Introduction: New Perspectives on Young Adult GDR Literature and Film 3 Introduction: New Perspectives on Young Adult GDR Literature and Film Ada Bieber and Sonja E� Klocke Humboldt Universität zu Berlin / University of Wisconsin - Madison “In progressiven Epochen der Geschichte hat sich schon immer eine große Schicht der Jugend an den Idealen ihrer Avantgarde, vor allem in der Literatur, gebildet�” [In progressive periods of history, a large social stratum of youth has always been molded by the ideals of their contemporary avant-garde, particular as presented in literature�] Christa Wolf, 1962 Almost thirty years ago, the world witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall� Less than a year later, the forty-year division of Germany ended with the unification of 1990, and the socialist GDR (German Democratic Republic, also referred to as East Germany) ceased to exist� Even the last generation born into the GDR, the so-called Wende-Kinder [children of the turning-point] (Ahbe and Gries 556-69), has since come of age, and in fact, many of its members are raising their children now� With this last generation which was so forcefully thrown into a massive process of transformation, images of childhood and youth in East Germany gradually disappeared. This can largely be attributed to the fact that GDR literature for youth, and to a certain extent film for a young audience, essentially vanished from the market in the aftermath of unification. Unsurprisingly, the political forces challenging the legitimacy of GDR culture in general - one is immediately reminded of the so-called deutsch-deutscher Literaturstreit [German-German debate on literature] starting in 1990 1 - were also at work when it came to literature and film for the youngest members of East German society. In fact, the goals of the press campaign only initially directed at Christa Wolf and subsequently expanded to include all politically engaged writing were also applicable to children’s and youth literature. After all, the maneuver was about putting an end to politically charged culture in unified Germany, and appropriating the authority to interpret (literary) history for the future� 2 4 Ada Bieber and Sonja E� Klocke Youth played an important role in GDR politics, and it is fair to say that youth was addressed on a broad scale by literature and film for both aesthetic and educational, i.e., ideological reasons. Right from the beginning, the GDR identified as a state for a youth entrusted with taking on a “hervorragenden Anteil […] am Aufbau der antifaschistisch-demokratischen Ordnung” [paramount share […] in building the antifascist-democratic order] (“Gesetz über die Herabsetzung des Volljährigkeitsalters” 437), and officials accentuated the need to raise a generation characterized by an incontrovertible belief in antifascism and socialism� While ideologues hardly succeeded in generating such “socialist personalities,” even the set goal was, of course, not compatible with the objectives for a unified Germany. 3 After all, the GDR’s founding narrative was diametrically opposed to that of the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany): collapsing Nazi terror and Communist dictatorship into the rhetoric of totalitarianism, the West also claimed to have drawn the right conclusions from the catastrophe of National Socialist rule� Consequently, evidence of the GDR’s foundational master narrative, namely the claim that the GDR presented the only alternative to capitalism and National Socialism, became undesirable and had to be purged from cultural products for the youngest citizens of a unified Germany. For both GDR children’s and youth literature and film, which often aimed at entertaining and simultaneously educating the youngest members of society in a socialist spirit, the consequences of diminishing the significance of fiction that also carried political content were particularly grave. Literature and film for youth were infused with the ideas and ideals of socialism, and accordingly played a significant role in young people’s socialist and cultural education. GDR authorities took a noteworthy path by interfering in their writers’ and filmmakers’ social function� From the start, the government provided for its Kulturschaffende [those engaged in the cultural sector] - many of whom were survivors of Nazi concentration camps or returning exiles - with the expectation that they imbue their cultural products with partisan political meaning� Since writers such as Alex Wedding, Max Zimmering, and Benno Pludra, a budding author in the 1950s, largely identified with the country, its ideology, and the underlying ideals, their prose reflected the attendant values and norms for youth privileged by the state. Predictably, their works were often adapted for the screen by DEFA ( Deutsche Film Aktiengesellschaft [German Film Corporation in the GDR])� Such films targeted a young audience and increasingly served the goal of educating socialist progeny. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany ( Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland , SMAD) endorsed and in fact buttressed specialized publishing houses, such as Verlag Neues Leben (founded in 1946) and Der Kinderbuchverlag (founded in 1949), aspiring to launch an innovative socialistic literature for youth� Correspondingly, DEFA quickly turned towards Introduction: New Perspectives on Young Adult GDR Literature and Film 5 a young audience� Even with its earliest productions, DEFA addressed youthful viewers, as Gerhard Lamprecht’s Irgendwo in Berlin [Somewhere in Berlin] (1946) attests. In 1953, DEFA initiated an official working group ( Künstlerische Arbeitsgruppe , KAG) for original children’s and youth film. Often in close collaboration with the literary scene, which resulted in a vast number of film adaptations of children’s books and screenplays by writers of books for youth, it flourished throughout the lifetime of the GDR. A law from 1950 outlining the significance of youth for the buildup of the GDR confirmed these efforts. 4 The determination to promote a vibrant scene for literature for youth becomes manifest in competitions and awards� Authors of literature for the youngest citizens were eligible also for the most prestigious prize the GDR had to offer, the Nationalpreis der DDR [National Prize of the GDR], and a number of prize competitions for progressive authors additionally enriched an energetic and innovative cultural scene for youth. The first of the newly launched prizes, the Alex-Wedding-Preis [Alex Wedding Prize] endowed by the Akademie der Künste [Academy of the Arts] and conferred annually since 1968 on June 1, International Children’s Day, stands out since the bylaws emphasize the goal of establishing an explicitly socialist German literature for children and teenagers� 5 The reformed Jugendgesetz [Youth Law] of 1974 updated and substantiated the state’s commitment to its youngest generation: Presse, Rundfunk, Film und Fernsehen der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik sind verpflichtet, die Qualität und die Anzahl von Veröffentlichungen, Sendungen und Produktionen zu erhöhen, die den vielseitigen Interessen der Jugend und den Erfordernissen sozialistischer Jugenderziehung entsprechen� [The press, radio broadcasting, film and television of the German Democratic Republic are obligated to increase the quality and the number of publications, programs, and productions that correspond to the multifaceted interests of our youth and meet the demands of socialist youth education�] 6 Thus, GDR children’s and youth literature - as well as film - was unmistakably perceived as an effective means to educate the youngest citizens and to convince them of the legitimacy and moral superiority of the socialist state� In this context, we should bear in mind that all publications were subject to routine censorship in the GDR (Barck et al.; Thompson-Wohlgemuth; Zipser). In addition to common self-censorship, limited official print allowances and the complicated processes required to obtain the authorization to print - the socalled Druckgenehmigungsverfahren - further impacted degrees of expurgation� Nonetheless, literature for children and young adults was not reduced to political and didactic purposes� In 1995, Karin Richter called for scholarship on 6 Ada Bieber and Sonja E� Klocke GDR children’s literature to progressively move beyond focusing exclusively on the political context� Rather, analyses of literary forms and content were indispensable: Dieser Weg kann zum einen wegführen von der alten und neuen Auffassung einer monolithischen KL [Kinderliteratur] der DDR, zum anderen öffnet er den Blick für Wandlungen im Werk einzelner Schriftsteller (291). [On the one hand, this approach can steer us away from the old and new perception of a monolithic GDR children’s literature; on the other hand, it opens up a view to transformations in individual authors’ oeuvre�] Richter’s plea can undoubtedly be extended to literature for young adults, a particularly diverse