selenak

So, the 70th Frankfurt Book Fair. (Post-WWII that is; the actual Frankfurt Book Fair dates back to the 1500s, and there' s a hilarious in hindsight account of some printers going to celebrate in the evening to Sachsenhausen (part of Frankfurt) WHICH IS STILL HAPPENING).

(One of these days I'll write a sketch or a story about those early book fairs. Dürer's wife Agnes is the secret star, outselling everyone with her prints but having to battle with illegal Italian copyright infringement, mapmaker Gerhard Mercator has to explain why his maps come in Catholic and Protestant editions (the Catholic ones depict Scotland and Ireland far more prominently than that English bit in between), Luther has finally been wood into doing a reading and signing, err, preaching appearance but then is pissed off when learning that so will Erasmus of Rotterdam, and the British deligation leaves in a huff when finding out Henry VIII. isn't even considered for any awards because everyone takes it for granted Thomas More was his ghost writer.)

Back to seriousness. This year is also the 70th anniversary of the UN declaration of human rights, so at the opening ceremony, there was a reprint handed out to everyone, there was a big reproduction at the fair itself, and a lot of events referring to it, or rather the way human rights are under siege everywhere around the globe right now. One of the guest speakers at the opening ceremony was Federica Mogherini, whose official job title is High Representative of the (European) Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. (In reply to Kissinger's famous quip question about which phone number to dial for "Europe", she said: "Mine.") Who made a passionate plea in an era of rising nationalism and simplifications for multiple identies - she'd never seen it as contradictory to be a Roman, Italian and European. "Yes, every country has its own history. But we know that what makes us great belongs to us all, never to just one country alone." The most searing speech at the opening ceremony, though, came from Nino Haratischwili, who is a Georgian-German writer (Georgia was this year's guest of honor), speaking about her horror that "letting human beings drown is actually being presented as a worthy, acceptable policy again". "Empathy, it seems, can be unlearned. But reading a book may bring it back."

She (Nino is a female name in Georgian) talked about how critics first described her as a Georgian, then as a Georgian-German and finally as a German writer. "For myself, I can only say I see my identiy as fluid. I can't decide, and I don't have to. Because where there are no borders, there's no either/or."

Speaking of borders, she mentioned one called "the creeping border", one particular point between Georgia and Russia, where the wires are moved a little more into Georgian territory each night. One morning, a farmer woke up to find himself in Russian territory, but refused to move. His life had been there, his wife was buried there. "And I imagine this old man telling a young Russian soldier with a weapon quietly that no, he won't move. And the young Russian realizes that despite his weapon, he's powerless. I have no idea whether it happened precisely this way. But it is the depiction my imagination found for this particular situation."

The guest of honor country always gets to decorate one particular hall. The Georgians decided to do so based on their alphabet, which dates back to the 4th century AD, and chose a pun as a motto: "Georgia: made by characters". Said characters are beautifully curvy and ornamental and provided the various presentations, so you felt like wandering between the Georgian alphabet when learning about Georgian writers, wine and the connection to non-Georgian myths, starting with Georgia as Kolchis and Medea as the first Georgian making it into Greek stories. It looked truly beautiful.

During the course of the book fair, I was able to listen to several debate panels that have remained with me. One featured the Turkish writer and journalist Asli Erdogan (no relation to the President who imprisoned her, if you're wondering), who during last year's book fair had still been imprisoned and now was free. Asked whether she can see any reason for hope re: the situation in her country, she replied thusly:

"My fellow inmates taught me something about hope when I was in prison. Most of them were 30 years younger than I am. It's forbidden to own plants in prison, and there isn't any earth available to seed them in anyway. What they did was use old tea bags and egg shells as seeding ground, then put seeds which were somehow smuggled into prison in them. And in one or two months, a small, ugly plant was growing. But every three months, the guards do a raid of every cell. So this plant only lives for one month, and then it gets destroyed. But then they start all over again and plant anew. That is hope."

