{"id":1630,"date":"2011-11-22T14:54:11","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T18:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/?page_id=1630"},"modified":"2011-12-18T11:56:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-18T15:56:03","slug":"gabriele-eckart-intertextual-traces-glossen-33","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/archive\/most-recent-issue-glossen-332011\/gabriele-eckart-intertextual-traces-glossen-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriele Eckart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Intertextual Traces: Cervantes\u2019s The Ingenious Don Quixote of La Mancha<\/em> in GDR Poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Peter Wawerzinek\u2019s novel Rabenliebe<\/em> (2010), the first-person narrator remembers his childhood mostly spent in GDR orphanages. To survive spiritually, he read novels of chivalry and identified with their protagonists. Finally, he read Don Quixote<\/em>: \u201cIch beginne im Kellerloch mein Rittertum. Ich verschlinge Cervantes\u2019 Don Quijote<\/em>. Ich lache und leide mit dem irren Ritter.\u201d \/ (\u201cIn the hole in the basement, I begin my knight-errantry. I am devouring Cervantes\u2019s Don Quijote<\/em>. I laugh and suffer with the crazy knight.\u201d) (110) Due to the widespread reading of Cervantes\u2019s most famous novel, which was easily available in the GDR and also published in special editions for children,[1] as well as due to its surprising up-to-dateness, there are many references to Don Quixote of la Mancha<\/em> in GDR literature. In the following, four representative examples found in poetry will be examined.<\/p>\n

The beginnings of the reception of Cervantes\u2019s texts in the GDR clearly follow the idealistic line, as it is expressed, for instance, in Robert Kukowka\u2019s essay on Cervantes, published in 1947 in the Berliner Hefte f\u00fcr geistiges Leben<\/em> and promoted by the Soviet authorities. Kukowka reads Cervantes\u2019s novel as the \u201cLob der Narrheit, die nicht davon lassen will, da\u00df der Mensch geboren ist, um aus dem Geiste zu leben und im Geiste zu verharren, sollte sich auch aller Trug der Welt zu seiner Versuchung verb\u00fcnden!\u201d \/ (\u201cpraise of folly that does not want to let go the fact that man is born to live through the spirit and to remain in it, even if all the delusions of the world should come together to tempt him otherwise\u201d) (793). According to this interpretation, Don Quixote is a hero who with complete devotion follows a utopian dream. His misreading of reality is not denied; however, it is excused, as P.E. Russell showed examining idealistic interpretations of Don Quixote. A typical excuse is, for instance, that Quixote interprets reality \u201clike a poet, in a symbolic or metaphorical way\u201d (96). A literary example of such an idealistic interpretation in the GDR is Erich Arendt\u2019s poem \u201cDon Quixote\u201d published in 1952 in the volume Bergwindballade<\/em>. Arendt was a soldier in the Spanish army fighting on the side of the republic against Franco during the Spanish Civil War (Werner 165). Like many soldiers of the International Brigades, he had a very positive vision of Don Quixote whose adventures took place in the country for which he was fighting. After the war was lost, Arendt fled from Spain to France and later to South America. In 1950, he returned to Germany. Having joined the Communist Party in 1926, he settled in the East. The following poem, \u201cDon Quijote,\u201d was first published in his volume Bergwindballade<\/em>(1952).<\/p>\n

Als ob die Welt sich nie ver\u00e4ndert, reitet er
\nund fordert vor die Lanze M\u00e4chtige und Riesen.
\nIhn trifft die Gegenwart, sturmroher Fl\u00fcgel, schwer.
\nEr reitet traurig, l\u00e4chelnd fort, l\u00e4\u00dft nicht von diesem<\/p>\n

gro\u00dfherzigen Traum, der reine Fernen schaut durch Wind
\nund Dunkelheit und Gram. Entt\u00e4uschung l\u00e4\u00dft ihn weinen
\nwohl, wenn er irrt und irrt. Die er befreit, sie sind
\nihm Feinde schnell. Und jagen ihn mit Spott und Steinen.<\/p>\n

Und neben ihm, Gef\u00e4hrte seines Leids und Menschentraumes,
\nzieht Sancho Pansa, der den gro\u00dfen Tr\u00e4umer lehrt,
\nda\u00df nur sein L\u00e4cheln reift, zu Volk und Tag gekehrt.<\/p>\n

So reiten sie im Staub gl\u00fccklosen Erdenraumes
\nund finden, wenn die Welt umst\u00fcrzt und uns verheert,
\nk\u00e4mpft doch, von keinem Staub und Graun versehrt,
\nk\u00e4mpft unser L\u00e4cheln durch die Zeiten, die es m\u00fchsam \u00e4ndert.<\/p>\n

(He rides as if the world would never change
\nchallenging powerful men and giants with his lance.
\nThe stormy-rough vanes of the present hit him hard.
\nSadly smiling he rides on, not willing to abandon this<\/p>\n

generous dream that discerns clear distances through wind
\nand darkness and sorrow. Disappointments make him cry
\nno doubt when he roams and roams; those whom he liberates
\nsoon become his enemies, pursuing him with scorn and stones.<\/p>\n