field encompassing various genres for readers between fourteen and roughly twenty-five years of age. Film adaptions of successful literature for youth as well as other DEFA productions targeting this age group also offer original insights into issues pertinent to everyday life in the GDR as well as matters of aesthetics. Most importantly, both literary and cinematic productions targeting young GDR audiences were often not distinctly defined for specific age groups, and genres and subjects were frequently blurred. Modeled on the Soviet Union’s objective to educate all citizens via culture, this approach aimed at overcoming the rift between literature and film for youth, and fiction targeting more mature audiences. This tactic provided space for cultural communication that could reach a variety of addressees and even instigate intergenerational dialogue. Over the GDR’s lifetime, numerous texts such as Erwin Strittmatter’s Tinko (1954) , Brigitte Reimann’s Ankunft im Alltag (1961), modern GDR fairy tales in collections such as Es wird einmal: Märchen für morgen (1988), and Helmut Dziuba’s film classic Sabine Kleist, 7 Jahre (1982), enjoyed multigenerational reception� 7 Therefore, this special issue takes an approach we consider valuable for future scholarship: focusing on aesthetics and formal aspects without ignoring (political) content; and pushing notions of genre and reception by considering children’s literature/ film, youth literature/ film, hybrid genres, and literature for adult audiences that became popular among youth� Scholarship has contributed to the growth of a national canon of literature and film for youth, in East Germany and beyond (e.g., Karin Richter, Christian Emmrich, as well as multiple essays published by Fred Rodrian and Steffen Peltsch). However, research offering detailed analyses of the aesthetics, subject matters, and genres that distinguish East German cultural products aimed (also) at youth are rare. The Handbuch zur Kinder- und Jugendliteratur: SBZ/ DDR , edited by Rüdiger Steinlein et al�, as well as Karin Richter’s and Bernd Dolle- Weinkauf and Steffen Peltsch’s remarkable studies present exceptions. Research Introduction: New Perspectives on Young Adult GDR Literature and Film 7 exploring specific topics such as race and international political connections in literature for youth ( Jack Zipes; Peggy Piesche) and studies that focus on GDR authors who deliberately wrote for cross-generational audiences (Thomas Di Napoli) complement these efforts. Such approaches, like recent scholarship that acknowledges the aesthetic value of DEFA children’s films (Sebastian Heiduschke) and its long-lasting canonical anchoring even after the Wende (Seán Allan and Sebastian Heiduschke), provide valuable insight into the depth and diversity of the entire field of GDR studies. While DEFA film for youth was recognized for its cinematic quality even beyond the Iron Curtain, topical analyses focusing on these productions remain rare� Contributions to this volume build on the excellent research begun by Benita Blessing, Qinna Shen, Henning Wrage, and Marc Silberman. These scholars have drawn attention to the highly valued Grimm fairy tale adaptions, the beginning of DEFA film about and for children, and gender education in socialist cinema, often embracing the established East German canon� This special issue thus aims to supplement these scholarly endeavors by highlighting aspects of GDR literature and film for youth that have previously gone unnoticed or received little attention. The fictional texts discussed here stand out for their vigilant exploration of topics that were significant in East German culture more generally, such as gender and sexuality, race, links with international politics and youth movements outside the GDR, urban youth in conflict with their parent generation, forms of writing for a variety of audiences, and links between literature and cinema. The contributors to this volume engage with fictional texts that - due to the subject matter, specific genres and potentially their subversion - often appeal to both adolescent and adult audiences. Thus, this issue builds on the premise that cultural products targeted at young people in the GDR present a substantial part of state-sponsored culture at large, and we are convinced that it behooves us to start shedding light on these artefacts from perspectives previously reserved for the analysis of literature and film not specifically aimed at young people. Deliberately approaching East German culture and politics from a perspective that refuses to marginalize youth culture, we take into account narratives that influenced the “new socialist generations” charged with building and (re-)shaping the East German state over the course of forty years� Each of the five articles comprised here investigates fictional representations of central aspects of childhood and youth in real-existing socialism� While all of these contributions examine literature or film meant to cater primarily to youth in the GDR, the analyses are founded on the understanding that narratives for youth present one segment of cultural productions that open up space for serious discussion of issues that are politically and socially relevant� A critical 8 Ada Bieber and Sonja E� Klocke examination of femininity in DEFA children’s and youth films serves as the point of departure for the first two contributions. Both authors stress the enduring relevance of this topic, and demonstrate that girls’ and young women’s bodies are staged in highly normative ways. Often, these female characters are expected to accept and even embrace male domination of their bodies, and ultimately their being. For example, underscoring how children’s films buttressed conservative and submissive gender roles for girls for decades, Benita Blessing’s article “Love Lessons in East German Children’s Films” takes issue with DEFA productions that imparted normative views of love relationships with the opposite sex, including lessons about the body and sexuality� In “‘Nicht so schnell! ’: Female Sexuality and Socialism in DEFA Youth Films,” Faye Stewart brings to light links between politics, female sexuality, and intimacy, and exposes the purported images of femininity as propagated by DEFA film as rather restrictive. Ada Bieber’s “Who’s Afraid of Angela Davis? : An American icon and the Political Uses of Youth Literature in the GDR” discusses depictions of the American activist throughout several genres� She reveals that GDR literature for youth tended to gloss over Davis’s more radical beliefs to make her expedient for the socialist state’s anti-American propaganda built on sympathizing with “Black America�” In “‘Es war (noch) einmal’: Grimm Versions of New Fairy Tales in the GDR,” Melissa Sheedy and Brandy E� Wilcox highlight how GDR authors utilized the Grimms’ fairy tales’ subversive potential to address issues of politics and gender� Drawing on seditious narratives by Irmgard Morgner, Kerstin Hensel, and Stefan Heym, they expound how these authors toyed with the traditions of the genre to criticize life in real-existing socialism� Finally, Sonja E� Klocke’s “‘Risen from Ruins’: Berlin, Generations, and Identity in Herrmann Zschoche’s Insel der Schwäne ” accentuates that full appreciation of the film depends on fathoming just how it interlaces the dichotomy city/ countryside with generational problems specific to the GDR in more pronounced ways than Benno Pludra’s homonymous novel from 1980� All contributions to this special issue thus echo Christa Wolf’s observation that - particularly in times of social change - fictional texts acquire prodigious significance for all readers, and for the youngest generations in particular. Literature and film can provide them with avant-garde ideals that shape their outlook on the world� As the various essays in this special issue demonstrate, attempts to transport such ideals can cut both ways: they can support thought affirming the state’s ideology, and they can just as easily promote oppositional thinking� Introduction: New Perspectives on Young Adult GDR Literature and Film 9 Notes 1 Triggered by West German media reactions to Christa Wolf’s novella Was bleibt (1990; “What Remains,” 1995), a menacing press campaign evolved that was first directed at Wolf and subsequently extended more generally to intellectuals who had allegedly stabilized the GDR regime� In the last phase, it expanded to include all politically engaged literature, including West German fiction and its putative Gesinnungsästhetik [aesthetics of political conviction]. The so-called deutsch-deutscher Literaturstreit is documented in Anz, Es geht nicht um Christa Wolf , and in Deiritz and Krauss, Der deutsch-deutsche Literaturstreit � 2 Ulrich Greiner, one of the most influential literary critics in Germany and head of the culture section of Die Zeit in 1990, eventually admitted this to be the goal of the staged literary debate� See “Die deutsche Gesinnungsästhetik” 208� See also Brockmann, Literature and German Reunification 1; Bullivant, The Future of German Literature 70-71� In “Der Literaturstreit - ein Historikerstreit im gesamtdeutschen Kostüm? ,” Heidelberger-Leonard reads the literary debate of the early 1990s as a reissue of the West German Historikerstreit [historians’ dispute] of the 1980s (74-75)� 3 On the GRD’s success rate in raising “socialist personalities” see Brock, “Producing the ‘Socialist Personality’? ” 4 “ Gesetz über die Teilnahme der Jugend am Aufbau der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und die Förderung der Jugend in Schule und Beruf, bei Sport und Erholung ,” §35: “Schaffung einer neuen Jugend- und Kinderliteratur” [Law regarding youth participation in building the German Democractic Republic, and promoting youth in school and career, in sports and in recreation, §35: Creating a new literature for youth and children]� 5 From 1950 onwards, competitions in children’s and youth literature were first advertised by the Zentralrat der FDJ [Central Council of the Free German Youth], later by the Ministerium für Volksbildung [Ministry for National Education], and from 1956 onwards by the Ministerium für Kultur [Ministry for Culture]. However, these competitions were not very effective and initiated few successful careers, such as Benno Pludra’s� In 1968, the Akademie der Künste introduced the aforementioned Alex-Wedding-Preis [Alex Wedding Prize], since 1975 accompanied by the Hans-Baltzer-Preis [Hans Baltzer Prize] for illustrators� In 1976, it added the Edwin-Hoernle-Preis [Edwin Hoernle Prize] for theory and literary criticism, in 1977 the Sally-Bleistift-Preis für jüngere oder neue begabte Autoren [Sally Bleistift Prize for Gifted Younger or New Authors], in 1978 the Preis für populärwissenschaftliche Kinderliteratur [Prize for Children’s Literature in Popular 10 Ada Bieber and Sonja E� Klocke Science], and in the following year the Alfred-Holz-Preis [Alfred Holz Prize] for translation (Steinlein et al� 93-94)� Authors who received the Nationalpreis - among other aspects for addressing youth - include Friedrich Wolf, Erwin Strittmatter, Ludwig Renn, Franz Fühmann, Alex Wedding, Auguste Lazar, Benno Pludra, Max Zimmering, Peter Hacks, and Alfred Wellm, to name a few ( Verlagsverzeichnis 12-13)� 6 Jugendgesetz der DDR 1974, S. 14 (§ 3, Absatz 2). 7 Es wird einmal: Märchen für morgen. Moderne Märchen aus der DDR , edited by Hanne Castein, contains fairy tales by renowned authors, many of whom wrote for both young and adult audiences� Among these are Franz Fühmann, Günter Kunert, Stefan Heym, Peter Hacks, Rainer Kirsch, Irmtraud Morgner, Karl Mickel, Lothar Kusche, Klaus Rahn, Helga Schubert, Rudi Strahl, and Joachim Walher� Works Cited Ahbe, Thomas, and Rainer Gries. “Gesellschaftsgeschichte als Generationengeschichte: Theoretische und methodologische Überlegungen am Beispiel DDR.” Die DDR aus generationengeschichtlicher Perspektive: Eine Inventur . Ed. Annegret Schüle, Thomas Ahbe and Rainer Gries� Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2006� 475-571� Allan, Seán, and Sebastian Heiduschke� “Introduction: Re-Imaging East German Cinema�” Re-Imaging DEFA: East German Cinema in Its National and Transnational Contexts � Ed� Seán Allan and Sebastian Heiduschke� New York: Berghahn, 2016� 1-16� Alter, Manfred� Das proletarische Kinderbuch � Dokumente zur Geschichte der sozialistischen deutschen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1988� Anz, Thomas, ed. Es geht nicht um Christa Wolf: Der Literaturstreit im vereinten Deutschland � Frankfurt a�M�: Fischer, 1991� Barck, Simone, Martina Langermann, and Siegfried Lokatis, eds� “Jedes Buch ein Abenteuer”: Zensur-System und literarische Öffentlichkeit in der DDR bis Ende der sechziger Jahre � Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1997� Blessing, Benita. “Happily Socialist Ever After? East German Children’s Film and the Education of a Fairy Tale Land�” Oxford Review of Education 36�2 (2010): 233-48� Brock, Angela� “Producing the ‘Socialist Personality’? Socialization, Education, and the Emergence of New Patterns of Behaviour.” Power and Society in the GDR, 1961 - 1979: The ‘Normalisation of Rule’? Ed� Mary Fulbrook� New York: Berghahn, 2009� 220-52� Brockmann, Stephen� Literature and German Reunification � Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1999� Bullivant, Keith� The Future of German Literature . Oxford: Berg, 1994. Castein, Hanne, ed� Es wird einmal: Märchen für morgen. Moderne Märchen aus der DDR. 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