The good column – the three from the literary petrol station

They are names that you come across again and again when browsing in antiquarian: Peter Härtling, Johano Strasser, Gerhard Zwerenz. Names from a lost time when you bought thick books in the Federal Republic in rough quantities of talentless bearded men: Härtling, Strasser, Dwarenz. Forgotten names that hardly anyone who is younger than 60 can still do anything.

Härtling, Strasser, Dwarenz: Name, printed on book cover. The three named hairstyles that took some getting used to – one of them, Mr. Strasser, is still among the living – were writers. At least that was her self -designation. And all three are or are citizens of the FRG and at some point had occasionally turned to social democracy at times, for which they acted as a freelance in the highly important business of phrase and phras production.

Most of the men on the portrait photos show a facial expression as if they had just eaten something very incompatible.

Over the years, a thin, barely perceptible layer of dust has settled on their books, which today stand in the back rooms of the second-hand book shops such as lead weights on the shelves. Even in the so -called open bookcases, the aforementioned writers have the existence of forgotten, almost completely repaid out of general memory: nobody remembers them, nobody takes their books in their care, redeem them from the endless agony, in the bookcase to be the most unread, indefinite, more embarrassing, embarrassing printed certificate. And if you remember the three busy literary operating streak of the FRG of the 70s, 80s and 90s, if you are still aware of the three busy literary operating streams, you will not wisely take home. What is he supposed to do with it? He will already own a letter complaint.

In the authors’ photos, which were emblazoned on the protective extensions of the books, they mostly focused on the three musketers of the social democratic German index finger and concerns of index finger and concerns: Grass, Walser, Böll. After all, you also knew each other personally. Strasser in an interview about Grass: “He called to me and said you have a problem, I have red wine, come over. Well, and that’s how we got to know each other. “

Like the three large role models, the ambitious literary operating men from the second row wanted to be shown: Härtling, Strasser, Dwarenz. They too campaigned for peace in the world, preferably wore turtleneck, brown cord wraps and giant drop glasses on their noses and had each opted for an idiosyncratic hair and beard costume that made every Evangelical religious teacher yellow with envy. That should be the proof: social democracy and style are traditionally incompatible with each other. Most of the time on the portrait photos, the men show a facial expression as if they had just eaten something very incompatible: “A trace of pain was written on his face, lived in his eyes, nested in the corners of the mouth, could also be part of his voice” (Deutschlandfunk about Peter Härtling). But sometimes the literary pain men also laugh in the pictures such as happy honey cake horses who have just plastered two or three candy rods. “Anyone who was able to look at Härtling’s face in their lifetime could also discover goodness, happiness and quiet joy in life in it” (Deutschlandfunk).

On the promotional photos, the three writers, which they consider to be male thinker and philosophers, make them: entangle the arms from the chest, support the chin on the palm, put your index finger on your temple or swivel it back and forth.

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Thomas Blum In principle, it does not agree with the prevailing so -called reality. For the time being, he will not be able to change them, but he can use them to exhort them or, if necessary, also cover one. So that the bad withdraws. We are solidarity with his fight against reality. Therefore, “the good column” appears at this point on Mondays. Only the best quality for the best readers! The collected texts can be found at: dasnd.de/diegute

In retrospect, it must have given people who have acquired the books of these men in a difficulty in retrospect. Some of the books may have been read – many appeared in well -known publishers (Luchterhand, Piper, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, S. Fischer). In any case, it cannot be excluded.

What has remained? For example, the construction poetry that Härtling once thrown towards the impending risk of war: “If everyone planted a flower, / every person in this world, / and, instead of shooting, danced / and with a smile, instead of with money – / if everyone warmed up / no more raved from his strength” and so on, then Härtling believed “and would go to the devil” “Human era” would begin. So please dance instead of shooting in the future! Thanks.

At the time, Wolfgang Pohrt said about Strasser’s debut novel, published in 1987 that it was “a book that has been taken in fat finger -resistant transparent film, which contains a reading ribbon and an average of three paragraphs per pressure page, costs 38 DM and offers boredom in ten times the price”. In turn, his “erotic” prose is particularly remembered by dwarfs: “He rubbed her for the tits, knocked where he could.” Or he “slips around in her horny mucus. The eyes pointed on the snatching cunt «.

I am not sure whether in a better future the books of these memorable three should not be regarded as memorials of the German -language literature of the second half of the 20th century. Memorials for how literature should not be. In any case, it is certain: you don’t have to read them.