Stefan Heym's works are highly topical

Dr Ulrike Uhlig

He is one of the city's most famous sons - Stefan Heym. His cultural legacy, which he left to posterity, is invaluable. Even more than 15 years after his death, Stefan Heym's works are more relevant than ever. "It cannot be said often enough: Stefan Heym is not someone who is dusty, but someone who is highly topical," says Dr Ulrike Uhlig, Chairwoman of the International Stefan Heym Society. Together with her fellow campaigners, the Chemnitz native wants to preserve and cultivate the memory of Stefan Heym and his literary work. The city of Chemnitz has been awarding the International Stefan Heym Prize since 2008 in memory of the life, work and influence of Stefan Heym. The literary prize honours contemporary critical and courageous personalities who, like Stefan Heym, have made outstanding and lasting achievements as writers and publicists. The International Stefan Heym Prize is endowed with 20,000 euros. The prize will be awarded for the fourth time next Tuesday: To the Polish writer Joanna Bator. We spoke to Dr Ulrike Uhlig about Stefan Heym and the prize.

What are you looking forward to at this year's award ceremony on Tuesday, 4 April?
Dr Ulrike Uhlig: The award ceremony is once again an opportunity to draw more attention to Stefan Heym. We at the Stefan Heym Society try to do this all year round. That's why our supporting programme is spread over twelve months. But of course the award ceremony for Joanna Bator is the highlight of 2017.

What makes Joanna Bator a worthy prizewinner?
Joanna Bator is a writer who, just like all the other previous award winners, deals with her time. She has a very critical view of social developments. And she is a woman. We are very pleased that this is the first time a woman poet has received the prize after three fellow poets.

Was it important to present the prize to a woman this time after three men (Amos Oz in 2008, Bora Ćosić in 2011 and Christoph Hein in 2013)?
First and foremost, of course, is literary quality. But we've also looked decidedly among the female writers.

The International Stefan Heym Society was founded on 18 April 2009. Dr Uhlig has been a member almost from the beginning. And yet she had to think long and hard about whether to take up the honorary post. She has never regretted it.

How did you become involved in your voluntary work?
I had stopped my official work at the adult education centre. At the time, there was a chairman of the society, Peter Hutchinson from Cambridge. He was an excellent chairman, but he was also very distant. It was difficult for him to control the things that were to happen here locally from Cambridge. So they were looking for someone in Chemnitz who would stand up for the Stefan Heym Society. The members of the society said: "Uhlig is a networker and knows a great many people in the cultural field. She also has an affinity for literature." So they asked me and after really long consideration I agreed. Not because I had to think long and hard about Stefan Heym, but because I realised what was involved. But volunteering is not just a lot of work, it's also a great honour, in the truest sense of the word, for those who are allowed to do it.
I have learnt a great deal about Stefan Heym, I have delved deeper into many things and my respect for this man has grown once again. I emphasise the person. He was harassed and spied on in the GDR and yet he never abandoned his principles. I find it admirable when a person with so much civil courage sticks to his ideals.

Stefan Heym, one of the city's greatest sons, was born in Chemnitz on 10 April 1913 and went out into the world from here. "He was actually a cosmopolitan who got involved wherever he found himself in life," says Dr Ulrike Uhlig, describing Stefan Heym's special character. He has reached and touched many people with his books, which have sold millions of copies. "He has always engaged with his environment and criticised the respective social order. The biography of our Honorary Chairman Professor Dr Dr Peter Hutchinson about him is called: "Dissident for life". That is what characterises Stefan Heym: He gets involved, he has civil courage, he feels obliged as an author to take a stand. But not just as an eternal grumbler, but as a person who knows that you have to do something for better conditions, for a fairer society."

Can people today still learn this from Stefan Heym - this interfering and not just nagging?
In any case. I think he's very topical again at the moment. We are also trying to get young people in particular talking about Stefan Heym. The Stefan Heym Youth Literature Competition is an example of this. We are always delighted when young people engage with literature in general and with Stefan Heym. For example, two pupils from Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff-Gymnasium took part in a staged reading of "Einer, der nie schwieg", which we performed at the theatre. Heym's attitude impressed the young people.

Is Stefan Heym read in schools?
Yes, fortunately he is being read again. There was an initiative at a Berlin grammar school that focussed specifically and intensively on Stefan Heym. We have also brought the material that was developed there to Chemnitz: Historical Learning with Stefan Heym. A teaching material by pupils and teachers for pupils and teachers.

