Wissen

Jurek Becker (1937 – 1997) created a media icon of the Holocaust with his character, Jakob the Liar. It arose as a "treatment” for the DEFA, was made into a filmscript in 1965 and in 1969 was recast into a DDR novel. Not until 1974 was the script made into a film, and in 1976 it received its due recognition as a voice of authenticity during a public reading by the author.

The maxim that "writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric" originated with the German-Jewish philosopher, Theodor W. Adorno. Seen in this light, the truth about the Holocaust and all attempts at aesthetic comprehension are mutually exclusive. But poems about Auschwitz have emerged, perhaps even because of Auschwitz, as Peter Szondi, a specialist in German studies, has said. In his poem, Deathfugue (Todesfuge) Paul Celan cast the figure of Death as a Nazi "Master from Germany" in lyricism's own perception of reality, and thereby rendered it unforgettable. Nelly Sachs, too, composed poems on the system of murder.

Dimensions of a Media Icon

In this sense, Jurek Becker's Jakob der Lügner (Jakob the Liar) has enjoyed a paradigmatic impact in the media. The story of Jacob Heym, who gives the Jews isolated in the ghetto hope with his tall tales about the imminent defeat of the Germans, is an invention. But it has roots in Jurek Becker's own biography, as he himself was a survivor of the Ghetto of Lodz and the concentration camps Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen as a Jewish child. Nonetheless, Jakob the Liar is not intended as autobiography, but as a story about the theme of hope.

In 1969, the concept was made into a filmscript for the DEFA, that for political reasons was unable to commit itself to realizing the project at first. In 1969, Aufbau Verlag in Berlin and Weimar published the novel, Jakob der Lügner (Jacob the Liar), that soon was issued in the BRD as well. The DEFA film, directed by the prominent DDR director, Frank Beyer, was finally made in 1974, and was the first and only DDR production to be nominated for an Oscar. In 1999 Hollywood filmed the book, too, and set it in a transatlantic aesthetic tradition that demands a strong acting presence (Robbie Williams) and relies on the religiously motivated approaches of contemporary Holocaust narratives. The spectrum of re-settings of Jacob the Liar was recently expanded with the addition of a comic of the same title by a Catholic publisher.

The Voice as Witness of Truth

The faculty of hearing plays a special role in the multimedia event that is Jakob der Lügner (Jakob the Liar). In the 1976 novel version for DDR-Rundfunk and the label Litera that belonged to VEB Deusche Schallplatten, very much abridged (but by the author himself) and read aloud by Becker, what struck most was the laconic and yet powerful, scarcely dramatized tone of his delivery. It was just this very style of delivery and the unassailablility of his voice that made the entire tragedy of the collapse of civilization manifest: This voice was proof, it was presence remembered. When the Munich audio book publisher Hörverlag issued the audio book Jakob der Lügner (Jakob the Liar) in summer 2007, on the occasion of Jurek Becker's 70th birthay, this event was received by the literary supplements with unexpectedly strong resonance. The audio book was positively reviewed in newspapers from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to Die Zeit and the Süddeutsche Zeitung (leading German newspapers) to various regional newspapers such as the Münchner Merkur, the Freie Presse and the Rheinische Post.

Adaptations in the Soundtrack

Jakob the Liar was given a freer adaptation in a very much shortened and retold version by Georg Wieghaus in the 2002 WDR 5 production, in which only a few sentences correspond with the text of the novel. In this case, a type of intermediary medium between text and film, or filmscript arose. The result is an entirely new, version that can stand on its own, that is now issued as an audio book by Hörbuchverlag and the Munich sound studio headroom, and that shows, among other things, how the long-term strategy of multiple use on the part of public broadcasters' productions is implemented. This includes even the school system. As early as 1996, Jakob der Lügner (Jakob the Liar) was reset for audio media as an audio book with 2 cassettes and as a CD, based on the Suhrkamp Basis Bibliothek version.

A Plea for Literature

The novel Jakob der Lügner (Jakob the Liar) was first published by Aufbau Verlag of Berlin and Weimar in the DDR, and is distributed today by the Bibliothek Suhrkamp and in other editions. It has been awarded the Heinrich-Mann-Prize of the DDR, and the Swiss Charles-Veillon Prize. Even though the novel derives from a DEFA film "treatment" and was originally conceived as a film, it can be stated that reading the material in novel form renders the entire dimension of memory in the aesthetic spectrum of Holocaust narrative truly discernible. It was not without reason that Jurek Becker ended up becoming a novelist. But his Jakob has become a media icon.

Jurek Becker: Jakob der Lügner. Novel. Aufbau Verlag Berlin and Weimar 1969; Suhrkamp Verlag 2004, ISBN: 978-3518372746 Jurek Becker reads Jakob der Lügner. Abridged reading, 59 Min. 1 CD, der hörverlag 1998/2007, ISBN 978-3-86717-113-7 Jakob der Lügner. Based on the novel by Jurek Becker. Radio play by Georg Wieghaus. WDR5 2002; headroom sound production 2002. Jakob der Lügner. Picture-book issued by Verlag Butzon&Becker 2002 Jakob der Lügner. DEFA-Film by Frank Beyer 1972. DVD-Video icestorm Berlin 2005. Numerous English-language DVD versions of Jakob the Liar are available, as well as the novel in paperback format.