What needs to be said

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Günter Grass, author of the poem (2006)

What needs to be said is a political poem by the writer Günter Grass that appeared on April 4, 2012 in the daily newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung , La Repubblica and El País . In this prose poem, Grass accuses Israel of endangering the "already fragile world peace " with its nuclear weapons and of planning a " first strike " against Iran "that could wipe out the (...) Iranian people". In this context he criticizes the delivery of German submarines to Israel .

At the same time, in the text he deals with what he claims to be taboo on criticism of Israel's uncontrolled atomic potential. Disregard of this taboo is judged as anti-Semitism . Germany, which is “ affected by its own crimes that are beyond comparison” and “brought to justice”, is threatened with a possible attack on Iran through this submarine delivery, which is ostensibly presented as a form of reparation to support, which is based only on fears instead of evidence. As a solution to the conflict, the poem's spokesman calls for international controls of the “region occupied by madness”.

After the publication, a debate ensued in which politicians , journalists , writers , humanities scholars and representatives of Jewish organizations participated. The poem was rejected by a majority in the German media, which prompted Grass to criticize an alleged “certain conformity of opinion”. Partly the accusation of anti-Semitism was raised, and partly Grass and his poem were defended against this accusation.

On April 8, 2012, the Israeli Interior Minister Eli Jischai declared Günter Grass to be persona non grata and imposed an entry ban on Grass. Some Israeli personalities and the daily Haaretz criticized the entry ban.

Form and content

shape

The text is in the form of a prose poem. It consists of nine paragraphs or stanzas , each of which forms a section of content and is broken into short lines without rhyme. Grass uses a lyric self to give emphasis to his “appeal”, as he calls his poem in the interview with the Tagesthemen . Six of the nine stanzas address “silence” or “silence”.

content

The poem begins with the question of the speaker's silence about "what is obvious and has been practiced in simulation games, at the end of which as survivors we are at most footnotes." What is meant is Mahmud Ahmadinejad - "to wipe out subjugated Iranian people who are directed to organized cheers". In his sphere of influence, the construction of an atomic bomb is only suspected, while Israel has a secret, growing, uncontrolled nuclear potential. He feels that the general concealment of this fact is an “incriminating lie and compulsion”, which, if ignored, leads to punishment. “The verdict 'anti-Semitism'” is “common”.

As the reason for ending his previous silence because of his "origin that is un-blemishable", Grass cites in his text the intended "purely business-like" delivery of another submarine to Israel "from my country, which was committed by its own crimes The specialty of these submarines is to be able to "direct all-destructive warheads to (Iran is meant) where the existence of a single atomic bomb is unproven". This “outspoken truth” is “to be expected of the Land of Israel, to which I am connected and want to remain.” With “last ink” he said, “The nuclear power Israel endangers the already fragile world peace.” Germans could be complicit as suppliers of a foreseeable crime - a complicity that "could not be extinguished by any of the usual excuses."

The spokesman continues to criticize the "hypocrisy of the West" and hopes that "many may free themselves from silence and ask the perpetrator of the recognizable danger to renounce violence". Finally, he calls for an "unimpeded and permanent control of the Israeli nuclear potential and the Iranian nuclear facilities by an international authority", which is permitted by the governments of both states; This is the only way to "help everyone, the Israelis and Palestinians, even more, all the people who live close to each other as enemies in this madly occupied region and ultimately also to help us."

reception

After the publication of the poem, a controversial discussion began, particularly in Germany, in which the media public, but also a broader public, participated through letters to the editor and Internet articles. Discrepancies between the predominantly critical and negative statements published in the media and the mostly positive evaluations represented in letters to the editor and in the Easter march movement were striking. There were also openly anti-Semitic comments on the Internet.

Not only is Grass' portrayal of the conflict between Israel and Iran and his postulate of an obligation to maintain political silence about Israel controversial. There are also different views on his choice of words. Some critics personally accused Grass of anti-Semitism or at least certified that the text had anti-Semitic argumentation structures, while other recipients protected both himself and his poem from accusations of anti-Semitism. Proponents welcomed his political impetus and followed his central line of argument. Many commentators stressed that criticism of Israel is fundamentally permissible. Some of them complained, however, that Grass, as a moral authority and critic of Israel, had personally disqualified himself as a youth through his decades of concealment about his own Waffen-SS membership, which was not addressed in the poem .

Reception by politicians and other political reception

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the statements in the poem as false and reprehensible shortly after the publication. It does not surprise him that a writer who has withheld his membership in the Waffen SS for 60 years considers the only Jewish state to be the greatest threat to world peace and denies it the right to defend itself. Grass' claim that Israel is threatening world peace, Netanyahu later called the world on Sunday an "absolute scandal". Grass created a “perfect moral twist in which the aggressor becomes the victim and the victim becomes the aggressor.” It is even more outrageous that this comes from a German Nobel Prize winner and not from a teenager from a neo-Nazi party.

The Israeli envoy in Berlin, Emmanuel Nahshon , also expressed his rejection : Israel was the only state whose right to exist was publicly questioned. They are "not ready to take on the role that Günter Grass assigns us to the German people coming to terms with the past ". He also placed the poem in the "European tradition", which includes " accusing the Jews of ritual murder before the Passover festival ."

Israel’s former ambassador to Germany Avi Primor said he values ​​Grass as a writer and does not believe that he is an anti-Semite. However, he judges the situation wrongly, since Israel will "never" attack Iran with nuclear weapons and "destroy" the Iranian people.

Dieter Graumann , President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , called Grass an “outstanding author”, but the text was “an aggressive pamphlet of agitation” because it was Iran that threatened peace, whose regime was suppressing the population and terrorism finance.

The spokesman for the federal government, Steffen Seibert, refused to give an assessment with reference to the freedom of art that applies in Germany .

CDU Secretary General Hermann Gröhe said on the day of the publication that he was "appalled by the (...) tone [and] (...) direction of this poem". Ruprecht Polenz , CDU member and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, objected to the unilateral assignment of blame to Israel. “The country that worries us is Iran.” Grass confuses cause and effect. The SPD politicians Andrea Nahles and Rolf Mützenich were also negative. The chairman of the Greens, Cem Özdemir , accused Grass of populism because he presented himself as overcoming a taboo that did not even exist. Using accusations of anti-Semitism as an indication of this supposed taboo is "perfidious". Volker Beck called the poem "a disguised 'You have to be allowed to say'" and a "colportage of the anti-Semitic stereotype of an alleged taboo of criticism of Israeli politics". The chairman of the German-Israeli parliamentary group Jerzy Montag von den Grünen referred to artistic freedom, but said restrictively that if Grass had written a political opinion article with these arguments, it would be "devastating".

In a press release by the parliamentary group of the party Die Linke , Wolfgang Gehrcke commented positively on the poem. Grass had "the courage to speak out what was largely kept secret". According to Jan Korte , also a representative of this party, it is "questionable that a former member of the Waffen-SS is breaking an alleged taboo". Grass assumed Israel had a "will to annihilate" and was confusing cause and effect.

Imre Török , chairman of the Association of German Writers , rejected the criticism of the “General Secretaries of the Parties” as “one-sided and exaggerated” under the heading With Goethe for Grass .

The German section of the Federation European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP) congratulated Günter Grass on his "sincere" statements about Israeli nuclear policy. Although "Grass lost credibility in terms of dealing with the Nazi regime through his long silence about his former membership in the Waffen-SS", the "hysterical" reaction of Jewish and non-Jewish Germans shows that he "hit the target". The EJJP defends the right to criticize the "inhuman" policies of the State of Israel without being defamed as an anti-Semite. These “tactics” serve only to stifle any criticism of Israeli politics.