Another fascinating panel was titled: "Dialoge in mined territory: translators and politics", featuring Larissa Bender (translates Syrian authors into German), Dorota Stroinska (Polish authors into German and used to translate the other way around, too), Friederike Meltendorf (Russian into German). Dorota S. spoke about how the PIS party which rules Poland now has in the three years it's been in power made life hell for translators as well (in addition to everyone else). After they got their law making it illegal to talk about Polish participation in the holocaust, every Polish citizen living abroad got a letter from the government telling them to denounce every other Pole they heard breaking said law (or speaking negatively about Poland in general) to the authorities. Government support of cultural events and people (writers, museums, translators, it didn't matter) not conforming with the PIS view of Poland was cut, personnel of museums changed. As were the school books. The revision is now complete. As of this autumn, children in Polish schools will no longer learn about any writer not expressing the PIS view of "the Polish heroic martyr nation", no matter how much of a classic in the past these authors were regarded as. As for present day authors, the Polish ambassador in Germany wrote to S.Fischer and other German publishers complaining about the Polish authors providing them wth a list of living Polish authors they should translate instead of the ones they do. (The publishers, not surprisingly, ignored him.)

While all of this is awful and incredibly concerning, Larissa Bender, translating Syrians of which one still lives within Syria (West Aleppo), doesn't know whether "her" author is still alive from a day to d ay basis. The others are in exile in various European countries in addition to Germany, but have some family still in Syria and thus are worried for them. The panel's moderator asked whether there was any support from the rich Arab language countries, like Saudi-Arabia an the Emirates. Said Larissa B: "The Emirates and especially Quatar do try to establish a cultural presence right now, but honestly, that's not just a double edged sword, it has all edges. If you accept money from them, they then try to control what can be published and what can't, and you're m aking yourself dependent on them so you won't be able to say no."

Friederike M. said the platform she's working with started because they, the founders, thought that because German media gets most of its intel from the official Russian media, you get the impression the entire Russian Federation consists of Putin fans. "Now in theory, there is freedom of opinion in Russia. In practice, all of the tv channels and the big papers are state controlled. But you can still get some independent news via the internet, usually via streaming. And we thought it was important to translate these news, these writers, not least to show there is a Civilian society and there is debate within Russia." As ever, of course, there is the money issue. The guy mainly bankrolling the platform is now withdrawing, and they try to stay financially afloat by translating scientific works as well.

From present day worries to the past: at the end of this month, one of our main tv channels will broadcast the new docudrama "Kaisersturz" ("Emperor's Fall"), tackling those last few months of WWI when the issues went from "how to get peace" to "how to get peace and get rid of the Emperor and introduce a republic. According to the consulting historian, who beyond providing his expertise for the new movie also simultanously publishes his non-fiction book on the subject with the same title, none of the main characters of the tale at the start expected a German Republic to be the outcome. Wilhelm II and his wife, Auguste Victoria, who became more and more the voice of the monarchy because Wilhelm was busy having nervous breakdowns lived in their own world anyway and absolutely refused to acknowledge reality. Max von Baden, Wilhelm's cousin who'd been made Chancellor in 1918 without any previous political experience but lots of good intentions thought he was saving the monarchy as an institution (though not Wilhelm as a person) via working towards an honorable peace, as did his young secretary, best friend and adviser Kurt Hahn. (Kurt Hahn went on to become the founder of reform pedagogy and of Salem School, then, with the arrival of the Nazis, went into exile to Scotland and founded Gordonstoun. If anyone watched The Crown's second season, he's Prince Philip's headmaster played by Burkhard Klaußner in the flashback episode Pater Familias. I remember someone asking me why, when Philip's older sisters were married to Nazis, they put him into school with a German-Jewish exile in Scotland (who, btw, had personally pissed Hitler off by declaring it was imcompatible to be a Nazi and a student of Salem and organizing protests before leaving the country). The connection was the backstory via Max von Baden, who had sponsored the original Salem post WWI; Philip's sister Theodora was married to Max' only son Berthold. Since the House of Baden had been the original school financer, this meant no school fees for teen!Philip.) Meanwhile, Friedrich Ebert, a Social Democrat whom Max von Baden asked into his government and who' become the first President of the first German Republic, as opposed to everyone else was aware just how furious and desperate people had become by 1918, but he nearly until November 9th when the Republic was declared didn't consider a Republic to be an option, either. He also thought they were aiming for a parliamentary monarchy a la Great Britain. The fact that no one in charge was prepared or preparing the state that eventually resulted was, of course, yet another factor burdening the new Weimar Republic.

It all sounded fascinating; the transition period that ended WWI had never been a big interest of mine before, but I'll definitely watch the movie (which is directed by Christoph Röhl, who did the excellent and harrowing docudrama on the abuse scandal of Odenwald and is the son of historian John Röhl), and read the book now.