And at his side, companion in his grief and dreams,
\nrides Sancho Pansa who teaches the great dreamer
\nthat his smile can only mature if turned toward people and the day.<\/p>\n

And thus they ride in the dust of luckless realms
\nand find that when the world is overturned and ravaging us,
\nour smile, unharmed by dust and horror,
\nbattles the ages that it alters with great effort.) (41)<\/p>\n

An important indication of the fact that this poem on the Spanish protagonist symbolizes the poet\u2019s search for a utopia that goes beyond the \u201cverordnete[n] Utopie\u201d \/ (\u201cimposed utopia\u201d) (Strebel 1) of a classless society in the GDR, is Arendt\u2019s use of the word \u201cGef\u00e4hrte\u201d \/ (\u201ccompanion\u201d) and not \u201cGenosse\u201d \/ (\u201ccomrade\u201d) for Sancho Panza. Another indication is the adjective \u201cgro\u00dfherzig\u201d \/ (\u201cgenerous\u201d) to describe the \u201cTraum\u201d \/ (\u201cdream\u201d) that corresponds to the personification of \u201cunser L\u00e4cheln\u201d \/ (\u201cour smile\u201d) in the last verse. That this personified smile will continue the fight after the soldier is dead represents the lyrical ego\u2019s firm belief that the cause of the Spanish republic will be successful one day, that Quixote\u2019s dream of the return of the Golden Age or something similar to it will come true in the future. Heinz Czechowski, who knew Arendt well, remembers:<\/p>\n

Als Expressionist in der Tradition von August Stramm hatte er begonnen, dann eine kurze klassizistische Phase im Banne Bechers durchgemacht, jedoch schon sehr bald spanischen und lateinamerikanischen Wurzeln nachgesp\u00fcrt. Seine Teilnahme am spanischen B\u00fcrgerkrieg und die Zeit seiner Emigration in Kolumbien bewirkte mehr und mehr jene Welthaltigkeit, welche vor allem sein Sp\u00e4twerk bestimmt. \/ (As an Expressionist in the tradition of August Stramm he had started out; then he went through a short classicist period in the spell of Becher; however soon he started to discover his Spanish and Latin American roots. His participation in the Spanish Civil War and the period of his emigration to Columbia caused increasingly that great richness that marks his late work.) (137)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In its content and form, this poem is an example of the short classicist period in Arendt\u2019s career before he found his unique style based on free verse that made him famous. Although he continued to play with motives of Hispanic literature in this later period, he never wrote another Don Quixote poem. Disillusioned from experiencing real existing socialism in the GDR, the poet abandoned his commitment to communism that once had inspired him to join the German communist party.<\/p>\n

A sonnett by Manfred Streubel, probably written in the late 1960s, but only published after the Fall of the Wall, interprets Don Quixote very differently. He is transformed into a fanatic and unscrupulous bard who, to the relief of the lyrical ego, dies from a heart-attack before he can do more damage. Without doubt, the poem is an example of the satirical line of Don Quixote-interpretations that started during Enlightenment and is, as Varela Iglesias showed, still very much alive in the twentieth century. As Anthony Close pointed out, the adventage of this tradition is that it fully appreciates Cervantes\u2019s mastery of comic fiction. The disadventage is that, as Javier Herrero argued, those who read Don Quixote only as a parody and satire are \u201cincapaz de reconocer el amor y la simpat\u00eda que Cervantes sent\u00eda por el h\u00e9roe\u201d \/ (\u201cunable to recognize the love and sympathy that Cervantes felt for his hero\u201d) (quoted in Varela Iglesia 68). In Streubel\u2019s poem that has the form of an obituary by Sancho Pansa about his master Don Quixote who recently passed away, there is no trace of love and sympathy for the man. Cervantes\u2019s warm humor has turned into sarcasm in Streubel\u2019s poem; Don Quixote has lost the aura that Arendt had bestowed on him approximately twenty years earlier; Streubel stripped the figure of its transcendent meaning and reduced it to a dangerous buffoon for satirical purposes:<\/p>\n

Sancho Pansas Nachruf<\/p>\n

\u201cKopf ab!\u201d \u2013 fauchte der emp\u00f6rte Dichter.
\nDenn er witterte in mir Gefahr.
\nAch, mein G\u00f6nner wurde j\u00e4h mein Richter.
\nWeil ich offen andrer Meinung war.<\/p>\n

Ach, er wollte mich zum Teufel schicken \u2013
\nWild verkrallt in Kragen und Revers.
\nUnd mit blutig unterlaufnen Blicken
\nNahm er auch noch meine Freunde her.<\/p>\n

Sch\u00e4umend ging er auf die Barrikade.
\nSo: zu heilgem Amoklauf erstarkt:
\nZerrte er die S\u00fcnder zum Schafott.<\/p>\n

Ach, der Recke kannte keine Gnade \u2013
\nMit sich selber. Sense. Herzinfarkt.
\nRuhe sanft, mein armer Don Quichote.<\/p>\n

(Sancho Panza\u2019s obituary notice<\/p>\n

Off with your head! the outraged poet hissed
\nbecause he suspected me being dangerous.
\nSuddenly, my patron became my judge
\nbecause I openly had a different opinion.<\/p>\n