Beate Klarsfeld compared a 1939 Hitler speech against “international financial Jewry” with the Grass poem. If the term “international financial Jewry” is replaced by “Israel”, “then we will hear the same anti-Semitic music from the tin drum player ”, she wrote in her statement. She argued that Iran is constantly threatening to wipe out the State of Israel. She considers these threats to be taken seriously and sees a parallel to the threat to European Jews from Nazi Germany .

Protester with Günter Grass portrait at the Frankfurt Easter March 2012

On the occasion of the annual Easter marches , Andreas Buro thanked Grass in lyrical form for his poem on behalf of the umbrella organization Cooperation for Peace . He also said: “Günter Grass warned against war and described Israel as a danger to world peace. We would also have mentioned the USA, the inventor of the axis of evil, but also the many Arab and Islamic states that (...) are fueling current conflicts. Germany, which supplies weapons in conflict zones. "

Grass received praise from the Iranian government. The Vice Minister of Culture Jawad Shamakdari wrote in a letter to Grass that he had "told the truth" with his poem and continued: "I have read your cautionary poem, which expresses your humanity and your sense of responsibility in such a great way".

Omid Nouripour , right-wing extremism expert with the Greens and member of the Bundestag's security committee, argued against Grass, who had fallen into a populism trap, and pointed to the applause for the poem from the right-wing national newspaper. The NPD applauded and published a statement from their Saxon state parliament member Jürgen Gansel , who spoke of a "liberating taboo break".

Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle expressed himself in the Bild am Sonntag of April 8, 2012. With the conclusion “To put Israel and Iran on the same moral level is not witty, but absurd,” he wrote, there are credible indications of a military dimension of the Iranian nuclear program. Iran has been refusing comprehensive cooperation in its control for years, contrary to international law. Without naming Grass, he went on: "To those who recently refused to admit it, I should say that all of this is not a playground for polemics, ideology and prejudice, but bitter seriousness." The aim is a nuclear weapon-free zone in the entire region. While the settlement policy can be criticized in Israel, something comparable is unthinkable in Iran.

On April 8, 2012, the Israeli Interior Minister Eli Jischai Grass declared a " persona non grata " and issued an entry ban for the writer. He justified this with his membership in the Waffen-SS and referred to a law from 1952, according to which former National Socialists are prohibited from entering Israel. Jischai had also asked the Nobel Prize Committee to revoke the Nobel Prize for Literature from Grass. The committee "categorically" rejected this request.

The Israeli historian Tom Segev criticized the entry ban as excessive and as a "cynical and silly step by the interior minister". It brings Israel close to fanatical regimes - such as that of Iran. The Israeli daily Haaretz called the entry ban "hysterical". Israel must also endure provocative remarks. The feelings expressed by the decision are understandable, but it is difficult to accept the overreaction. “When the interior minister says he is proposing to Günter Grass to spread his false and weird works from Iran because he has an enthusiastic audience there, he doesn't understand the irony of his words. Because it is precisely his decision not to allow Grass to enter Israel because of a poem that is more typical of gloomy regimes like Iran and North Korea ”. There were also critical opinions about the entry ban in the German press.

SPD politicians like the parliamentary manager of the Bundestag faction Christian Lange announced on April 9th ​​that they wanted to forego Grass' election assistance in the future. Wolfgang Thierse rejected these attempts to declare Grass to be the “persona non grata of the SPD”. Grass warned of an Israeli nuclear war and addressed a fear that was widespread in Germany, but "with wrong arguments and sometimes very unfortunate formulations (...) and with a very one-sided view". It would be fatal to describe him as an anti-Semite and to claim that even after 60 years he was speaking "the Waffen SS man whom he was not entirely voluntary as a youth." The SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel also defended in mid-April 2012 the poem, the content of which he criticized in part, as “permissible political expression”, turned against an inappropriately “irrelevant type of argument” and exaggerated, sometimes hysterical reactions. It was foreseeable "that the self-appointed guardians of political correctness would not miss the chance to finally unpack the big club against Grass". He hoped that Günter Grass would continue to help the SPD in election campaigns as a “controversial writer”. "It would be cowardly and ungrateful to move away from him now."

In an interview with Der Spiegel , the Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn described the “partly hysterical reaction” in Germany to Grass' poem as difficult to understand for non-Germans. "He is treated like a leper". He was an outstanding figure in German literature and had done a lot for Germany's reputation after the Second World War. Asselborn expressed the hope that the poem would inspire a discussion that “urgently needs to be conducted.” The Foreign Minister turned against Grass's argument about “simulation games” for a “first strike” with the aim of “wiping out the Iranian people”. He is putting Iran in the role of victim and making Israel the aggressor. "Nobody would think of suggesting that South Korea wanted to exterminate the North Korean people if they armed themselves militarily against the aggressive policies of the North Korean dictatorship."

During his first state visit to Israel at the end of May 2012 , Federal President Joachim Gauck told Haaretz : “Günter Grass expressed his personal opinion. He may. I expressly disagree with him, and Günter Grass' attitude also does not correspond to German policy towards Israel. "

Media coverage, reception by writers and literary critics

In the daily newspaper Die Welt appeared on April 4, 2012, at the same time as the poem was published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a response from journalist Henryk M. Broder under the heading Günter Grass, the eternal anti-Semite , which was published a few hours later in the online edition received the title Günter Grass - Not quite tight, but a poet . Broder recalled earlier statements by Grass, who in 2001 demanded that Israel's occupation and settlement of Palestinian land be reversed, and in 2011, contrary to historical research, claimed that eight million German soldiers were captured by Soviet wars after the Second World War, and all of them up to two million have been liquidated, and this, according to Broder, compared with the Holocaust - a "zero sum game" of the victims. Broder judged: “Grass is the prototype of the educated anti-Semite who means well with the Jews. Persecuted by feelings of guilt and shame and at the same time driven by the desire to calculate history, he now steps to disarm the "cause of the recognizable danger". "

The writer Ralph Giordano was “deeply shaken” . The poem is an attack on Israel's existence.

According to Frank Schirrmacher ( FAZ ), Grass “screwed together” the leading article and poem. In the form of an editorial, he mainly puts forward opinions that are often heard, apart from the assertion that "the nuclear power Israel" endangers world peace. Behind it, in lyrical form, lies “a rather dismaying reversal of West German post-war discourses.” “Associative” calls up “this master of language” terms. In 2008, Charlotte Knobloch warned of the danger of becoming “footnotes to history” during a memorial service on Pogrom Night during a memorial service for the victims of the Holocaust , a formulation that Grass adopted almost literally. With this, Grass tries “as a future survivor of a planned genocide to undertake a historical reversal of roles”. The poem is "a work of resentment". Referring to Nietzsche , Schirrmacher called the text "a document of the" imaginary vengeance "of a generation who felt morally offended for life." Grass wanted a discussion about whether Israel should be criticized. "But the debate should be about whether it is justified to make the whole world a victim of Israel, just so that an eighty-five year old man can make peace with his own biography."

The WDR correspondent Thomas Nehls accused the publicists Broder and Giordano in an ARD comment with the title Peace Prize instead of scolding Günter Grass for “opinion police measures” and criticized the “bundle of most Berlin reactions” as “outrageous”.

In a comment on Spiegel Online , Sebastian Hammelehle described Grass 'poem as a “lyrical first strike” and accused him of serving anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in the regulars' table style . Journalist Christoph Sydow also dealt with the eight theses Grass put forward in his poem on Spiegel-Online. He agreed with Grass on four points, completely rejected two of the theses and at least partially rejected the rest.

Jakob Augstein , journalist and publisher, commented on Grass's text in his mirror column In Doubt on the left with the words: “It's not a great poem.” But he agreed with his political statements. Augstein commented on Grass's sentence: “The nuclear power Israel endangers the already fragile world peace” with the words: “This sentence caused an outcry. Because he's right. And because a German says it, a writer, a Nobel Prize winner, because Günter Grass says it. There is a cut in this. We have to thank Grass for that. He took it upon himself to pronounce this sentence for all of us. An overdue conversation has begun. ”With the backing of the US and Germany, the Netanyahu government is leading the whole world“ on the back of a swelling war song ”. Pressure must be built on Israel. It is not about German history, "but about the present of the world".

