POETRY AMD POLITICS

i J, "l 1 0

Guntor Grass has never forgotten his East European origins. At the beginning of the 60's hs earns to t3ke on an increasingly political role and to speak out against the clirnatG of oppression in the Goyiet satellite coufitriBS of Eastern [lurope. His reputation as a novelist firmly established, Grass gradually enrierges as a public figure with an aggressive, provoking manner that one journalist has well described:

He has a gruff manner and a Dutch-comic soup-strainer moustache. There is a manic—gypsy look at the corners of his eyes, like that of an elf on high. His face has been described as the sort that nervous mothers warn ciiildren against before they skip off to play in the Black Forest*. At charades, he couldn't miss as one of those ambivalent wood cutters that lurk in the

1 background of Grimm's fairy tales.

The effects of this manner were felt at the Fifth Writers' Congress of the Soviet Zone held on flay 29th, 1951 in East Berlin. Here Grass displayed his witty scepticism as well as his concern for the freedom of the writer when he commented:

Auch in der westlichen Demokratie ist die Frciheit des Wortes gefahrdet, aber im Osten ist sie erst oar nicht vcrhanden. By way of example he went on to point out that authors such as Kafka and Rusil were not available in the Soviet Zone and that Uwe johnson -because he had refused to make certain changes in the manuscript of [lutmassungen uber Jakob - had been robbed of the financial basis of his livelihood. Towards the end of the Congress Grass was criticized by the head of the East German Cultural Commission for not standing up when the Cuban delegation had entered the room. Grass immediately rose and left.

In 1965 Grass became involved once more in the East-Uest dialogue. He and Uwe Johnson took part in a conversation with the Russian novelist Konstantin Simonov, The discussion centered around the question of

1 .TII1E.April 13.1 970,Germany's GUinter Grass.The Dentist's Chair as an Allegory of Life. P.38,

2,GUnter Grass.Quoted by Zielinski,H.Die Unbeguemen Fraqen des GL'inter Grass Die Uelt.riay 30,1 951 oP.?.

3,East and Uest,Conversation with Simonov.Uith GUnter Grass and Uwe John- son. January 1955oPp.88-91.

p.111 publication in the Soviet UnioRj in particular the absence of freely available translations of Kafka. Grass's main concern was for writers who had been rejected by the State publishing house on political grounds and suggested that such writers should enjoy the possibility of finding viable alternatives to the State system. During the some period he was not slow to turn a critical eye tobiards the literary situation in the Bundesrepublik. In an interesting discussion between Walter Hollerer, Walter Hasenclever and Grass himself the state of literary life in post-war Germany is analysed.

Hasenclever: You spoke a moment ago of a gap, a kind of missing link in the Berlin literary world. Grass: Not only in Berlin, but in all of Germany, There

are maybe two hundred writers who write truly readable books... It could be a question of the present

generation and the kind of professions they went into after the war... rJo gauntlets are thrown down, nobody issues challenges any more. The occasional

4 experiments in ttiis sphere are artificially nourished®

As the world gradually emerged from the climate of the 'Cold War' in the mid-sixties, Gunter Grass became less involved in the problem of the

'two Germanies' and more preoccupied with political activities inside the Bundesrepublik itself. His actual 'engagement' has taken essentially three forms. His fundamental concern has been, first of all, to come to terms with the legacy of National Socialism in contemporary Germany and to remind his readers of a shameful period of history much too easily forgotten. At the same time Grass has become a dedicated and outspoken supporter of the SPD(Sozialistische Partei Deutschlands) and has

advocated.both parliamentary socialism and a version of pragmatic liberal- ism in his speeches and political writings. Thirdly, he has been at pains to communicate with today's generation by reacting in an individual way to expressions of discontent and disenchantment amongst the young, A1.1 4.Writers in Berlin.A three-way discussion.Walter HBllerer,GiJnter Grass and

p.112 three aspects of Grass's commitment have found an echo in his lyrical writings.

Allusions to the world of politics occur occasionally in Grass's earlier poems. In Schreiben for instance the political situation becomes an expression of the weather - and uice-uersa:

Uenn Politik dem Wetter

zur Aussage wird: M

Ein Hoch uber Russland. Zuhause

uerreist sein;auf Reisen zuhause bleiben.

Uir wechseln das Klima nicht,^

And in Schlaqer im Dhr football and politics are humorously intermingled: Detzt hat Goldbrunner eine Flanke uon Lehner.,,

Uir horten Fupball und Sondermeldungen

Uiber den Drahtfunk,

Grass's intentions here are quasi-didactic. Me is attempting to make the reader aware of the relatedness of politics and day to day situations. In particular he is addressing the German petty bourgeoisie that .was(in Grass's eyes) largely responsible for the National Socialists' rise to power. What Geno Hartlaub says of Grass the novelist applies equally as well to the lyrical poet:

Im Laufe der Arbeit an seinen Romanen habe sich gezeigt,

ti II " daB weite Berciche, die man gewohnlich fur unpolitisch halt,

in Wirklichkeit von der Politik sehr abh^ngig sind, so zum Beispiel der ' M i e f der kleinburgerlichen Enge mit den falschen Idyllen der Familienfeiern usw. dem unausrottbaren

5.Grass,G.Schreiben. Ag.P.IS,

P.ri3

II " Sicherheitsbedurfnis, der falschen l/orstellung uon Qvaba,

der Gleichsetzung uon sozia.lern Aufsticg und allgemeinem 7

Fortschritt.