Ah, he wanted to send me to the devil \u2013
\nwildly clawed at his collar and lapel.
\nAnd with bloody underlined eyes
\nhe also attacked my friends.<\/p>\n

Foaming, he climbed on the barricade.
\nSo: Strenghtened for the holy run amuck
\nhe dragged the sinners to the scaffold.<\/p>\n

Ah, the knight didn\u2019t know any mercy \u2013
\nwith himself. Out. Heart attack.
\nSleep well, my poor Don Quixote.) (15)<\/p>\n

The last line is the peak of sarcasm. In reality, the lyrical ego that speaks in the poem (Streubel disguised as Sancho) feels deep relief about the fact that the Don is dead. Cervantes\u2019s Don Quixote is a generous man; again and again he forgives Sancho for his criticism that is based on the attempt to wake up his master from his blindness to reality. When Sancho and the squire of the Knight of the Wood talk about their masters, Sancho says about Quixote: \u201cHe has nothing of the rogue in him. On the contrary, he has a soul as simple as a pitcher; he could do no harm to anyone\u201d (613). Consequently, Sancho deeply mourns Quixote\u2019s death. By contrast, Streubel\u2019s Quixote is not generous; his madness cannot be justified as a noble poetic creation for whatever idealistic goal; the man is mean and vindictive. Who is this unnamed bard who is portrayed as a fanatic chivalric knight with addled brains and an incredible ruthlessness? It\u2019s the poet Kurt Barthel (1914-1967), called Kuba. As J\u00fcrgen Serke states:<\/p>\n

Es war jener Kuba, der [\u2026] stalinistische Agitpropverse schrieb und als Sekret\u00e4r des Schriftstellerverbands eine widerliche Rolle spielte, so da\u00df ihn Alfred Kantorowicz den \u201cneuen Horst Wessel\u201d nannte. Bertolt Brecht schlug in seinem Gedicht \u201cDie L\u00f6sung\u201d dem Sekret\u00e4r des Schriftstellerverbandes Kuba, der der Bev\u00f6lkerung nach dem [Arbeiteraufstand am] 17. Juni 1953 vorwarf, sie habe sich das Vertrauen der Regierung verscherzt und m\u00fcsse nun doppelt gut arbeiten, vor: \u201cW\u00e4re es da \/ Nicht einfacher, die Regierung \/ L\u00f6ste das Volk auf und \/ W\u00e4hlte ein anderes?\u201d \/ (It was that Kuba who [\u2026] wrote Stalinist propaganda poetry and played such a disgusting role as the secretary of the writers\u2019 organization that Alfred Kantorowicz called him \u201cthe new Horst Wessel.\u201d Bertolt Brecht suggested in his poem \u201cThe Solution\u201d to Kuba, the Secretary of the Writer\u2019s Union, who had critized the East German population [after the workers\u2019 revolt] on June 13, 1953 for having forfeited the confidence of the government and therefore had to redouble its efforts at work: \u201cWould it \/ not be easier in that case for the government \/ To dissolve the people \/ And elect another?\u201d (140)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Communism is Kuba\u2019s cause. His behavior results from what Jorge Sempr\u00fan has termed \u201cla ciega confianza en la inevitabilidad del comunismo\u201d \/ (\u201cthe blind trust in the inevitability of communism\u201d) (187) \u2013 a conviction that, as Sempr\u00fan showed in his Autobiograf\u00eda de Federico S\u00e1nchez<\/em> (1977), is religious, not based on the belief in God, but on the belief in an Hegelian \u201cEsp\u00edritu-de-Partido\u201d \/ (\u201cspirit of the Party\u201d) (Sempr\u00fan 132).<\/p>\n

In 1951, Kuba discovered the eighteen-year-old Manfred Streubel\u2019s talent. As Serke states, after Kuba had helped Streubel to publish his poetry, the young poet became renown in the GDR. For his first volume Laut und leise\u00a0<\/em>(Loud and Soft<\/em>) (1956), Streubel received very positive reviews in the GDR press. However, after Stalin\u2019s death and Khrushchev\u2019s famous speech about the crimes of Stalinism on the XX Parteitag of the KPdSU, Streubel and his friends started to discuss the reality in the GDR from a more critical point of view. Encouraged by his sponsor, Kuba, and to express openly what he thought, in 1956 at the Congress of Young Artists in Karl-Marx-Stadt, Streubel delivered a speech in which he mentioned the deep skepticism of GDR readers towards GDR literature. Including himself in the group of writers whom he criticized for the hollow inflation of humanist concepts, he said: \u201cWir haben uns einen gro\u00dfen Teil Vertrauen [der Menschen] verscherzt. Wodurch? Wir haben gute Begriffe inflationiert: Frieden, Freundschaft, Heimat bedeuten nichts mehr. [\u2026] Lassen wir das hohle Pathos.\u201d \/ (\u201cWe forfeited a big part of the trust [of the people]. By what? We have inflated good concepts: peace, friendship, home country \u2013 they do not mean anything any more. [\u2026] Let us stay away from the bathos.\u201d) (Serke 141)<\/p>\n

