Print approval process
The so-called printing approval process was the form of literary censorship in the GDR . See also the main article Censorship in the GDR .
history
In August 1951, the "Office for Literature and Publishing" was founded in the government of the GDR, which had to carry out the printing approval process.
The legal basis for the work of the office was the ordinance on the development of progressive literature of August 16, 1951. According to Section 2 of the ordinance, the office had extensive control over printing.
Two provisions (§ 2 b and § 2 e) made it possible for the office to have an overpowering position:
- The allocation of the paper quota to the publishers took place “according to the publishing plans approved by the Office for Literature and Publishing”.
- Each book had to be submitted to the office for assessment in order to raise the "quality of literature".
On June 26, 1956, the office was incorporated into the Ministry of Culture , initially as the "Headquarters Publishing", since 1958 as the "Department of Literature and Books", and from 1963 as the " Headquarters Publishing and Book Trade " of the Ministry of Culture, which until 1990 Persisted.
After the XI. At the 1987 Writers 'Congress, at which Christoph Hein had scourged the censorship as "useless, paradoxical, misanthropic, hostile to the people, unlawful and punishable", the responsible minister Klaus Höpcke and the president of the GDR writers' association Hermann Kant , the political bureau chief ideologist Kurt, succeeded Hager to wrest the cancellation of the printing permit procedure on January 1, 1989. Hager made the strange condition that nobody should know about it - after all, it was difficult to get rid of censorship that officially did not even exist. Nevertheless, the abolition of censorship had a decisive influence on the climate of public opinion in the run-up to the " turning point ".
Action
The approval of the printing of a book had to be requested from the office or the head office for each new edition. At least two reviews had to be submitted with the manuscript. An employee of the publishing house (usually the editor ) prepared a "publisher's report", an outsider wrote a so-called "external report". The reports included an assessment of the book's political statements and a recommendation for or against printing. The office was not bound by the recommendation. Approved printing works received a license number , which was then to be indicated in the imprint.
effect
Publications that dealt critically with the political situation in the GDR, the Eastern Bloc or socialism were mostly not even submitted, but fell victim to self-censorship or the selection of publishers. These were often only submitted when the publishers themselves saw an opportunity for approval.
The censorship criteria were not rigid, but were based on the changing interpretations of Marxism-Leninism , cultural-political guidelines and the current political situation. As a result, writers who were positive about the GDR were also victims of censorship and had to accept textual changes, deletions, publication bans or even bans on books that were already in print.
literature
- Simone Barck , Martina Langermann, Siegfried Lokatis: “Every book is an adventure”. Censorship system and literary publics in the GDR until the end of the sixties (= contemporary historical studies 9). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-05-003118-2 .
- Simone Barck, Siegfried Lokatis : Censorship Games. Secret literary history from the GDR. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2008, ISBN 978-3-89812-539-0 .
- Franz Huberth (ed.): The Stasi in German literature. Attempto, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-89308-361-8 .
- Joachim Walther : Security area literature. Writer and State Security in the German Democratic Republic (= analyzes and documents 6). Links, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-86153-121-6 .
swell
- ↑ "Ordinance on the Development of Progressive Literature". (August 16, 1951) Journal of Laws No. 100, August 27, 1951, p. 785.
- ↑ https://www.bpb.de/apuz/32144/die-hauptverwaltung-des-leselandes?p=all ; accessed on August 20, 2020
- ↑ Kurt Habitzel: The historical novel of the GDR and the censorship [1]
- ↑ Simone Barck, in: Federal Center for Political Education, Information on Political Education (Issue 256)