Do people from abroad and Germany come to Chemnitz especially because of Stefan Heym?
Absolutely. At the two conferences we have organised so far, we have had guests from Austria, Great Britain and Russia and from all parts of Germany. We have prominent members of whom we are very proud: Professor Emmerich from Bremen, Professor Schiller from Berlin, Professor Weber from Stanford in the USA, Dr John Heath and Professor Hutchinson from the UK and the journalist Fritz Pleitgen. We are a literary society. Membership numbers are often not that high. But we now have 76 members and a board that is very committed and we are proud of that.

What do visitors to the conferences say about Chemnitz?
Well, without wanting to emphasise our light, we have received very positive feedback. The guests really felt very comfortable here. Fritz Pleitgen spoke of the "Stefan Heym Festival" with a twinkle in his eye. Unfortunately, the participants often didn't get to see much of the city. The all-day programme is very intensive.

With readings, events for schoolchildren and exhibitions, the Stefan Heym Society wants to commemorate him not just once, but throughout the year. "We have organised events such as 'Chemnitz reads'. A wide variety of people read Stefan Heym texts at different locations in the city," says Dr Ulrike Uhlig. The listeners often discover new things about Heym. "Stefan Heym's novels are very well known. For example: 'Crusaders of Today', 'The King David Report', 'Ahasver' or of the more recent ones: 'The Architects', 'Radek'. But the fact that he also wrote poetry has only recently become known. 'But I crossed the border', a collection of early lyrical works, was only published in 2013."

How did that come about?
His wife Inge Heym, with whom we have a very good and trusting relationship, found these poems in her husband's estate. He himself kept his distance from the early poems. He didn't actually want to publish them.

Is there a reason for this?
He didn't consider them to be of such literary value. He saw them as works of youth. I think the poems clearly show how he got involved in political events at a very young age. He wrote poems very early on in Germany as a grammar school pupil, in Berlin as a student, during his exile in Prague and in Chicago. After that, he stopped and turned exclusively to prose, writing the novel "Hostages" in 1942, which became a bestseller in the USA. But I think that his poems, like his journalistic works, his short stories and his fairy tales, belong to his oeuvre as a whole. Incidentally, we have presented this early poetry several times in readings and have found that the audience is very moved by it.

Where is Stefan Heym's estate located?
The estate is in Cambridge in the university library. Last year, some members of the Stefan Heym Society were able to visit the estate. It was impressive because we were able to read original writings by Stefan Heym and look at his diaries. It became clear to us once again how meticulously he prepared for his novels. He researched very carefully. For example, he prepared for the 'King David Report', one of my favourite books by the way, with a religious scholar. He studied the Old Testament again and turned it into a novel that has a lot to do with the present day. The book is about questions of power. How people behave when they come to power. But also about truthfulness, about corruptibility. In other words, very topical issues.

What is life actually like as a cultural person in Chemnitz?
There are so many cultural offerings in Chemnitz. As a cultural person, you sometimes feel overwhelmed. Maybe some people will smile now, but it really is like that. If we start with the museums, the art collections, these are treasures that we can't overestimate. The theatre with its different genres. Readings in bookshops, at the university, exhibitions in galleries, socio-cultural events. I receive invitations in my letterbox almost every day and I often regret that I can't attend many of them.

Are you positive about the variety of cultural offerings in the Capital of Culture bid?
Yes, and I was delighted that so many people from the cultural scene were present at the presentation in the Stadtbad and spoke positively. Reflecting on the values of Chemnitz and bringing this application to life can only have a positive effect on the climate in the city. I sometimes feel sad when I see what has become of the TIETZ compared to when it first opened. The building was really alive then. We have to get back to that. There has to be something going on in the TIETZ - in a positive sense. I think that could, for example, promote an application to become the European Capital of Culture.
I very much hope that many Chemnitz residents will get behind this. It won't be enough if only our city council wants it. We simply have to get people excited about it - as many people as possible.

Where do you see Stefan Heym's legacy in 2025?
I am absolutely certain that people will still be reading Stefan Heym in 2025. Perhaps one or two works will be rediscovered. I have to come back to the 'King David Report', because the beauty of a great work of literature is that new readers always discover new aspects: New readers always discover new aspects that are important for their present. Dealing with questions of power in particular remains important. It may even be existential for our future. And perhaps in 2025 there will be a comprehensive biography of Heym that honours both the man of letters and the courageous lateral thinker.