Günter Grass Dead at 87

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Günter Grass, the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Tin Drum and former member of the Waffen-SS, died on Monday. He was 87.

A dedicated anti-nationalist, Grass spent much of his career criticizing Germany’s actions during the Second World War and campaigning against its remilitarization. His social criticism, along with his vast output of essays, short-stories, plays, and novels, was credited with helping Germany reconcile its past with its future.

However, Grass’s 2006 confession that he’d volunteered for the German military in 1943 and later served in the Waffen-SS shocked his supporters and led to accusations of hypocrisy.


http://gawker.com/gunter-grass-the-nobel-prize-winning-author-of-the-tin-1697453996
 

maxmordon

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I haven't read The Tin Drum but really liked the movie adaptation. A fascinating man with a fascinating view from his country's most traumatic moment.
 

blacbird

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I've never completed reading of any of Grass's work. Many years ago The Tin Drun defeated me; I'm not quite sure why. He was obviously an important writer of the 20th century, so maybe I'll give him another go. i just last night finished Little Dorrit, one of Dickens's major huge tomes, and must say that i did enjoy it more than i expected to. I'm glad I read it. So, in my ongoing quest to read major books by major writers, I'll give Tin Drum another try.

I might add that I've had similar trouble with a number of 20th Century German novelists, like Böll, Frisch, Nossack, Uve Johnson, Thomas Mann, Hesse. Not quite sure why. Maybe translation difficulties, maybe just a literary thing associated with the style preferred in Germany. I have a similar complaint about most Russian authors I've read.

But, without question, a great literary figure passed on. He produced a lot of work, and won the BIG PRIZE. He did his work, and did it well.

caw
 

aruna

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In his honour they showed the Tin Drum on German TV last night. I haven't read the book but did watch the film many years ago. This time I couldn't get through it and gave up. I don't know. It just seemed too deliberately quirky to me. Grass is still very much revered here.

Like BB I haven't read many recognised (ie literary) German authors. The ones I've tried come across as far too cerebral, not engaging enough, which admittedly led to my developing a prejudice against them (German literary authors). I never read books because I "should", and that's how I feel about Mann & Co. I'm waiting for someone to convince me otherwise! The only one I really liked was Christine Brückner, who isn't known in anglophone world and a far as I know isn't even translated.
 
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Zoombie

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What can change the nature of a man?

I wonder if it was the war, defeat, or time that changed Grass?

However it ended up, the world was enriched by him, and is lessened by his passing. And maybe this is just me, but if a member of the SS can learn and express what Gunter Grass did, maybe there's hope for the rest of us.
 

maxmordon

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What can change the nature of a man?

I wonder if it was the war, defeat, or time that changed Grass?

However it ended up, the world was enriched by him, and is lessened by his passing. And maybe this is just me, but if a member of the SS can learn and express what Gunter Grass did, maybe there's hope for the rest of us.

A haunting quote from The Tin Drum that has always stuck with me:

Once there was a gullible nation who believed in Santa Claus. But turned out it was the Gas Man. In faith I believed it smelled like milk and almonds. But it smelled of gas.
 

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I've read the The Tin Drum and loved it. But if you want to understand the accusations of hypocrisy then read his autobiography, Peeling the Onion. For a man so honest about Germany, Grass's spin on his own past left a lot of questions unanswered.
 

Teinz

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What can change the nature of a man?

I wonder if it was the war, defeat, or time that changed Grass?

However it ended up, the world was enriched by him, and is lessened by his passing. And maybe this is just me, but if a member of the SS can learn and express what Gunter Grass did, maybe there's hope for the rest of us.

Perhaps our perceptions about the SS were wrong in the first place.
 

blacbird

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What can change the nature of a man?

I wonder if it was the war, defeat, or time that changed Grass?

Quite possible. It's also useful to understand that, in 1943, he was fifteen years old. When Hitler came to power, little Gúnter was five. He grew up in that insulated monstrosity of a brainwashed Fourth Reich.

Most of us, thankfully, change considerably after we're fifteen.

caw
 

Amadan

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I might add that I've had similar trouble with a number of 20th Century German novelists, like Böll, Frisch, Nossack, Uve Johnson, Thomas Mann, Hesse. Not quite sure why. Maybe translation difficulties, maybe just a literary thing associated with the style preferred in Germany. I have a similar complaint about most Russian authors I've read.


I've noticed a considerable difference in various national literatures. Like you, German litfic defeats me - I've tried Hesse and Mann and a couple of others, and liked none of it. Russian writers mostly leave me meh, though I've found a few I liked. I'm rather surprised to have enjoyed most French novels I've read, but English and American seem to be the ones that suit me best.

