Unterwegs von Deutschland nach Deutschland. Tagebuch 1990
Underway from Germany to Germany
Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2009, 256 pages
On January 1, 1990, contrary to his usual practice, Günter Grass decided to keep a diary, because after the fall of the Berlin Wall so many unusual things were pending that he felt obliged to do so. In repeatedly new attempts he wanted, he writes, to cross the borders between the two German states and also meddle in the upcoming elections. Now, twenty years after the fall of the Wall, he has presented the result of this performance of duty – not in order to confess previous errors and celebrate the non-occurrence of the catastrophe, but rather in order to attest that his warnings and ominous forecasts were right, then and later and now.
Günter Grass – Biography
Monika Maron: „Die Unke hat geirrt. Günter Grass meinte zu wissen, was die Ostdeutschen wollen müssten. Zu seinem Tagebuch aus der Wendezeit "
© Süddeutsche Zeitung, 07.02.2009
Ein weites Feld
A Broad Field
Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1995, 784 pages
What does the true East German read? Grass’s novel. Even the information revealed in this newspaper, to wit that the book is unreadable, fell victim in the annexed territories to the retort: ‘the blacks parts are the letters’. Thus East Germany thoroughly buried itself in the book, down to the last line. It has only now reached the end, whereas West Germany was already finished with not reading the book punctually for the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair. GRD booksellers, commercially overwhelmed by best-selling airport novels, laud Ein weites Feld as the best Grass since the last one. Grass’s readings in East Germany are bursting full. The book’s premier at the ‘Kulturbrauerei’ in Prenzlauer Berg turned into a High Mass of East German culture. [...] Its success in the East is indebted to the division of the media in Germany. Expressive West Germany expects from its media enlightenment, facts, information; introverted East Germany desires a view turned in on itself. East Germans want to appear in the book – warmly described in accurate detail. At last, the East has uttered its election secret: I want to stay just as I am. Grass, de haut en bas: You may!
Günter Grass – Biography
Christoph Dieckmann: „Das letzte Westpaket. Günter Grass' deutsches Geschichtsbuch ‚Ein weites Feld‘ wird im Osten geliebt als Verteidigung des Lebens in der DDR"
© Die Zeit, 01.12.1995
