East German literature is the literature produced in
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
from the time of the
Soviet occupation
During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into three differe ...
in 1945, until the end of the communist government in 1990. The literature of this period was heavily influenced by the concepts of socialist realism and controlled by the communist government. As a result, the literature of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was for decades dismissed as nothing more than "Boy meet Tractor literature", but its study is now considered a legitimate field. Because of its language, the literature is more accessible to Western scholars and is considered to be one of the most reliable, if not the most reliable, sources about East Germany.
Cultural Heritage: German Socialists in the 1930s
The criticism of
Georg Lukács
Georg may refer to:
* ''Georg'' (film), 1997
*Georg (musical), Estonian musical
* Georg (given name)
* Georg (surname)
* , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker
* Spiders Georg
"Spiders Georg" is an Internet meme that began circulating on the mic ...
greatly impacted the literature of the GDR. His theories served as a middle ground between the necessary creative independence of the author and the theory of socialist realism as it was functioning at that time in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, paving the way for an East German literature that was to be more independent and original than what was to be found in the soviet bloc. Central to Luckacs' theories was the importance of the quest for individual identity, which he felt was not portrayed by socialist realism. He rejected the work of many authors, including:
Willi Bredel
Willi Bredel (2 May 1901 – 27 October 1964) was a German writer and president of the East Germany, East German Academy of Arts, Berlin. Born in Hamburg, he was a pioneer of socialist realist literature.
Life and career
Born into the fami ...
,
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
,
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...
and
Ernst Ottwalt
Ernst Ottwalt (13 November 1901 – 24 August 1943) was the pen name of German writer and playwright Ernst Gottwalt Nicolas. A communist, he fled Nazi Germany in 1934 and went into exile in the Soviet Union, where he fell victim to the Great Purge ...
, for reasons pertaining to the development of characters. He was against the notion that a character can develop fully with only one major change in their lives without relation to the entire experience of the individual, usually the conversion to socialism in the socialist realist novels, which is what he, as a socialist, was most concerned with. Lukács took
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
The literature of this period was largely anti-fascist. This literature was written by those exiles who had managed to escape
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
and then had to be naturalized after the war had ended. The typical biography for an exile author of this time included an active interest in the defense of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
and democratic power against state authority, followed by exile during the time of
National Socialism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...
and then return to the Soviet Occupation Zone to support through their literature the development of an antifascist-democratic reform.
1949–1961
This period saw literature and other art forms become an official part of government planning. Culture and art were to reflect the ideals and values of socialism and to function as a means of educating the masses, an idea known as socialist realism. Special government divisions were set up, notably the ''Amt für Literatur und Verlagswesen'' (Office for Literature and Publishing) and the ''Staatlichen Kommission für Kunstangelegenheiten'' (State Arts Commission).
The literature produced during the 1950s is known as ''
Aufbau
''Aufbau'' () is a term which was used in publications from 1919 to 1947 in the German language
German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is ...
'', which means 'building up'. It is concerned with the establishment of industry and raises the ordinary worker to the status of hero.
1961–1971
The beginning of this period is marked by the construction of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
dividing East and West Berlins. ''Aufbauliteratur'' was replaced by increasingly critical ''Ankunftsliteratur'' (literally: arrival literature) which was much less ideological but practical and realistic out of which the later artistic opposition to the ruling
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...
(SED) grew, although still aligned with the SED's cultural and political program.
1971–1980
German Romanticism
German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German vari ...
makes a comeback, both its writers and the cultural milieu. "The enthusiastic reception, republishing, and reworking of romantic authors by East German writers during the 1970s is in part motivated by the numerous parallels between the situations of the Germans in the Napoleonic era and in the GDR, both suffering under political and social suppression and the loss of autonomy, in particular the suppression of free speech." The expatriation of protest singer
Wolf Biermann
Karl Wolf Biermann (; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song " Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976.
Early life
Biermann was ...
in 1976 profoundly affected many of the writers in this era.
1980–1990
One of the most important developments in East German literature in the 1980s is known as the "Prenzlauer-Berg-Connection". This area in
East Berlin
East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
became home to a new generation of young people and their artistic underground. They expressed themselves through: punk, illegal performance, multimedia experiments and publishing unofficial magazines and literature. Prenzlauer Berg also attracted those who were officially cut off from East German culture. Many consider the literature produced in this period among the best of the entire GDR.Leeder, Karen. ''Breaking Boundaries: A New Generation of Poets in the GDR''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. 7-9.