His friends delivered similar critical speeches in which they criticized, for instance, the rigid Kulturpolitik of the SED. The Party considered Streubel\u2019s and his friends\u2019 speeches as \u201ckonterrevolution\u00e4res Verhalten\u201d \/ (\u201ccounter-revolutionary behavior\u201d) (Serke 141). The powerful Kuba, who had encouraged Streubel and his friends to speak freely, screamed: \u201cWir werden mit euch verfahren wie Mao Tse-tung. Lockt sie heraus mit ihren Bekenntnissen [\u2026] und danach Kopf ab! Genauso machen wir es mit euch, ihr verdammten Strolche!\u201d \/ (\u201cWe will deal with you as Mao Tse-tung does. Entice them to come out with their confessions [\u2026] and afterwards off with their heads! That\u2019s exactly what we will do with you, you scamps!\u201d) (Serke 142) As Wulf Kirsten remembers:<\/p>\n

Der Politbarde Kurt Barthel [\u2026] hatte den naiven, offen in die Zukunft blickenden J\u00fcngling Streubel in eine Falle gelockt. Ein Schurkenst\u00fcck ohnegleichen. W\u00e4hrend andere in jenen Jahren nach Bautzen oder Workuta kamen f\u00fcr Abweichungen vom rechten Wege, wie ihn V\u00e4terchen Stalin vorgezeichnet hatte, kam er mit einer Todesdrohung und dem Schrecken davon. Diese fr\u00fche existenzersch\u00fctternde Erfahrung, die er auf dem Treffen junger K\u00fcnstler in Chemnitz machte, blieb ihm zeitlebens eingebrannt. Sp\u00e4ter erfuhr er, wie berechtigt seine Furcht vor einer Verhaftung gewesen ist. Der begabte junge Dichter, der sich \u2013 aufgefordert, sich ruhig kritisch zu \u00e4u\u00dfern \u2013 von seinem Mentor Kuba aus der Reserve locken lie\u00df, musste dies b\u00fc\u00dfen. F\u00fcr ein Jahrzehnt verschwand er in der Versenkung, ehe er aus dem Nichts wieder auftauchte. Als Pr\u00fcgelknabe vom Dienst sollte er auch sp\u00e4terhin noch oft herhalten m\u00fcssen. \/ (The political bard Kurt Barthel […] had lured the na\u00efve youth who was looking into the future with open eyes into a trap. An unequalled villany. While others in those years were sent to Bautzen or Workuta for deviations from the right path as Daddy Stalin had marked it out, he [Streubel] got away with a death threat and a scare. This early experience he had had at the Meeting of Young Artists in Karl-Marx-Stadt, shaking his very existence, remained burned-in for the rest of his life. Later, he found out how legitimate his fear of his arrest had been. The talented young poet who \u2013 asked to speak out freely without worry \u2013 had allowed his mentor Kuba to lure him out of his cautious silence, had to atone for it. For a decade, Streubel was a persona non grata before he reappeared out of nowhere. Also later on he often had to serve as a punching bag whenever one was needed.) (55)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a consequence of Kuba\u2019s intrigue, Streubel\u2019s carrier in the GDR came to a halt for over ten years in which he was not allowed to publish. As Rudolf Scholz remembers: \u201cF\u00f6rderer und G\u00f6nner zogen sich zur\u00fcck. Desillusionen und Defizite summierten sich\u201d \/ (\u201cBenefactors and sponsors withdrew. Desillusionment and deficits were summing up\u201d) (37-8). In 1992, Streubel committed suicide after the mysterious visit of a tall, slim, dark haired stranger whom the police was never able to identify (Serke 131). Streubel was researching the death of his father in a secret Soviet prison camp in East Germany at that time.<\/p>\n

Christa Wolf portrayes Kuba more sympathetically as the tragic victim of his own idealism:<\/p>\n

Der Dichter KuBa [\u2026] hatte an [die kommunistische Utopie] geglaubt und uns an sie glauben gemacht und war au\u00dfer sich geraten, als unser Glaube nachlie\u00df, und war zusammengebrochen, als sein unverr\u00fcckbarer Glaube ihm mit Hohn und Spott vergolten wurde. Ich konnte in den Hohn nicht einstimmen und kann es bis heute nicht. \/ (The poet Kuba [\u2026] had believed [in the communist idea] and he had made us believe in it; and he was beside himself when our belief weakened, and he had collapsed when he got repayed for his belief with disdain and scorn. I couldn\u2019t join in this disdain and can\u2019t do it until today.) (83)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, that Wolf cannot laugh about Kuba as bitterly as Streubel does in \u201cSancho Pansas Nachruf\u201d, might have to do with the fact that she did not have to pay so much for having known Kuba. Her career was not destroyed by the man\u2019s fanaticism that drove him to incredible unscrupulousness.<\/p>\n

