Kronstadt writer's trial

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In the Kronstadt writers ' trial ( Rum. Procesul scriitorilor germani , "the trial of the German writers' group"), the five Transylvanian-Saxon writers Wolf von Aichelburg , Hans Bergel , Andreas Birkner , Georg Scherg and Harald Siegmund were indicted and convicted in socialist Romania in 1959 . They were accused of having formed an anti-system association and circulating anti-regime literature. It is the only trial of Romania's Stalinist era that has been brought against a group of writers.

context

As in other Eastern European countries, there was a certain relaxation in many areas of society in Romania after Stalin's death. So were z. For example, work on the Danube-Black Sea Canal stopped in 1953 and the principle of "collective leadership" was imitated. This "little thaw" was expressed in the popularity and public presence of new literary protagonists such as Nicolae Labiş in Romanian-language and Hans Bergel in German-language literature. On the part of writers and cultural workers, especially after Khrushchev's “secret speech” at the 20th party congress of the CPSU , there was an increasing tendency towards more artistic freedom. After the Hungarian uprising , however, signs of a new "Ice Age" increased from mid-1957. On this basis, there were around 120,000 prophylactic arrests between 1958 and 1960 against people who were linked to the Hungarian popular uprising or who had previously shown liberal attitudes.

accusation

The indictment was based on facts that the Securitate put into fabricated references and supplemented with allegations and exaggerations.

According to Section 209 (1) of the Romanian Criminal Code, the focus of the indictment was on the accusation of "stimulating or founding organizations [...] for the purpose of changing the existing social order in the state or the popular democratic form of government" or on Section 209 (1) 2, "Any support of the organizations or associations listed in point 1 or their advertising or the company [s] in actions for the benefit of the same or their members." Except for a "conspiratorial meeting" as a founding act for an anti-regime organization pursued the indictment on three other lines. First, evidence was presented that those affected were generally dangerous and anti-regime people. Second, they were accused of having contacts abroad, particularly Heinrich Zillich . Ultimately, the prosecution concentrated on the defendants' works, which had been analyzed beforehand by a commission of experts commissioned by the court according to realistic socialist artistic standards.

Process and actors

The secret trial, negotiated by a military tribunal, lasted a total of eighteen hours. The process, circumstances and framework of the trial were constructed very deliberately, and all reactions, including those of the accused artists, were at least theoretically predetermined.

The chairman was Major Dragoş Cojocaru. The military prosecutor was Virgil Liciu, who had already become known as a prosecutor through the black church trial and in a trial against students from Timisoara . The audience consisted primarily of Securitate officers, party officials and journalists, but they were not allowed to take notes.

In addition to the literary texts, incriminating material arose from witness statements. The witnesses were specifically selected people from personal acquaintances or friends of the accused. These were often blackmailed by the Securitate. Most of the witnesses, however, relativized the statements during the hearing that they had already made in a statement during the interrogations of the secret service. The only of eight witnesses who also incriminated the defendants in the trial was Eginald Schlattner . Arrested in December 1957, he was the prosecution's key witness, and the last to testify. Schlattner's statements in particular underpinned the assumed conspiracy fiction before the court.

The defense of the defendants varied. Harald Siegmund corresponded to his assigned role as already guilty and accused himself. Georg Scherg made some concessions, but like Wolf von Aichelburg and Andreas Birkner kept to the accusations with arguments of reason; all three stated the truth about their intentions, but denied their resistance or evidence of guilt, mainly with reference to humanistic and enlightenment ideals. Hans Bergel's defense represented a third approach. He denied all accusations and opposed the interpretation of his works with his own, which, unlike his fellow writers, was based on socialist-realistic arguments.

