„Sprache der Wende”. Przełom roku 1989 w oczach pisarzy wschodnioniemieckich

Abstract

This article presents the involvement of East German writers in the autumn events of the 1989 breakthrough in the wider context. These events included, above all, the demonstrations organized by the liberal wing of the Writers’ Union and the “For Our Country” statement, which aroused wide controversy. The article describes the main axes of the “literature controversy,” a debate which lasted from the beginning to the middle of the 1990s and concerned the political responsibility of East German writers. The author’s reflections are largely based on archival materials, which encompass testimonies of social reactions to the actions of the government, the appeals of intellectuals, and the opinions of writers from the FRG and GDR (including those in exile) on the political future of Germany. The article outlines the specificity of the GDR writers’ milieu over several decades, comparing it with analogous circles in Poland. The article ends with a reflection on the relationship between these two circles and the reaction of East German writers to the events in Poland in the 1980s.