German Literature In the Post WWII World

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German Literature In the Post WWII World

• By Brian Briggs

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Heinrich Böll

• 1917-1985
• Never Joined the Hitler Youth
• Received the prize in 1972 for helping to
  revitalize German Literature
• Works include
• The Train was on Time(1949)
• Traveler if you come to the Spa(1950)
• And Never Said a Word(1953)
• Portrait of a Lady(1971)
• The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum(1974)

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Guenter Grass

• 1927-still alive
• Nobel Prize in Literature for Tin Drum
• Was published in 1959, but was awarded the prize
  in 1999
• The Tin Drum is the first In set of three books
  called the Danzig Trilogy. The other two works
  are Cat and Mouse and The Dog Years.
• Argued against the Reunification
• Cited that a united Germany has caused some of
  the most brutal periods of history
• Our unified state filled the history books of
  the world with suffering, ruin, defeat, millions
  of refugees, millions of dead and a burden of
  crimes which we will never be able to throw off."
  

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Literature In the FDR

• Immediately after the war, was mostly short
  stories and poetry.
• Heinrich Boll was a major writer of short stories
  during this early period.
• Major poets were Wolfgang Weyrauch, Karl Krolow,
  and Gunter Eich
• The Literary group Groupe 47 was founded as a
  sort of Cultural Association. Was not allowed to
  meet for a couple of years till the FDR was
  founded.

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Literature in the GDR

• East German Literature was of a lower quality
  than its Western counterpart.
• The GDR claimed to support realist authors, but
  often harassed them. Favored Soviet Realism over
  actual Realist views.
• The Government used Literature contests as a way
  to squelch opposition writers in the fledgling
  days.
• The novels of the GDR often pitted a good
  socialist farmer struggling against one or two
  westerners or a member of the bourgeois such as a
  scientist.
• East German Books
• Menschen an unserver Seite by Eduard Claudius
• Die Spur der Steine by Erik Neutsch
• Beschreibung eines Sommers by Karl-Heinz Jakobs

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Bibliography

• Fisher, Marc. Guenter Grass Wins Nobel Prize in
  Literature. The Washington Post. September
  30,1999.
• Kirjasto. Heinrich Boll. www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hboll
  . 2000
• Moos, Detlev, ed. Cultural Life in the Federal
  Republic of Germany. Inter Nationes Bonn.1993.