Your Novel is an Execution

No end to the debate over anti-Semitism in Germany: Now, it's a literary scandal, too

"I am not a political writer and never was," Martin Walser said on the occasion of his being awarded the German book trade's Peace Prize in 1998, one of the country's highest honors. But the author of more than 40 books wandered straight into a political maelstrom when, in his acceptance speech, he called for an end to the use of Auschwitz as a "moral cudgel" with which to keep the Germans down. Now, with a book that hasn't even been published yet, he's done it all over again.

This time, one of Walser's most prominent supporters during the 1998 hubbub has not only abandoned him, but has also ignited the fire storm. Seemingly out of the blue, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung editor Frank Schirrmacher published an open letter to Walser on his paper's front page on Wednesday. "Dear Mr. Walser," it began, and what followed was a public refusal to serialize the writer's forthcoming novel, Tod eines Kritikers (Death of a Critic), as the FAZ had initially agreed.

The novel depicts an author seething with hatred for a famous literary critic; "thinly veiled" is, by all accounts, hardly adequate to described how closely the critic, "André Ehrl-König," is modeled on Marcel Reich-Ranicki, widely celebrated in Germany for his television persona, his ruthless critiques of even his favorite authors and for his perpetual tinkering on his own version of the canon of German literature.

Reich-Ranicki is also the only member of his immediate family to survive the Holocaust and his moving autobiography soared at the top of bestseller lists for months on end. Just as repulsive to Schirrmacher as the personal vendetta ("Your novel is an execution") is the plethora of anti-Semitic clichés.

Here's where the literary world leaps into the ongoing political debate (see Hot Potato Politics). During the Social Democrats' (SPD) convention over the weekend, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder lambasted the Free Democrats (FDP) for conducting "politics without morality"; the implication is that the FDP is surreptitiously courting voters who harbor anti-Semitic sentiments.

In the wake of the rise (and fall) of Le Pen in France and Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands, it's as if all of Germany were suddenly, as the current cover of Der Spiegel puts it, "playing with fire."

A related note of possible interest to readers of these Weekly Reviews. The FAZ in English, which has been appearing in print in Germany as a supplement to The International Herald Tribune, will soon cease publication. Every paper has felt the crunch of cutbacks in advertising over the past year or so, and the IHT reportedly told the FAZ it could no longer afford to put up half the cost of running the FAZ in English. For its part, the FAZ, which itself lost 27 million euros in 2001, couldn't afford to have more costs dumped in its lap. One hates to see it go, but the FAZ in English claimed a circulation of a mere 30,000; if there's going to be any mourning, it'll probably be all the more sad for how quiet it'll be.

Elsewhere

Between 1878 and 1956, there lived another German writer by the name of Walser -- Robert, praised by the likes of Kafka and Musil. And all but forgotten today. The Austin Chronicle talks to the translator seeking to revive the memory.