In connection with the poem, Malte Lehming spoke of brutalizing the spirit and described Grass in the Tagesspiegel as an anti-Semite. He compliments the mob by serving their greed for historical relief. Grass is too clever not to have anticipated the "secret joy of those who are otherwise so ashamed and outrageously poisoning behind closed doors that one shouldn't tell the truth about Jews because of the Holocaust". "

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica , which also published the poem, criticized it for creating "a confused noise, an impossible equality between Israel and Iran, an implausible suppression of the threat that the regime in Tehran represents for Jerusalem". In the English Guardian , Hans Kundnani took the view that Grass' poem expresses the fact that many Germans feel an increasing anger towards Israel. Germans sometimes have the feeling that they are not allowed to say what they think, which leads to reservations about the State of Israel that could one day "explode".

Grass received support from the Iranian state broadcaster Press TV . Never before had “a prominent intellectual attacked Israel in such a courageous way in post-war Germany” as Günter Grass with “his controversial poem”. Metaphorically speaking, Grass had "succeeded in a fatal lyric blow against Israel".

Zeit editor Josef Joffe made a noticeable discrepancy between the “speaking and writing guild on this side of the left and the NPD”, which “opposed the keyword” and “the subtext of the resentment and demonization of Israel very well recognized ”, and a majority of approving comments in the Internet forums:“ Depressing what breaks out of the psyche there about Israel and Jews, at least in the liberating protection of anonymity. Let's hope it's a non-representative, self-selected sample. Otherwise Grass would win the battle down there, where he lost it so shamefully in the thoughtful public. "

In a text analysis, the literary critic Tilman Krause saw "numerous figures of thought of the Nazi ideology" of a person who "apparently cannot detach himself from the intellectual influences of his youth": "The demagogic rhetoric that pervades the entire text, this piercing anaphoric ' why 'and' about ', the incessantly repeated at the beginning of the stanza' why am I silent ',' why do I only say now 'reminds of the pattern of the defiant thunder word, well-known from Nazi phraseology, which has to break out at some point. "He compared they feel with the “humiliations and gagging of the 'Weimar system' or the 'disgraceful peace of Versailles'”, which were accepted for a long time but now have to be released, “and cost their life (or the 'punishment', the 'verdict, anti-Semitism') expired). Then there is one for all, and Grass also wants to 'free as many from the silence as possible'. "Krause drew parallels between Grass 'rhetoric and that of Joseph Goebbels in his Sportpalast speech ," whose supposedly long suppressed outcry finally led to the formula:' Well, people, get up, and the storm will break loose! '"

Under the heading The gags about his guilt , the educationalist published Micha Brumlik in the taz A reply to the apocalyptic poet . It is not the Israeli government that wants to wipe out the Iranian people, but rather the Iranian revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei has spoken of Israel several times as a "cancerous tumor" that must be removed from the region.

The President of the German PEN Center , Johano Strasser , defended Grass against Henryk M. Broder's accusation of anti-Semitism and supported him with regard to his criticism of arms exports to a war-ready Israel. Grass also received approval from the writer Peter Schneider . In the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , the President of the Academy of the Arts , Klaus Staeck , defended Günter Grass with reference to the right to freedom of expression and described the “knee-jerk convictions as anti-Semite” as “inappropriate”. In an interview with Deutschlandradio Kultur , he defended Grass with the words: "[...] the attacks that Günter Grass now has to endure also speak a language, of course, according to the motto: Don't interfere if you do that, then you will get one over-fried ”.

Literary critic Jörg Magenau, on the other hand, described the poem as "kitschy" and "pathetic". Grass claims a form for himself that he does not fill with what poetry is all about, and thus in a perfidious way exaggerates his simple political expression. This plan did not work out. Grass had a right to his opinion, but had to live with justified criticism.

The literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki called the Grass text a “disgusting poem”, the intention of which was to “attack the Jewish state.” Grass has always been interested in sensations, affairs and scandals. He described many things fabulously and was the most important German representative of post-war literature. His work does not contain any anti-Semitic clichés. "On the contrary. For example, I found the Jewish figures in the tin drum very good. He has completely repressed and defeated anti-Semitism. But everything changes with age. Because the memory of the youth also grows stronger. ”Iran wants to wipe out Israel and Günter Grass wrote the opposite. He is not an anti-Semite, but there are a large number of citizens in this country with anti-Semitic tendencies. "And Grass expresses that."

The cultural critic Denis Scheck , on the other hand, said that Grass had "once again proven to be a mine-tracker of German literature (...) in terms of content," and described the text as "a good, overdue political poem." On ARD, he turned the end April 2012 sharply against the previous media response and characterized the debate as the "blackest hour of German literary criticism" that he had experienced. “Instead of applying aesthetic standards, they were thrown overboard in favor of a political verdict”.

The literary critic and poet Heinrich Detering evaluates the “ basic metric pattern that turns the lines into verses without canceling their prose sound” and the formal features as the poetological quality criterion of the poem. The majority of the verses should be read in four syllables, i.e. with four stressed syllables. "Since the number of unstressed syllables remains free, the norm and deviation are balanced in such a way that this pattern becomes a watermark in a paper that can be written on in very different ways." Grass goes with Brecht's teaching of German prose poetry "surprisingly easily and precisely " around. So the line: "It is the right to claim the first strike" is built in "epic three-four time of the dactyl "; the context makes it prosaic. “Grass uses the balance of form to semantic effects even more often (...). For example, when talking about the German crimes, “díe óhne Vergléich sínd”: The line asks to be read slowly and with weighted lifts. Against all attempts at relativization, it is about crimes «which are - without - comparison». ”The motif of silence also urges“ metrical pathos. ”The meter added something to the sentences:“ First the country with which the speaker sees connected, then only the threatening power. And at the end the couple solemnly make the hoped-for reconciliation audible (...). "The verses relating to the political situation raise, as Detering critically notes, an" objectifying claim to validity ", while the first half consists of poetry as" confessional self-expression ". The author emphasizes Grass' "speaking and artistic effort". He sums up the debate so far: “An amazing number of critics have replaced reading with insights into the author's subconscious. (…) Such reading cannot be falsified. (...) The level of decline of this criticism, and the most questionable formulation of its consequence, I now read in our university town (Göttingen) on the plinth of a sculpture designed by Grass: «SS! Günni shut up »."

Herta Müller , like Grass, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, however, criticized the form of the text. There is not a single literary sentence in the “article”. She believes it is “megalomaniac” that Grass sent his “so-called poem” to three newspapers in several countries. She complained to the FAZ: “He's not entirely neutral. Once you've fought in SS uniform, you're no longer able to judge neutrally. "

The American writer Louis Begley also particularly criticized the poem form of the text. In his opinion, Grass used the “atomic power” of his name to be able to publish a “cheap prose text” that would never have appeared as a simple editorial. He misused the fact that poems are generally valued higher than political pamphlets.

