euro|topics - Europe discusses Grass's admission

Main focus of Thursday, August 17, 2006

Europe discusses Grass's admission

Günter Grass's admission to having served with the Waffen-SS has triggered intense debate beyond German borders. For Western Europe the main question is whether his works are still worthy of discussion. In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, the question is how much progress has been made in coming to terms with the past.

The Guardian - United Kingdom

Journalist Guy Dammann is interested in the reasons that drove Günter Grass to admit to his past. His response to the current situation - "'My silence all these years was one of the reasons I had to write [my autobiography 'Peeling onions']' - seems uniformly weak if nonetheless highly plausible, but, as with Conrad's Lord Jim, those with a guilty past are often the most zealous when it comes to repairing the present. If Grass's silence is also partly what spurred him on, then the route to condemnation is less easy. Hypocrisy is always ugly, but ugliness is no less important to literature than beauty. Grass's crime is to have betrayed those whose spokesman he has sought to be. For those of us lucky enough to have not required his services in this respect, he remains as powerful and as interesting a writer as before." (17/08/2006)

La Croix - France

The editor of the Catholic daily, Michel Kubler, believes that "by revealing this incredible side to his past the writer acknowledges that his aura of the imprecatory sage was nourished from within by his own experience of compromising himself with evil ... Indeed, can one speak authoritatively on so grave a subject without having been closely involved, for whatever reason, oneself? By facing up to ... 'the shame' of being a Nazi stakeholder, albeit briefly, marginally, and even subconsciously, Grass has become an ordinary human being, that stands among not above his fellows. He has assumed his full place in the destiny of his people. As he grows old the tin drum child has finally agreed to grow up. He may well grow in stature." (17/08/2006)

El País - Spain

The daily paper considers the malaise prompted by the German writer's revelations. "Grass became a moral authority by speaking his mind on subjects as controversial as German reunification, the Cuban situation, and globalization. It would have been preferable had this authority shown greater transparency over aspects of his own past linked to the public persona he has built for himself. Yet it is better late than never and Grass himself confesses that this 'ignominy' arouses a 'a sense of shame' in him. His delay in unveiling such an important fact of his life does not, however, impair the quality of his literary work or the justice of the causes he has defended and still defends. His delay merely confirms that nobody is perfect and that we are all human. Too human, sometimes." (17/08/2006)

Magyar Hírlap - Hungary

Julianna R. Szekely draws parallels between the debate about Günter Grass and the scandal when Istvan Szabo's past as a Stasi informant was revealed, and she defends both artists: "It's a terrible mistake to let an event in the life of an artist overshadow the value of his life's work. One of the things that make both Grass' and Szabo's works so wonderful is that they portray guilt and sin, defeat and triumph over life's problems, and not from a distanced, objective point of view but in a moving and intensely involved way." Szekely reserves her criticism for those who condemn Grass and Szabo. In her eyes they are hypocrites who act as if "they were born with pure souls, the products of an immaculate conception." Szekely argues that they, too, have sins on their conscience but unlike Grass never asked themselves the question: "Could you have understood back then the full implications of what you were doing?" (17/08/2006)

Mladá fronta DNES - Czech Republic

Viliam Buchert argues that although Günter Grass may have lost his halo by admitting to having served with the Waffen-SS, it was still an important step. Buchert examines Grass's admission in the context of the Czech Republic's communist past. "Many people refuse to admit to having collaborated with the state security service. Now that Grass has made his confession, we must ask ourselves what is to be done with those who collaborated with National Socialism or communism. Those who are guilty should openly admit it. You don't have to be religious to see that repentance and clarification should be rewarded with forgiveness. But as usual, the Czechs prefer to turn a blind eye on their past… Günter Grass's confession has made it clear how far we are from having come to terms with our past. We refuse to confront the past simply because we don't want to." (15/08/2006)

» To the complete press review of Thursday, August 17, 2006

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