concept of literature, in which traditionally conceived stereotyped figures were linked
with baldly stated convictions about the correct behaviour in developing socialist
society. The early works of successful East German children’s writers, such as Ilse Korn
(1907–1975) with Mit Bärbel fing es an [It started with Bärbel] (1952), Horst Beseler (b.
1925) with Die Moorbande [The Swamp Gang] (1952), or Benno Pludra (b.1925) with Ein
Mädchen, fünf Jungen und sechs Traktoren [One Girl, Five Boys and Six Tractors]
(1951), exemplify this.
But experiments in, and discussions about, children’s writing were not confined to
topical political themes. Debates went on about classical types of received bourgeois
literature for their young and their potential adoption. Then from the 1960s attempts
were made to make available the tradition of national and world literature, beginning
with Franz Fühmann’s (1922–1984) adaptations of Greek and medieval epics (Das
hölzerne Pferd [The Wooden Horse] (1968); Das Nibelungenlied [The Lay of the
Nibelungs] (1971)) and of Shakespeare’s plays Shakespeare-Märchen [Shakespeare
Fantasies] (1968). But at first, fairy tales, girls’ literature and adventure stories were the
especial objects of a critical discussion on the national heritage. The adventure story—
historical or contemporary—was then to become one of the strengths of GDR children’s
literature, since this genre lent itself to the current concept of literary realism and at the
same time allowed particular reader expectations to be fulfilled. Great names in this
context are Ludwig Renn (pseudonym of Arnold Friedrich Vieth von Golßenau, 1889–
1979), who in Trini (1954) dealt with an episode of the Mexican revolution of 1910–1920,
and Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich (1901–1979) with her series of novels Die Söhne der
groβen Bärin [The Sons of the Great She-Bear], begun in 1951, a history of the North
American Indians and their struggles up to the present.
Children’s fantasy literature on the other hand remained a genre of marginal interest,
meaning mainly long stories by the dramatist Peter Hacks (b. 1928) [for example, Das
Windloch [The Wind Hole] (1956); Das Turmverlies [The Dungeon] (1962), inspired by the
West German James Krüss. But the 1970s brought a more intensive preoccupation with
fantasy, both in theoretical considerations and in actual texts. A new acceptance of the
play character of children’s literature is represented for instance in Franz Fühmann’s
language-play book Die dampfenden Hälse der Pferde im Turm von Babel [The Steaming
Necks of the Horses in the Tower of Babel] (1978) and Christoph Hein’s (b.1944) Das
Wildpferd unterm Kachelofen [The Wild Horse under the Stove] (1986). Fairy tale fantasy
also sometimes rose to critical and satirical mirroring of social circumstances in the last
years of the GDR, as in Reinhard Griebner’s story of silly townspeople Das blaue Wunder
Irgendwo [The Big Surprise Somewhere] (1980), or Christa Kozik’s (b. 1941) plea for
reform, scantily disguised in the story Kicki und der König [Kicki and the King] (1990),
which was only published after the political situation altered.
GDR narrative literature for children was characterised throughout by its aim of
integrating the recipient into the socialist order. Protagonists, not only in contemporary
and topical books, are therefore as a rule individuals who are looking for something,
often insecure personalities whose relationship with the collective has to be clarified.
Through identification the reader is to be enabled to recognize the ‘correct’ solution or
behaviour and to incorporate this knowledge in his mentality. The dilemma arising from
this is reflected in literary and educational discussions as early as the 1950s. On the
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