragen eines schreibenden Abgeordneten* (Matthias Korner) FRG Federal Republic of Germany GDR German Democratic Republic KAP Kooperative Abteilung Pflanzenproduktion LPG Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft LPG-T Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft- Tierproduktion mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag ND Neues Deutschland ndl neue deutsche literatur RU Respektloser Umgang (Helga Konigsdorf) SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands SuF Sinn und Form WB Weimarer Beitrage viii Introduction 1. Aims, scope and organisation of thesis This thesis is concerned with the treatment of ecological issues in the literature of the German Democratic Republic, a theme which arose in the course of the 1960s against a background of almost universal confidence in technological progress, and which became quite frequent in the literature of the 1970s and 1980s. Only a moderate quantity of secondary literature has yet been published on this topic. The most important works are perhaps Hubertus Knabe's study 'Zweifel an der Industriegesellschaft: Okologische Kritik in der erzahl- enden DDR-Literatur* (1985) and Anita Mai 1inckrodt1s book The Environmental Dialogue in the GDR (1987), which both deal with prose literature. Wolfgang Ertl and Klaus Schuhmann, among others, have written articles about East German ecological poetry.1 The basic objective of this research project is to investigate how GDR writers responded to the destruction of the natural environment (often simply termed 'nature* below) by modern technological society. The title Nature and Technology in GDR Literature thus refers to the interaction between nature and technology or, to be more 1 precise, the deleterious impact of technology on nature. A more specific aim is to consider how the ecological topic is treated in prose on the one hand and poetry on the other. I have included a separate chapter on 'essayistic prose', besides those on 'narrative prose' and 'poetry', because although East German authors wrote many essays and speeches on ecological issues, the essayistic approach to the subject has so far been neglected by literary scholars. I shall consider the functions of these three genres and the role of literature as a whole in the broader East German environmental debate. A further question that has arisen in the course of my research is whether a new consciousness, such as the awareness of the seriousness of environmental problems, is best conveyed through new literary forms, or whether older forms and methods of writing are appropriate for this purpose. Given the sheer quantity of environmentally critical literature (below often termed 'environmental liter­ ature') that was written in the GDR, as in the West, in the Seventies and Eighties, it is necessary to restrict the scope of this investigation. I have decided to confine myself to mainstream poetry and prose for adults, disregarding the categories of children's and young people's literature, science fiction, underground literature and drama. The project will focus on selected 2 works by selected authors: the prose writers Jurij Koch, Helga Konigsdorf and Matthias Korner and the poets Wulf Kirsten, Heinz Czechowski and Richard PietraB (the reasons for this selection will be explained in the introductory sections of the chapters below). While chapter 1 will give a general survey of the earlier industrial and later environmental