Günter Kunert

Ins Morgenland

Language: german

Translations: macedonian (Кон ориентот)

Ins Morgenland

Der Boden jedem Schritte unbekannter.
Du spürst die Wahrheit: Nichts als Grauen.
Schon Deportierter, nicht mehr Abgesandter.
Verloren Weg und Steg und das Vertrauen
an jede gute Heimkunft unterdessen.
Was dich erwartet, mußt du täglich lesen
und mühst dich ab, es zu vergessen:
Daß du zur Zukunft unterwegs gewesen.

Günter Kunert

photo © gezett.de

* 06.03.1929, Berlin, Germany
† 21.09.2019, Germany

Günter Kunert was born in Berlin in 1929.

Before he left for West Germany in 1979 because of his critical attitude towards the SED, Kunert was one of the best known lyrical poets of the German Democratic Republic. He has remained the poet of opposition and contradiction. Even after the fall of the Wall and the abating of the political storm, he continued, amicably but persistently, to point out the losses inflicted by progress.

photo © gezett.de

As Kunerts mother was Jewish, he was not allowed to complete his education. After the Nazi authorities rejected him as 'unfit for military service', he began a short-lived apprenticeship at a clothes shop. When the war was over, he commenced a course in Graphic Design at the Academy of Applied Arts in Berlin-Weißensee. Kunert financed his education by writing satirical poems and stories for the magazine 'Ulenspiegel'.

After five semesters he abandoned his studies to concentrate on his writing. In 1950 Kunert’s first volume of poetry, 'Wegschilder und Mauerinschriften', appeared. Johannes R. Becher, who subsequently became the East German Culture Minister, recognized the talent of the young author, a member of the Socialist Unity Party, and encouraged him. However, his acquaintance with Bertolt Brecht (around 1951/52) had a more marked affect on his creativity.

During the 1960s Kunert’s sceptical, pessimistic verse clashed increasingly with the cultural authorities’ prescriptions for wholesome literature. Meanwhile, the widely read author was awakening interest in West Germany. His only novel, 'Im Namen der Hüte', was published there in 1967. Nine years passed before it was printed in the GDR.

Kunert gained an international reputation and obtained permission to travel abroad. In 1972 he accepted a guest lectureship in Austin, Texas, and spent a year as 'Writer in Residence' in Warwick, U.K., in 1975.

After signing the writers’ protest against Wolf Biermann’s extradition in 1976, he was ejected from the Party. In 1979 he acquired a several-year visa, which enabled him to move to West Germany. Kunert and his wife settled in Schleswig-Holstein. He lived in Kaisborstel near Itzehoe until his death in 2019.

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