PEN Center Germany

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First meeting of the re-established PEN Center Germany on April 12, 1949 in Hamburg

The PEN Center Germany is a German writers' association. The abbreviation PEN (internationally also PEN ) means “Poets, Essayists, Novelists”.

After the PEN was founded in England in 1921, the PEN also established itself in many other countries. In 1924, German authors founded the PEN Center Germany. The PEN Center Germany is a member of PEN International and is based in Darmstadt . The president of the PEN Center Germany has been the author Regula Venske since April 28, 2017 .

activity

As with the international PEN, the work of the German PEN, in accordance with its charter, is aimed at advocating the protection and freedom of culture. Unhindered exchange of ideas and free expression are represented nationally and internationally. To this end, the German PEN Center maintains two central programs: Writers in Prison (Vice President Ralf Nestmeyer has been responsible since 2018 ) and Writers in Exile (Vice President Franziska Sperr has been responsible since 2013 ), both in close coordination with the international PEN and, if necessary, the PENs the countries of origin of the respective persecuted .

In the Writers in Prison program, cultural and other contacts are used to free politically persecuted writers. Mail campaigns and direct contact with those in power are used as means. The Writers-in-Exile -Programme takes in persecuted writers in Germany and gives them the chance to live in safety for several years and continue to work as writers. For this purpose, the German PEN Center, with funding from the Foreign Office, maintains several apartments that can be made available to the persecuted, and the cities of Nuremberg and Munich each offer their own apartment for the program, which is allocated to the persecuted via the PEN Center .

Since 1985 the PEN Center Germany has been awarding the Hermann Kesten Medal for special services to persecuted authors within the meaning of the International PEN Charter , whereby the PEN describes itself as the “voice of persecuted and oppressed writers”.

History of the PEN Center Germany

Weimar Republic

In 1924, German writers founded a German section within the International PEN under the direction of Ludwig Fulda . Originally, it was a socially and socially "acceptable" association of established and conservative authors. Although this group had actively supported German chauvinism and patriotism during World War I , the international PEN Club under its founder-president John Galsworthy was ready to overlook it in order to expand its apolitical, social activity to Germany. In 1926, the German PEN organized the international congress in Berlin, which was the first international conference in Germany after the First World War. That is why the Foreign Office , which was no longer able to exert any direct influence under the Versailles Peace Treaty , used the German PEN as an extended arm of German foreign policy.

Ludwig Fulda was replaced by Theodor Däubler in autumn 1927 . However, he subsequently became seriously ill and was therefore assigned Walter Bloem as president with equal rights in 1931 . In 1932, Bloem was replaced by Alfred Kerr in the same role. Däubler died in 1934.

From 1930, the German PEN Center attracted attention because, contrary to the statutes of the international PEN Club and the personal practice of founder President Galsworthy, it advocated the rights of writers and thus violated the principle of no politics of the association originally founded as a purely social club. The reason was the ban on the Remarque film In the West, nothing new . This line, which originated in Germany, was initially rejected internationally. At the international congress in 1932, however, a political resolution was adopted by a majority for the first time and after the events in Germany in 1933 the PEN had to give up its non-political role.

time of the nationalsocialism

In 1933, Alfred Kerr fled abroad immediately after seizing power . After Kerr's flight, a board of directors consisting of Hanns Martin Elster , the terminally ill Theodor Däubler and Herwarth Walden was formed at short notice in February . In April, members were of the struggle Confederation of German culture of Alfred Rosenberg admitted to the center, although many of them were no writers or journalists within the meaning of PEN. On April 23, 1933, the synchronization followed under an equal head of three from Hanns Johst , Hans Hinkel , Rainer Schlösser . The meeting in which the new election took place was stormed by SA men; by the second voting round, almost all established members of the PEN had already escaped from the building. In the sense of “pseudo legitimacy”, however, the election was masked as an internal process. In January 1934, the PEN was transformed into the Union of National Writers . Hanns Johst and Gottfried Benn were particularly committed to this renovation .

The Nazi-friendly German association was criticized in the international association for inaction against the book burning in Germany in 1933 , and in November 1933 it was expelled by its own exit. During the time of National Socialism , writers who fled Germany founded the PEN Center for German-Speaking Authors Abroad in 1934 as an organization for authors in exile. As early as December 1933, Lion Feuchtwanger , Ernst Toller , Max Herrmann-Neiße and Rudolf Olden had campaigned for an autonomous PEN group of exiles. The recognition of the exile PEN with Heinrich Mann as president was confirmed by the international PEN in June 1934. The official seat was London, first the German Group of the International PEN , then the German (Anti-Nazi) Group , later the Center of German Writers Abroad and, until 2002, the Center for German-Language Authors Abroad .

After Austria and the Austrian PEN joined the German Nazi organization, a new Austrian PEN was founded internationally under the name Austrian Group . The president was Franz Werfel .

post war period

In 1948, the PEN Center Germany was re- established in Göttingen . In 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany was founded as a West German state and the German Democratic Republic in the East . After East German authors shaped the PEN Center, the German PEN Center (Federal Republic) split off in 1951 . As a result, the now East German PEN Center in Germany was renamed the German PEN Center East and West in 1953 .

In 1960 the writers and some GDR functionaries from the German PEN Center East and West tried to initiate an all-German collaboration again. They invited to their 12th General Assembly in Hamburg and called on the members of the West PEN to participate. When the guests had already arrived, the police officer Wilhelm Kröger banned the event and urged the university and hotels to cancel room promises. The planned discussions did not materialize.

The German PEN Center East and West has been called the PEN Center German Democratic Republic since 1967 and was renamed the German PEN Center (East) in 1991 .

In 1998 the two German PEN centers merged.

President

PEN Center Germany (from 1924)

PEN Center Germany (1948 to 1951)

East German PEN center

The changing names are shown in italics.

German PEN Center (Federal Republic)

PEN Center Germany (from 1998)

Handover of the PEN presidency from Johano Strasser (left) to Josef Haslinger (right), Marburg 2013

exhibition

literature

  • Dorothée Bores: The East German PEN Center 1951 to 1998. A tool of dictatorship ?, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-023385-8 .
  • Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 .
  • Bernt Engelmann (ed.): Literature of Exile. A PEN documentary [about the autumn meeting of the PEN Club]. With contributions and a. by Ernest Bornemann , Walter Fabian , Judith Kerr , Alphons Silbermann , Willy Brandt , Peter Härtling and documents from exile. Munich 1981, ISBN 3-442-06362-0 .
  • Martin Gregor-Dellin (Ed.): PEN, Federal Republic of Germany. Its members, its history, its tasks. Munich 1978, ISBN 3-442-03682-8 .
  • Sven Hanuschek: History of the Federal German PEN Center from 1951 to 1990 . Niemeyer, 2004, ISBN 3-484-35098-9 .
  • Sven Hanuschek: PEN The International Association of Writers. Your German history, your tasks. Exhibition catalog. 2011.
  • Ursula Heukenkamp (ed.): Under the emergency roof. Post-war literature in Berlin 1945–1949 . (Chapter: Christine Malende: Berlin and the PEN Club. On the history of the German section of an international writers' organization. ) ISBN 978-3-503-03736-0 .
  • Helmut Peitsch : No politics? The history of the German PEN center in London 1933–2002. V & R unipress, 2006, ISBN 3-89971-304-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 90 years of German PEN, “Protection in Europe” and the press - PEN Center Germany criticizes reporting on Günter Grass. At: PEN-Deutschland.de. December 15, 2016, accessed on January 22, 2016. "On December 15, 1924, the first German PEN group was founded as part of the International PEN, ..."
  2. ↑ PEN Germany. Entry page, accessed October 8, 2009.
  3. ↑ Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 76.
  4. ↑ Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 82.
  5. ↑ Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 80.
  6. ↑ Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 87.
  7. ↑ Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 88.
  8. ↑ Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 99.
  9. ^ A b Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 103.
  10. ↑ a b Helmut Peitsch: Attempted conformity by the Nazi regime, dissolution and flight into exile (1933–1945) . In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , pp. 133-167, 136.
  11. ↑ Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 104.
  12. ↑ Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 121.
  13. ↑ Helmut Peitsch: Attempted conformity by the Nazi regime, the dissolution and flight into exile (1933-1945) . In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 139
  14. ↑ Ernst Fischer: The Center in the Weimar Republic. In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 120.
  15. ↑ Helmut Peitsch: Attempted synchronization by the Nazi regime, the dissolution and flight into exile (1933-1945) . In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 142
  16. ↑ Helmut Peitsch: Attempted conformity by the Nazi regime, the dissolution and flight into exile (1933-1945) . In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 145
  17. ↑ Helmut Peitsch: Attempted synchronization by the Nazi regime, the dissolution and flight into exile (1933-1945) . In: Dorothée Bores, Sven Hanuschek (Ed.): Manual PEN. History and present of the German-speaking centers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026067-0 , p. 148.
  18. ↑ The red poets and Hamburg's police. In: The time. December 16, 1960.
  19. ^ Sven Hanuschek: PEN The international writers' association. Your German story. Your tasks. Pp. 8-33.
  20. ^ Review by Gerd Dietrich of Dorothée Bores: The East German PEN Center 1951 to 1998. A tool of dictatorship? Berlin 2010 on www.hsozkult.de.
  21. ↑ Grandpa's Association, Babies Commune? In: FAZ . September 8, 2011, p. 31.