COURAGE

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During the 1960s, the SED (the communist party in power in East Germany) regime engaged in covering the gap of contemporary socialist theatre performance on GDR stages. Consequently, in 1963 the German Theatre (Deutscher Theater) in Berlin commissioned Heiner Müller to stage the novel Spur der Steine by Erik Neutsch. Müller’s critical adaptation of the novel as Der Bau (The Construction), which departed significantly from the original novel, was met by fierce criticism from the SED. Following seven revisions of the play, Müller was still unable to stage his work. It was only in September 1980 when the adaptation found significant success with the Volksbühne Theater in Berlin under the guidance of director Fritz Marquardt. However, censors forced the creators to change the play’s title and the names of the characters.

The controversy around the performance was linked to the play’s subtle critique of the GDR shown as detached from reality, dominated by a rigid bureaucracy, with citizens alienated by socialism, and the overemphasising of ‘development’ and ‘modernisation’. The play was greeted with praise by audiences, although the East and West German media reacted differently. West German press generally responded that the themes touched on in the play should have discussed years earlier, whereas the GDR press thought that the delay from real events was appropriate, such as discussion around the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The subtle staging of the political event, such as the construction of the Berlin Wall, created space for debate within the play’s audience. The play was staged twenty-nine times within a year of the opening night, and further performances were organised throughout the GDR. However, the fall of the GDR also meant the end for the play, which was staged only another two times, and only alongside other plays of Heiner Müller.

Currently, documents related to the play are preserved as part of the Theatre Performance Documentation collection of the Archives of Performing Arts of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

The photograph features the window of a 1980s bookshop in the centre of Braşov, Romania. What is striking is the presence of only two titles, specifically two classics of Romanian literature, by the poet Mihai Eminescu and the prose writer Ion Creangă. No book written by a foreign author can be seen on display. The author of the photograph intended to capture ironically the scarcity of the reading offer which the Romanian book consumer had to face during communism. The picture also suggests the isolation caused by the cultural policy of the Romanian communist regime after 1971. This cultural policy was intended to eliminate any Western influence upon Romanian art and literature, while promoting only local authors and artists. Also, this cultural policy led to the emergence of the so-called protochronism, a cultural movement developed in Romania during the 1970s and 1980s that exaggerated the achievements of Romanian culture and presented them as “anticipating” Western ones (Verdery 1991, 174–175). The photograph is a document which also reminds us of book market practices in Romania at the time. In the 1980s, when someone wanted a certain book, they were forced also to buy other books that were not on demand, such as those which can be seen in abundance in this photograph. In fact, bookstores forced their clients to buy whole cardboard boxes of books, even though they were interested in only one book in the package.

This is a document containing a conclusion based on investigative actions pertaining to the alleged emergence of nationalism in the Emigrant Foundation of Croatia (EFC) from 1964 to 1967, i.e. during the term of Većeslav Holjevac as its president. The Commission has identified incidents that "have manifested a certain nationalistic turn as well as an unhealthy climate, suitable for further deformities in the Emigrant Foundation of Croatia-" Holjevac was held the most responsible for this, because of "deeper ideological and political misconceptions about the national issue he is considering outside of the class and social context." Henceforth, Holjevac was forced to resign from membership in the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia (CC LCC), and consequently from the post of president of the EFC. As a concrete fault, the document specifies: the shortcomings of the proposed EFC Charter due to the one-sided orientation on emigrants exclusively of Croatian nationality, then the mitigation of the characterization of two emigrant organizations - the "Croatian Academy" in New York and the "American-Croatian Academic Club" in Cleveland (from those hostile to Yugoslavia, to neutral, cultural organizations) in materials prepared by Secretary I. Marinković. Holjevac was also accused of hesitating to condemn the Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Literary Language and its signatories, the lack of a reception and non-attendance on Republic Day in 1966, the singing of Croatian songs on New Year’s Eve ("Heavenly Maiden, Queen of the Croats," "Arise, banus"). The accusations included an appeal for help from emigrants during the flood in Zagreb in 1964, because it was addressed to "Croatian emigrants and other Yugoslav citizens on temporary work abroad," as well as putting Franjo Tuđman, Zvonimir Komarica and Ivo Frangeš on the list for the Main Committee (MC) of the EFC, and the rationale for signing a letter of solidarity with Ljudevit Jonke after the official condemnation of the aforementioned Declaration.

