Deutscher Schriftstellerverband

The German Writers 'Association ( DSV), since November 1973 Writers' Union of the GDR, was founded in 1950 as a professional association of writers in the GDR. He saw himself in the tradition of the German Association for the Protection writer (SDS ) in the 1920s, the same switched during the time of Hitler's dictatorship and was transferred on 31 July 1933, the Reich Association of German Writers.

  • 4.1 Writers Conferences
  • 4.2 Secondary Literature

History and work

The association was first established on 4 June 1950 as a German Writers' Union in the Cultural Union for Democratic Renewal of Germany in Berlin and entered the successor of the German Association for the Protection authors SDA / SDA or zone / GDR. The protective association was co-organized inter alia, the First German Writers' Congress in October 1947. The German Writers' Association was constituted on 22 May 1952.

In 1989, the SV had 931 members and 118 candidates. The Association was divided into 15 district associations and in the group of Sorbian authors.

Legal supervision subject to the Ministry of Culture, the political guidance of the Central Committee of the SED, the so-called " hedge line writer " were taken over by the Ministry of State Security. Like all artists 'associations of the GDR Writers' Union was financed from the state budget (Ministry of Culture), in 1989 he received 2.5 million marks.

The association held since 1953 in Petzow on Havel the writer rest home " Friedrich Wolf". The villa was inhabited at the time of Hitler's dictatorship by Marika Rokk. The property was transferred back to 2001 to the Jewish heirs.

With the DSV / SV closely linked was the Literary Institute " Johannes R. Becher ," which was originally supposed to take 1950 as the establishment of the Association of his work already, but was founded in 1955 as an independent higher education institution.

As a political organization of the GDR ( the association did not see himself as a professional body representing the interests of writers ), he contributed to the implementation of the cultural policy of the SED at. Stir obtained in this context, the resolutions and of loyalty to the June 17, 1953, for the suppression of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the Wall in 1961 and the denaturalization of Alexander Solzhenitsyn in 1974 from the Soviet Union and of Wolf Biermann in 1976 from the GDR. Global protest aroused the exclusion of critical authors in 1979 ( Kurt Bartsch, Adolf Endler, Stefan Heym, Karl -Heinz Jacob, Klaus Poche, Klaus Schlesinger, Rolf Schneider, Dieter Schubert and Joachim Seyppel ).

At the Extraordinary Writers' Congress 1st - 3rd March 1990 was Rainer Kirsch elected as the new president. After German reunification, the association after a survey of members of circulation again in German Writers' Association ( DSV) has been renamed. At its last meeting on 27 November 1990, the Executive Board decided to suspend the operations of the Association as at 31 December 1990.

From 1952 until its dissolution in late 1990 the Writers' Association published the literary magazine " New German Literature" ( NDL ). As own association and information published monthly " releases " in the 50s also the magazine " The Writer ".

The archive of the Writers' Union is located since 1991 in the archive of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

Membership

Members could be author " belletristic works of all genres ", translator, editor, literary critic, essayist, literary critic, and those persons who had " made ​​outstanding contribution to the promotion of literature " ( cultural officials or political staff from the management of the Association ). Tasks and duties regulated a statute members to " work method of Socialist Realism " committed and the recognition of the "leading role of the working class and its party " demanded.

Condition of the recording was an acknowledgment as a candidate. For a candidacy next to the intercession of two members of proof writing activities and already existing publications of fiction or lyrical style was as guarantor necessary. Generally, two or lyrical fiction publications were necessary for this. After the abolition of candidate status in the fifties and after a temporary delegation of young talent to work Communities Young Authors AJA candidate status was re-introduced in 1974.

Structure

The supreme body were the writers congresses, of which ten were held until 1989 and which were convened on decision of the Board. Governing bodies were the Bureau, which met quarterly, and the Executive Board, which met on a monthly basis. The members of the Board were elected to be confirmed by the Central Committee of the SED on the writer congresses. The Management Board comprised ex officio the chairman of the district associations and the Secretaries of the Association. The President, Vice-Presidents and the Bureau was elected from the board. Quality Office were the chief editor of ndl and the Secretaries of the Association of Members of the Bureau.