Speaking of movies, I also caught Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who directed The Lives of Others and is currently getting roasted, review wise, for Work without an Author, speaking at another panel. Since he's living in LA. now, he's a member of the Academy and he said ruefully that by the new rules, The Lives of Others would never have one the Oscar for best foreign film. Why not: because the old rules were that you really had to watch the movies in question in the theatre, on the big screen, and prove that one had before being allowed to vote on it. Today, DVDS are enough. This is a problem because, said he, "we were running against Pan's Labyrinth by Del Torro, which was far more popular. If it had been the new rules, I think at least two thirds of every eligible voter would have said: I loved Pan's Labyrinth so much, it's not possible I'll like anything more, screw that German movie, I won't watch it and vote anyway."

Another memorable quote from his panel: "A script is a mixture of poetry and user manual".

Back to freedom of the press (or lack of same): another panel featured Denis Yücel, one of the most prominent German-Turkish journalists interred who, like Asli Erdogan, had been freed last year, and Can Dündar, co-editor and journalist of Cum Hürryet (used to be the big opposition voice in Turkey, now also steamlined; Can Dündar has been in exile in Germany for about two years now. When Erdogan visited Germany last month, he refused to attend a press conference if Dündar was a credited journalist), as well as Michael Roth, currently one of the secretaries in the F.O. Dündar, who'd withdrawn his attendance at the press conference in question ("because it's important that Erdogan gets asked questions, not that I'm the one asking them"), said he actually wasn't opposed to this (highly controversial) state visit per se. "I wouldn't have wanted Germany to not receive him, because I differentiate between Erdogan and the office President of Turkey. As a Turk, I would have felt insulted if the President of Germany had refused to receive the President of Turkey. The problem, to me, was something else. Now anyone reading or watching German media knows that President Steinmeier critisized the human rights situation in Turkey during the reception, to Erdogan's indignation. But the thing is, 90 & of the Turkish media is state controlled now, and it had been told before hand that the visit was to be a success. Erdogan needs a success because of the economic situation. Now, if Steinmeier had said all of this last year, or media would have shouted "Nazi!" from headlines. This year, even if Steinmeier had personally gone for Erdogan's throat and spit into his face, they would have written "success!" and only printed the photo of the two of them shaking hands. That's the problem. What Turkish media consumers learn about is only the photo. I know getting rid of Erdogan can't happen because of outside forces. We Turks have to do it ourselves. But I ask that Germany and Europe won't provide Erdogan with an anchor which keeps him in power."

When Michael Roth said that the reason why the joining the EU negotiations had been only put on ice instead of ended forever was to have a pressure point, Denis Yücel said: "It amazes me that you say that, because the EU in general and Angela Merkel in particular have utterly discredited themselves in the eyes of Turks across the political spectrum. I'm not blaming you; it was an SPD government in Germany (Roth is SPD) which declared that joining the EU was a possibility in 1999. And you know, it electrified Turkey. The Turks really wanted to join. Everyone knew it wasn't an immediate possibility, that there was still much work to be done. But it was a hope. "Do better, or we'll never join the EU" became something of a catch phrase, no matter whether said to someone loitering the streets or being a bully or selling rotten fruit". And then, in 2003, Angela Merkel and the CDU came into power in Germany, and together with Sarcozy in France declared that Turkey would never join the EU. Not that there were realistic obstacles, but that it would never happen. That was a punch into the gut for every Turk. Especially since at the same time, the Eastern European countries were getting negotiations to join the EU. I'm thinking in particular of Bulgaria and Romania, both of whom had exactly the same situation as Turkey did in 2003 in terms of human rights and their economy. So the conclusion was obvious: it had never been about human rights or the economy, only about us being Muslims. Back then there was a lot of fear mongering in German papers about 80 Million Turks getting free visa for Germany. Now flash foward to 2015, and after Angela Merkel's humanitarian decision, which, btw, I still give her credit for and will never stop defending, to not close the borders, she's isolated in Europe and has to go hat in hand to Istanbul to Erdogan, because suddenly, other travellers are being feared. And suddenly, free visa for Turks aren't a problem anymore. Now I despise Erdogan, and not just because he put me in prison. But I really can understand why Turks after all that see him as some kind of avenger of the national honor. Incidentally, it's entirely possible that even if in 2003 negiations to join the EU had not been declared impossible, and if, a big if, Turkey would have joined at some point before now, Turkey would still have become the authoritarian state it is now. I man, Hungary is within the EU, and it still got Orban. But it's also possible the reforms of the early 2000s would have taken. I guess we'll never know."