To interpret a fanatic communist as a Don Quixote is legitimate as can be seen in Gustav Regler\u2019s depiction of communist party officials in the French camp Le Vernet who, according to the narrator, were Quixotes although they had nothing of the \u201ccharm and gallantry and gentleness of heart\u201d (Regler 335) of Cervantes\u2019s protagonist. As Elisabeth Frenzel stated, a quixotic figure is blind to reality as the consequence of \u201cLekt\u00fcre oder einer fixen Idee\u201d \/ (\u201creading or an obsession\u201d) (116). In Kuba\u2019s case, both come together. The uncritical reading of communist literature, Marx\u2019s and Lenin\u2019s works as well as of party brochures, had caused Kuba\u2019s obsession with the idea of a classless society; and both the reading and the obsession made him blind to the present he lived in. Gazing into the desired future that was pictured in his books in all glory, the man was unable to see the reality around him, including the chasm that Streubel had pointed out between GDR readers and the writers who indulged in \u201chohle[m] Pathos\u201d \/ (\u201cbathos\u201d) (Serke 142). Furthermore, Kuba himself was one of those writers, as his \u201cKantate auf Stalin\u201d \/ (\u201cSong for Stalin\u201d)[2] (1949) demonstrates. Although Streubel did not mention Kuba\u2019s name when he criticized GDR writers for their \u201cbathos,\u201d Kuba might have taken the criticism as a personal attack.<\/p>\n

As Elisabeth Frenzel also stated, Don Quixote who fantasizes \u201czum fahrenden Ritter und K\u00e4mpfer gegen das Unrecht bestimmt zu sein\u201d \/ (\u201cto be chosen to be a knight-errant and fighter against injustice\u201d) often creates the \u201cMi\u00dfst\u00e4nde\u201d \/ (\u201cnuisances\u201d) (112) that he wants to abolish. In Kuba\u2019s case this is important. To transform reality in the name of his utopian dream, he is riding into battle to kill Streubel and his friends, whom he fantasized to have become class-enemies. As an outcome, he makes the GDR reality worse than it already is.<\/p>\n

Another of Frenzel\u2019s reflections on Cervantes\u2019s Don Quixote is relevant in this context: \u201cDie Illusion einer in die Wirklichkeit umgesetzten Kunstwelt ger\u00e4t da an ihre Grenzen, wo gutgl\u00e4ubige Mitspieler aus der ihnen vorgespiegelten Wirklichkeit Folgerungen und Anspr\u00fcche ableiten zu k\u00f6nnen glauben\u201d \/ (\u201cThe illusion of a fictional world transformed into reality reaches its limit at the point at which partners acting in good faith think they could infer conclusions and claims from this fictional reality\u201d) (120). Sancho, for instance, when he finally has become the governeur of an island, has to quit after the obstacles have grown too monstrous due to an intrigue by the evil Duke and Duchess. Since Streubel and his friends were in the role of the \u201cgutgl\u00e4ubigen Mitspieler\u201d \/ (\u201cpartners acting in good faith\u201d), by believing Kuba that they could speak freely at the Congress of Young Artists, they committed the fatal error of criticizing aspects of the life in the GDR and suggesting improvements. At this point, the game of the \u201cumgesetzte Kunstwelt\u201d \/ (\u201cfictional world transformed into reality\u201d) was over for them.<\/p>\n

The transition from Erich Arendt\u2019s poem \u201cDon Quijote\u201d to Manfred Streubel\u2019s \u201cSancho Pansa\u2019s Nachruf\u201d seems to be an allegory for the history of the communist experiment in the GDR \u2013 the transition from an idealistic commitment to the promised land without classes in the future to dangerous foolishness. How dangerous it was for the individual you can understand by reading Streubel\u2019s poem; just identify with Sancho who still after the Don\u2019s death can feel the shudder in his bones!<\/p>\n

According to Luis Astrana Mar\u00edn, \u201cin the seventeenth century [Don Quixote] was greeted with an outburst of laughter, in the eighteenth, with a smile, and in the nineteenth, with a tear [\u2026]\u201d (quoted in Dur\u00e1n and Rogg 127). In the GDR, things seemed to have gone the opposite way around since the Spaniard was first greeted smilingly (Arendt) and, approximately twenty years later, with laughter (Streubel). The following example of Don Quixote\u2019s reception is a poem by Wilfried Bonsack (born in 1951). In his poem \u201cKeine Ode: Aber auch an Dulcinea\u201d \/ (\u201cNot an Ode, but also for Dulcinea\u201d), published in 1982, the Spanish protagonist is greeted with a tear:<\/p>\n

eingemauert
\nin diese zerbissene Zeit
\ntanzt der
\nvergessene clown
\nden tango des monsieur capone<\/p>\n

cervantes
\nder gr\u00fcngreise papst
\nauf der windm\u00fchle gekreuzigt
\nund bei den weinschl\u00e4uchen begraben
\nkn\u00fcpft labyrinthe
\naus transparentem papier<\/p>\n

