01/22/2025
The Value of Freedom
by Peter Wimmer, Abitur-Coordinator
GDR Literature Between Conformity and Resistance in the Härlen Library.

You know it too, that mysterious scent of old books. A fragrance that evokes almost forgotten stories, brought to life as you flip through the pages. Books that ignite the imagination and transport the reader on a journey into their inner world.

While the exhibition by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship may not truly engage your sense of smell, its display panels, rich with texts, images, and videos, invite you on a vivid journey through time in the reading landscape of the GDR. As our literature course explores the tension between conformity and resistance, examining the role of writers in society, this exhibition seemed well-suited to open this challenging world to others. A world long gone, yet still part of many people's history.

It wasn't easy for authors in the former GDR to pursue their calling without ruffling feathers. They compensated for the lack of freedom with creative approaches in art and literature, striving to make their homeland a more livable place. A country whose authorities believed in the power of the written word while simultaneously fearing it. Where reading and writing were promoted with great effort, yet politically undesirable literature in libraries was only accessible with a ‘poison certificate’, and mail and travelers from the West were searched for printed materials.

The exhibition, which we have supplemented with our own posters and a table full of fragrant books, tells of the stubbornness of people who refused to have their reading dictated to them, who queued for rare books and secretly pocketed coveted titles from West German publishers at the Leipzig Book Fair. The journey through time concludes with the writers in the Peaceful Revolution and the GDR as a theme in contemporary literature.

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