And one more book/politics panel that sticks in my mind: this one featured SPIEGEl correspondant Hasnaim Kazim. He was born in Germany to Pakistani immigrant parents and first was the SPIEGEL's correspondant in Pakistan, then in Turkey, where he was kicked out for insulting Erdogan even before the attempted coup. He presented his book "Post von Karlheinz" ("Mail from Karlheinz"), which started as a collection of hatemail, of which, as a leftist high profile journalist with a visibly migrant background he gets a lot. "The book project started because I was so irritated by all the people saying "we need to talk to the Right" or "we need to talk to the Right on an equal level" ("Auf Augenhöhe" is the original German phrase, meaning literally "eye to eye"). I'm hearing this and simultanouly I get hate mail calling me a Muslim terrorist who should be gassed, and I'm thinking, I'm supposed to talk to those people? And then I thought, screw this, fine. I'll try. So for two years, I actually answered every mail and every damn tweet." The book was the result, with the titular Karlheinz being one of the people writing. Judging by the excerpts we heard at the presentation, Kazim dealt with the hate mail usually with black humor ("Dear Karlheinz S., thank you so much for your invitation to "show me what a true German is". I gratefully accept and will visit you next weekend with my wives 1 - 3 (wife 4 is in the hospital giving birth to our sixth child), twenty cousins, forty uncles and aunts and two goats which we'll slaughter in your foreyard. Please make sure the garden hose and sprinklers are attached so we can get rid of the blood afterwards. Yours truly, Hasnain Kazim.") But also, depending on the tone of the orginal mail, with actual debate. He said about 25 % of hatemail writers are ready for conversation in the sense of listening to arguments and replying instead of repeating catch phrases. The rest, in different degrees, goes from "but I know what I know!" to "Die die die!" style replies. With the occasional "dear Mr. Kazim, I'm sorry for my email, I was just venting and had no idea you really read your mail" thrown in.

"What makes me most angry", says Hasnain K., "is that racism is being treated as an opinion today, one of several in the big variety of opinions, not different from others. But it's not an opinion. It's an utterly unacceptable attitude."

Cue thunderous applause, but then, the book fair attendants are by and large on the moderate to left side. There are, of course, right wingers and right extremists present, too. Late on Friday afternoon when I wanted to reenter Hall 4 I couldn't because it was sealed off by police.Why, asked I. "Höcke does a reading", said the cop. Höcke is one of the more prominent AFD (= current Neonazi party labeling themselves, of course, not Neonazis) members, possibly known across borders for attacking the Holocaust memorial in Berlin and "The cult of shame in German ediucation" in general. Satisfyingly, not many people came to his "reading" (it was really an election campaign event in disguise; there are state elections in Hesse in two weeks). It was mostly cops and journalists. Höcke & Co. originally told the journalists to go at which point the book fair organizers said "seriously? We still have a free press here" and the journalists remained, gleefully reporting about meagre attendance.

This year's Peace Award of the German Book Trade was given to Jan and Aleida Assmann, a husband and wife team of authors and intellectuals. He's originally an Egyptologist, she comes from literature, and their joint acceptance speech, which was almost like a duet of both of them taking turns to speak, had a wonderful reply to Höcke & Co. "National history isn't a holy grail to be saved from contamination. It includes horror and shame. But let's get one thing straight. Shameful is only the historical event itself, not the liberating memory of it which we share with the victims."

They described receiving their award as "a passport of the Res Publica Literaria, the country without borders", which is "a conversations of ghosts/minds" - it's an untranslatable pun, because the German word "Geist" can mean ghost, mind or spirit - "which has developed across centuries and borders. Another of many great phrases I wrote down: "In a democracy, you can't delegate thinking." and "Democracy does not live by quarrels but by argument". (I hope I got the same difference across the German "nicht vom Streit, sondern vom Argument" goes.) It was, they said, also important to provide a voice to the stories of people who acted and helped instead of only listening to the shouts, and to that end, they not only named and described three initiatives helping refugees in their every day lives in Germany, but said they would donate their award money to those three initiatives. On that uplifting note, the 70th Frankfurt Book Fair ended.

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kore

Wow, this is great. Thank you. I loved the bit about seeds and hope, and the guy replying to his hate mail! I hope you don't mind, I quoted you here at the end https://kore.dreamwidth.org/1309305.html

Edited Date: 2018-10-17 09:48 am (UTC)

selenak

Not at all, I shared the story myself because I loved it and wanted it shared!

jesuswasbatman

All especially annoying given that racist/sectarian propaganda based on the lie that Turkey would imminently be admitted into the EU seems to have been a major influence on the Brexit referendum.