Europe's shame

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Europe's Shame is a political poem by Günter Grass from 2012 that addresses the Greek sovereign debt crisis , the associated protest movement in the country and the European Union's relations with the state of Greece . It appeared a few weeks after his controversial Israel-critical poem What Must Be Said online on May 25, 2012, the following day in the printed edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung and in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini . He read his poem on Radio Bremen . The public debate was conducted on both the controversially assessed poetological content and the political intention of the text.

Content and form

In the text, Greece is regretted that it is being "pilloried naked as a debtor" and "taxed under scrap value". Greece is a "lawless country, to which the ruler of power / belts tightened and tightened."

The work consists of twelve rhyming stanzas of two verses each in irregular metrics . The lyrical self , probably the author himself, speaks directly to Europe. The poem begins with the words "Close to chaos, because the market is not fair / you are far from the land that lent you the cradle". Greece, a country to which “You owe thanks was a saying”, is suffering. The "hardly tolerated country" is condemned to poverty. The author uses the metaphor of the poison cup, a reference to the Greek philosopher Socrates , who was sentenced to death by the hemlock by a court judgment . Grass describes how Europe imposes its poison cup on the country Greece: “Drink up, drink up! shout the commissioner Claqueure , / but angrily Socrates gives you the cup full to the brim ”. In the fifth stanza, the author refers to the German occupation of Greece in World War II - "Those who attacked the island-blessed country with armed violence / wore Holderlin in their uniform in their knapsack " - and alludes to the barbaric actions of those claiming their own civilization, once like now. He also refers to the attitude towards the Greek military dictatorship in the line: “Hardly tolerated country whose colonels were once tolerated by you (Europe) as allies.” In the penultimate stanza, the poet threatens a “curse of the gods” and prophesies in the last stanza the consequences of the wrong politics for the perpetrator Europe: “You will wither away mindlessly without the country, whose spirit invented you, Europe”.

reception

In contrast to the lively content- related controversy over the recently published poem What Must Be Said , this time the reaction was restrained. Shortly after the publication, there were numerous media reports in Germany. Politicians, writers or literary critics, on the other hand, took up positions less often.

The CDU politician Gunther Krichbaum , chairman of the European Committee in the Bundestag, said that contrary to the statement in the poem, Greece had been helped enormously with European efforts. For example, it is difficult to convey to the Slovaks that they have to help Greece's pensioners, when Greece already has higher pensions than Slovakia. After discussing his previous poem, Grass could no longer be taken seriously.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk , the writer Petros Markaris said that “ first of all, it is nice that a world-famous author and Nobel Prize winner is using literary means to express himself about the crisis. I'm [...] getting tired of only hearing statements from politicians and economists. And I always found it bad that, say, writers and artists are silent about it. Or not express an opinion. “That's why the poem is “ very valuable ”to him . Grass takes the misery of the Greek people seriously, encourages them and shows that not all Germans are against Greece. Poems and art are always exaggerations. Of course Germany would have to accept financial losses if Greece left the EU. Parliamentarism in Greece has already been destroyed. A National Socialist party achieved 7 percent in the most recent elections, and a right-wing radical 12 percent. There is still a lot left of the ancient ideal that Grass wanted to defend. The current situation could only be dangerous for democracy . Regarding Germany's cooperation with the Greek colonels , he remarked that all Western governments had made pacts with the military, but there was also resistance everywhere. Amazingly, the Greeks would have welcomed their former occupiers more warmly than the former liberators. He regrets that this is no longer the case.

"In the difficult time that the Greek people are going through, the statement of the internationally highly regarded Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass with his poem about Greece gives hope and promotes the European idea" , praised the Greek ambassador in Berlin Dimitrios Rallis to the German press agency .

Volker Weidermann claimed in a FAZ satire that the poem did not come from Günter Grass, but had been submitted to the Süddeutsche Zeitung by the satirical magazine Titanic : "A few catchwords about Greece, antiquity and Europe, cranky sentences, nonsensical genitive constructions - the satirical magazine ' Titanic 'couldn't have done the parody of a Grass poem any better. " The Titanic editors could have placed " this particularly silly and incredibly bad poem " among their colleagues in the South Germans as a " real Grass poem " because they " [o] ffenbar […] they are still so enthusiastic about the fantastic success they achieved with the publication of the last anti-Semitic poem by Günter Grass that they now accept everything that is submitted to them under this successful name in the hope to repeat the mistake Scoop of that time. " the news agency dpa said Weidermann, " whether the now the 'Titanic' or Gü nter Grass thinks up is not much of a difference to me. ” Spiegel online described the process as a “ media farce ” : “ Günter Grass becomes a mockery ” . While in the Internet version on faz.net the introduction is formulated in the subjunctive in contrast to the main text, there was no such reference to the satirical character in the news section of the printed edition of the FAS .

On Twitter and on other websites, the Weidermann satire was initially taken seriously by many, until the SZ editor-in-chief's denial, also on Twitter. Afterwards, numerous mocking poems emerged, again mainly on Twitter. B. Allusions to Grass' age ("Sippy Cup") or the European Football Championship. Welt online published "invented" post-poems under the title What still needs to be sawn , which referred to both poems. Titanic responded with the "press release" put an end to the nonsense .

