Reservoir reading from Leipzig
The Leipzig reservoir reading was an event in German literary and contemporary history that took place in the context of the state censorship of literature and art by the centralized power apparatus of the GDR .
Historical background
The GDR government controlled the press and artists from the very beginning. Printed matter was censored, authors of texts critical of the system were monitored, harassed and, if repeated, arrested. Employees of the Ministry for State Security were smuggled into all public institutions, but also unofficial circles, groups of authors and underground movements. The Prague Spring demonstrated the power of the socialist government over movements for a humane interpretation of socialism. The poet Siegmar Faust had already attracted the attention of the State Security with his own reading series "Uncensored Lyrik", twice he was recognized by his studies (Art Education and History, 1964-66, Karl Marx University Leipzig, and the literature institute "Johannes R. Becher ”, 1968) and worked briefly as a motorboat driver's assistant.
Process of the reservoir reading
In the summer of 1968 Faust - together with Andreas Reimann - initiated a reading on a passenger ship on the Elster reservoir in Leipzig . The reading in the evening hours of June 26th was not registered and thus already violated the legal opinion of the GDR. The approximately 30 participants in the reading included a. Gert Neumann , Heidemarie Härtl , Bernd-Lutz Lange , Dietrich Gnüchtel . Faust opened the reading with excerpts from Alexander Dubček's reformed party program of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Then the poetic texts of the participants Kristian Pech , Siegmar Faust and Friederike Techel , all students at the time , were read . Also participating was the stoker Wolfgang Hilbig , who was discovered as a literary talent. Hilbig and Faust already knew each other from the circle of writing workers "Heinz Rusch", headed by the writer Manfred Künne . Künne was later exposed as an IM of the State Security (cover name "Frank").
Consequences of the reservoir reading
At least one informant from the State Security (IM “Kretschmar”) reported about the reading on board the MS “Weltfrieden”, but he was not present and logged the event afterwards. As a result, Siegmar Faust, who had already been de-registered twice, was expelled from the city with a 24-hour deadline, which put him under considerable pressure. Gert Neumann and his future wife Heidemarie Härtl were de-registered in 1969 and Kristian Pech was also “taken on leave of absence” from his studies. This was followed by party and association exclusions for Faust and Neumann. Faust and Reimann were also sentenced to several years imprisonment due to their ongoing dissidence and false accusations. After Robert Havemann intervened with Erich Honecker because of the extreme prison conditions, Faust was released prematurely and moved to West Berlin in 1976. Following the reservoir reading, Hilbig was classified as a "hostile-negative young writer" and from then on was in the focus of the State Security.
reception
In 2003 Ralph Grüneberger and Gerhard Pötzsch produced the radio feature "The Saxon Sea: Writers and the Prague Spring in Leipzig" for MDR and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg . As a result, in 2004 the Freie Literaturgesellschaft eV Leipzig commissioned Ralph Grüneberger to develop the exhibition “gegen den Strom” (title based on a line of poetry by Wolfgang Hilbig). The exhibition exists in the form of banners as a traveling exhibition. The virtual version created at the same time for the Internet was deleted by the Free Literature Society in 2007. The traveling exhibition has been shown at numerous locations in Germany since 2004, including a. in the round corner , in the Stasi memorial in Hohenschönhausen, in the zone border museum in Helmstedt, in the memorial library in honor of the victims of communism in Berlin, as well as in schools and in the Leipzig city library . More than 22,000 people have seen this exhibition so far. An accompanying exhibition catalog contains extensive image and text material on the background of the reservoir reading. The catalog drawn up by Ralph Grüneberger was awarded the Historians Prize by the Krostitzer Brewery . The documentary film "In that persistent summer ...", also created by Grüneberger and Pötzsch, will be shown exclusively at exhibition openings. The documentary film and the exhibition received funding from the Saxon State Agency for Private Broadcasting and New Media and the Federal Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED dictatorship.
Bibliography
- “Born in Tübingen, grew up in Leipzig. 20 Years Lyrikgesellschaft “, Edition kunst & dichtung, Leipzig, 2013
- Ralph Grüneberger: The infamous, almost forgotten Elsterstausee poetry reading. in: Leipziger Blätter, No. 43, Leipzig 2003
- Leipzig city magazine Kreuzer, No. 6/2008.