Then there are Japanese novels, which I usually enjoy but find deeply confusing...
 

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Perhaps our perceptions about the SS were wrong in the first place.

Quite possible. It's also useful to understand that, in 1943, he was fifteen years old. When Hitler came to power, little Gúnter was five. He grew up in that insulated monstrosity of a brainwashed Fourth Reich.

Most of us, thankfully, change considerably after we're fifteen.

caw

Gonna put my money on the "we're all idiots at 15" option.
 

Priene

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Gonna put my money on the "we're all idiots at 15" option.

Probably. But that doesn't excuse not mentioning his membership of the SS for several decades while becoming a major commentator on German politics and history.
 

blacbird

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Probably. But that doesn't excuse not mentioning his membership of the SS for several decades while becoming a major commentator on German politics and history.

The Waffen SS was a thing different from the creepy standard black-shirted SS with the death's-head insignia. The Waffen SS were soldiers more than ghouls. Originally intended by Hitler to be a special armed unit under SS administration, it evolved into essentially a separate army that fought alongside the regular German army. Originally an all-volunteer unit restricted to people of “Germanic” heritage, by 1943 things had become so dire that the Waffen SS began conscripting. I don’t know if Grass was a volunteer or a conscript.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS

caw
 

J.S.F.

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The Waffen SS was a thing different from the creepy standard black-shirted SS with the death's-head insignia. The Waffen SS were soldiers more than ghouls. Originally intended by Hitler to be a special armed unit under SS administration, it evolved into essentially a separate army that fought alongside the regular German army. Originally an all-volunteer unit restricted to people of “Germanic” heritage, by 1943 things had become so dire that the Waffen SS began conscripting. I don’t know if Grass was a volunteer or a conscript.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS

caw

--

They could be just as bad as the Death's Head corps. And whether or not Grass volunteered doesn't matter. He lied about it, showed his hypocrisy on that and on a number of other issues as well, and sloughed it all off in the same manner as Kurt Waldheim did saying "I was young, I didn't know..." blah blah blah.

Grass was a good writer, but I won't be mourning his passage.
 

blacbird

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I feel neutral about him lying about it.

Lying is bad. But...I get why he did it.

Pretty much my response, too. I don't (can't) excuse him for it. But post-1945 there was a huge cloud of "it wasn't my fault" in Germany. Back in the 1960s the folk group Mitchell Trio, when the late John Denver joined them, produced a savagely funny song called "The I Was Not a Nazi Polka" about this syndrome.

Grass's contemporary and fellow Nobel winner Heinrich Böll, also made most of his literary career coming to grips with what happened to Germany in the Third Reich. It wasn't a rare occurrence.

caw
 

Teinz

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The Waffen SS was a thing different from the creepy standard black-shirted SS with the death's-head insignia. The Waffen SS were soldiers more than ghouls. Originally intended by Hitler to be a special armed unit under SS administration, it evolved into essentially a separate army that fought alongside the regular German army. Originally an all-volunteer unit restricted to people of “Germanic” heritage, by 1943 things had become so dire that the Waffen SS began conscripting. I don’t know if Grass was a volunteer or a conscript.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS

caw

As I tried to say, the SS wasn't the monolithic bloc of evil, the way it is usually portrayed. Lots of evil there, ofcourse, and I've got no love for the SS. When I grew up, the word SS was only mentioned in hushed tones. One of my neighbours owned an old chevy SS and as kids we all thought him to be a nazi. The Schutzstaffel had to be comprised of demons only.

Later on I learned Dutch young men joined the SS in droves. Particularly in the early phases of the war, demand was very high. The bought in the lie of Ein Volk, ein Reich. No one ever dared speak of that, naturally. I hear recruitment was way up in the region where I live. The same goes for Belgium and other countries. No wonder people spoke of the SS in hushed tones.

Then there are stories about SS-soldiers that contradict common knowledge about the SS. Like the one about Kurt Panzer Meyer. I read a book about him. He just seemed to be a brave and effective soldier, with a lot of qualities people usually praise. Grit, intelligence, camaraderie. Still, he was Waffen-SS.
 

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As we have seen, repeatedly throughout history, the quality of soldiering has nothing at all to do with the morality of the soldier in question, or the country they serve.

You can be a really good soldier and a really huge asshole - or a really good soldier and a saint.

Or, you can be a great soldier, a good person and work for morally repugnant people, like General Lee.