Writers' Congress

A writers' congress is an event to represent the interests of writers, often in connection with the respective political system . Most of them take place at the national level. Since the first half of the 20th century there have also been efforts to exchange ideas on an international and European level. Under changing names and organizers, it is difficult to look back on a unified history.

history

Congresses of the PEN

The international writers' association PEN was founded in London in 1921 and continues to this day according to the English club principle. Only authors proposed by other members can become members. The first international congress of the PEN took place in London in 1923. Today the PEN acts as an umbrella organization for 144 centers in 102 nations. It organizes an annual congress in another member country.

First, Second and Third International Writers' Congress

In 1935, Ilja Grigoryevich Ehrenburg organized an international writers' congress for the defense of culture, which took place in Paris in June 1935, together with André Malraux , André Gide , Jean-Richard Bloch and Paul Nizan . In addition to those mentioned, the participants included Tristan Tzara , Louis Aragon , Aldous Huxley , Edward Morgan Forster , Bertolt Brecht , Heinrich Mann , Ernst Toller , Anna Seghers , Gustav Regulator , André Breton , Robert Musil and Egon Erwin Kisch .

The Second International Writers' Congress for the Defense of Culture also goes back to Ehrenburg, it met in July 1937 first in Valencia, then in Madrid and finally in Paris - participants included Malraux, Octavio Paz and Pablo Neruda .

In 1939 the "Exile Congress" (Helga Schreckenberger) took place in New York, which was all about the phenomenon of exile and exile literature.

Writers' congresses in Germany

All German 1945–1948

• First German Writers' Congress 4. – 8. October 1947 in Berlin; convened by the Kulturbund for the Democratic Renewal of Germany and the Association of German Authors (SDA)
• II. Writers' Congress 18. – 19. May 1948 in Frankfurt; Discrepancies between East and West become noticeable; Founding of Group 47 , which met until 1967 without a fixed form of organization (FRG).

Writers' congresses in the GDR

In the organization of the German Writers 'Association (DSV) , renamed the Writers' Association of the GDR from 1973:

II. Writers' Congress	4th-6th July 1950
III. Writers' Congress	22-25 May 1952
IV. Writers' Congress	9-14 January 1956
V. Writers' Congress	25-27 May 1961
VI. Writers' Congress	28-30 May 1969
VII. Writers' Congress	14.-16. November 1973
VIII. Writers' Congress	29.-31. May 1978
IX. Writers' Congress	May 31–2. June 1983
Xth Writers' Congress	25-26 November 1987
Extraordinary writers' congress	1st - 3rd March 1990

Writers' congresses in the Federal Republic

• Founding congress of the Association of German Writers (VS) on June 8, 1969
• I. Writer's Congress of VS 20. – 23. November 1970 in Stuttgart
• II. Writers' Congress of the VS 19. – 22. January 1973 in Hamburg; Connection to the IG print and paper
• III. Writers' Congress 15.-18. November 1974 in Frankfurt / Main
• ...
• IX. Writers' Congress 8. – 10. September 1989 in Frankfurt / Main

All German, from 1990

• 17.-18. 1990 February in Hanover

European writers' congresses

In October 2007, on the occasion of Saarbrücken's participation in the activities of Luxembourg as European Capital of Culture, literary events took place under the name of the European Writers' Congress. In September 2009 there was another series of events with lectures, discussions and readings and ten invited writers. The language of the events was German.

In November 2010, a European Writers 'Congress (European Writers' Parliament) took place in Istanbul, which was organized as part of the “ European Capital of Culture ” and was based on an idea from 2007 by José Saramago and Orhan Pamuk . Four commissions met on topics relevant to writers. The conference language is English.

"European Writers' Congress" was also the name of the European Writers Council (EWC, umbrella organization of around 50 writers' and translators' associations from 34 countries) until 2006

Web links

• European Writers' Parliament in Istanbul
• History of the VS on the side of the Bavarian VS

literature

• VS eV (ed.): End of modesty. The texts of the founding event of the Association of German Writers (VS) . 1969.
• Dieter Lattmann (Ed.): Developing Country Culture - Documentation of the second writers' congress of the Association of German Writers (VS) . Munich 1973 (Kindler).
• Bernt Engelmann (ed.): Inventory - V. Writers' Congress VS . Munich 1980 (Goldmann).
• Wolfram Dorn , Klaus-Dieter Sommer (Ed.): Come! open, friend! - First all-German congress of the Association of German Writers (VS) in the IG Medien , Göttingen 1992 (Steidl).
• Klaus Michael , Margret Pötsch, Peter Walther : History, structure and working method of the writers' association of the GDR. In: Journal of the SED State Research Association at the Free University of Berlin. No. 3, 1997, ISSN  0948-9878 , pp. 58-69.
• Sabine Pamperrien : Experiment on the unsuitable object. The writers' association of the GDR in the service of socialist ideology . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 978-3-631-52409-1 .
• Sandra Teroni, Wolfgang Klein (ed.): Pour la defense de la culture. Les textes du Congrès international des écrivains. Paris, juin 1935 , Dijon 2005.
• V. German Writers' Congress from May 25 to 27, 1961, lectures and contributions to discussions, publisher: Deutscher Schriftstellerverband, Verlag: Aufbau, Berlin (GDR), 1961.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Schreckberger, Helga, The World Congress of Writers of 1939 in the mirror of the American press. In: Dieter Sevin (ed.), The Resonance of Exile. Amsterdam 1992.