(walled in
\nin this broken time
\nthe forgotten clown
\ndances
\nthe tango of monsieur capone<\/p>\n

cervantes
\nthe green-old pope
\ncrucified on the windmill
\nand buried next to the wineskins
\nknots mazes
\nfrom transparent paper) (36)<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Bonsack speaks of both in this poem, the protagonist Quixote and his creator, Cervantes. The expression \u201cwalled in\u201d indicates that the context is probably that of the GDR. According to the first stanza, Don Quixote, a \u201cforgotten clown,\u201d seems very sad; he is without doubt the protagonist of Part Two of Cervantes\u2019s novel whom the cruel practical jokes of the Duke and Duchess have led to a great melancholy. That he dances \u201cthe tango of monsieur Capone\u201d might refer to Al Capone, the gangster boss, who transcribed the song \u201cMama Mia\u201d while he was imprisoned in Alcatraz. In the second stanza, the poet shows the author Miguel de Cervantes crucified on a windmill — the very object that Quixote attacked, believing it to be a ferocious giant. Why is Cervantes crucified in the GDR? It\u2019s probably because he is a utopian in an anti-utopian age. But, how can it be that the real existing socialism in the GDR is described as antiutopian? To be crucified in a socialist country because you cannot stop following your utopian dream? Furthermore, why did the poet chose the word \u201ccrucified\u201d instead of \u201cshot\u201d or \u201cdriven into suicide\u201d? \u201cCrucified\u201d evokes the figure of Jesus. The situation hinted at in the poem reminds us of Fyodor Dostoevsky\u2019s Grand Inquisitor in The Brothers Karamzov<\/em> (1880) according to whom Jesus, if he returned today, would have to be eliminated because his presence would interfere with the mission of the church. It seems that by 1982, the time when Bonsack wrote the poem, most people in the GDR had woken up from the illusion of a \u201csozialistische Menschengemeinschaft\u201d \/ (\u201csocialist society of human beings\u201d)[3] and saw reality as it was. The joke that Marx \u201cw\u00fcrde sich im Grabe umdrehen\u201d \/ (\u201cwould turn around in his grave\u201d) if he witnessed what was done in his name was common. Who continued to be a believer (not in the dogma, but in the possibility of changing reality) could end up being crucified as it happens to Cervantes in Bonsack\u2019s poem. Christa Wolf in Stadt der Engel<\/em> (2010) describes what happened to East German communists after most people of that country had stopped believing:<\/p>\n

Als die \u201cgro\u00dfe Sache\u201d vor ihren Augen zusammenbrach, reagierten sie jeder und jede auf seine oder ihre Weise: mit Verzweiflung, mit Abwehr, mit Depression, Wut und Schweigen, mit Leugnung der Tatsachen, mit Selbstt\u00e4uschung. Und mancher von ihnen mit Dogmatismus und Rechthaberei \/ (when the \u201cgreat cause\u201d collapsed in front of their eyes, they all reacted in their own way: with desperation, with defense, with depression, fury and silence, with denial of facts, with self-deception. And some of them with dogmatism and bossiness) (87).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The last, \u201cdogmatism und bossiness,\u201d is Kuba\u2019s reaction as described in Streubel\u2019s poem. While \u201cdepression\u201d is very likely the reaction of Bonsack, who identifies with Don Quixote after he woke up from his fantasy world in the end of Cervantes\u2019s novel. Why is Cervantes called a \u201cpope\u201d? It\u2019s probably because his messages are still up-to-date; Don Quixote of la Mancha \u201cregularly appears high on lists of the greatest works ever published\u201d (\u201cDon Quixote\u201d 1). That makes Cervantes into a kind of authority or \u201cpope\u201d to those who are believers in the possibility of change. The oxymoron \u201cgr\u00fcngreis\u201d used as an adjective to characterize this \u201cpope\u201d seems to make sense: \u201cgr\u00fcn\u201d means fresh; \u201cgreis\u201d means very old; could it signify that, according to Bonsack, Cervantes\u2019s messages, although they are very old, are still fresh, relevant in the GDR during the early 1980s? And \u201cto knot mazes\u201d \u2013 how could we interpret this image? I would suggest the following reading: Cervantes, although crucified in the GDR, must have been resurrected. He is present in that country — writing books that are labyrinths, not so easy to read for the censor, especially since they are written on \u201ctransparentem Papier\u201d \/ (\u201ctransparent paper\u201d).<\/p>\n

In Arendt\u2019s poem, Quixote is a romantic hero; the name Knight of the Lions that Quixote gave himself after the adventure with such an animal, would fit. In Bonsack\u2019s poem, the name Knight of the Sad Countenance, as the defeated Don Quixote calls himself according to Sancho\u2019s suggestion, is more appropiate. Therefore, it is correct to state that Bonsack greets him with a tear.<\/p>\n

The following poem \u201cQuichote und die Windm\u00fchlen\u201d by Hinnerk Einhorn (born in 1944), written shortly before the fall of the Wall, is more difficult to interpret; its message is ambivalent because Quixote can be read as a hero fighting against injustice or as a lunatic who is just dreaming of such a fight:<\/p>\n

Und streckt ihr auch Arme aus
\nmehr als Briareus
\nihr nennt euch Riesen?
\nich biete die Stirn<\/p>\n

Jeder Furz treibt euch um
\njedes g\u00f6ttliche Fl\u00fcstern
\nFeigherzige
\nstellt euch<\/p>\n

Eure Kalkgr\u00e4ten knack ich
\nich stutz euch im Sturm
\neuch hab ich
\nja hab euch<\/p>\n

Hilf Sancho! Wo bin ich?
\nIhr M\u00fchlen, euch zeig ichs (82)<\/p>\n

(Even though you stretch out your arms
\nmore than Briareus
\nyou call yourself giants?
\nI challenge you<\/p>\n