Because Weidermann leaves the reader in the dark about the "modus dicendi" , ie how a text says something, the literary and media scholar Jochen Hörisch called the FAS article a " perfect game of confusion ". Weidermann published his satire as a message and thus made a “deficiency of the poem” clear, namely that Grass “ mixes up poetological concepts that do not go together: on the one hand the concept of the 'priest-poet' in the classicist Hölderlin tradition, and on the other hand that committed political literature in the sense of Sartre ” . Grass has "just not mastered a sovereign game with genres " . His poem is rather a " violation of the genre , [...] but not in an ironic , satirical sense, but, I have to say this very sharply, out of incompetence."

Jutta Rinas characterized the form of the poem in the Wolfsburger Allgemeine with reference to the "driving rhythm of the ancient meter Anapast ".

Konstantin Sakkas on Deutschlandradio came to a different view on the question of the metrical form of the poem and a positive assessment of its literary quality . He certified Grass to have used "the meter of the Asclepiadic ode ", "and very confidently". In addition, he criticized the “ignorance of the mockers” as “clumsy schoolyard mockery”. According to Sakkas, Grass refers “elegantly” to Goethe's Iphigenia in the second stanza and also takes the German national Hölderlin reception and the Conservative Revolution to court.

The Greek writer and columnist Soti Triantafillou named Grass a populist in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung . She admires the author and especially his "great European novel" The Tin Drum , but he has acquired a "simplistic worldview". Artistically, the poem reminds her of the great German romantic tradition. According to the Greek writer Vasilis Vasilikos , Grass is building on the tradition of German-Greek friendship dating back to the 18th century.

Volker Neuhaus , Grass biographer and editor of his works, rates the poem very positively. On Deutsche Welle he called Grass a "completely independent man" and a "contentious humanist". He accused those responsible for literature at the FAZ of longstanding “hatred” of the poet. Europe's shame is “a wonderful, hymn-like poem” in the Hölderlin tradition “with solemn leaps and bounds”. With his poem, Grass recalled the roots of the occidental community of values.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Poem by Günter Grass on the Greek crisis, Europe's shame , Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 25, 2012. Retrieved on May 25, 2012.
  2. ↑ Grass writes about Greece: With refilled ink , Spiegel Online , May 25, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
  3. ↑ Grass does not want to comment on the Greek poem , Focus online, May 26, 2012
  4. ↑ Europe's shame , read by Günter Grass ( Memento from May 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (2:22). NDR online on May 26, 2012, 1:40 p.m.
  5. ^ Grass publishes poem on Greece , Zeit Online , May 25, 2012.
  6. ^ New Grass poem: "Europe's Shame" , FAZ.NET , May 25, 2012.
  7. ↑ See e.g. B. agreeing: http://www.zeit.de/2012/23/01-Griechenland Greece rescue. Honor antiquity. Time online May 25, 2912, negative: http://www.ftd.de/politik/europa/:europas-schande-grass-wettert-gegen-umgang-mit-griechen/70042799.html#f1 ( Memento from 28. May 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Europe's shame. Grass railed against dealing with Greeks . Financial Times Germany May 27, 2012
  8. ↑ Gunther Krichbaum in conversation with Anne Raith: Grass' "Criticism completely bypasses reality" on DRadio on May 25, 2012.
  9. ↑ Information at noon, at DRadio on May 26, 2012, 1:10 p.m., message related to the interview quoted
  10. ↑ Interview with Petros Markaris: Interview to listen to , information at noon on DRadio on May 26, 2012, 1:15 p.m.
  11. ↑ Dimitros Rallis quoted. after: Europe's shame. A real grass and not from the Titanic . Stuttgarter Zeitung online May 28, 2012
  12. ↑ Volker Weidermann: Noch'n poem: Where would Günter Grass be without Greece? In: faz.net of May 26, 2012. Retrieved May 27, 2012
  13. ↑ Abendblatt.de: Poetry or Truth? Confusion about Grass poem In: Hamburger Abendblatt from May 27, 2012. Retrieved on May 27, 2012
  14. ↑ Media farce. "FAS" mocks the Grass poem in the "SZ" . Spiegel online May 27, 2012
  15. ↑ http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/farce-um-neues-gedicht-grass-wird-zum-gespoett-a-835517.html Medienfarce. FAS mocks Grass poem in the SZ. Spiegel online May 27, 2012, http://www.tagesschau.sf.tv/Nachrichten/Archiv/2012/05/27/Kultur/Spott-ueber-Grass-Griechenland-Gedicht Mockery of Grass poem . Swiss television June 27, 2012
  16. ^ Hans Zippert: New poems. Günter Grass - What has to be sawn ( Memento from May 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Welt online, May 31, 2012
  17. ↑ press release. No more nonsense . Titanic Newsticker online May 30, 2012
  18. ↑ Jochen Hörisch: Perfect confusion . Germany Radio Culture with audio file, May 29, 2012
  19. ↑ Jutta Rinas: GÜNTER GRASS ON EUROPE: With “very last ink”  ( 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. in Wolfsburger Allgemeine on May 25, 2012@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.waz-online.de  
  20. ↑ Konstantin Sakkas: “Europe's Shame” and the ignorance of the mockers , broadcast on Deutschlandradio Kultur on June 1, 2012.
  21. ↑ Soti Triantafyllou: “We are a left-wing society that is extremely conservative at the same time.” Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 4, 2012, p. 13 and Greek author criticizes Grass poem ( memento of the original from July 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info : The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Deutschlandradio Kultur, June 4, 2012  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dradio.de
  22. ↑ Culture news  ( 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. . Deutschlandradio Kultur June 20, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dradio.de  
  23. ↑ Conversation with Volker Neuhaus: What drives Grass? Deutsche Welle, June 6, 2012