Mark Roman (Red-One-Mark Novel) series; the Neue DeutscheVerlag, which
functioned as the publishing arm ofWilli Münzenberg’sInternationale Arbeiter-
hilfe (IAH, InternationalWorkers’Aid); and the Greifenverlag inRudolstadt/
Thuringia, which maintained an idiosyncratic catalogue of progressive and alter-
native books.¹¹
Hailed duringthe 1970sfor producing both“the onlytrulyMarxist concep-
tion of literature of its time”and the proletarian-revolutionary literature that
“must be consideredafoundationofMarxist literary theory to this day,”¹²Die
Linkskurvepublished critical essays,book reviews, conference reports,and
short opinionpieces.Its editorial collective includedaeditor in chief, plus
Kurt Kläber (1897–1959), Erich Weinert (1890–1953), Ludwig Renn (1889–
1979), and the alreadymentionedJohannesR.Becher and Hans Marchwitza.
Most contributors insisted thatonlythe“right”definition could give riseto the
ideal proletarian novel and that onlythe“correct”application of Marxist theory
would bring aboutarevolutionary situation. Confirming the international char-
acter of these debates on the“literature of the worldrevolution,”articles by Oto
Biha (i.e., OtoBihalji Merin) and others, were translatedand discussed by pro-
letarianauthors and communist critics as faraway as the United Statesand
Japan.¹³In the journal’sfirst issue,Becher,who had previouslyedited aProletari-
scheFeuilleton-Korrespondenz(1927–1929), called for the transformation of all of
literatureinto aKampfgebiet(combat zone).With his typicalhyperbole,hede-
On the BPRS,see Friedrich Albrecht and KlausKändler,Bund proletarisch-revolutionärer
Schriftsteller Deutschlands1928– 1935 (Leipzig:VEB Bibliographisches Institut,1978). Forthe
largercontext, seeRüdiger Safranski andWalter Fähnders,“Proletarisch-revolutionäreLitera-
tur,”inLiteratur derWeimarerRepublik 1918– 1933 ,ed. BernhardWeyergraf (Munich:Hanser,
1995), 174 – 231; and Rob Burns,“Theory and Organisation of the RevolutionaryWorking-Class
Literature in theWeimar Republic,”inCultureand Society in theWeimarRepublic,ed. Keith Bul-
livant(Manchester:Manchester University Press, 1977), 122–149.
Frank Rainer Scheck, ed.,Erobert die Literatur! Proletarisch-revolutionäreLiteraturtheorie und
-debatte in der“Linkskurve” 1929 – 1932 (Cologne: Kiepenheuer&Witsch, 1973), 10.The second
referenceappears in HelgaGallas,Marxistische Literaturtheorie:Kontroversen imBund proletar-
isch-revolutionärer Schriftsteller(Neuwied:Luchterhand, 1971), 12.Die Linkskurvehas been re-
printedin1970byDetlevAuvermann in Glashütten imTaunus.When theWest-Berlin-based-
KPD-ML-affiliated Oberbaumverlag republished the Reihe proletarisch-revolutionärer Romane,
Die Zeitcalled the books“agitational aids in struggle for socialism in theFederal Republic
andWest Berlin.”Quoted by Christian Schultz-Gerstein,“Wi eaus der Pistolegeschossen,” 18
April 1975,ZeitOnline, http://www.zeit.de/1975/17/wie-aus-der-pistole-geschossen,1March2017.
OtoBiha advanced the cause of the proletarian mass novel in“Der proletarischeMassenro-
man,”Die RoteFahne,2August 1930.His internationallyknown essayis“On the Question of
Proletarian-Revolutionary LiteratureinGermany,”Literature of theWorldRevolution1.4(1931):
88 – 105.
262 Chapter 14