Ein Fliehendes Pferd
Martin Walser at a reading in Germany, 1992 From Left to Right Walser has also been known for his political activity. In 1964, he attended the, which was considered an important moment in the development of West German political consciousness regarding the recent German past. He was involved in protests against the.
During the late 1960s, Walser, like many leftist German intellectuals including, supported for the election to the office of. In the 1960s and 1970s Walser moved further to the left and was considered a sympathizer of the. He was friends with leading German Marxists such as and even visited Moscow during this time.
By the 1980s, Walser began shifting back to the political right, though he denied any substantive change of attitude. In 1988 he gave a series of lectures entitled 'Speeches About One's Own Country,' in which he made clear that he considered German division to be a painful gap which he could not accept. This topic was also the topic of his story 'Dorle und Wolf'.Peace Prize of the German Book Trade In 1998 Walser was awarded the. His acceptance speech, given in the in Frankfurt, invoked issues of historical memory and political engagement in contemporary German politics and unleashed a controversy that roiled German intellectual circles. Walser's acceptance speech was titled: Erfahrungen beim Verfassen einer Sonntagsrede ('Experiences when writing the regular soapbox-speech'):Everybody knows our historical burden, the never ending shame, not a day on which the shame is not presented to us.
But when every day in the media this past is presented to me, I notice that something inside me is opposing this permanent show of our shame. Instead of being grateful for the continuous show of our shame — I start looking away. I would like to understand why in this decade the past is shown like never before. When I notice that something within me is opposing it, I try to hear the motives of this reproach of our shame, and I am almost glad when I think I can discover that more often not the remembrance, the not-allowed-to-forget is the motive, but the exploitation / utilization Instrumentalisierung of our shame for current goals. Always for the right purpose, for sure. But yet the exploitation.
Auschwitz is not suitable for becoming a routine-of-threat, an always available intimidation or a moral club Moralkeule or also just an obligation. What is produced by ritualisation has the quality of a lip service.
Ein Fliehendes Pferd Inhalt
The debate about the in Berlin will show, in posterity, what people do who feel responsible for the conscience of others. Turning the centre of the capital into concrete with a nightmare Alptraum, the size of a football pitch. Turning shame into monument. Xcom like games. — Martin Walser, Speech in Paulskirche , 11 October 1998At first the speech did not cause a great stir.
Indeed, the audience present in Church of St. Paul received the speech with applause, though Walser's critic did not applaud, as confirmed by television footage of the event. Some days after the event, and again on 9 November 1998, the 60th anniversary of the pogrom against German Jews, Bubis, president of the, accused Walser of 'intellectual arson' ( geistige Brandstiftung) and claimed that Walser's speech was both 'trying to block out history or, respectively, to eliminate the remembrance' and pleading 'for a culture of looking away and thinking away'.
Then the controversy started. As described by Karsten Luttmer: Walser replied by accusing Bubis to have stepped out of dialog between people.
Ein Fliehendes Pferd Analyse
Walser and Bubis met on 14 December at the offices of the to discuss the heated controversy and to bring the discussion to a close. They were joined by of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Afterward, Bubis withdrew his claim that Walser had been intentionally incendiary, but Walser maintained that there was no misinterpretation by his opponents.