Abstract
Far from fading quietly from the media-dominated public sphere, G?nter Grass, who turned eighty on 16 October 2007, continues to provide grist for the publicity mills. The latest, notorious case in point is the uproar that ensued as a result of the writer's unforeseen as well as astounding confession of having been a member of the Waffen-SS?a revelation he made in an inter view in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (12 August 2006) in conjunction with the publication of his memoir Beim H?uten der Zwiebel [Zwiebel]. The fierce debate, which quickly assumed an international dimension but was pri marily waged in the German media, seemed to resurrect the image of the ugly German and to tarnish the Germans' newly acquired reputation as gracious, cosmopolitan hosts of the soccer world cup championship in the summer of 2006 whose display of a moderate dose of patriotism did not cause offense. The Grass controversy, which has been amply documented in two collections, edited respectively by Willi Gorzny (2006)1 and Martin K?lbel (2007),2 has lost its topicality but has gained, one may assume, academic respectability as evidenced by Britta Gries 's Die Grass-Debatte [Debatte] as well as several
Published Version
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