As of: October 6th, 2024 2:36 p.m
Siegfried Lenz belongs to the North German literary canon, like matjes to bread rolls. Singer Stefan Gwildis will celebrate the writer with a homage at the St. Pauli Theater tomorrow. A conversation about Lenz, good books and music.
Born in 1926 in Lyck, East Prussia, died in Hamburg in 2014, Lenz is one of the most important writers in German-language post-war and contemporary literature. His many novels, stories, plays, essays and radio plays are the result of tireless productivity, imagination and the desire to bring the past to life. In this homage, Stefan Gwildis reveals to his audience what, among other things, fascinates him about the “German lesson”. The musician is interested in a very personal approach to Lenz, with whom he not only shares a love of the sea.
Stefan Gwildis has arrived in the studio. And he wants to pick us up with Siegfried Lenz.
Stefan Gwildis: Sure, I want to get you for Siegfried Lenz. And not just for the “German lesson”, but for the huge range that he has to offer; with his work, what he created. If you look at Borchardt’s complete works for comparison, the entire book spines are five centimeters wide and Siegfried Lenz’s are 250 centimeters wide. That’s quite a caliber of what this man is doing and what he’s impressive with. That’s simply his topicality and the cross-generational information that he provides with his great stories.
You once said: “Siegfried Lenz is such a good observer who knows how to describe things so precisely that you have the feeling that you are right there with him on a latrine beam in the swamps of eastern Poland.” That bodes well for your Siegfried Lenz evening at the St. Pauli Theater. Let’s see if you can keep it up.
Willis: I really hope so too. I’m in good spirits because we have a wonderful dramaturg in place, namely Sonja Valentin, who wrote a lot of the texts for this program. And I’m not alone on stage, I have two musical colleagues with me: Tobi Neumann on the piano and Hagen Kuhr on the cello. Both accompany it musically so brilliantly. A lot of small samples will come to light. For me it’s a little chocolate box with the most beautiful quotes from Siegfried Lenz. And I’ve often wondered, what are the parallels? Where does it touch my life and where does it also touch the life of my family, my parents and my grandparents? I noticed so many parallels that are very important.
When did you get to know the work of Siegfried Lenz?
Willis: In the 1970s there were cassettes in the library for the blind that discussed world literature, and among them was a cassette with the “German lesson,” which is how I got it. I found the “German lesson” so incredibly interesting because the Germans are described in a more German way than in the “German lesson” – that’s hardly possible. The great thing about Lenz is that in his great observations he leaves it open to the reader as to how everything can continue. And it opens doors and doesn’t bring the solution at all, but rather it always opens lots of doors. And I think that’s what’s so great about all of his stories and especially about the “German lesson.”
“The spring was so tender” is the name of the program…
Willis: … It is of course an allusion to the book “So tender was Suleyken”. He tells these great Masurian stories about these clumsy, subliminally intelligent people, but who prove to be very clever in their lives that they carry great wisdom with them. This becomes clear in each of the stories.
You already said that there are musicians involved too. What’s in store for us that evening?
Willis: As I said, there are a lot of chocolates coming our way: from different stories, from novels, from plays and also from previously unpublished things. A book with Siegfried Lenz’s radio work is now being published by Hoffmann and Campe, and there will be something more from it. Lenz was also a partner of Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt and played a key role in Willy Brandt’s Eastern policy at the time. You can be happy that you can go there again today after the fall of the Berlin Wall. By the way, I went to Masuria, to Suleyken and looked at everything just to find out: Where does he come from? It’s beautiful. By the way: This is a real travel recommendation.
The interview was conducted by Steffi Banowski.
This topic in the program:
NDR Culture | The Morning | Oct 7, 2024 | 7:00 p.m