Judgments

  • Wolf von Aichelburg: 25 years of forced labor (released in 1964)
  • Hans Bergel: 15 years of forced labor (released in 1964)
  • Andreas Birkner: 25 years of forced labor (released in 1964)
  • Harald Siegmund: 10 years of forced labor (released in 1962)
  • Georg Scherg: 20 years of forced labor (released in 1962)

consequences

Since the accused in the writer's trial were all members of the Romanian German minority, especially the Transylvanian Saxons, the trial also targeted the group in general. The condemnation of the writers and their literature was the representative medium. The process created fear and isolation in the public and private spheres of the minority. Although no articles about the trial appeared in the Romanian or Romanian German press, the consequences of the Kronstadt writers' trial were far-reaching for the German minority in Romania. The literary business was damaged not only by the absence of the imprisoned authors, among others as editors or university lecturers, but also by the fact that other representatives of traditional Transylvanian-Saxon literature no longer spoke up, no longer offered texts for publication or offered the editors the material was too tricky. In the newspaper Neuer Weg , the proportion of Romanian-German authors has fallen sharply in every area since 1957. In 1959, 22 out of 50 editions no longer published original literature in poetry or prose by Romanian Germans - in a newspaper that was intended by and for the minority. In nine other editions it was only one poem each. As a result of the condemnation of the authors, who had previously published a lot in the fictional area, narratives were increasingly replaced by reports. Translations of political articles from the party magazine Scânteia were increasingly reprinted.

"Many of the authors present in the Neuer Weg in the mid-1950s were simply erased from the newspaper's memory during this time."

- Annemarie Weber

literature

  • Michaela Nowotnick: The inescapability of biography. The novel “Red Gloves” by Eginald Schlattner as a case study on Romanian German literature. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-412-50344-4
  • Sven Pauling: We will imprison them because they exist. Study, contemporary witness reports and Securitate files on the Kronstadt writer trial in 1959 . Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86596-419-9 .
  • Peter Motzan, Stefan Sienerth (eds.): Words as danger and danger. Writer in court . Munich 1993, ISBN 3-88356-075-8 .
  • Georg Herbstritt: The Kronstädter Writer's Trial 1959 in the files of the GDR State Security, in: Half-year publication for Southeast European History, Literature and Politics , 23rd vol., Issue 1–2, 2011, pp. 204–208
  • Michaela Nowotnick: "95 years imprisonment". Kronstadt Writer's Trial 1959: Forms of Representation and Interpretation Patterns of Processing, in: Half-year publication for Southeast European History, Literature and Politics, 24th year, Issue 1–2, 2012, pp. 173–181
  • William Totok: empathy for all victims. Eginald Schlattner, a life in times of dictatorial rule, in: Half-year publication for southeast European history, literature and politics, 24th year, issue 1–2, 2012, pp. 181–198
  • Laura Laza: The builder was fear. The political processes of Romanian and German-speaking writers from Romania after the Hungarian uprising of 1956. Cluj-Napoca 2017. ISBN 978-606-17-1118-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Windisch-Middendorf, Renate: The man without a fatherland. Hans Bergel - Life and Work, (Forum: Romania, Vol. 5), Berlin 2010, p. 45.
  2. ^ Peter Motzan: Risk Factor Writer. An example of repression and arbitrariness in the law, in Peter Motzan, Stefan Sienerth [Ed.]: Words as danger and danger. Writers in front of the court, Munich 1993, pp. 51–81, p. 51.
  3. ^ Peter Motzan: Risk Factor Writer. An example of repression and arbitrariness in the law, in Peter Motzan, Stefan Sienerth [Ed.]: Words as danger and danger. Writer before court, Munich 1993, pp. 51–81, p. 62.
  4. ↑ See e.g. B. Panel Discussion on the Writing Process, pp. 95–119; Judgment No. 342 of September 19, 1959, in: Peter Motzan, Stefan Sienerth [Eds.]: Words as danger and danger. Writer in court. Kronstadt 1959, Munich 1993, p. 387.
  5. ↑ Hans Bergel: The Major and the Midnight Bell, in: Ders .: Die Wildgans. Stories from Transylvania, Munich 2011, pp. 71–80, p. 71.
  6. ↑ See e.g. B. Declaration by Astrid Wiesenmayer from March 18, 1959, in: Peter Motzan, Stefan Sienerth: Words as danger and danger. Writer in front of the court, Munich 1993, pp. 301-305, pp. 304f.
  7. ^ Weber, Annemarie: Rumanian Germans? Discourses on the group identity of a minority (1944-1971), Cologne Weimar Vienna 2010, p. 224.