Every fart makes you restless
\nevery divinely whisper
\nFainthearts
\nsurrender<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll crack your fossil bones
\nI\u2019ll break you by force
\nI got you
\nYes, you I got<\/p>\n

Help, Sancho! Where am I?
\nYou, mills, I will show you) (82)<\/p>\n

In this poem, Don Quixote challenges the windmills that represent the powerful GDR authorities. Cervantes\u2019s famous windmills had served before as a useful metaphor in the context of anti-Stalinist literature. In an advertisement for Peter Weiss\u2019 Notizb\u00fccher 1971-1980<\/em>, it is said that the author is \u201cmal ein Don Quichotte, der seine Lehren gegen die riesigen Windm\u00fchlen kommunistischer Machtpolitik f\u00fchrt, mal ein melancholischer Zweifler an allen Doktrinen\u201d \/ \u201cat times a Don Quichotte who raises his teachings against the huge windmills of communist power politics, at other times a melancholic man who doubts all doctrines\u201d (Weiss 271). In Einhorn\u2019s poem, these windmills stretch their arms even more than Briareus — according to Greek mythology Briareus is one of the three ferocious giants with a hundred hands and fifty heads who helped to overthrow the Titans. This image (based on the substitution of windmill vanes by arms of a giant), taken from Cervantes\u2019s famous episode in part one of Don Quixote<\/em>, indicates how strong these \u201cwindmills\u201d are. However, the expression \u201ceure Kalkgr\u00e4ten\u201d \/ (\u201cfossil bones\u201d) \u2013 probably a hint at the old age of most of the members of the GDR Politb\u00fcro \u2013 states that just the opposite is true; the \u201cgiants\u201d appear to be strong, but they are not; their bones are brittle. Therefore, challenging them is not as mad as it seems; you have a chance to win. \u201cJeder Furz treibt euch um\u201d \/ (\u201cEvery fart makes you restless\u201d) can be interpreted as a reference to the paranoia of many East German officials as, for instance, Erich Mielke, the head of the Stasi, and his fellow ideologues. Ludwig Harich, who met Einhorn after the Fall of the Wall in the West when he read from his volume of poetry Quichote und die Windm\u00fchlen<\/em> (the book has the same title as the poem analyzed here), reads line 13 in which Quixote asks Sacho for help: \u201cDon Quichote und Hinnerk Einhorn brauchen ihre praktisch denkenden und arbeitenden Nachbarn, um im Leben zurechtzukommen.\u201d \/ (\u201cDon Quixote and Hinnerk Einhorn need their practically thinking and working neighbors to cope with life.\u201d) (113) This reading hints at the identity of Einhorn, the poet, and the poem\u2019s lyrical ego, Quixote. The knight-errant performs as a GDR dissident who challenges those in power with a cocky self-assurance and quixotic bravery. However, a closer look at line 13: \u201cHelp, Sancho! Where am I?\u201d undermines such a reading. The lyrical ego might as well be a patient in an insane asylum — his brains so severely addled that he is incompetent to fight against whatever authority; his bravery is just wishful thinking.<\/p>\n

Do we laugh, smile or cry about Einhorn\u2019s Quixote? We do not cry because there is no melancholia in this Quixote\u2019s heart; instead, we smile or laugh about him, according to our interpretation. If we choose to laugh (interpreting the lyrical ego as a lunatic), our laughter would be without the spiky sarcasm of Streubel\u2019s poem where Quixote is dreaming of a glowing future so strongly that he commits crimes in the present as means to an end. In no way is Einhorn\u2019s Don Quixote portrayed as a dangerous man; he is rather viewed as benign. And, most importantly, this Quixote is not one of those Kubas who tried to enforce the laws of their revolutionary fiction in the GDR without consideration of their suitability. Just the opposite is true; Einhorn\u2019s Quixote tries to fight against the Kubas \u2013 either in reality or just in his wishful thinking.<\/p>\n

To summarize, the examination of four GDR poems published between 1952 and 1989 reveals that Varela Iglesias is right in stating that Don Quixote is \u201cobra proteica susceptible de numerosas interpretations\u201d \/ \u201ca proteic work that can be interpretated in numerous different ways\u201d (45). Arendt sees the Spanish protagonist romantically as a modern knight-errant who is bravely undoing wrongs in the name of a better future. Streubel portrays Quixote satirically as a dangerous lunatic who is disregarding friendship and common sense for the sake of his fantasy world. In Bonsack\u2019s poem, Quixote is a melancholic man \u2013 a clown, whom nobody wants any more. His creator, Cervantes, is being crucified in the GDR and, after resurrection, writes critical literature striving for a change in reality, fooling the censor. Einhorn, on the other hand, portrays Quixote as a self-assured GDR dissident, although the poem can be read differently, as a parody of such a figure. In all four poems, the authors use the famous Spanish protagonist to articulate their point of view regarding the historical period in which they live.<\/p>\n