Writers conferences

  • I. Writers' Congress October 4 to 8, 1947 ( convened by the Cultural Association for Democratic Renewal of Germany and the German authors Protection Association (SDA ) )
  • Second Writers' Congress 4 to 6 July 1950
  • III. Writers' Congress 22 to 25 May 1952
  • Fourth Writers' Congress 9 to 14 January 1956
  • V. Writers' Congress 25 to 27 May 1961
  • VI. Writers' Congress 28 to 30 May 1969
  • VII Writers' Congress 14 to 16 November 1973
  • VIII Writers' Congress 29 to 31 May 1978
  • IX. Writers' Congress 31 May-2 June 1983
  • X. Writers' Congress 25 to 26 November 1987
  • Extraordinary Writers Congress: 1 - March 3, 1990

President

  • Bodo Uhse (1950-1952), the first chairman of the DSV within the Cultural Alliance
  • Anna Seghers (1952-1978), President of Foundation of the DSV as an independent institution since 1978 Honorary President
  • Hermann Kant (1978-1990)
  • Rainer Kirsch ( 1990)

Vice President

Since 1969

  • Yuri Brežan (1969-1989)
  • Hermann Kant (1969-1978), Gerhard Holtz- Baumert (1978-1989)
  • Fritz Selbmann (1969-1975), Rainer Kerndl (1978-1989)
  • Max Walter Schulz (1969-1989)
  • Erwin Strittmatter (1969-1978), Joachim Nowotny (1978-1989)

First Secretary of the Association

  • Victor Walther (1950-1952) Executive Chairman of DSV in Cultural Alliance
  • Kurt Barthel ( Cuba) ( 1952-1954 )
  • Gustav Just (1954-1955)
  • Eduard Claudius ( 1956)
  • Max Zimmering (1956-1958)
  • Erwin Strittmatter (1959-1961)
  • Otto Braun (1961-1963)
  • Hans Koch (1963-1966)
  • Gerhard Henniger (1966-1990)
  • Dirk von Kügelgen (1990, as Managing Director)

Presidium and Board

The board of DSV was elected to the usually every 4 to 5 -yearly congresses. Were co-opted to the Board, the Chairman of the 16 district associations ( 15 districts as well as the separate Sorbian Working Group Bautzen ) and a large number of other authors ( elected at the congress 1978 Board comprised over 100 members). The real decision-making powers were, however, the Bureau of the Executive Board and there especially the President and the First Secretary, to a lesser extent in the five Vice-Presidents.

In addition to the President, Vice-Presidents and First Secretaries listed the Chairman's over the years from 1969, inter alia, Helmut Sakowski, Kurt Stern, Horst Beseler, Günter Görlich, IRMTRAUD Morgner, Rudi beam, Hans Weber, Walter Flegel, Herbert Otto, Rosemarie Schuder, Volker Brown, John Erpenbeck, Klaus Jarmatz, Waldtraut Lewin and Mary Seidemann. The chief editor of the association's journal ndl (initially Werner Neubert, then Walter Nowojski ) was also a member of the Presidium of the Board.

Departments

Departments were part of the administrative and organizational apparatus of the DSV / SV and also administrative instrument of the association. Departments of the Association support the work of volunteer action committees, the Board, the Bureau and the work of the president. They collected information (from the district associations, the relevant ministries or the Central Committee of the SED ), developed analyzes and prepared resolutions before. A second important task of departments consisted in the implementation of decisions of the commissions, the Board and the Bureau. Departments were staffed by full-time employees who were under the guidance of secretaries; responsible and accountable for the work of the departments was the first secretary. Secretaries to the DSV / SV were political staff, subject to the nomenclature cadre system of the GDR and had confirmation and reporting obligations in relation to the Central Committee of the SED.

The Association had the following departments:

  • Department of International Relations ( Foreign Department ) emerged from the West Division (Department of West Work )
  • Department Organization and Finance
  • Social Policy Division / Squad
  • Literature department
  • Youth department ( emerged from the junior department and procurement)

The tasks of a squad or personnel department were subject to the First Secretary of the DSV / SV.

Commissions

Commissions have been appointed as required by the board, its Creation and powers subject to confirmation by a writers' congress. The members were appointed, usually after consultation with the Central Committee of the SED. Work in commissions was honorary. Secretaries to the DSV / SV ( heads of departments ) were automatically co-opted depending on the field and within the Commission had the right to vote. Decisions of the commissions were transferred to the implementation of the relevant department of the DSV / SV; Commissions were therefore an important body for the internal workings of the DSV / SV. The work of commissions extended generally to the period between two writers conferences, but could be extended by decision of the Congress.

In 1987, the following committees were:

  • Job and Scholarship Board
  • Commission for International Relations
  • Offspring Commission
  • Rights Commission ( emerged from the legal profession and Commission)
  • Solidarity Commission
  • Social Commission (also called the Social Affairs Committee )
  • Rules Committee ( which was used when required )
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