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Divided Loyalties

This study aims to shed light on the relationship of writers with power in East Germany by setting their work in the context of Soviet and SED German policy after 1945. Peter Davies provides an analysis of the politics of German division as it affected visions of German national identity within the...

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Main Author: Davies, Peter
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Modern Humanities Research Association 2025
Subjects:
East Germany
national identity
Johannes R. Becher
Peter Huchel
Bertolt Brecht
Hanns Eisler
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSK Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers
thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1D Europe::1DF Central Europe::1DFG Germany
thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
Online Access:ONIX_20251014T154955_9781839546877_10
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Summary:This study aims to shed light on the relationship of writers with power in East Germany by setting their work in the context of Soviet and SED German policy after 1945. Peter Davies provides an analysis of the politics of German division as it affected visions of German national identity within the East German artistic community, and shows how this can give us a profound insight into contentious questions of artistic ‘dissidence’ and ‘conformity’. The second part of the study develops these ideas through a series of case studies of important individuals such as Johannes R. Becher, Peter Huchel, Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler, analysing the complexities of their relationship with the power structures and ideology of the East German state in the institutional context of the Deutsche Akademie der Künste. The study concludes with an account of the consequences of the June 1953 uprising for these artists' view of their role in the GDR.

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