Rabet (novel)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rabet - Or the Disappearance of a Cardinal Direction is a novel by Martin Jankowski . The book was published in 1999 by via verbis Verlag and describes the turnaround from the point of view of politically active Leipzig protagonists.

action

Benjamin Grasmann, a young dreamer from the east German province, sets out from his native small town for Leipzig to become a musician. He falls in love with the musician Gesa and through her ends up in the circles of oppositional artists around the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig , who deeply impress him. When one of them was arrested and deported to West Germany , Benjamin decided to become politically active. Soon he was deeply involved in the conflict between the Leipzig opposition and the socialist state. More arrests are made, a movement is formed and ultimately leads to the first riots and demonstrations. But when the GDR fell apart, the group of friends also fell apart and the love between Benjamin and Gesa fell into a crisis.

The novel tells the development of the opposition movement in Leipzig from the perspective of young protagonists and describes their personal stories as well as the emergence of oppositional groups. The first active protests, the development of the peace prayers into a focal point of the conflict and the Monday demonstrations as well as the open confrontation with the SED regime are described. But even after the victory of the opposition, which ultimately led to the fall of the Berlin Wall , the Leipzig revolutionaries did not achieve their goals. The novel takes place between 1987 and 1990 and describes the turnaround for the first time in Wendel literature from the perspective of an active oppositionist.

reception

The Leipziger Volkszeitung ruled in 1999: “We had to wait ten years for this novel!” In 2003 Frank Thomas Grub described the book as “[…] one of the few novels in which the European dimension of the coup is expressed […]” and noted that the book counteracted the creation of legends of the turning point. "Jankowski is one of the few authors who comment not only critically but also ironically [...]", Grub also wrote. Jankowski describes in literary terms how the call “ We are the people ” came about, writes Deutschlandradio Kultur in 2005 . In 2009, the star recommended the novel in a special edition to turn. The book was also published in Italian and Indonesian translation.

literature

  • Martin Jankowski: Rabet - Or the disappearance of a direction. via verbis Verlag, 1999, ISBN 978-3-933-90203-0 .
  • Frank Thomas Grub: 'Wende' and 'Unity' as reflected in German-language literature. A manual. 2 vol. (5.3.7. Ff.), Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003.
  • stern extra, 4/2009: Against the walls in your head .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Meyer, in: Leipziger Volkszeitung , 1999.
  2. ↑ Frank Thomas Grub: 'Wende' and 'Unity' as reflected in German-language literature. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, p. 408 ff.
  3. ↑ Vanessa Fischer: "We are one people" - The story of a German reputation. Country report, Deutschlandradio, 2005.
  4. ↑ stern extra 4/2009 (23 September 2009), “Against the walls in the head”, p. 130 f.