An Interview with Hermann Kant

In an interview with Joan E. Holmes (University of Kansas), Hermann Kant, novelist and current president of the Writers Union of the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany), discusses his own work, literary developments since 1949 in the GDR, and the changing concept of socialist realism. Central to all of these topics is the role of the writer and the function of literature in a socialist system, a question which resulted in a heated controversy during the summer and fall of 1979 in the GDR. The crux of the matter lies in the nature of Marxist theory and is at least as old as the Sickingen debate of 1859, when Marx, Engels and Lassalle discussed the kind of literature that the fledgling socialist movement should encourage in order to promote the building of a future communist society. The question of the role of the author and the function of literature has reappeared since that time in various forms—in the formulation of the concept of socialist realism in the 1930's by Gorki and Soviet Party Secretary Zhadanov, in the formalism debates of the 1950's, in the dictates of the Bitterfelder Way (1960's), and in the liberalizing influence of the proclamations of the Eighth Party Congress in 1971. Since the Ninth Party Congress (May 1976), the controversy has become a critical matter in the cultural policies of the GDR, a country where literature is considered an important political tool. Hermann Kant, in the tradition of the Eighth and Ninth Party Congresses, presents in this interview a broad interpretation of the concept of socialist realism, while at the same time strongly emphasizing the responsibility of the author vis a vis the socialist society. He questions whether too much rapid change can be beneficial for East Germany, and suggests that both tolerance and caution are required. This article is available in Studies in 20th Century Literature: http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol4/iss1/7 AN INTERVIEW WITH HERMANN KANT JOAN E. HOLMES University of Kansas Hermann Kant, current President of the Writers Union of the German Democratic Republic, visited the University of Kansas in November 1979, accompanied by Petra Teutschbein, cultural attachee at the GDR Embassy in Washington, D.C. Kant, a prominant and widely read author of fiction (Die Au la, 1964; Das Impressum, 1969), read from his latest novel Der Aufenthalt (1977), an autobiographical "deutscher Bildungsroman," which will no doubt enter German literary histories as one of the more important novels of the post-war period. The author, perhaps thinking of the varying quality of German encounters, both political and personal, with Poland over the past forty years, places a poem by Brecht at the beginning of his work: So bildet sich der Mensch Indem er ja sagt, indem er nein sagt Indem er schlagt, indem er geschlagen wird Indem er sich hier gesellt, indem er sich dort gesellt So bildet sich der Mensch, indem er sich andert Und so entsteht sein Bild in uns Indem er uns gleicht and indem er uns nicht gleicht.(1) Brecht's words -"So man forms himself, by changing himself. And so his picture develops in us. By being like us and by not being like us "-serve as a motto not just for Kant's book, but perhaps also for his own participation as a writer, humanist, and Marxist-Leninist in the dialectical process of change. It is perhaps in the spirit of this motto that Kant agreed to an exchange of ideas at the University of Kansas about the role of literature in 89 1 Holmes: An Interview with Hermann Kant Published by New Prairie Press 90 STCL, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Fal11980) socialist Germany. In the following interview with Professor Joan E. Holmes, who translated the interview into English for Studies in 20th Century Literature, Kant candidly discusses his own work, as well as the changing concept of socialist realism and the present controversy surrounding the role of the writer in a socialist system. This controversy is older than the exchange of harsh words between Hermann Kant and Stefan Heym during the summer of 1979. It pre-dates even the Biermann affair of 1976/77. The crux of the matter lies in the nature of Marxist theory and is at least as old as the Sickingen debate of 1859, when Marx, Engels, and Lassalle discussed the kind of literature that the fledgling socialist movement should encourage in order to promote the building of a future communist society. The question of the role of the author and the function of literature has reappeared since that time in various forms--in the formulation of the concept of socialist realism in the 1930's by Gorki and Soviet Party Secretary Zhadanov, in the formalism debates of the 1950's, in the dictates of the Bitterfelder Way (1960's), and in the liberalizing influence of the proclamations of the Eighth Party Congress in 1971. Since the Ninth Party Congress (May 1976), the controversy has become the most critical matter in the cultural policies of the GDR, a country where literature is taken much more seriously than in the United States. In this interview, Hermann Kant, in the tradition of the Eighth and Ninth Party Congresses, represents a broad interpretation of the concept of socialist realism, while at the same time advocating the responsibility of the author visa vis the socialist society. He asks whether too much rapid change can be beneficial for society as a whole and answers that both tolerance and caution are required. Perhaps even more important than what was said is the fact that this interview with an author from the GDR could take place at all. One can only hope that the discussion, with other GDR writers as well, will continue in the future. JH: When I was in the GDR, I noticed that one could find a number of American books and films there. However, in the United States not much GDR literature is readily available. In your opinion, which works from the GDR would be of interest to an American audience? 2 Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, Vol. 4, Iss. 1 [1979], Art. 7 http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol4/iss1/7 DOI: 10.4148/2334-4415.1077