new german literature

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
new german literature

description German literary magazine
Area of ​​Expertise German studies
language German
First edition 1952
attitude December 2004
Frequency of publication per month
Editor-in-chief Willi Bredel (1952–1957)
FC Weiskopf (1954–1955)
Henryk Keisch (1958–1959)
Wolfgang Joho (1960–1966)
Werner Neubert (1966–1974)
Walter Nowojski (1975–1990)
Werner Liersch (1990–1992)
Achim Roscher (1992–1995)
Jürgen Engler (1995–2004)
editor German Writers' Association (DSV)
ISSN (print) 0028-3150

The New German Literature ( NDL ), later new German literature ( ndl ), was a literary magazine published between 1952 and 2004 , which together with Sinn und Form was one of the most important magazines of its kind in the GDR .

history

1952-1989

The New German Literature was founded by the German Writers' Association (DSV), which published it for the first time in November 1952 as a special issue and from January 1953 in the 1st year published monthly. Founding editors were the writers Willi Bredel and FC Weiskopf . The focus was on GDR literature ; West German texts were not allowed to stand in stark contradiction to Marxist-Leninist theory. Similar to Sinn und Form , the ndl was also characterized by conflicts with the cultural policy of the GDR:

  • In May 1953, for example, Heinar Kipphardt published the poem Nocturno , whereupon he was accused of “ formalism ”. In the December issue of the same year, the editorial team printed a self-critical statement on their work.
  • When the German Writers 'Association was renamed the Writers' Association of the GDR in 1973 and a renaming of the magazine was considered, Anna Seghers pleaded for the name "ndl" to be retained.

The number of copies, which fluctuated between 8,000 and 10,000, peaked at 11,500 at the end of 1989. The change in the cover design of the booklets is interesting: Initially, the title and the abbreviation were capitalized. With the continuation of the abbreviation NDL , the cover title read from 1964 to 1966 new German literature . In 1967, Neue Deutsche Literatur was used again as the cover title and ndl as the abbreviation . Since 1980 the cover title and abbreviation have been used consistently in lower case.

1990-2004

As a result of reunification , the GDR Writers' Association dissolved at the end of 1990. The new carrier was the Aufbau-Verlag , in which the ndl had been published since 1956. After its privatization by the publisher Bernd F. Lunkewitz , the magazine was continued, but the number of annual issues was halved to six. In the course of the 1990s, the circulation also decreased more and more - at the time of the 50th anniversary in January 2003 it was 3000 copies.

When he switched to Schwartzkopff Buchwerke in May 2004, a new chapter in the history of ndl began . The publisher replaced the previous subtitle “Zeitschrift für Deutschsprachige Literatur” with “Zeitschrift für Literatur und Politik” and underlined the content reorientation with an eye-catching layout, the first four-color printing of images and a recounting of the issue numbers: Issue no. 555 was presented with a capital "1" on the cover. From then on the magazine was published again on a monthly basis. But the changed concept was unsuccessful, and the number of subscribers, including libraries in particular, fell to around 1000. The history of ndl as a literary magazine ended with issue no. “8” in December 2004 .

2005

In September 2005 the Schwartzkopff Buchwerke publishing house published an anthology of almost 380 pages with the title small talk in the holocene and the - written out - subtitle new German literature . The editor was Jürgen Engler , who has headed the ndl editorial team since 1995. An annual publication was planned. The anthology wanted to get closer to the traditional concept of the magazine and "consciously" refrained from printing foreign-language texts and images.

The monthly reading stage for new German literature “Literatursalon am Kollwitzplatz” in the Berlin Theater ON (Zinnober), founded in 2004 for the ndl, still exists today; The host is Martin Jankowski .

Web links