Location

• 10117 Berlin Kronenstraße 5
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Languages

• German

Website

• http://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/archiv-unterdrueckter-literatur-in-der-ddr-3867.html

Name of collection

• Archive of Suppressed Literature in the GDR

Provenance and cultural activities

• The collection is the result of a research project financed by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. It contains literary documents written in the GDR and the Soviet occupation zone that "were hitherto unknown, as they were suppressed" (compare the project description on the Foundation's hompage). The project started in 2000 and was initiated by the German philologists Ines Geipel and Joachim Walter. The majority of documents in this collection was sent in by the authors themselves or relatives following several public appeals. After the project was finished in 2005, all documents were transferred to the Foundation's archive and thereby became accessible for additional literary studies and research of contemporary history. The collection's material spans the entire time period from 1945/49 until 1989 and reflects the changing conditions of cultural oppostion during 40 years of GDR history.

Description of content

• The collection contains notebooks, diaries, manuscripts, so called "Schubladenliteratur" (literally "drawer literature", i.e. finished but unpublished works that had to be left in the drawer) and additional material of nearly 100 authors, who were unable to publish in the GDR or were subject to repressions because of their work. The addition of material to the collection was conditional on fullfillment of several formal criteria such as literary individuality in all genres spanning from prose over poetry to drama. Furthermore, oral history interviews of many authors are included in this collection.

Content

• manuscripts (ego-documents, diaries, notes, letters, drafts, etc.): 1000-
• voice recordings (including oral history recordings): 10-99

Operator(s)

• Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship

Owner(s)

• Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship

Stakeholder(s) of the collection

• Buchholz, Matthias

Topics

• censorship
• democratic opposition
• literature and literary criticism

Founder(s)

• Geipel, Ines
• Walther, Joachim

Date of founding

• 2000

Place of founding

• Berlin, Germany
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Creator(s) of content

• Bereska, Henryk
• Eckert, Edeltraud
• Krolkiewicz, Ralf-Günter

Collector(s)

• Geipel, Ines
• Walther, Joachim

Supporters

• Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship

Important events in the history of the collection

• 2005-2008, The Reticent Library
• 2005, Transfer to Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship

Featured items

• Personal note by Ralf-Günter Krolkiewicz, 1984
• Prison notebook of Edeltraud Eckert, 1953-1955

Access type

• visits by appointments

Author(s) of this page

• Sonnenberg, Uwe

References

Buchholz, Matthias , interview by Sonnenberg, Uwe, August 30, 2016. COURAGE Registry Oral History Collection