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Sara JonesUniversity of Birmingham
Whose text is it anyway? Writing, censorship and the
Stasi
The Lives of Others (2006)
Reasons for Censorship in the GDRHigh value placed on writers in socialist societies
Fear of the political impact of texts
Cold War politics – battle of ideologies
Why Censor?
Self-Censorship‘Inner censor’ or the ‘scissors in the
head’Based on both commitment to
socialism (consciousness/political conscience) and knowledge of taboos.
Cannot know what has not been written, but can observe fate of texts that seemingly avoided self-censor
E.g., Stefan Heym’s 5 Tage im Juni/5 Days in June (1974, FRG). Originally Der Tag X./A Day Marked X. (1960) – Heym revised in direct contradiction to initial criticisms. Was not published in GDR until 1989.
CompromiseSecond level of censorship –
requests for changes by publishing house and/or Office for Publishing and Book Trade
Many writers prepared to edit their works to some degree
Hermann Kant agreed to substantial changes to his novel Das Impressum (Imprint, 1972), many of which dulled the critique of certain GDR institutions
Christa Wolf agreed to changes to Nachdenken über Christa T./Quest for Christa T. (1968)– text was still a sensation and broke with much of what had gone before
Heym was not prepared to make changes to 5 Days in June in 1974, and the text was not published in the GDR
NegotiationPower dynamic was not one-way – writers could bargain with the censors
Publication in the WestNot available to everyone – lesser known writers did not have same cultural/political ‘capital’
The Stasi and LiteratureThe Stasi were not officially involved
in process – but would contribute knowledge about ‘reliability’ of author
Publishing houses infiltrated and observed
Stasi confiscated manuscripts – now being recovered
Infiltration of the literary scene – across all generations of writers
Did an ‘intact’ GDR literature exist?
The files are made of nothing but words; the same material that the writer uses, there is no other. If you don’t want to develop a split personality like Anderson [...] studying the files will give you a feeling of great unease with regard to words, and doubt about your own ability ever to employ them again beyond betrayal and abuse. (Bernd Wagner, ‘Stasi-Gift’, 1993)
‘Die Akten bestehen aus nichts als Worten; das gleiche Material, das auch der Schriftsteller braucht, es gibt kein anderes. Wenn man nicht wie Anderson zur gespaltenen Persönlichkeit werden will [...] wird man vom Aktenstudium ein großes Unbehagen gegenüber Worten zurückbehalten, Zweifel auch an der eigenen Fähigkeit, sie jemals wieder jenseits von Verrat und Mißbrauch verwenden zu können.’
Whose text is it anyway?