\n    <\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong>
\n1 In 1957, the editorial Junge Welt<\/em> published a comic book about Don Quixote. The Spanish protagonist was presented again to the GDR public in 1981 in the journal Mosaik<\/em> \u2013 a journal that, as Gernot Gabel stated, \u201cschnell einen Kultstatus unter jungen und alten Lesern der DDR erlangt hatte\u201d \/ (\u201cquickly had reached a cult-status among young and old GDR readers\u201d) (52). It would be interesting to compare presentations of Don Quixote in East- and West German Childrens\u2019 literature.<\/p>\n

2 Kuba\u2019s \u201cKantate auf Stalin\u201d (music by Jean Kurt Forest) was comissioned by the SED Kulturabteilung in 1949. The work was supposed to teach people about \u201cden gro\u00dfen Revolution\u00e4r und Staatsmann Josef Stalin\u201d \/ (\u201cgreat revolutionary and statesman Joseph Stalin\u201d) (\u201cKantate\u201d 1). Die S\u00e4tze sind f\u00fcr Chor, Solostimmen, Orchester, und das Finale auch f\u00fcr Tanzensemble geschrieben.<\/p>\n

3 The term was coined by Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973).
\n    
\nBibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Bonsack, Wilfried M. \u201cKeine Ode. Aber auch an Dulcinea.\u201d Karl Bongardt (Ed.) Spuren im Spiegellicht<\/em>.\u00a0 Berlin: Union Verlag, 1982.<\/p>\n

Close, Anthony.\u00a0 Cervantes and the comic mind of his age<\/em>.\u00a0 Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.<\/p>\n

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Frenzel, Elisabeth.\u00a0 \u201cMi\u00dfverstandene Lekt\u00fcre.\u00a0 Mus\u00e4us\u2019 Grandison der Zweite<\/em> und Wielands Die Abenteuer des Don Sylvio von Rosalva<\/em> \u2013 zwei deutsche Donquichottiaden des 18. Jahrhunderts.\u201d\u00a0 Theodor Wolpers.\u00a0 (Ed.)\u00a0 Gelebte Literatur in der Literatur<\/em>.\u00a0 G\u00f6ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986: 110-133.<\/p>\n

Gabel, Gernot.\u00a0 Don Quijote\u2019s Spuren in Deutschland: <\/em>Materialien zur Rezeptionsgeschichte<\/em>.\u00a0 K\u00f6ln: Kleine Schriften der Universit\u00e4ts- und Stadtbibliothek, 2005.<\/p>\n

Harig, Ludwig.\u00a0 \u201cWas soll mir Poesie.\u201d\u00a0 Hinnerk Einhorn.\u00a0 Voyage au Paradis: Texte einer deutschen Wende<\/em>. Merzig: Gollenstein, 2000, 112-4.<\/p>\n

Kirsten, Wulf.\u00a0 \u201cIch h\u00f6re ihn lachen.\u00a0 Ich sehe ihn staunen.\u201d Manfred Streubel.\u00a0 Gedenkminute f\u00fcr Manfred Streubel (1932-1992)<\/em>.\u00a0 Dresden: Buchlabor, 1993, 55-58.<\/p>\n

\u201cKantate.\u201d\u00a0 Der Spiegel<\/em> 48\/1949 [Online.]\u00a0 >www.Spiegel.de\/spiegel\/print\/d-44439024.html<\u00a0 6\/5\/2011<\/p>\n

Regler, Gustav. The Owl of Minerva<\/em>.\u00a0 New York: Farrar, 1959.<\/p>\n

Russell, P.E.\u00a0 Cervantes<\/em>.\u00a0 Oxford: Oxford U P, 1985.<\/p>\n

Scholz, Rudolf.\u00a0 \u201cMetapher Leben.\u201d\u00a0 Manfred Streubel.\u00a0 Gedenkminute f\u00fcr Manfred Streubel (1932-1992)<\/em>.\u00a0 Dresden: Buchlabor, 1993, 37-43.<\/p>\n

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Serke, J\u00fcrgen.\u00a0 Zu Hause im Exil: Dichter, die eigenm\u00e4chtig blieben in der DDR<\/em>.\u00a0 M\u00fcnchen: Piper, 1998.<\/p>\n

Strebel, Volker.\u00a0 \u201cCzechowski randaliert wieder.\u201d\u00a0 [Online.] >http:\/\/www.literaturkritik.de\/public\/rezension.php?rez_id=10197<\u00a0 1\/31\/2011<\/p>\n

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Varela Iglesias, Fernando.\u00a0 \u201cRealismo e idealismo en la recepci\u00f3n del Quijote<\/em>.\u00a0 Una visi\u00f3n pendular.\u201d\u00a0 Klaus-Dieter Ertler, Alejandro Rodr\u00edguez D\u00edaz. (Eds.)\u00a0 El Quijote hoy: La Riqueza de su Recepci\u00f3n<\/em>.\u00a0 Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2007: <\/em>43-77.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intertextual Traces: Cervantes\u2019s The Ingenious Don Quixote of La Mancha in GDR Poetry In Peter Wawerzinek\u2019s novel Rabenliebe (2010), the first-person narrator remembers his childhood mostly spent in GDR orphanages. To survive spiritually, he read novels of chivalry and identified with their protagonists. Finally, he read Don Quixote: \u201cIch beginne im Kellerloch mein Rittertum. Ich […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":394,"featured_media":0,"parent":1511,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1630","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/394"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1630\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}