‘Aus so prosaischen Dingen wie Kartoffeln, Straßen, Traktoren werden poetische Dinge!’: Brecht, Sinn und Form, and Strittmatter's Katzgraben

Abstract

This article takes as its starting–point an essay written by Bertolt Brecht in praise of the GDR playwright Erwin Strittmatter and his Socialist Realist drama, Katzgraben, which was staged by the Berliner Ensemble in May 1953. Published in the late summer of 1953 in Sinn und Form, this rather neglected essay is of significance because Brecht adopts in it a highly orthodox GDR position at a time when he was otherwise making dissenting interventions in GDR cultural politics. Publication of the essay, at a time when political pressure on Brecht had eased, is evidence that his interest in Strittmatter's play was not merely a short–term tactical manoeuvre to placate the SED regime. Rather, it was part of a consistent belief in the necessity of demonstrating what Brecht perceived to be the genuine achievements of the GDR. The events of 17 June, and the fascist mindset which Brecht saw underlying them, only served to reinforce this necessity in his mind. Brecht's pre–occupation with Katzgraben has a broader significance in highlighting the tendency in Brecht criticism to over–privilege tactical explanations for his behaviour in the GDR and in demonstrating that his cultural–political dissent was vitiated all the time by consistent ideological assent.