Mely Kiyak , German-Kurdish writer, compared the reactions to Germany abolishes itself with those to Grass' poem. If a Sarrazin instigates, hardly a commentator opens their mouth, but if they suspect anti-Semitism, everyone beats the alleged perpetrator down. When Sarrazin "described people like me as inferior, society-damaging subjects (...), nothing happened at first." The mob raged undisturbed "and questioned our right to exist." People like her, with contacts all over the world, she wrote over the Grass poem, their words could not be pre-formulated by “a state of mind.” They condemned every terrorist, every racist, every nationalist. The fight against all racism, including anti-Semitism, is part of being human. “So I ask: Why can't you old gray-headed colleagues, bosses, ambassadors, writers and historians, we who live with you, protect us in the same heroic way as you do when you think you judge hatred and injustice against our Jewish friends? "

The Israeli writer Zeruya Shalev , who spoke out against an Israeli attack on Iran, accused Grass of threatening misunderstanding of the situation because Iran posed a huge threat. In a later interview with the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung , she added that she admired Grass as an author, but expected that he would be able to grasp the world in all its complexity, and described the reactions to his poem as "childish and hysterical".

Eli Amir , an Iraqi-born Israeli writer and former participant in Middle East peace negotiations, also turned against Grass and wrote in Focus online that Israel was not about to destroy Iran. Most Israelis, however, believed that, conversely, the Iranian nuclear program threatened world security. Instead of indicting Israel, Grass had better incite Germany to stop the Iranian nuclear program together with Europe and the USA.

The writer Clemens Meyer said in the Leipziger Volkszeitung that Grass was right about the arms deliveries from Germany to Israel. Some of what he says is undifferentiated, but the reactions of "Broder and Co." alone would agree with him.

The writer Clemens J. Setz wrote on Faz.net : “It's a shame that an important writer like Günter Grass said that, and not a blogger from YouTube. You could just ignore it. Because nothing else deserves such a statement. "

The playwright Rolf Hochhuth attacked Grass a. a. With the words: "You stayed what you voluntarily became: the SS man who kept it secret for 60 years, but who pestered Chancellor Kohl because he, hand in hand with an American president, visited a military cemetery where 40 SS-Fallen lie. ”On May 6th, Hochhuth left the Berlin Academy of the Arts under protest because of a discussion about the Grass poem in the general assembly. “I refuse to sit between anti-Semites,” he headed his reasoning. The text, according to Hochhuth, could have been in the striker . He wanted to prevent this discussion because he feared that it would run “unilaterally in favor of Iran and the Palestinians at the expense of Israel”. As Faz.net reported in this context, Hochhuth himself was accused of anti-Semitism in 2005 when he stood up for the Holocaust denier David Irving . He later apologized for his article in the right-wing Junge Freiheit . Klaus Staeck regretted the resignation, but rejected the accusation of anti-Semitism emphatically. Shortly afterwards, Hochhuth apologized to those of his decades-old colleagues who were not anti-Semites.

The lyricist and songwriter Wolf Biermann described the text as “bungling prose” and accused Grass of “breaking a taboo”. However, he defends it "with a heavy heart in the name of freedom of expression". Expressions of sympathy by German neo-Nazis and by “the Iranian propaganda machine” made Grass “not yet a Nazi” and “not a Muslim caricature”. Regarding the general media coverage, he said: "Now everyone will attack him, the journalists because they have to steal circulation, the politicians because they want to be re-elected, his colleagues out of real envy and real indignation."

The Swiss writer Adolf Muschg considers the accusation of anti-Semitism against Grass to be “so absurdly unfair and disproportionate that one can only marvel at the almost closed front against the author”. He also asked why the German-speaking reaction avoided the question of whether Grass's criticism had been dealt with and how this author had forfeited “to express himself in a cosmopolitan way”.

The Austrian writer Vladimir Vertlib criticized the poem in terms of both content and form . It is the old pattern: the Jews have to serve for their own power fantasies, repressions and neurotic fears. At the same time, he pointedly questioned the reaction of the Israeli government. They dispel a positive cliché, “namely that that the Jews are humorous and self-deprecating people.” It would have been wiser, he writes, to invite Grass on a book tour to Israel so that he would have to present his views to an Israeli audience. "« Israel critic »Grass at the invitation of the Israeli government in Jerusalem as a guest speaker - that would be brave, that would be original, that would be funny!"

The writer Durs Grünbein rejected the poem as a " pamphlet ". The argumentation pattern is reminiscent of the dialectical thought games of the Marxist Brecht , only it misses his point of cunning both-and-also. Israel appears in it as the ugly nuclear weapon state that only sows strife in the region. He speaks of a “secret mood” in the country and criticizes Grass's “rough manner”. "There is always a certain emotional blindness involved with him." One must assume that he actually never got to the bottom of the historical fear of existence of the Jews. This is the only way to completely hide the Israeli founding problem, the state-turned survival strategy of a religious community that has been driven out all over the world and which only exists thanks to its ability to defend itself.

The Israeli writer, painter and journalist Yoram Kaniuk rejected the entry ban in the world as a "state obstruction of a writer's free speech". The anti-Semitism accusation against Grass is exaggerated. “At least he's no more anti-Semitic than is generally the case when, as is so often the case, he blames the Jews for everything.” Ahmadinejad only mentions Grass indirectly. Nobody in Israel speaks of "the annihilation of Iran or 75 million Iranians". He would have expected Grass to deal with his SS past literarily. Kaniuk concluded with the words: “I can no longer hear it: First always the obligatory sentence, how much they are for us, before they explain why they turn against us - whenever our very existence is really threatened. It is simply difficult to live with the Holocaust. "

Uri Avnery , Israeli journalist and writer, contradicted the view that the Grass poem was anti-Semitic and dismissed it as "nonsense". "Any attitude that says that Israel must have some kind of special treatment is anti-Semitic." He also rejected the accusation that Grass did not only want to criticize the Israeli government. "If Israel produces atomic bombs or attacks Iran, then that is a decision of the government." The "ayatollahs" who determine politics in Iran are "very cautious and often sensible people". He considers Grass' statement that Israel is a threat to world peace to be "far exaggerated". Grass tends to exaggerate. Israel will not attack Iran. With sharp words he criticized the entry ban. In Germany and Israel there is a competition to find out who can “abuse Grass” and find “more extreme expressions”. It is anti-Semitic to insist that Israel should not be criticized in Germany.

This year's Albatros Literature Prize from the Günter Grass Foundation went to the American writer Dave Eggers . In view of the controversies surrounding the Grass poem, he did not take part in the handover ceremony because, according to his publisher, he would otherwise "have been compelled to make endless and useless comments about Grass, Israel and Iran" instead of being able to talk about his own book .

In a letter to the PEN International Center , the Hebrew-Speaking Writers' Association and the Israeli PEN Club demanded "this vicious distortion of facts (by the poem) be condemned." Calling Israel a threat to world peace is an abuse of literature. Grass never disapproved of Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust and his calls for the destruction of Israel, but instead leads a “crusade against the State of Israel”. The German section of the PEN decided on May 12, 2012, with reference to freedom of expression, that Grass remains honorary president of the writers' association.

As a friend of Günter Grass, Jürgen Flimm , currently director of the Berlin State Opera, pointed out the poor health of the writer. You should treat it “a little more carefully”, react less hysterically and read more closely: ““ What still needs to be said ”” and ““ Last ink ””.

Reception by historians, literary, social, political and legal scholars

The Israeli historian Tom Segev criticized the equation of Israel with Iran and also classified the poem as “also a bit self-centered”, but said that Grass was “not an anti-Semite, he is not anti-Israeli. He criticized the policy of the Israeli government. "In no other country is the Israeli government more violently criticized than by the Israelis themselves," and they are neither anti-Semitic nor are they anti-Israeli. On the contrary, it is often the case that criticism of Israel can be a sign of friendship and support. ”Compared to Spiegel online, he referred to the term“ silence ”in the poem on Grass's silence with regard to his brief membership of the Waffen SS. There is no silence about Israel's nuclear policy. The whole world is discussing it, including Israel.

