Dieter Sevin, "The Role of History in Christoph Hein's Horns 
Ende and Der Tangospieler."  Paper given at Conway 1990.

Sevin is at Vanderbilt.

4.  "Hein's novels demonstrate a concern for historical 
evaluation, accuracy, and continuity, which is expressed on two 
levels:  First and foremost, his fiction shows the effect of 
history on individuals and society -- or better, how history is 
regarded by the people, consciously or subconsciously.  
Secondly, several of the characters discuss their attitudes and 
convictions concerning history."  E.g. the mayor in HE.  

4n.  Sevin notes the suicide motif in GDR literature, of which 
HE is the culmination.  Leading up to it are Der geteilte 
Himmel, Nachdenken �ber Christa T., Die Neue Leiden des jungen 
W., Braun's Unvollendete Geschichte.  Sevin has an article 
discussing the pot-suicidal narrator of Plenzdorf's book:  "The 
Reception of Werther in Ulrich Plenzdorf's The Sufferings of 
Young W:  Parody or Reincarnation of Goethe's Classic?", in 
Goethe in the Twentieth Centruy, ed. Alexej Ugrinsky (New York:  
Greenwood Press, 1987). 

5.  Centrality of Horn's call to Thomas to REMEMBER.

6.  Kruschkatz is accused of "historical relativism," 
erroneously, I think, in comparison to to Horn's sense of the 
great responsibility historians have for telling the truth.
This is wrong because Kruschkatz is not a relativist, but a 
Marxist teleologist -- he believes that history is shaped by 
human action, and that the end justifies the means.  "Invoking 
historical necessity to justify the injustice suffered by 
Hornú.ú.ú. must be seen as a drastic example of where arbitrary, 
capricious misuse of power and historical relativism can lead."
Hein's whole pint is that their is a logic to power, that it is 
not arbitrary; it may not be rational, but it follows a logical 
course once in motion.

14-15.  Hein's two books may have had an impact on the events of 
1989 "not least because of the convictions expressed . . . about 
the concept of history and the importance of historical truth.  
His insistence that historical relativism, cover-ups and 
dishonesty lead inevitably to moral relativism, abuse of power, 
and societalproblems of the first magnitude are clearly 
discernable in his novels."

15-16.  Yet , as Sevin shows, Hein makes no such claims for 
historical truth -- the reporting of history is the thing, "Eine 
Wirkung der Beschreibung, nicht der Realit„t" (quoted from 
"Wor�ber man nicht reden kann").  This is a much more complex 
position, especially coupled with Hein's ironic assertion that 
literature is "machtlos" but not "ohnm„chtig" in the same essay 
(Sevin fails to fully quote this).  It does not partake of 
power, but it affects the world, and hence has its own, non-
localizable, non-govenrmental power.  It is to simple to say as 
Sevin does that the "exposure of truth . . . can, indeed, have 
an impact and contribute to historical change."  Not the truth, 
but the "exposure" or telling of it, and the way it is told.  
The truth must be constructed, even though it may be thought to 
have independent, objective reality.