Siegfried Lenz Libri

È il 1953 nel riformatorio situato alle foci dell’Elba, non lontano dal confine tra Germania e Danimarca. Il giovane Siggi Jepsen si trova nel chiuso della sua cella e sta meditando davanti al suo quaderno dei temi con l’etichetta grigia. Siggi si trova alle foci dell’Elba, perché, nel lontano 1943, avrebbe raccolto in un vecchio mulino una serie di quadri rubati. In realtà, Siggi ha semplicemente nascosto le opere di un pittore amico, Max Ludwig Nansen, un artista espressionista, sulle quali pendeva la minaccia nazista di essere «verboten und verbrannt», proibite e bruciate. Le autorità del riformatorio hanno assegnato ai ragazzi reclusi un tema intitolato «Le gioie del dovere». Come cominciare un simile compito? Da suo padre, poliziotto obbediente agli ordini, a qualunque ordine, nella Germania di Hitler? O forse dal pittore Nansen, capace di dipingere anche con i colori invisibili della libertà? Oppure parlare dell’urlo dei gabbiani nel vento che costringe la gente alle foci dell’Elba a camminare cupi? O raccontare del vecchio mulino diroccato sulla spiaggia del Mare del Nord dove un giorno cercò rifugio un figlio disertore? Siggi scrive, scrive della meraviglia di essere in un mondo così duro, fulgente, pieno di poesia, impietoso e bellissimo come questo celebre capolavoro della letteratura tedesca finalmente restituito al pubblico italiano in una nuova edizione.

In "The Heritage," first published in German in 1978, Zygmunt Rogalla, an elderly Masurian rug-maker from Lucknow - which was once part of East Prussia, now part of Poland - tells his story from a hospital bed. The curator of the Masurian museum, where objects were collected as a symbol of the culture that had been lost in the second world war and after, he is also its destroyer, his injuries self-inflicted. Through the remembrance of his sufferings, he explains why the museum was so important to him, and to his fellow exiles, and what terrible discovery led him to destroy not only his life's greatest work, but the objects salvaged from his people's lost past.

It is the last watch of the lightship that stands at anchor in the Baltic Sea, near the port of Kiel; it is nine years since the end of World War II and the mines she warned the shipping of have been removed. But on her last watch, her peace is interrupted: her captain, Freytag, takes in three men whose boat has broken down, and with them, their illegal cargo of guns. Held hostage on the ship by the three criminals, headed by the sinister Dr Caspary, the tensions between captain and crew become apparent. Freytag still hopes for a peaceful end to the watch; but his son, Fred, and his resourceful but outgunned crew cannot forget Freytag’s dishonour in the war. As a stalemate develops, Freytag finds he must make a final choice - one that must redeem him in the eyes of his men.

"Previously unpublished, this German postwar classic is one of the best books of this major writer, who died in 2014. The last summer before the end of World War II, Walter Proska is posted to a small unit tasked with ensuring the safety of a railway line deep in the forest on the border with Ukraine and Byelorussia. In this swampy region, a handful of men--stunned by the heat, attacked by mosquitoes, and abandoned by their own troops in the face of the resistance--must also submit to the increasingly absurd and inhuman orders of their superior. Time passes, and the soldiers isolate themselves, haunted by madness and the desire for death. An encounter with a young Polish partisan, Wanda, makes Proska further doubt the validity of his oath of allegiance, and he seeks to answer the questions that obsess him: When conscience and duty clash, which is more important? Is it possible to take any action without becoming guilty in some way? And where is Wanda, this woman from the resistance he can't forget? Written in 1951, The Turncoat is Siegfried Lenz's second novel. Rejected by his publisher, who thought that the story of a German soldier deciding to join the Red Army would be unwelcome in the context of the Cold War, the manuscript was forgotten for nearly seventy years before being rediscovered after the author's death. A posthumous triumph"-- Provided by publisher

In "Über die Versuchung der Macht" thematisiert Siegfried Lenz in vier Bühnenwerken die Probleme von Macht und Schuld. Neun Bürger müssen einem Attentäter Namen entlocken, um ihre Freiheit zu erlangen. Die Stücke zeigen die Mechanismen der Diktatur und die menschliche Anfälligkeit für Machtverlockungen auf.

Selbstversetzung ist für Siegfried Lenz die Grundlage seines Schreibens, die es ihm ermöglicht, „von sich abzusehen und die Identität in der Vorstellung zu wechseln“. Dies erfordert eine Unbedingtheit, die den Schriftsteller verpflichtet, sich aus dem Spiel zu nehmen. Dabei spielt er eine doppelte Rolle: Er muss sowohl über den anderen Bescheid wissen als auch über seine eigenen Gefühle, die den anderen betreffen. In diesem Band präsentiert Lenz autobiografische Geschichten, die uns seine Anfänge im Leben und Schreiben näherbringen. Er führt uns in das Masuren seiner Kindheit, die „Perle Ostpreußens“, und in die große weite Welt seiner ersten Lektüre, während er auch seine Erlebnisse im Krieg und Nachkrieg reflektiert. Diese Erfahrungen prägten seinen ersten Roman und sein erstes Theaterstück, das ihn „über Nacht“ berühmt machte. Lenz schreibt mit einem persönlichen Blick über die Entstehung dieser Werke und über seine neue Heimat Hamburg. Der vielgerühmte Geschichtenerzähler fühlt sich jedoch vor allem in der Sprache zu Hause. Zum 80. Geburtstag von Siegfried Lenz schließt der Band mit drei Essays, die die grundlegenden Linien seines Schreibens beleuchten.