For the historian Michael Wolffsohn , the poem is an anti-Semitic pamphlet pressed into false poetry that would have been well placed in the National-Zeitung . It contains "pretty much every anti-Semitic cliché [...] that one knows from the right-wing extremist corner". Grass also knows nothing of the actual political and strategic background. The submarines are at best weapons for a second strike and could enable a nation hit by a nuclear strike to react to an attack. The Jews had learned from history that threats - as they are now from Iran - are "more than crazy." It is also a bad tradition to have the poem published shortly before the Passover festival, as this has always been a time of pogroms in which ritual murder legends were spread. Grass' claim that he was “a friend of the Jewish people” is what Wolffsohn classifies as a self-made legend. Already during his first visit to Israel in 1971 he performed “like the elephant in a china shop” and wanted to teach his Israeli listeners historically and morally.

The Israeli historian Moshe Zuckermann reacted differently . He supported Grass' theses to a large extent, spoke of a “media rampage”, of an actual “taboo” in Germany and wrote: “One can expose a lot to Grass, not least a complacency that does not shrink from it, of the“ last Ink ”to talk about. But he is not an anti-Semite - unless in the eyes of the Broders, Graumanns, Giordanos and Wolffsohns, who are so concerned about the welfare of Israel that they can see Israel - from a reasonable distance! - emphatically "protect yourself" in order to be able to blind yourself to your well-being all the more effectively. "The inflationary use of the term anti-Semitism contributed to its trivialization.

The Swiss historian and director of the Fritz Bauer and Leo Baeck Institutes in London, Raphael Gross, classified the poem as “hate song” . In the Berliner Zeitung he investigated the “difficult” question of whether Grass was an anti-Semite. The openly articulated anti-Semitism of the 19th century was hardly present after the Holocaust, but rather a “continued effect of Nazi mentality” or “Nazi morality”, which is more deeply anchored in people's thoughts and actions than everyday political convictions. “This terrible mentality (…), this“ morality of the national community ”, which grew out of National Socialism in Germany between 1933–1945 - is the echo of which we (…) do not hear that seldom if we only listen carefully to the generation of Grass . “Subjectively, this continued effect, especially anti-Semitism, is usually not seen. The research on this is only just beginning.

The political scientist Werner Patzelt was surprised by the intensity of the outcry he expected. He spoke on Deutschlandfunk of the “West German indignation ritual”. As a leftist, Grass has so far enforced "taboos of political correctness" himself. There is "something cute about it when Grass discovers for the first time, of all times, when this taboo front is turning against him, that in Germany, pluralism on some topics is not as far off as some assume". His accusation of a “press in line” goes too far, as does that of serving anti-Semitic stereotypes. Both sides react over-the-top with excessive language. On one hand, warned Patzelt, to Broder nominating, in front of a "left-wing anti-Semitism," the one in Grass' poem read into could, on the other hand, closed it with a request that we should not be so hard on him (a mentally so differentiated man).

In an essay, the American political scientist Daniel Goldhagen wrote of Grass '“political leaflet” that he “chewed through the cultural clichés and prejudices of his time, no different from those at the regulars' table”. In truth everyone is aware of the existence of these (Israeli) nuclear weapons and they are routinely discussed. Grass takes “perversion - turning victims into perpetrators - to a new level.” Goldhagen refers approvingly to Grass' statement that it is Germany's responsibility to prevent another genocide, and continues: “But he [Grass] says not with regard to a possible genocide against the people who are regularly threatened again, namely that of the Jews, who were once murdered by Germans and against whom a nuclear weapon could well be used if it gets into the hands of the thousand-year-old Iranian regime . "

Grass, previously a great author, expressed the majority opinion of Germans, at least of German intellectuals, and thus made himself the spokesman for a “radical pacifism”, wrote the literary scholar Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht in Die Welt . His central argument was that Grass' “silence” is “the silence that the National Socialists and especially members of the SS had imposed upon themselves after May 8, 1945.” Grass as “complicit in the concrete sense” has everyone whom he sympathizes suspected for the CDU, "placed in the dark light of neo-fascism ". He "left us later born the impossible task of assuming blame for something that had been defeated and supposedly removed from the world (...)." Grass and other Germans had broken their silence "in their ninth decade", whereby "one typical of Nazism Mentality ”came to the fore. The term “first strike” was “part of the repertoire of National Socialist war rhetoric”. Gumbrecht does not always reject first strikes. In the end he made a polemic, alluding to his age, that he no longer wanted to read Grass's new texts.

The Israeli historian Moshe Zimmermann described the “absurd” entry ban as an “attempt at censorship”. He went to court with Grass harshly. He had "served the nationalist Israeli right by attacking Israel, not Iran, as a potential trigger of a GAU". In doing so, he had helped to divert attention from the Palestine question and enabled the government to present itself as a “victim of Iran” and a “victim of Grass”. His language is typical of someone who wants to cope with his own past before 1945. Grass, “of course not a rabid anti-Semite”, used “images and myths that had an anti-Semitic touch”. "The way in which he generalizes Israel is reminiscent of the way in which Jews were and are generalized." According to Zimmermann, the poem could be entitled "Israel is our misfortune". He draws a parallel to Treitschke's sentence, which later appeared on the front page of the striker : “The Jews are our misfortune.” Zimmermann concludes: “Grass is on very dangerous terrain. That just has to be said, but in the context of a civilized scholarly discussion. ”The accusation of anti-Semitism should not be misused to“ automatically prevent criticism of Israel ”.

The literary scholar and journalist Thomas Rothschild criticized the "grass-bashing" . Grass wrote a “bad poem” that was all about the political statement that would have led to the same result in any form. The critics "rhetorically repeated their long-known default settings." He dealt with the negative reactions of Broder, Joffe, Wolffsohn, Reich-Ranicki and Zimmermann. On the other hand, he emphasized that there were a considerable number of Jews who were more in agreement with Grass than with Broder. The anti-Semitism allegations were only surpassed by Rolf Hochhuth with his “spite” towards his “clearly more talented colleague”.

Alfred Grosser interpreted Grass' poem exclusively as a criticism of the Israeli government and agreed with the content of his statements. He contradicted the claim that the poem was anti-Semitic, and turned against Reich-Ranicki by name. It is true that there is indeed no taboo to express criticism of Israeli politics, but it is reacted too quickly with accusations of anti-Semitism. He reproaches Grass for having kept quiet about his membership in the Waffen SS for too long. “But you have to add: At that time there were 900,000 young Germans who were in the Waffen SS, but not in the SS.” Regarding the French reaction, he remarked that one could not understand the “whole emotion in Germany”. There were only a few smaller articles that were more in favor of Grass.

The American Jewish political scientist Peter Beinart wrote in Stern that the text was "disturbing". Grass uses “National Socialist vocabulary” when he speaks of Israel wanting to “wipe out” the Iranian people. By “equating Israeli politics with the Holocaust”, Grass undermined “any of his arguments, perhaps correct.” Beinart sharply criticized the Netanyahu government, especially with regard to its settlement policy.

According to the literary historian and philologist Klaus Briegleb , there was time and again at Grass “an aggressively instructive righteousness in Jewish affairs”, both literarily and politically. It was wrong that, shortly after his poem was published, Grass repeatedly emphasized that he had taken a public position against Israeli politics for the first time. As early as 1973 he wrote in his essay "Israel and I" that by gradually annexing the occupied territories, Israel had offered the Arab states the pretext for war. Here, too, says Briegleb, as in his most recent poem, Grass worked with the reversal of perpetrators and victims. In his novella Im Krebsgang , when the refugee ship Gustloff sank in early 1945, he wrote of a "never heard final scream", "a turn in the metaphor of the final solution to the Jewish question." Shoah. ”For Grass, according to Briegleb, the attack is a form of suppressing one's own guilt.

Hamid Dabashi - Iranian-American historian and literary scholar - worked out the incomplete post-colonial European discourse in which Israel exists as one of the last objects of European crimes in the world, even as a result of it. Dabashi continues to examine the poem and, after considering historical and political aspects, comes to the conclusion that the accusation of anti-Semitism against Grass is unfounded.

