Anarchism: “Beyond all dogmas” | nd-aktuell.de

Wolfgang Neuss said that alcoholism is the third way between capitalism and socialism, open to everyone, easy to follow and crowned with quick success. In the “Goldener Hahn” in Kreuzberg, this utopia seemed to have come true. In the pub on Berlin’s Heinrichplatz, which is now named after Rio Reiser, everything was still in order – or at least comprehensible, bearable. An island of the blessed with a natural beach where reality couldn’t harm you. The publisher Bernd Kramer had office hours here for his authors every Saturday at around 1 p.m. (by arrangement). The self-confessed bar philosopher was actually the epitome of an anarchist in terms of habit: almost shoulder-length hair, graying beard, cigar – like Bakunin. Except that Bernd Kramer vehemently rejected words like habitus, but was able to talk straight away about Heidegger’s “Being and Time,” whose inevitable “thrownness” had brought us to the table to the left of the jukebox.

We talked about books that no one should ever read. Sometimes we just made up the titles. Thomas Kapielski (“the more dickens, the more jewski!”), which is now published by Suhrkamp, ​​wanted to publish a series called “The Modern Woman.” On the spine of the book there should still be a single letter next to the title and author, which in total would have resulted in the name USCHI on the shelf – how brilliant was that? I’ve always admired Kapielski for that! With Merve he had only published the “Proofs of God IX-XIII”. Everyone was amazed – and had to buy “Proofs of God I-VIII” the following year. Anything else would have looked too stupid in the bookcase.

Beyond all dogmas

To leave no doubt: Bernd Kramer was neither misogynist nor chauvinist – as editor of Emma Goldman, the great theorist of feminism and, of course, anarchist. Kramer’s book about Luise Michel, who fought on the barricades of the Paris Commune, is also unforgettable. For the present, however, the publisher rejected any violence and terror. His credo: “I hate to hate.” Bernd Kramer was “beyond all dogmas,” as his son Daniel recalled in 2014 after his father’s death. This is probably why there are recurring accusations that he is on the “right-wing edge of anarchy.” This happened at the end of 1999 with the publication of the volume “Let us draw the swords so that the chain breaks,” about Michael Bakunin and Richard Wagner during the Dresden May Revolution in 1849. Volker Weidermann wrote in the “Taz”: “Bernd Kramer is with us With his anecdotal-anarchistic style and his tremendous revolutionary-ranting enthusiasm, he has created a wonderful new Bakunin book. Kramer loves Bakunin.” That may be true, but Bakunin wasn’t the problem either.

Bernd Kramer is remembered not least for his slapstick. In 1997, he and Kapielski started the campaign to have the “Golden Rooster” added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Unfortunately without success. In the pub “chez Inge” people didn’t just drink and smoke, they also played games: the Berlin championship in “Frommstrudeln” – also an initiative by Bernd Kramer and Thomas Kapielski. Four or five players sat around the tables and took turns shaking an inflated condom filled with three dice and hitting it on the table. Whoever got the most points won. But be careful! In this type of tournament, players should not use “natural” condoms. As a result of excessive use, these tear and the dice fly through the room; People can get injured, which luckily hasn’t happened and hasn’t happened for many years now.

The Frommstrudelmeister sat at our table sometime later. Franz was actually a painter, but worked in the trade in not entirely legal luxury goods. Bernd Kramer pushed a package of books over to him and was given a bag of special contents as a thank you. Goods against goods. And one of the means of exchange was my first novel, “Monkey Killer.” So I said to the publisher: “Come on, did you just exchange my early work for drugs?” – “What about it?” Not at all! And I did well not to mention anything to his wife. Karin Kramer was of course the boss, was the heart and soul of the publishing house and it was common knowledge that her husband didn’t just smoke tobacco in his pipe.

Libertarian legacy

For a long time, the Karin Kramer publishing house stood – similar to Edition Nautilus in Hamburg today – for the libertarian legacy of the ’68 movement, for the utopia beyond state socialism or social democracy. A founding date is not documented. It all started with a bizarre periodical called “Linkeck,” named after the shared apartment on Bülowstrasse. A West Berlin samizdat that appeared between 1968 and 1970, with several thousand copies, which were often confiscated by the police. For Bernd Drücke from the “Grassroots Revolution,” “Linkeck” was the first anti-authoritarian magazine in this country. A neo-anarchist paper with blasphemous comics, lots of porn and pamphlets against the “united front shit” of the SDS. And as the legend goes, during the same period and in the same shared apartment, someone is said to have earned extra money by selling pirated prints; The business was not officially registered until 1970. Such a livelihood would be unimaginable today, someone who goes around the bars late at night with a fanny pack and sells left-wing literature.

In fact, there was a time when leftists still read (and bought!) tons of literature. Just one example: The 60 titles in the Fischer paperback series from the Werkkreis Literatur der Arbeitswelt achieved a total circulation of over a million books sold by 1988! Almost every Werkkreis title had an initial print run of 10,000 copies! During this time, the Karin Kramer publishing house also achieved a veritable bestseller with “An American Prayer” by Jim Morrison; over 20,000 books sold! The publishing program was primarily influenced by anarchist classics such as Bakunin, Kropotkin and Landauer and of course Erich Mühsam. The Kramer couple responded to the uncritical devotion of large sections of the left to some paradise state with critical monographs on the Russian Revolution, the authoritarian dictatorship of Fidel Castro and, of course, the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War.

Another quarter century?

Year after year, Karin and Bernd have published at least eight books. With around 340 titles and a minimum print run of 1,000, the Karin Kramer publishing house had brought several hundred thousand libertarian books to the people by 2014 and thus contributed to the concept of anarchism remaining present in the political space. Nobody knows what the world will look like in a hundred years; Nature is currently defeating capitalism – but perhaps also taking a good part of humanity with it. The survivors will have to think about how they can endure each other as humans under such adverse ecological conditions. In the libraries there will still be books from the Karin Kramer publishing house that tell of a life without domination and of the freedom of individuals not from each other, but for each other.

Perhaps Karin Kramer Verlag’s best fiction title was unfortunately completely lost: Lionel Marek’s “Next Year in Auschwitz”, a novel satire on the Jewish diaspora. “What’s the pogrom today?” – While the feature pages in France were overflowing with hymns, the “Libération” wrote about “burlesque tone” and “colossal finesse”, there was not a single review in this country. The nineties… I have no idea what happened during that time, but something must have happened: the bookstore chains were increasingly crowding out the small shops. Since then, things have become very difficult for left-wing literature. Anyone who wants to have a manuscript published in the left-wing scene often either has to bring an audience with them (followers and celebrities) or money for the printing company. The fact that the Karin Kramer publishing house survived for 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall was a small miracle, but one that anarchists don’t believe in – the second miracle, that the publisher beat cancer, never happened. Karin Kramer died on March 20, 2014, her husband Bernd followed her six months later on September 5.

The first volume of Bernd Kramer’s “Collected Writings” is currently being published by the Berlin Quiqueg publishing house, edited by his friend and accomplice Jochen Knoblauch. A reading in the “Goldener Hahn” is coming up, at which Bernd Kramer’s diary notes will also be celebrated: “There are no four as six as the five of us, because the three of us are the only two.”

For a long time, Karin-Kramer-Verlag stood for utopia beyond state socialism or social democracy.

–

Become a member of the nd.Genossenschaft!

Since January 1, 2022, the »nd« will be published as an independent left-wing newspaper owned by the staff and readers. Be there and support media diversity and visible left-wing positions as a cooperative member. Fill out the membership form now.

More information on www.dasnd.de/genossenschaft