Holjevac was additionally found guilty of political aberrations on the nationalist viewpoint because of his disagreement with such assessments and for "ignoring his political responsibility." The Commission therefore instructed the convening of the EFC Extraordinary Assembly because of the changes in the MC and the definition of the EFC’s orientation "in accordance with the policies of our society."

This document is a very clear example of repressive action taken by the CC LCC, i.e., one of its bodies, in terms of cultural policy. Conduct beyond the established ideological line was not allowed and was quickly dealt with, and those involved were punished by the loss of their status in society, functions and often employment, and were placed under surveillance.

By 1995, the document was, along with the other records of socio-political organisations, a part of the Archives of the Institute of History of the Labour Movement of Croatia/Institute of Contemporary History. That year, in July, it was handed over to the Croatian State Archives (CSA), where it is kept today. The documents are accessible for use without any restrictions.

The card contains three cut and glued press clippings containing reports on trials for “offences against the people and the State by enemy propaganda.” As a criminal act aimed against the people and the State, enemy propaganda was defined in the 1951 Criminal Code as propaganda by illustration, writing, or public speech at rallies or otherwise, aimed against the state structure and social system, and against political, economic, military or other important institutions of the people’s government. Strict imprisonment was stipulated as punishment for the perpetration of such a crime.

Two press clippings refer to trials against Vlatko Pavletić (Zagreb, 2 December 1930 – Zagreb, 19 September 2007), the then editor-in-chief of the magazine Kritika, a publication of  the literary organization Matica hrvatska and the Croatian Association of Writers. The third clipping refers to a trial against journalist Smiljana Rendić (Split, 1926 – Trsat, 1994), because of her article “Izlazak iz genitiva ili drugi hrvatski preporod” [‘Exit from the genitive or the second Croatian revival’], published in 1971 in the issue no. 18 of the same magazine, which was therefore banned. Together with a group of officials of Matica hrvatska,  Pavletić was arrested in 1972 and then sentenced to a year and a half of strict imprisonment as a Croatian nationalist on charges of “attempting to overthrow and alter the state structure.” Rendić was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and was banned from public activity for one year after her release. They demonstrate a number of cases of prosecution against members of the Croatian Spring that followed the suppression of that reform movement in Croatia at the end of 1971. A significant part of this prosecution encompassed cultural institutions and humanist intellectuals. The work of Matica hrvatska and its magazine Kritika were banned by the communist authorities. The collection includes a number of press clippings about these events, grouped in several topics in the categories for Culture (filing folders KUL 320 and KUL 491) and Domestic affairs (filing folder UP 27 and UP 28), and in the dossiers Public Persons category. The documents are available for research and copying.

The philosophical notes of Lajos Szabó made in the years he spent abroad (between 1956 and 1967) fill more than one hundred and sixty notebooks. These notes in most cases are not contiguous texts, but groups of keywords and names, as Attila Kotányi drafted it, “systematizing scalings marked by abbreviations, paths of the branching correlations.” Szabó considered exact wording important, so he worked continuously on the purgation of language.

This concrete page was written in German. The first keyword, prismatic, refers to the interrelation of logic, ethics, and aesthetics (they relate as the prism makes colors visible). This concept has great significance in his thought. According to Kotányi, “this triple interrelation is the central dome of his philosophy.” As he worded it, “Prismatic research reveals the vortex motion of beauty, good, and true, in contrast with the dimness of ‘spirit’. The spirit is the unity, movement and energy of this three motifs.”