According to the American historian Fritz Stern , the poem is an “immense self-wounding” that “damaged the cause”. He knew Grass personally from the 1960s and 70s, was very impressed by the “Tin Drum” and appreciated his political commitment. “He has been playing himself as a moral apostle for a long time,” Stern stated. To focus on his membership in the Waffen-SS “as an adolescent” is unfair, “like the whole debate in Germany.” He is particularly bothered by “the excessive ad personam ” and the accusation of anti-Semitism. To believe that anyone who criticizes Israel is therefore an anti-Semite, he considers "dangerous nonsense." The poem contains some correct statements or views - and many incorrect ones. “It was a provocation”, also because Grass tried to publish it internationally at the same time. He couldn't be allowed to be naive. He called the use of “historically charged terms” such as “extinction” and “equating Israel with Iran” “depressing”. He strongly condemned the Israeli interior minister's official response. Taking him (Grass) so seriously that he was refused entry shows “autistic arrogance, which is great and dangerous.” Criticism of Israeli politics is an “act of solidarity”.

From the point of view of the Germanist, Grass biographer and editor of his work edition Volker Neuhaus , the “daily political protest poem” opens up a “new dimension in the work”. The heated discussion about the verses was a "huge success for literature". He also rates positively that the German arms deliveries to Israel have become better known. He speaks of a "vengeance" of individual critics such as Durs Grünbein and Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. One of the reasons for the "total criticism" that has already been exercised is that Grass mostly expresses himself politically with "absolute". Neuhaus suspects a "staged conflict" because on the day of the first publication Henrik M. Broder's replica appeared in the world , and even earlier on the Internet. The time had, according to Neuhaus, recently offered in vain Grass a first version, have responded to the Broder.

Neuhaus does not use the term “first strike” to refer to Israel, but to the debates of the Reagan era in the USA about the possibility of nuclear war. He emphasizes Grass' anti-capitalist thinking with the goal of a just society and points to his criticism of freedom, his anti-Western attitude and his aversion to the ideals of the French Revolution . Therefore, the argument that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East is insubstantial for Grass. With his “blemish that can never be eradicated” Grass describes his origins from a National Socialist family and his adherence to this ideology until the end of the war. The climate of silence about involvement in Nazi crimes was his lifelong theme. In the case of his membership in the Waffen SS, however, he was silent for a long time. The citizen speaks in the poem, not the writer or Nobel Prize winner.

The international lawyer Stefan Talmon from Bonn published a legal assessment of the issues addressed in Grass' poem in the FAZ. In it he sits down u. a. deal with the admissibility of a preemptive strike. In the absence of imminent or imminent danger, an attack on the nuclear facilities would constitute a violation of the United Nations Charter . The acquisition of the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons with "alleged hostile intent" gives the threatened state no right to anticipate self-defense.

Grass' accusation against Germany of becoming a “supplier of crime” through the delivery of weapons is only relevant under international law as aiding and abetting if it was a deliberate delivery with the aim of supporting this attack. However, Talmon does not assume this in his assessment. A "defense of the aggressor that is not justified under international law" would, however, be the redemption of a declaration of support that Merkel gave to the Knesset in 2008 in the event of a first military strike.

Talmon sees a difference between Iran and Israel from an international law perspective. Unlike Iran, Israel never signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaties and comprehensive security measures with the International Atomic Energy Agency. That is why only Iran broke its international obligations under the treaties by refusing to fully control its nuclear facilities.

According to Carla Dondera , Grass is characterized by "a striking factual resistance [...] with regard to the real threat to Israel in the Middle East". However, Grass's “fantasies” fulfilled “their function of relieving conscience, especially where Jews, who in the post-Holocaust society always represent the memory of the Shoah ”, would themselves be perpetrators from the point of view of anti-Semites. Dondera also mentions "two further examples of anti-Semitic controversies" from the same year, the circumcision debate and the Augstein debate . Even if a direct connection between these debates cannot be proven, it is striking that within a few months there has been an "erosion of political and discursive boundaries".

Comments from Grass

Günter Grass said in a first statement on April 5, 2012 in the NDR that “old clichés are being used”, some of which are hurtful: “The term anti-Semitism is used immediately, which was also to be assumed.” Further criticized he said that “in a democratic country where freedom of the press prevails, a certain co-ordination of opinion is in the foreground and a refusal to go into the content, the questions that I am raising here.” Newspapers ”the“ eternal anti-Semite ”, which is“ a reversal of the ' eternal Jew ' ”. He sees this as "hurtful" and "not worthy of the democratic press". Grass countered the accusation of anti-Semitism by recommending that his critics take a look at his books, "in which I have repeatedly criticized German anti-Semitism."

In an interview with Tom Buhrow in Tagesthemen , he advocated the thesis that a preventive strike was “the abandonment of diplomatic behavior” which “among other things has guaranteed us peace in Europe for six decades”. An Israeli "attack on an Iranian nuclear facility" would lead to a "nuclear disaster" and, as "an expansion of a conflict in an already unstable region (...) would be extremely dangerous to the public." When asked about possible benevolent comments "from the right corner", replied Grass: “My point of view is: don't be afraid of applause from the wrong side. If you follow that, you shut yourself up. ”He also emphasized that he had received numerous e-mails that agreed. The concept of silence is at the center of his poem. “This omission, this cowardly ducking away, already turns into loyalty to the Nibelung.” “Yes, no criticism of Israel” is the worst thing that can be done to Israel. With his poem and appeal, he also wanted to support Defense Minister de Maiziere's warnings of a military conflict with Iran, he replied to Buhrow's question. Here (in Germany) it is concealed that Israel is a nuclear power. On the other hand, the “nonsense and the lies” that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad uttered are known. He then explained why he was speaking of the "hypocrisy of the West" in the poem. "How many dictatorships of the quality of Iran have been supported by the West," just because they were anti-communist. Iran does not have the power to endanger world peace, Israel has the potential to do so. Since the “illegal” settlement policy is criticized by many, “it is not included here (in the poem).” This is the first time that he is critical of Israel to this extent because he believes that one has to go to one's own door first sweep. In the end, he wanted a “press that was less harmonized”.

In the 3sat culture magazine Kulturzeit , he emphasized that he “definitely does not want to retract ” his poem. However, he described it as a mistake to have spoken of Israel and not of the "current government of Israel". The delivery of "a sixth submarine to Jerusalem" by Germany, however, was "a wrong form of reparation".

He also gave an interview to the Süddeutsche Zeitung and made it clear that he was used to the fact that some of his works met with severe criticism. He expressed disappointment, however, that “the insulting and blanket accusation of anti-Semitism” had been raised against him. Not he is a troublemaker, but the current Israeli government, which is building a bogus with “Iran and the assumption that an atom bomb will be built there ”. After a period of time, he hopes for an objectification of the debate and a discussion about the content of his poem. He spoke of a “horde of journalism” against him and said of the repeated allegations about his Nazi past: “I am appalled how 30-, 35- and 40-year-old journalists who were lucky enough to grow up in a long period of peace, to judge a man who was drawn into the Waffen SS at the age of 17 and who did not volunteer. This is done by a generation that, in my opinion, makes far too little use of the freedom they have today. "

Grass reacted to the "entry ban " pronounced against him on the basis of the poem with the text "Then as now - My answer to recent decisions" in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , in which he describes the entry bans imposed on him - by the dictatorships of the GDR and Burma and the democratic Israel - and the later developments in these states reflected. He said that the tone of the Israeli interior minister reminded him of the verdict of the head of the GDR state security , Erich Mielke .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ^ Germanist: Günter Grass speaks as a poet. Summary of a conversation with Helmuth Kiesel . Westfälische Nachrichten online from April 5, 2012
  3. ↑ Interview with Günter Grass by Tom Buhrow , video recording by tagesschau.de on April 5, 2012
  4. ↑ Günter Grass: What needs to be said - original text of the first publication in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on April 4, 2012, Süddeutsche online on April 4, 2012
  5. ↑ For example reader comments on the internet platform of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit on April 4th on the article: Israel accuses Grass of anti-Semitism. Reader comments, ranked by reader approval: Israel accuses Grass of anti-Semitism. Time online on April 4th
  6. ↑ Josef Joffe: Grass poem: Günter's new friends . Time online on April 13, 2012.
  7. ↑ Hans-Christian Rößler: “Decent people should condemn the statements” . Faz online on April 5, 2012
  8. ↑ A clear majority of Germans are on the side of Israel. Welt am Sonntag online on April 21, 2012
  9. ↑ The envoy Emmanuel Nahshon on the publication Günter Grass . Embassy of the State of Israel in Berlin on April 4, 2012
  10. ↑ Martina Doering: "Günter Grass doesn't understand what it's about" . Frankfurter Rundschau online on April 5, 2012
  11. ↑ Michel Friedman on Günter Grass criticism of Israel: Grass poem an "aggressive pamphlet of agitation" . Focus Online on April 4, 2012
  12. ↑ Grass criticism of Israel met with outrage ( Memento of April 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Zeit Online April 4, 2012
  13. Jump up ↑ Grass Poem on Israel . Orf .at on April 4, 2012
  14. Jump up ↑ A Troubled Relationship with Israel . Frankfurter Rundschau online on April 4, 2011.
  15. ↑ Grass criticism of Israel met with outrage ( Memento of April 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Zeit Online April 4, 2012
  16. ↑ Press release of the parliamentary group 'Die Linke' ( Memento from April 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed on April 6, 2012
  17. ^ Florian Gathmann, Philipp Wittrock: Grass' Israel-Schelte. Poets on the sidelines . Spiegel Online on April 4, 2012
  18. ↑ With Goethe for Grass: VS chairman criticizes one-sided criticism of the generals ( Memento from May 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Verdi online on April 5, 2012
  19. ^ Opinion on the poem by Günter Grass . Statement by the Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East on April 5, 2012
  20. ^ Political poem. Klarsfeld accuses Grass of the Hitler analogy . Time online on April 6, 2012
  21. ↑ Debate about the Israel poem: Grass earns praise from Iran and the peace movement . Stern online on April 7, 2012
  22. ^ Easter marches for peace and for grass ( memento of June 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) . Tagesschau (ARD) online on April 7, 2012
  23. ^ Debate about the Israel poem Grass earns praise from Iran and the peace movement . Stern online on April 7, 2012
  24. ↑ Interview with Omid Nouripour: Done everything wrong that can be done wrong . Deutschlandradio Kultur on April 5, 2012
  25. ↑ Nazi acclaim for Günter Grass . Kurier.at on April 7, 2012
  26. ↑ Josef Joffe: Grass poem: Günter's new friends . Time online on April 13, 2012.
  27. ↑ Foreign Minister Westerwelle answers Günter Grass. To put Israel and Iran on the same moral level is absurd . Picture taken on Sunday online on April 8, 2012
  28. ^ Grass is banned from entering Israel . Zeit Online on April 8, 2012.
  29. ^ Israel declares Grass to be a persona non grata . Daily news online on April 8, 2012
  30. ↑ Israel's interior minister offers Grass meetings at a neutral location . Spiegel online on April 12, 2012
  31. ^ Entry ban for grass. "This brings Israel closer to Iran" . Spiegel online on April 8, 2012
  32. ^ Criticism of the entry ban also in Israel . Frankfurter Rundschau online from April 10, 2012
  33. ^ Press review on the entry ban for grass. tagesschau.de , April 10, 2012, archived from the original on April 12, 2012 ; Retrieved April 10, 2012 .
  34. ↑ Israel poem. Politicians distance themselves from Günter Grass . Handelsblatt on April 9, 2012
  35. ↑ Thierse: Critical opinion on Israel must not follow accusations of anti-Semitism . Deutschlandfunk on April 10, 2012
  36. ↑ Gabriel defends Grass against "hysterical" criticism . Spiegel online, advance notice of an interview in the print edition of April 16, 2012, April 15, 2012
  37. ↑ Dispute over Israel poem: "Grass is treated like a leper" . Spiegel Online on April 12, 2012
  38. ↑ cit. after: Federal President Gauck in Israel Don't forget! Never . Faz online on May 29, 2012
  39. ^ Henrik M. Broder: Günter Grass the eternal anti-Semite ; initially published in the print edition Die Welt on April 4, 2012, Welt online April 4, 2012
  40. ^ Henryk M. Broder: Günter Grass - Not very close, but a poet . World online on April 4, 2012
  41. ↑ Interview with Günter Grass (II): “Criticizing America is a service of friendship” . Spiegel online on October 10, 2001
  42. ↑ In 2011 , Tom Segev , who conducted the interview, defended Grass against this interpretation . Controversial Grass interview. Segev statement in full . Spiegel online on September 3, 2011
  43. ^ Henryk M. Broder: Günter Grass - Not very close, but a poet . World online on April 4, 2012
  44. ↑ Polit-Poem. Israel criticizes Grass poem ( memento April 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Financial Times Deutschland online on April 4, 2012
  45. ↑ Frank Schirrmacher: Frank Schirrmacher: What Grass wants to tell us . FAZ online on April 4, 2012
  46. ↑ Thomas Nehls: Comment: Peace prize instead of scolding for Günter Grass ( Memento from April 4, 2012 on WebCite ). Daily news online on April 4, 2012
  47. ^ Grass poem on Israel: Lyric First Strike . Spiegel online from April 4, 2012
  48. ↑ Christoph Sydow: Günter Grass is so wrong . Spiegel Online on April 4, 2012
  49. ↑ Jakob Augstein: It had to be said . Spiegel online on April 6, 2012
  50. ↑ Malte Lehming: Günter Grass - a circle closes . Tagesspiegel online on April 4, 2012
  51. ↑ Israel-critical poem causes outrage . Stern online on April 4, 2012
  52. ↑ Hans Kundnani: Günter Grass and changing German attitudes towards Israel ; guardian.co.uk on April 5, 2012
  53. ↑ Günter Grass laments "conformity of opinion" . Spiegel online on April 5, 2012.
  54. ↑ Josef Joffe: Grass poem: Günter's new friends . Time online on April 13, 2012.
  55. ↑ Grass' anti-Israel poem is full of Nazi stereotypes . Berliner Morgenpost online on April 4, 2012.
  56. ↑ Micha Brumlik: TAZ chokes on his guilt on 5th / 6th. 1012
  57. ↑ Julia Jakob: The reactions to the Grass poem (audio), Ndr, April 4, 2012.
  58. ^ Reaction of the envoy in Berlin. Israel damn Grass poem . Spiegel online on April 4, 2012
  59. ↑ Media hype at Grass. Worldwide criticism . World online on April 6, 2012
  60. ↑ Reactions: Staeck defends Grass . Spiegel Online on April 5, 2012
  61. ↑ Staeck: Artists have to get involved . Deutschlandradio Kultur from April 5, 2012
  62. ↑ Kitschy and pathetic: Günter Grass did not choose the poem form by chance  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / podcast-mp3.dradio.de   , Deutschlandradio Kultur on April 4, 2012
  63. ↑ Marcel Reich-Ranicki on Grass. It's a disgusting poem . FAZ online from April 8, 2012
  64. ↑ Grass defends himself against criticism of the controversial poem ( memento of April 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , tagesschau.de of April 5, 2012
  65. ↑ Denis Scheck: About the discussions about Günter Grass and his poem. ( Memento from December 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Broadcast on ARD: Hot off the press from April 29, 2012
  66. ↑ Here Detering alludes to Andreas Thalmayr's (pseudonym of Hans Magnus Enzensberger ) work: Das Wasserzeichen der Poesie (Frankfurt aM 1997).
  67. ^ Grass memorial smeared ( memento from June 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). World online on April 7, 2012
  68. ^ Heinrich Detering: Günter Grass. Gestural rhythm or lyrical imposture ( Memento from May 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )? Cicero online on April 16, 2012
  69. ↑ Responses to Günter Grass. Has the old German raised his head? FAZ online from April 5, 2012
  70. ↑ Louis Begley: What Shouldn't Have Been Written , faz.net on April 10, 2012
  71. ↑ Commentary on the Grass poem: Why don't you all protect? ( Memento from April 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , Frankfurter Rundschau from April 7, 2012
  72. ↑ Hans-Christian Rößler: “Decent people should condemn the statements” , faz.net on April 5, 2012
  73. ^ "Israel like a child with a genetic disorder". Small newspaper on April 28, 2012
  74. ↑ Harsh reaction to anti-Israel poem. Eli Amir - Günter Grass shouldn't “see hatred”. Focus online on April 6, 2012
  75. ↑ Leipzig writer Clemens Meyer defends Günter Grass , Leipziger Volkszeitung Online on April 4, 2012
  76. ^ Writer on Grass: Intellektuelle Senkgrube , FAZ from April 6, 2012
  77. ↑ He presented his criticism in an open letter. Rolf Hochhuth writes Grass . Mercury online on April 7, 2012
  78. ↑ His second open letter appeared in the world and in Mercury . Quoted here from: Akademie der Künste: Staeck goes on, Hochhuth goes ( Memento from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Frankfurter Rundschau online on May 6, 2012
  79. ^ Hochhuth against the Academy of Arts. Slamming doors in Berlin . Faz online on May 7, 2012
  80. ↑ Rolf Hochhuth: Why the playwright Rolf Hochhuth left the cultural institution ( memento of September 26, 2018 in the Internet Archive ). Jüdische Allgemeine online on May 10, 2012
  81. ↑ Biermann on Grass: “Bumbling prose. A literary deadly sin ” . Welt am Sonntag online on April 8, 2012
  82. ^ Adolf Muschg: Not these tones , Sunday online on April 7, 2012
  83. ^ Günter Grass, Israel and Stupidity . In: Zwischenwelt. Literature, resistance, exile. Ed. Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft, Volume 28, Issue 1–2, May 2012 p. 73
  84. ↑ Durs Grünbein: “He is a preacher with a mallet” . Faz online on April 11, 2011
  85. ↑ Interview with Yoram Kaniuk: "It is difficult to live with the Holocaust" . World online on April 11, 2012
  86. ↑ NP interview: Uri Avnery on the Günter Grass case: “Totally unnecessary” . New press online on April 10, 2012
  87. ↑ A ban on criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic . Süddeutsche Zeitung online on April 9, 2012
  88. ↑ Author Dave Eggers does not honor the Günter Grass Foundation in Bremen . Weser Kurier online on April 12, 2012
  89. ↑ Israeli authors demand that Grass be sentenced . Orf.at on April 22, 2012
  90. ^ Decision of the writers' association. Grass remains PEN Honorary President . Süddeutsche Zeitung online on May 12, 2012
  91. ↑ Jürgen Flimm. Concern for Günter Grass . News at. On April 25, 2012, entire text in the print edition News 17/2012
  92. ↑ Israeli historian considers Günter Grass to be "pathetic" and "egocentric" . Deutschlandradio Kultur on April 4, 2012
  93. ↑ Interview with Tom Segev: Historian Tom Segev. "Grass thinks of his SS silence" . Spiegel online on April 5, 2012
  94. ^ Historian Wolffsohn on Grass poem . Spiegel online on April 4, 2012
  95. ^ Moshe Zuckermann: A well orchestrated hysteria ( memento from August 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). The background online on April 6, 2012
  96. ↑ Moshe Zuckermann: I say who is an anti-Semite . Taz online on April 10, 2012
  97. ^ Raphael Gross: Debate about Grass poem. Anti-Semitism without anti-Semites . Berliner Zeitung online on April 7, 2012
  98. ↑ Grass: Prime Minister Netanyahu creates more and more enemies for Israel ; here: audio version of the Patzelt interview, Deutschlandradio on April 7, 2012
  99. ^ Daniel Jonah Goldhagen: Grass - ignorant or calculating cynic? World online on April 7, 2012
  100. ↑ Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht: Germans have not overcome the trauma of 1945 . In: Welt online on April 9, 2012
  101. ^ Moshe Zimmermann: Entry ban. How Grass Serves Israel's Rights . In: Spiegel online on April 9, 2012. See also: Panel discussion in Hamburg on allegations of anti-Semitism against Günter Grass . Audio file and what else has to be said by Verena Herb. Deutschlandradio Kultur June 11, 2012
  102. ^ Grass bashing ( Memento from May 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). in: Context: weekly newspaper of April 11, 2012, text submitted on April 9, 2012
  103. ↑ Interview with Alfred Grosser . Süddeutsche Zeitung online on April 10, 2012
  104. ↑ Stern interview with US political scientist Beinart: "Grass undermines his arguments" . Stern online on April 11, 2012
  105. ^ Lothar Schröder: Debate about poem critical of Israel. Günter Grass - the attack as repression . Rheinische Post online on April 11, 2012
  106. ↑ See Hamid Dabashi: Günter Grass, Israel and the crime of poetry ; aljazeera.com on April 10, 2012
  107. ↑ Interview: Fritz Stern on the Grass case. A provocation with depressing results . FAZ online on April 13, 2012, print edition April 14, 2012
  108. ↑ Durs Grünbein: "He's a preacher with a mallet." Faz online on April 11, 2011
  109. ↑ Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht: Germans have not overcome the trauma of 1945 . World online on April 9, 2012
  110. ^ Henryk M. Broder: Günter Grass - Not very close, but a poet . World online on April 4, 2012
  111. ↑ Grass has always attracted total criticism ( memento from September 13, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). New Osnabrück newspaper online on April 16, 2012
  112. ^ Günter Grass, a Nobel Laureate polarized. Volker Neuhaus in conversation with Markus Schwering. WDR5 radio house talks moderated by Jürgen Wiebicke on May 3, 2012, https://webdatenbank.grass-medienarchiv.de/receive/ggrass_mods_00001833
  113. ↑ Stefan Talmon: What else has to be said - the threat of Israeli 'first strike' against Iran violates the Charter of the United Nations. FAZ on May 3, 2012.
  114. ↑ Stefan Talmon: On the Grass case. What else needs to be said . Faz online on May 2, 2012
  115. ↑ Carla Dondera: “What has to be said: Günter Grass and the staged breaking of taboos”. In: Samuel Salzborn (Ed.): Anti-Semitism since 9/11. Events, debates, controversies. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2019, pp. 76, 80 f.
  116. ↑ Günter Grass laments "conformity of opinion" . Spiegel Online on April 5, 2012.
  117. ^ Tom Buhrow : Interview with Günter Grass ; Video recording from tagesschau.de on April 5, 2012
  118. ↑ The poet defends himself . Spiegel Online on April 5, 2012
  119. ↑ Günter Grass laments "conformity of opinion" . Spiegel Online on April 5, 2012.
  120. ↑ Grass specifies criticism of Israel . Süddeutsche Zeitung online on April 6, 2012, printed in the print edition of April 7, 2012
  121. ^ Günter Grass. Dispute over criticism of Israel . Spiegel online on April 7, 2012
  122. ↑ Günter Grass reacts to Israel's entry ban - "As with Minister Mielke" . Süddeutsche Zeitung online on April 11, 2012.