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Two States—One Nation?
As the Berlin Wall crumbled and the two Germanys became one, Grass was one of a few who spoke out against reunification. In this collection of speeches and debates on the factors destined to reshape Europe, he is caustic, indignant, reflective, and compelling. Translated by Krishna Winston with A. S. Wensinger. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
136 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 1990
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About the author
Günter Grass
313 books1,841 followersNovels, notably
The Tin Drum
(1959) and
Dog Years
(1963), of German writer Günter Wilhelm Grass, who won the Nobel Prize of 1999 for literature, concern the political and social climate of Germany during and after World War II.
This novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, and sculptor since 1945 lived in West Germany but in his fiction frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. He always identified as a Kashubian.
He is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum (1959), a key text in European magic realism. He named this style “broadened reality.” “Cat and Mouse” (1961) and Dog Years (1963) also succeeded in the period. These three novels make up his “Danzig trilogy.”
Helene Grass (née Knoff, 1898 - 1954), a Roman Catholic of Kashubian-Polish origin, bore Günter Grass to Willy Grass (1899 - 1979), a Protestant ethnic German. Parents reared Grass as a Catholic. The family lived in an apartment, attached to its grocery store in Danzig-Langfuhr (now Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz). He has one sister, born in 1930.
Grass attended the Danzig gymnasium Conradinum. He volunteered for submarine service with the Kriegsmarine "to get out of the confinement he felt as a teenager in his parents' house" which he considered - in a very negative way - civic Catholic lower middle class. In 1943 he became a Luftwaffenhelfer, then he was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and in November 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, into the Waffen-Schutzstaffel. The seventeen-year-old Grass saw combat with the 10th Schutzstaffel panzer division Frundsberg from February 1945 until he was wounded on 20 April 1945 and sent to an American prisoner of war camp.
In 1946 and 1947, he worked in a mine and received an education of a stonemason. For many years, he studied sculpture and graphics, first at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and then at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He also worked as an author and traveled frequently. He married in 1954 and from 1960 lived in Berlin as well as part-time in Schleswig-Holstein. Divorced in 1978, he remarried in 1979. From 1983 to 1986 he held the presidency of the Berlin Akademie der Künste (Berlin Academy of Arts).
During the German unification process in 1989 he argued for separation of the two states, because he thought a unified Germany would resume its past aggression. He moved to the northern German city of Lübeck in 1995. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. In 2006, Grass caused controversy with his disclosure of his Waffen-Schutzstaffel service during the final months of World War II, which he had kept a secret until publishing his memoir that year. He died of complications of lung infection on 13th of April, 2015 at a Lübeck hospital. He was 87.
This novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, and sculptor since 1945 lived in West Germany but in his fiction frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. He always identified as a Kashubian.
He is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum (1959), a key text in European magic realism. He named this style “broadened reality.” “Cat and Mouse” (1961) and Dog Years (1963) also succeeded in the period. These three novels make up his “Danzig trilogy.”
Helene Grass (née Knoff, 1898 - 1954), a Roman Catholic of Kashubian-Polish origin, bore Günter Grass to Willy Grass (1899 - 1979), a Protestant ethnic German. Parents reared Grass as a Catholic. The family lived in an apartment, attached to its grocery store in Danzig-Langfuhr (now Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz). He has one sister, born in 1930.
Grass attended the Danzig gymnasium Conradinum. He volunteered for submarine service with the Kriegsmarine "to get out of the confinement he felt as a teenager in his parents' house" which he considered - in a very negative way - civic Catholic lower middle class. In 1943 he became a Luftwaffenhelfer, then he was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and in November 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, into the Waffen-Schutzstaffel. The seventeen-year-old Grass saw combat with the 10th Schutzstaffel panzer division Frundsberg from February 1945 until he was wounded on 20 April 1945 and sent to an American prisoner of war camp.
In 1946 and 1947, he worked in a mine and received an education of a stonemason. For many years, he studied sculpture and graphics, first at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and then at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He also worked as an author and traveled frequently. He married in 1954 and from 1960 lived in Berlin as well as part-time in Schleswig-Holstein. Divorced in 1978, he remarried in 1979. From 1983 to 1986 he held the presidency of the Berlin Akademie der Künste (Berlin Academy of Arts).
