f The premier chronicler of postwar German identity - Walter Kempowski - died of cancer today at the age of 78. The tributes are pouring in, but for most of his amazingly productive career Kempowski was ignored or scorned by the German media and the literary establishment: Kempowski was considered too reactionary, ignorant of modern literary techniques. But it turned out that Kempowski was most innovative of postwar German writers. His monumental Echolat is a collage of documents and thousands of actual first-hand accounts of World War II - the war from the bottom up - a much greater achievement even than Ken Burns' documentary series The War, currently running on public television in the US. Kempowski is unknown in the US.
The Bremen writer Hella Streicher recalls attending a reading by Kempowski that was attended almost exclusively by elderly people. For his work spoke to them about their lives - they recognized themselves in his words, and they knew he valued and honored their life experiences.
"Zur Heiterkeit findet ein Mensch zurück, wenn man sich mit ihm beschäftigt. So muss es auch mit den Deutschen gehen: ihnen zuhören und ausreden lassen. Dafür bin ich da." (A person can recover his joy when someone cares about him. That's also the way it is with the Germans: listen to them and let them say their piece. That's why I'm here.")
Hella's essay - Kempowski's Power(pdf)- is worth reading. Also worth reading is the last extensive interview with Walter Kempowski available in English. Then there is this bit at the end of the interview, when Kempowski is asked about his own impending death:
How do you want to die?
"Like Fontane. He said to his daughter over dinner: "I'll just be in the next room." When she looked in a quarter of an hour later, he lay there dead on the bed. But I doubt I'll be let off that easily."
His reference to Theodor Fontane is actually quite useful. Kempowski - like Fontane - was a melancholy chronicler of a vanished era. His work ensures that we will never forget.
Vielen Dank für deinen Blogeintrag. Die meisten deutschen Blogger haben wieder einmal nur Pressemeldungen abgeschrieben. - Besonders interessant für amerikanische Leser ist übrigens Kempowskis Roman "Letzte Grüße", die Geschichte eines deutschen Schriftstellers, der eine Lesereise durch die USA macht, dort weniger Erfolg hat als seine jungen deutschen Kollegen und schließlich in einem Hotelzimmer stirbt. Sehr traurig, aber auch sehr witzig. Und sehr empfehlenswert!
Posted by: Hella | October 06, 2007 at 05:37 PM
Hella,
Danke fuer den Lesetipp! Ich habe das Buch bestellt. Leider gibt es (bisher) keine Uebersetzung davon auf Englisch.
Posted by: David | October 06, 2007 at 09:43 PM