Writing Valuable Fiction: One Writer’s Reflections on Growing Up in Eastern Germany

Note From K.M.: A few weeks ago, after I shared the post “Are You Growing as a Writer? (Here’s the Only Way to Tell),” I received an email from reader Michael Albrecht. He talked about his experiences growing up in Communist East Germany, the evolution of the country’s literature during that time, and how it has affected his own intentions as a writer. I found his insights thought-provoking and asked him to expand them into a post that I could share with all of you, since it’s a perspective we don’t often hear. Enjoy!

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What would you say if your son or daughter announced they would embark on a professional writing career after graduation? Would you be thrilled about the prospect to hold your child’s first novel in your hands or scared to death that they might always have an empty fridge and live as renters until the end of their days?

In centuries past, the intention to become a writer caused heated arguments between sons and fathers—who were traditionally responsible for the career choice of their offspring. Numerous popular novelists like Edgar Allan Poe or Wilhelm Raabe chose to disobey their parents and became the writers we know them for today. Their biographies were shaped by financial hardship, emotional turmoil, and a very modest lifestyle. They paid the price for following their passion to create great stories that lasted beyond their own lifetimes and shaped the thinking of generations.

Among writers of our days, the temptation arises to insist that living out the “art of storytelling” must not end in sacrifice and struggle. All we must do is sell ourselves to publishing houses that promise good returns, in exchange for our sticking to genres that turn around fast in the book market.

The result has been an ever-increasing flood of new book titles that enter the bookstores and online booksellers with written words that often have very little lasting value. For the sake of being published, writers must follow strict guidelines and the do’s and don’ts of their genre. There is very little regard for poetic prose or wordplay or even a word of criticism about the society they live in. It seems to suffice if the plot is a “page turner” and the customer will buy the sequel.

Are we on our way to producing “Fast Food Literature”? Are writers not meant to reflect the generation and the time we live in? Are we becoming the slaves of a hungry consumer market that hurries on to the next novel after they have read (hopefully) our last page?

Eastern German Writing—An Extinct Literature

I grew up in the communistic Eastern Germany of the 1960s and ’70s. The country was very isolated from the rest of the world by a heavily secured borderline—and so were its writers. Being a writer in Eastern Germany meant being poet, reporter, and journalist all at once. Free journalism did not exist. Many writers were fully employed by publishing houses, newspapers, and magazines. Some worked as freelancers with good prospects to sell their work if they did not criticize the communistic party or the government.

Literature developed in three historic periods:

The time after World War II from 1946–1960
The time of affluent communism 1960–1980
The time of crisis and decline 1980–1989

After World War II, writers generally concentrated on themes that dealt with the war and post-war years, revealing the cruelties of the Nazis but also calling for reconciliation and coming to terms with the errors of Germany’s fascistic past.

The next generation was a group of writers who had not experienced World War II and were born during communism. Their writing focused on communism’s rise to relative affluence and then its first cracks towards the end of that period. Eastern Germany was increasingly unable to obtain convertible currencies to trade in the western markets, which led to a severe shortage of consumer goods. Therefore, this period was dominated by a retreat into privacy. The range of literary themes circled around families, factories, and the challenges of daily communistic life.

The period between 1980–1989 was dominated by an increasing downturn in the Eastern economy, and a new generation that suffered under the effects of the decades of isolation. They called upon their government for freedom of speech and travel. Writers of this period raised their voices against the government and were no longer silenced, since the regime relied on financial transfers from Western Germany and had to maintain the reputation of maintaining human rights. Many writers were personally involved in the “Silent Revolution” of 1989 and later switched their career into political activism.

The Downfall of Eastern German Writing

After the downfall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Eastern Germany was trapped within its outdated technologies. Forced to compete in the western markets with non-competitive products, the country failed within a few months. In 1990, Western German chancellor Helmut Kohl negotiated the “Reunification Agreement,” which shaped the future of millions of Eastern Germans. In July 1990, Germany merged its two currencies into one and on October 3rd of the same year, Germans celebrated their reunification. Subsequently, countless Eastern Germans had to be retrained into western occupations as their Eastern German counterparts no longer existed. Many industries simply disappeared.

The downfall hit the writing and publishing industry hard. Numerous Eastern Germans who used to consume Eastern German literature now devoured the Western German literature that flooded the bookstores. The Eastern German writers had to find their feet in the young reunified Germany, and many of them failed to adapt to the book markets and lost their publishing contracts as smaller Eastern German publishers merged with media giants from Western Germany.

This generation of writers lost their voices as nobody was interested any longer in stories that dealt with life under communism.

From 1995 onward, a new generation of younger writers emerged who tried to reflect the topics of the years after the downfall, and a new genre Wendeliteratur, the “literature of change,” was formed. However, this type of niche literature found only a small readership, and some of the younger writers moved on into Western German genre literature.

Conclusion

Whilst Eastern German literature did not survive the downfall of communism, its authors courageously reflected in their stories the challenges and topics of their time. They submitted themselves to the communistic government and censorship only to a certain degree and became a valuable voice which was influential in the time of the “Silent Revolution” and the end of communism in Eastern Germany. Their novels explored classical structures and created storylines that their contemporary readership was able to relate to. Later, most Eastern German writers refused to surrender to the consumerism of western genre literature and chose retirement or moved into new careers.

For me, walking through a bookstore during the ’90s was a very sad experience. I saw thousands of new bestsellers coming out every year, but honestly how many of them were of such value that I would remember their contents or even attempt to read them again with a new perspective years later? Not many.

From that time on, I knew I would only address themes in my own writings that really added value and helped my readers to reflect on their own perspectives. I have no appetite to pretend.

Are you willing to make the great sacrifice to be that writer who influences with stories that offer answers to the questions of our time? Will you be a voice with a clear message, or just a resounding cymbal of the “Fast Food” book markets?

The decision is yours.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! What have you read lately that you found particularly inspiring and would recommend to others? Tell me in the comments!

The post Writing Valuable Fiction: One Writer’s Reflections on Growing Up in Eastern Germany appeared first on Helping Writers Become Authors.