During the German unification process in 1989 he argued for separation of the two states, because he thought a unified Germany would resume its past aggression. He moved to the northern German city of Lübeck in 1995. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. In 2006, Grass caused controversy with his disclosure of his Waffen-Schutzstaffel service during the final months of World War II, which he had kept a secret until publishing his memoir that year. He died of complications of lung infection on 13th of April, 2015 at a Lübeck hospital. He was 87.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 16, 2015
A brisk affair at 123 pages. Liked it, however it's obviously not going to be everyone's cup of tea. We're talking about a book published in 1990, a collection of ten public addresses* about about whether or not there should be a reunification of West Germany and East Germany. You see where I'm going with this? Yes, the book's subject matter is dated, since - as we all know - the reunification of Germany happened 25 years ago.
Günter Grass was not in favour of reunification, but rather of the two Germanys forming a confederation, the idea/reasoning behind this is a fear that a unified Germany would eventually become - once more - too powerful for the rest of Europe, and risk repeating the mistakes of the 20th Century (you know the ones: they're called, respectively, World War I and World War II).
Some of the reasons why I read this book now, 25 years post-reunification:
(1) to learn more about German history;
(2) to learn about one of my favourite authors' thoughts on this topic - what his fears & apprehensions were, exactly;
(3) to see, in hindsight, whether these fears & apprehensions became reality
I found the author supported his point of view with arguments that were well-presented, intelligent, and rational. Worth reading for armchair historians, germanophiles, and fans of Günter Grass.
- - -
Just to illustrate how 'niche' this book is: I purchased this 25-year old hardcover for a penny, a former library book that had never been checked out. Needless to say it was in pristine condition - except for the library markings, of course.
*: from, respectively: 1990, 1989, 1989, 1989, 1984, 1970, 1967, 1965, 1961, 1990.
Günter Grass was not in favour of reunification, but rather of the two Germanys forming a confederation, the idea/reasoning behind this is a fear that a unified Germany would eventually become - once more - too powerful for the rest of Europe, and risk repeating the mistakes of the 20th Century (you know the ones: they're called, respectively, World War I and World War II).
Some of the reasons why I read this book now, 25 years post-reunification:
(1) to learn more about German history;
(2) to learn about one of my favourite authors' thoughts on this topic - what his fears & apprehensions were, exactly;
(3) to see, in hindsight, whether these fears & apprehensions became reality
I found the author supported his point of view with arguments that were well-presented, intelligent, and rational. Worth reading for armchair historians, germanophiles, and fans of Günter Grass.
- - -
Just to illustrate how 'niche' this book is: I purchased this 25-year old hardcover for a penny, a former library book that had never been checked out. Needless to say it was in pristine condition - except for the library markings, of course.
*: from, respectively: 1990, 1989, 1989, 1989, 1984, 1970, 1967, 1965, 1961, 1990.
June 28, 2017
A specialized taste. I liked it a lot, because he was such a poignant writer & thinker, but only someone like me who has a fascination with the impact on Germany of the fall of the wall in 1989 will appreciate this book. I had lived in Germany just prior to that, so it has a special place in my own personal history.
February 12, 2017
The thesis is that a reunified Germany will pose a threat not only to itself but also to its neighbors, and because there is no effective historical precedent for the fatherland, a confederation would be more appropriate.
August 11, 2017
Una raccolta di discorsi e vari interventi di Günter Grass riguardo alla situazione tedesca dalla costruzione del Muro (con qualche digressione sulla storia meno recente) fino a circa il 1990.
Di grande interesse per chi, come me, è appassionato di storia tedesca contemporanea e ha curiosità di conoscere il punto di vista di uno degli autori tedeschi più autorevoli del '900 sulle suddette questioni.
A volte risulta un po' complicato da seguire, ma non per colpa dell'autore, bensì per la grande mole di informazioni riportate che, a volte, possono confondere.
Il mio voto è, quindi, più un 4,5 che non semplicemente 4.
Di grande interesse per chi, come me, è appassionato di storia tedesca contemporanea e ha curiosità di conoscere il punto di vista di uno degli autori tedeschi più autorevoli del '900 sulle suddette questioni.
A volte risulta un po' complicato da seguire, ma non per colpa dell'autore, bensì per la grande mole di informazioni riportate che, a volte, possono confondere.
Il mio voto è, quindi, più un 4,5 che non semplicemente 4.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews