Library of German Classics (series, GDR)
The large-scale edition company of Volksverlag Weimar (until 1964) and then Aufbau-Verlag (Berlin and Weimar / GDR), which is still present on many bookshelves today, was a state-controlled "people's edition", today one would say reading edition , initiated by the Ministry for Culture (GDR) that wanted to make those German-speaking authors accessible to a broad readership who, on the one hand, were acceptable from the point of view of the SED leadership and the prevailing state ideology and, on the other hand, were assigned the status of a classic by contemporary German studies . Reading or popular editions like these are part of a cultural tradition.
Historical background
With the aim of publishing a series of discounted collective editions, which should be made available to working people in particular, the SED government ordered the Ministry of Culture to publish a series of classics in December 1953. On March 10, 1954, during a meeting of the Ministry of Culture, the name BDK was mentioned for the first time and at the same time was commissioned to set a framework program for the following years. Among the editors of the series were Reinhard Buchwald (Heidelberg), Louis Fürnberg (Weimar), Helmut Holtzhauer (Weimar), Leopold Magon (Berlin), Hans Mayer (Leipzig), Joachim Müller (Jena), Wilhelm Rücker (Weimar), Heinz Stolpe (Weimar) and Hedwig Voegt (Leipzig)
In the course of this government ordinance, the Institute for Classical German Literature of the National Research and Memorial Center (NFG) was founded and placed under the direction of Helmut Holtzhauer . In the early years, the series was conceived as an all-German edition. This changed in October 1957, when the SED leadership criticized the series for its bourgeois attitude in the course of a cultural-political reorientation, known as the “Ideological Offensive”.
In the course of the 1980s, the influence of the censorship authority and the supervising cultural officials from the state and politics increasingly decreased. With the collapse of the GDR, the BDK also came to an end. The last editions were published in 1992 by Aufbau-Verlag Berlin and Weimar.
A total of more than seven million volumes were sold in the GDR, but also in West Germany. The Germanist Hans Mayer wrote in 1991: “The library of German classics that was published in Weimar was sensational ... Weimar editions were used in all Germanistic seminars in the Federal Republic of Germany. ... "
The individual issues
Altogether there are 74 mostly multi-volume editions (in a total of 165 volumes) of texts that were originally published between 1488 and 1916. Seven of them are letters. A total of 62 authors were published, seven of them from Austria and five from Switzerland. Only two authors were published in the 'Library of German Classics'.
| Work edition (number of volumes) | Editors / editors | Year first edition |
|---|---|---|
| Anzengruber, Ludwig (2 vol.) | Kuhne, Manfred | 1971 |
| Arnim, Achim von (1 vol.) | Hahn, Karl-Heinz | 1981 |
| Börne, Ludwig (2 vol.) | Bock, Helmut , Walter Dietze | 1959 |
| Bräker, Ulrich (1 vol.) | Thalheim, Hans-Günther | 1964 |
| Brentano, Clemens (1 vol.) | Hahn, Karl-Heinz | 1991 |
| Brentano, Clemens , Achim von Arnim (1 vol.) | Hahn, Karl-Heinz | 1973 |
| Büchner, Georg (1 vol.) | Poschmann, Henri | 1964 |
| Bürger, Gottfried August (1 vol.) | Kaim-Kloock, Lore, Streller, Siegfried | 1956 |
| Chamisso, Adelbert von (1 vol.) | Wersig, Peter | 1967 |
| Droste-Hülshoff, Annette von (1 vol.) | Walbiner, Rudolf | 1969 |
| Ebner-Eschenbach, Marie von (1 vol.) | Cook, Alice | 1969 |
| Eichendorff, Joseph von (1 vol.) | Häckel, Manfred | 1967 |
| Fontane, Theodor (5 vol.) | Reuter, Hans-Heinrich | 1964 |
| Fontane's letters (2 vols.) | Erler, Gotthard | 1968 |
| Forster, Georg (2 vol.) | Steiner, Gerhard | 1968 |
| Freiligrath, Ferdinand (1 vol.) | Ilberg, Werner | 1962 |
| Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (10 vols.) | Buchwald, Reinhard | 1956/57 |
| Goethe Selected Writings on Nature (Supplementary Volume) | Buchwald, Eberhard | 1961 |
| Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (12 vols.) | Holtzhauer, Helmut | 1966 |
| Goethe's letters (3 vols.) | Holtzhauer, Helmut | 1970 |
| Gotthelf, Jeremias (2 vols.) | Poschmann, Henri | 1971 |
| Grabbe, Christian Dietrich (2 vols.) | Werner, Hans-Georg | 1987 |
| Grillparzer, Franz (3 vols.) | Bearer, Claus | 1967 |
| Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoffel from (4 vol.) | Streller, Siegfried | 1960 |
| Gryphius, Andreas (1 vol.) | Szyrocki, Marian | 1963 |
| Günther, Johann Christian (1 vol.) | Dahlke , Hans | 1957 |
| Hauff Wilhelm (2 vols.) | Schlichting, Reiner | 1963 |
| Hebbel, Friedrich (3 vol.) | Müller, Joachim | 1960 |
| Lever, Johann Peter (1 vol.) | Pilling, Dieter | 1969 |
| Heine, Heinrich (5 vols.) | Holtzhauer, Helmut | 1956 |
| Heine Lutetia (supplementary volume) | Holtzhauer, Helmut | 1960 |
| Heine's letters (1 vol.) | Mende, Fritz | 1969 |
| Herder, Johann Gottfried (5 vols.) | Dobbek, Wilhelm | 1957 |
| Herder's letters (1 vol.) | Otto, Regine | 1970 |
| Herwegh, Georg (1 vol.) | Werner, Hans-Georg | 1967 |
| Hoffmann, ETA (3 vol.) | Schneider, Gerhard | 1963 |
| Hölderlin, Friedrich (2 vol.) | Greiner-Mai, Herbert | 1963 |
| Hutten, Ulrich von , Müntzer , Luther (2 vol.) | Streller, Siegfried, Streller, Christa | 1970 |
| Keller, Gottfried (5 vols.) | Judge, Hans | 1961 |
| Keller's letters (1 vol.) | Goldammer, Peter | 1967 |
| Kleist, Heinrich von (2 vols.) | Brandt, Helmut | 1961 |
| Klinger, Friedrich Maximilian von (2 vols.) | Geerdts, Hans Jürgen | 1958 |
| Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb (1 vol.) | Hahn, Karl-Heinz | 1971 |
| Lenau, Nikolaus (1 vol.) | Schlichting, Reiner, Heinz Arnold | 1970 |
| Lenz, Jakob Michael Reinhold (1 vol.) | Richter, Helmut, Rosalinde Gothe | 1972 |
| Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (5 vols.) | Balser, Karl, Höhle, Thomas | 1959 |
| Lessing's letters (1 vol.) | Greiner-Mai, Herbert | 1967 |
| Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph (1 vol.) | Friederici, Hans | 1973 |
| Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (2 vol.) | Brandt, Helmut | 1970 |
| Mörike, Eduard (1 vol.) | Rücker, Wilhelm | 1969 |
| Moritz, Karl Philipp (2 vols.) | Jahn, Jürgen | 1973 |
| Nestroy, Johann (2 vols.) | Reimann, Paul | 1962 |
| Novalis (1 vol.) | Dahnke, Hans-Dietrich, Rudolf Walbiner | 1983 |
| Paul, Jean (2 vols.) | Hecht, Wolfgang | 1968 |
| Raabe, Wilhelm (5 vols.) | Klingenberg, Anneliese | 1972 |
| Raimund, Ferdinand (1 vol.) | Gothe, Rosalinde | 1969 |
| Reuter, Christian (1 vol.) | Jackel, Günter | 1962 |
| Reuter, Fritz (3 vols.) | Batt, Kurt | 1963 |
| Sachs, Hans (2 vols.) | Schiller, Karl Martin, Anneliese Klingenberg | 1960 |
| Schiller, Friedrich (5 vols.) | Müller, Joachim | 1955 |
| Schiller's letters (2 vols.) | Hahn, Karl-Heinz | 1968 |
| Schiller History of the Thirty Years' War (supplementary volume) | 1956 | |
| Schlegel, Friedrich von (2 vols.) | Hecht, Wolfgang | 1980 |
| Schubart, Christian Friedrich Daniel (1 vol.) | Wertheim, Ursula , Boehm, Hans | 1959 |
| Seume, Johann Gottfried (2 vols.) | Klingenberg, Anneliese and Karl-Heinz | 1962 |
| Stifter, Adalbert (4 vols.) | Müller, Joachim | 1961 |
| Storm, Theodor (2 vols.) | Goldammer, Peter | 1962 |
| Tieck, Ludwig (2 vol.) | Köpp, Claus Friedrich | 1985 |
| Voss, Johann Heinrich (1 vol.) | Voegt, Hedwig | 1966 |
| Weerth, Georg (2 vol.) | Kaiser, Bruno | 1963 |
| Wieland, Christoph Martin (4 vols.) | Bohm, Hans | 1967 |
| Winckelmann, Johann Joachim (1 vol.) | Holtzhauer, Helmut | 1969 |
| German Schwänke (1 vol.) | Albrecht, Günter | 1959 |
| German Folk Books (3 vol.) | Suchsland, Peter, Erika Weber | 1968 |
Edition review
The library of German classics must be seen as a child of its time and is only partially sufficient for today's science-critical edition work. However, this edition was never designed as a “popular edition ” for scientific use. Ideological and time-typical selection criteria for the individual volumes must be proven in many cases. Anyone looking at the project from a historical perspective can understand that the editing deficiencies, some of which are serious from today's perspective, arose from these circumstances.
Each edition had its own focus and often set its own inclusion and omission criteria. So is z. B. the Winckelmann text edition has not been supplemented with a letter edition that is particularly necessary for this author. Walther Rehm's edition is similar in size to Holtzhauer's GDR Winckelmann edition, but letters make up a third of the size. In the Börne edition, his problematic Goethe criticism is completely omitted.
The controversial and ideologically tinged discussions about individual issues can be illustrated particularly well using the Goethe example. The Goethe edition was prepared by the publisher Reinhard Buchwald , a pedagogue, literary and cultural historian living in West Germany. This edition quickly received prominent ideological criticism, both in terms of its selection and introduction, and because of Buchwald's visible political stance. In the opinion of the GDR Ministry of Culture, its work lacked a partisan standpoint and was subsequently taken off the market. That is the reason why there are two different Goethe editions in the library of German classics (see above).
Interpretation perspectives
The work is a product of its time and falls into the historical phase of the so-called thaw in the Soviet sphere of influence . Specifically in the GDR, the effects of the suppression of the uprising of June 17, 1953 were added, this edition was part of the détente policy of the SED leadership. At that time, under the aegis of the SED leadership, the integration of bourgeois culture into the self-image of the new state was promoted. The works therefore had to appear somehow compatible with the official state ideology of the leadership of the GDR, but at the same time they remained stubborn art from another era. The solution was to run the series only until something like Marxist-oriented literature began to appear. The BdK stands for a "naive, consensual form of a positive cultural connection to tradition".
Whether the BdK was system-stabilizing in the structure of the GDR “ unjust state ”, as initially intended by the SED leadership in the 1950s, can - if at all - only be answered in a chronologically and socially differentiated manner.
School uses
The major editorial project of the Library of German Classics is a suitable subject for history and literature lessons in several respects .
- Due to the long time span of the project from the first idea to the end of the GDR (1953 to 1990), one canonical subject, classical German-language literature, shows in an exemplary way the political boom and the ever narrow but changeable scope for freedom in the GDR .
- The interplay between external system influences and internal stability in dictatorships can be illustrated.
- The selection of the BdK at least partially reveals the literary canon in the GDR. In this way, questions about the meaning of educational canons, their function and their limits become clear by way of example.
- The reading of the individual authors postulated as classic gains a new perspective against the background of this edition history. Literary stubbornness and the possibility of political instrumentalization are discussed.
Individual evidence
- ↑ As an early example: Library of German Classics. With introductions to literary history, biographies and portraits. Hildburghausen: Bibliographical Institute, 1861–1864. (25 volumes)
- ↑ HA planning and plan control: 4th interim report on the measures to point II / 3 of the government ordinance of December 10, 1953, March 31, 1954, cited. according to Marcus Gärtner: "Library of German Classics". The classics in Leseland. In: Lothar Ehrlich / Gunther Mai (ed.): Weimar Classics in the Honecker era. Cologne u. a. 2001, p. 197.
- ^ A b c Marcus Gärtner: Library of German Classics. The classics in Leseland . In: Lothar Ehrlich, Gunther Mai (Hrsg.): Weimar Classics in the Honecker era . Cologne 2001, ISBN 978-3-412-03601-0 , p. 193-218 .
- ↑ Alexander Abusch: In the ideological struggle for a socialist culture: The development of socialist culture in the time of the 2nd five-year plan. Speech at the cultural conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany on October 23, 1957 in Berlin . Dietz, Berlin 1957.
- ↑ Hans Mayer “No end to utopia.” Interview with Ulrich Faure . Börsenblatt des Deutschen Buchhandels, 65/16 August 1991, p. 2664.
- ^ A b c Marko Demantowsky: BdK: Library of German Classics. In: My Paralipomena. Observations on the edge. January 3, 2018, accessed March 22, 2018 .
- ↑ Released in 1992 as the first edition, Ed .: Reinhard Hahn ISBN 3-351-02096-1
- ^ BdK: Library of German Classics . In: My Paralipomena . January 2, 2018 ( Meine-paralipomena.com [accessed March 22, 2018]).
- ^ Johann Joachim Winckelmann: Selected writings and letters . Ed .: Walther Rehm. Dieterich, Wiesbaden 1948.
- ↑ Gustav Seibt: Commentary on M. Demantowsky: BdK. Library of German classics. In: My Paralipomena. Observations on the edge. January 3, 2018, accessed March 22, 2018 .
- ^ Gärtner, Markus: Library of German Classics. The classics in Leseland. In: Ehrlich, Lothar / Mai, Gunther (ed.): Weimar classics in the Honecker era. Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2001, p. 202.
- ↑ M. Bollinger, Ch. Rohrer, B. Schött, M. Sturdy: The "Library of German Classics" in School Classes? Considerations from students. In: Forum Didactics of Social Sciences in Northwestern Switzerland. March 21, 2018, accessed March 22, 2018 .
literature
- Marcus Gärtner: "Library of German Classics." The classics in Leseland. In: Lothar Ehrlich / Gunther Mai (ed.): Weimar Classics in the Honecker era . Cologne u. a. 2001, pp. 193-218, ISBN 978-3-412-03601-0 .
- Bodo Plachta (Hrsg.): Editions on German-speaking authors as a mirror of the edition history. Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-484-29702-6 .
- Carsten Wurm: Yesterday, today, structure: 70 years of Aufbau Verlag 1945–2015 . Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-351-03608-9 .
Web links
- Meine Paralipomena - Marko Demantowsky: BdK: Library of German Classics (from January 3, 2018, last on March 16, 2018)
- Muse leaves - Jürgen Koller: Yesterday the planned economy and censorship - today the fight for market shares. 70 years of Aufbau Verlag and no end (from October 26, 2015, most recently on March 16, 2018)
- The “library of German classics” in school lessons? Considerations from students. In: Forum Didactics of Social Sciences in Northwestern Switzerland, (from March 21, 2018, most recently on March 22, 2018)