Given the dramatic economic and political failure of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, 1949-1990) it is perhaps surprising that the same landscape has produced some of the most important German writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Volker Braun, together with Christa Wolf and Heiner Müller, is clearly amongst them. Perhaps their personal experience of living in a dictatorship and being confronted with the glaring mismatch between official ideology and personal socialist convictions allowed them to see reality more clearly. In Braun's case this has produced an œuvre which looks beyond the ideological justifications of the powers that rule our societies, be it “really existing” socialism or globalised capitalism. …
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Citation: Jucker, Rolf. "Volker Braun". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5441, accessed 21 November 2024.]
