Kielland – an ideological paragon in the GDR

Associate professor Benedict Jager at the Department of Cultural Studies and Languages has investigated Norwegian literature published in East Germany. He has found a total of 82 Norwegian editions in government archives, which, after the fall of the Wall, are open to the public. He is one of the few people who have looked closely at the material which covers the years from the 1950s to 1990.

Before a book was ready for East German readers it had to go through a thorough process of censorship. Each book had to obtain two censor statements, one from the publisher and one from the ministry, In the GDR there was a preoccupation with the lives of the workers. Accordingly, fiction portraying the farmers’ everyday lives was given first priority, but the texts were only accepted after the farmers’ union had submitted a statement.. Corresponding regulations applied when the military was the subject, Jager explains.

Kielland on the right track
It was important to find literature that could support the East German communist ideology. Stavanger’s great novelist, Alexander L. Kielland, was one of those who were found acceptable for East German readers. Four of his books were published in the GDR: Garman & Worse, Skipper Worse, Else, and Kielland’s first work, Noveletter.

Kielland looks at social problems from several points of view and was skeptical about society. That’s why he fitted in. One assumed also that ideologically he was on the way to where GDR had fought is way and regarded him as an inspiration. This creates the legitimacy of saying that we continue the work that the best people in all cultures have started, Jager says.

In the censored material the writers were measured against their own history. In Kielland, as an individual, it is emphasized that he, in spite of his bohemian life, was ideologically on the right track. It is also mentioned that the class pressure increased to the extent that he ended up as a civil servant.

Popular literature
Like another Norwegian writer, Johan Bojer, Kielland was published by Volk und Welt in Berlin in the series Roman-Zeitung in which books from all over the world were printed weekly. The books came out in installments and were sold at train stations and news stands. The series consisted of more than 500 publications having an average circulation of 91.000 copies, A total of 45,5 million copies were sold.

The literature was planned from an educational point of view and was meant to give an ideal image of East Germany. That is why it was important to reach many reader groups, also those who normally did not read literature. The books from this period must be seen in the context of the country’s material situation. People did not have many opportunities for traveling, but reading was highly regarded and books cost just a few shillings. All foreign literature had a strong position among people.

As for Norwegian literature, the early GDR period was dominated by the critical realists and breakthrough modernist literature. Jager sees a clear indication of the preference of writers with communist attitudes in the early GDR. This applies to Nordahl Grieg and Rudolf Nielsen and also to Øyvind Bolstad, who is less known in Norway.

Hamsun of no interest
Jonas Lie was greater than Kielland in the GDR. Many of Lie’s books were translated, which is a surprise to me considering that Lie is almost forgotten at home. Everything that reminded of national socialism was out of the question and one did not distinguish between a writer and his characters. That is why Hamsun’s books, because of his national socialist sympathies, were not available until 1976. That was after Pan and Victoria had been published in the Soviet union a few years earlier. In the West he was published and read already in 1949, Jager says.

Other Norwegian writers published during the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall were Knut Faldbakken, Johan Borgen and Sigurd Hoel. Two of Axel Sandemose’s books were also published, but his ideas about psychoanalysis were toned down. Sigmund Freud was seen as bourgeois and decadent and was first available in 1982 with his work Trauer und Melancholie. Unlike their countrymen in the East, the West German readers might devour Jens Bjørneboe’s Uten en tråd (Without a Thread) and The Sharks.

The mixture of ideology and literary quality was always there, but the balance could vary. Suddenly a book might be published which had earlier been stopped by the censorship. In the beginning the censored material grew until the censorship became less strict early in the 1980s. The ideological war was lost.

Jager adds that because of the censorship, with its extensive archival material, there is a good documentation of East German literature.

Did the powers that be ever make any changes in the texts?

As far as I know it never happened to any of the Norwegian writers, but the Swedish author Sara Lidmann was edited, admittedly after she herself had authorized it. This concerned a discussion about Stalin which the authorities did not particularly like.

Lengthy postscripts
The authorities had to make sure that people read the books in a correct manner. That is why the translated editions were supplied by postscripts of about 35 pages. The more problematic the text, the longer the postscripts.

The postscripts were addressed to those who had a higher education and were meant to confine the meanings. Their length is astounding considering the lack of paper in the country. And who reads a postscript of 35 pages anyway, Jager wonders.

In the course of 40 years only three Norwegian children’s books were published in the GDR. Not even Torbjørn Egner’s popular tooth trolls Karius and Baktus, printed in nine editions in West Germany, existed on the market.

Norwegian children’s literature is almost completely absent because of lack of foreign currency to buy expensive licenses. This influenced the selection. However, the GDR produced very good children’s books on its own, Jager says.

Text: Thomas Bore Olsen
Photo: Elisabeth Tønnessen