A spectacular rediscovery: presentation of previously unknown manuscript passages in the Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum)
With Manos Tsangaris, Frank Druffner and Werner Heegewaldt (welcoming remarks), Gabriele Radecke and Dieter Stolz (talk), Ulrich Matthes (reading)
To this day, Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) remains one of the most controversial masterpieces of narration. Its content is still provocative and relevant. In the novel, Oskar Matzerath beats his drum to loudly denounce stupidity, opportunism, lies and Nazism. With his first novel, the then largely unknown author Günter Grass caused a sensation in 1959 and sparked a political scandal. Forty years later, he was honoured with the Nobel Prize and the work acclaimed as the “rebirth of the German novel in the 20th century”.
More than half a century after its publication, previously unknown passages in the manuscript were discovered, which the Archives of the Akademie der Künste were able to acquire with the support of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States. Literary scholars Gabriele Radecke, and Dieter Stolz discuss the spectacular rediscovery and the novel’s equally intriguing and fascinating genesis. Ulrich Matthes reads from the epic novel. A showcase presentation offers a closer look at the manuscript.