Writers and the People

In the last few months the role of several important writers and one of the leftist intellectuals in East and West has become a major topic for our most important literary supplements, and I find myself on the side of those with whom, until now, I did not understand myself to be making common cause. To put it another way: I do not share the opinion of people whom I have previously considered to be my allies. I would rather see myself as sharing the opinions of Grass, Delius and Heym than as sharing the opinions of a majority to which, up to now, I have felt myself as little duty-bound as to the dictates of realistic necessities. I will attempt to explain why things are different in the controversy surrounding the future of the GD R, which I can only carry on as a discussion about the future of the people in the GDR. Three months ago the Germans announced to the rest of the world their victory over their own history, supplementing the picture of the bankrupt German revolutionary with the picture of the victorious German revolutionary. Filled with the spirit of the victory over the Wall and State Security, proud of the discipline and non-violence with which the victory was achieved, the Germans asked themselves why they had not made victorious revolutions even earlier

Eastern European Communism and Reforms · European history and politics · German History and Society · History