1990s
The 1990s saw the reunification of East and West Germanies and the abrupt demise of the dream of a German "socialist utopia". This placed authors in an unusual context. The world in which they had been writing was being dismantled. At the same time, that world was also being disregarded as irrelevant, with a focus on the future in the new unified Germany.
Auferstanden aus Ruinen
"" (; 'Risen from the Ruins') was the national anthem of East Germany.
Background
In 1949, the Soviet occupation zone of Allied-occupied Germany became a socialist state under the name of the "German Democratic Republic" (GDR). For the new sta ...
"
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Jurek Becker
Jurek Becker (; – 14 March 1997) was a Polish-born German writer, screenwriter and East German dissident. His most famous novel is ''Jacob the Liar'', which has been made into two films. He lived in Łódź during World War II for about two y ...
: ''
Jacob the Liar
''Jacob the Liar'' is a 1969 novel written by the East Germany, East German Jewish author Jurek Becker. The German language, German original title is ''Jakob der Lügner'' (). Becker was awarded the Heinrich-Mann Prize (1971) and the Charles Veill ...
'' (1969, )
*
Wolf Biermann
Karl Wolf Biermann (; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song " Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976.
Early life
Biermann was ...
(poet, dissident)
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Johannes Bobrowski
Johannes Bobrowski (originally ''Johannes Konrad Bernhard Bobrowski''; 9 April 1917 – 2 September 1965) was a German lyric poet, narrative writer, adaptor and essayist.
Life
Bobrowski was born on 9 April 1917Bobrowski, Johannes (1984). ''S ...
Volker Braun
Volker Braun (born 7 May 1939 in Dresden) is a German writer. His works include ''Provokation für mich'' (''Provocation for me'') – a collection of poems written between 1959 and 1964 and published in 1965, a play, ''Die Kipper'' (''The Dumpe ...
*
Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
Stefan Heym
Helmut Flieg (10 April 1913 – 16 December 2001) was a German writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym (). He lived in the United States and trained at Camp Ritchie in 1943, making him one of the Ritchie Boys of World War II. In 1952, he r ...
, dissident, ''
The Wandering Jew
The Wandering Jew (occasionally referred to as the Eternal Jew, a calque from German ) is a mythical Immortality, immortal man whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. In the original legend, a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way ...
Uwe Johnson
Uwe Johnson (; 20 July 1934 – 22 February 1984) was a German writer, editor, and scholar. Such prominent writers and scholars as Günter Grass and Hans Mayer declared Johnson to be the most significant writer to emerge from East Germany. Duri ...
Heiner Müller
Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postd ...
Ulrich Plenzdorf
Ulrich Plenzdorf (; 26 October 1934 – 9 August 2007) was a German author and dramatist.
Life
Born in Berlin, Plenzdorf studied Philosophy in Leipzig, but graduated with a degree in film. He found work at DEFA.
He became famous in both East Ge ...
Franziska Linkerhand
''Franziska Linkerhand'' is a 1974 novel by Brigitte Reimann. Reimann worked on the book during the last ten years of her life. At the time of her death, she had just started the last, fifteenth chapter. In the following year the novel was pub ...
Anna Seghers
Anna Seghers (; born ''Anna Reiling,'' 19 November 1900 – 1 June 1983), is the pseudonym of German writer Anna Reiling, who was notable for exploring and depicting the moral experience of the Second World War. Born into a Jewish family and mar ...
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Erwin Strittmatter
Erwin Strittmatter (14 August 1912 – 31 January 1994) was a German writer. Strittmatter was one of the most famous writers in the GDR.
Biography
Strittmatter was born the son of a baker and foods wholesaler. Between 1924 and 1930 he attende ...
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Christa Wolf
Christa Wolf (; Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.Divided Sky'' (, also ''They Divided the Heaven'', 1963), '' The Quest for Christa T.'' (, 1968)
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Arnold Zweig
Arnold Zweig (; 10 November 1887 – 26 November 1968) was a German writer, pacifist, and socialist.
Early life and education
Zweig was born in Glogau, Prussian Silesia (now Głogów, Poland), the son of Adolf Zweig, a Jewish shipping agent and ...
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* Fehervary, Helen. "The Literature of the GDR (1945–1990)." ''Cambridge History of German Literature''. Watanabe-O’Kelly, Helen, ed. Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1997.
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