In Politische Landschafl Grass takes up the expression 'political landscape' and then invests the notion itself with more concrete

associations borroioed from the language of the geographer. Nature and politics are cleverly juxtaposed to produce an amalgam of place names, historical personalities and minerological terms. Post-war German society is reduced to the size of a schoolroom where learning is experienced in an ambivalent light:

Uns Geschadigten, denen das Lilissen Muhe macht beim l/erlernen,

ordnet die Geografis uiirre Geschichte: Seitlich Adenau und bis an das Flusschen Hunte

zwischen Galen und Frings, buchen die Sozis kleine Geuinne

It 9 muhen sich ab beim Uerlernen,

Here politics becomes a landscape garden where famous names from the past encroach on the present. The reader is introduced to the

contemporary political situation by way of allusion, innuendo and verbal association. The mention of Adenau - a small town in the Eifel region - recalls the first Chancellor of the Bundesrepublik Konrad Adenauer and the river Hunte, a tributary of the Weser, introduces two controversial Roman Catholic bishops - the one (Galen) the Bishop of Runster between 1933 and 1946 and an opponent of the National Socialist regime and the other (Frings) the official leader of the Catholic Church in Germany since 1942.

In the midst of this political landscape the Social Democrats make a little progress and exhaust themselves in the business of un-learning the past. Yet the so-called Year Nought of German history proves to be

7,Hartlaub,G.lilir die wir tjbriqgebliehen sind.Sonntagsblatt<,Hamburgo Dahuary I.1957.Reprinted in;LoschOtz.G.Von Buch zu Buch. GOnter Grass in der Kritik.Luchterhand.1968.P.212o

8,Grass,G.Politische Landschaft. Ag.Pp.72-73. 9,Grass,G Politische Landschaft, Ag.P.72.

p.114 an illusion and the memory of ths National Socialist era intrudes into the present:

Doch immerfort tagt am Uannsee ale Konferenz; immerfort werden in Eifellava, Basalt,

in grauen Globke, -wieder in Trauertin,- die Kommentare gezwungen,""^

The Uannsee conference where the policy of the 'Final Solution' was formulated is not yet over and the enumeration of types of rock contains references to Germany in the thirties. Eifellava and Basalt stand in contrast to travertine - a porous rock found mainly in Italy but used for the construction of national monuments by Hitler - and also to

'grey Globke' the former lawyer instrumental in compiling the Nurnberg Laws who later became a Minister for Justice under Adenauer, In a parody of the national hymn the little town of Jajce in Yugoslavia is balanced against the l/EBA (Uereinigte Elektrizitats-und Bergwerks- Aktien-Gesellschaft) and the ambivalence of the word 'ausgesetzt'

(unearthed,exposed) is nicely exploited: Denn das soli bleiben bleiben und sich nie mehr vertagen durfen

von der Jaksch bis zur Ueba,

unausgesetzt wird zuendegedacht. Schuld und die Forstwirtschaft

Oder was nachwachst:Schonungen geben dem Land Enge und Hoffnung, damit Nutzholz und eine neue Generation

schon morgen vergisst,

wis verschuldetjwie abgeholzt Schwarzwalder waren.

Morality and forestry are intermingled and the ambivalence of the word 'Schonungen' is foregrounded in the following line: the sacrifice of youth during the war is perpetuated by the indulgent explanations which 10.Grass.G.Politische Landschaft. Ag.P.72,

p.1-15

are giuen to the next genGration. The business of forgetting the past is likened to the art of forestry and the land is 'cleared' at the price of an easy conscience and a hope which is rendered doubtful by the context in which it appears.

In the final section of the poem the question of a divided Germany is broached. The lyrical speaker, previously cast in the roles of

geography teacher, minerologist and forester now confronts the reader in the guise of tourist's guide and gives a bird's eye view of the two Germanies beneath the peaks of Heidegger and Plarx:

Schon ist das Land und Natur

stUtzt die Kurse und Reiseprospekte, denn ein Blick bis zur Elbe

Oder vom Bocksberg nach druben zum Marx, —wie sie sich abschirmen;wie wir uns aoschirmen-

wo immer sich ernste Serge im Wege stehen und der Gedanke nicht flugge wird

lohnen sich Blicke

vom Blessing uber den Rhein.''^

The main clause which refers to the view across the Elbe is not completed- it is interrupted by a mention of the home of the supernatural in Germany (the Bocksberg in the Harz mountains) and of the German philosopher

Karl T'larx. The division of the land is succinctly registered by the semi-colon which separates the two phrases which express the climate of co-oxistence:

1 3

-wie sie sich abschirmen;wie wir uns abschirmen-

and the line itself is bounded by hyphens which neatly convey the defensive attitude of both East and West.

The reader's attention is now directed towards the Rhineland and a little known river called the Blessing which turns out to be one more

12.Grass,G.Politische Landschaft. Ag.Pp.72-73. 13,Grass,G.Politische Landschaft. Ag,P,72,

feature of ths political landscape - Karl Blessing, a banker c3nd

industrialist who has boon President of tr;^ German Bundnsbank since 1950. As the poet's eye moves furt-her uostward ths final stage of the journey is reached and the mention of 'serious' mountains and unfledged thoughts anticipates the culmination of the poem:

Ojihr linksn und rechten Nebenflusse: die Barzel fliesst in die Uehner.

II 14