There can be no better tracer through the literary landscapes of Brandenburg and Berlin: The writer Günter de Bruyn (1926 to 2020) not only further developed and saved what Fontane had recorded on his “walks through the Mark Brandenburg”, but also rediscovered many things . In addition to Fontane, ETA Hoffmann and Tieck, he edited in the “Märkischer Dichtergarten” series at that time as few authors available on the book market as Rahel Levin (Varnhagen), Fouqué or Nicolai - if not almost unknown. Who had heard a lot from Moritz Heimann, Friedrich August Ludwig von der Marwitz or Friedrich Schmidt von Werneuchen in the 1980s?
A large exhibition in Potsdam is now dedicated to de Bruyn's life achievement, which has wandered through the Mark since April, from Frankfurt an der Oder via Beeskow, Friedersdorf, Nennhausen and Erkner to the state capital. And just as de Bruyn himself always returned from his walks with found objects, so the show, cleverly curated by Christiane Barz, added new material on the way and is now accompanied by a solid catalog and essay volume. Since the start, more than sixty exhibits have been added that were still in the old sheep farm in Görsdorf near Beeskow. Here de Bruyn lived in the middle of the “wilderness” in an old, gradually renovated house, happily “like after an escape” - with the only desirable luxury of “being left alone”.In this property, which he bought in 1968 for 1,600 marks and which was only connected to the power grid in 1986, he wrote to the end. The typescript now shown, "The New Melusine", a fairy tale based on Fouqué, was still on the desk with corrections when de Bruyn's death on October 4, 2020. It was now published on his 95th birthday.
The exhibition reflects a hundred years of German history. Born in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, de Bruyn served as an air force helper during National Socialism, became a new teacher in the Soviet occupation zone and librarian in the GDR, and finally a writer who moved from the PEN Center East to that of the Federal Republic in 1991. You can see the path from the first burlesque story "Hochzeit in Weltzow", which already triggered a correspondence between the village school teacher and the censorship and is shown here with extensive changes for a second edition, to the last manuscript. Berlin with the wonderful late books “Unter den Linden. Stories about a Street ”(2001) or“ Als Poetry Good. Fates from the cultural life of Berlin ”(2006) is left out, since the focus is supposed to be on the Margraviate of Brandenburg.
Instead of a chronological sequence of individual publications, the exhibition offers highly informative work geneses. Whether for the story “Märkische Forschungen”, the literary portrait of Jean Paul or the various selected editions: at de Bruyn, extensively documented site visits go hand in hand with historical research and personal references. The exploration trips are recorded in photo albums and diary protocols, plus documents such as manuscripts, church registers, pictures or surveys of bereaved relatives, locals and historians.
For example, at the former “Musenhof” in Nennhausen, de Bruyn follows in the footsteps of the “Brandenburg Don Quixote” Fouqué and follows his chivalric novel “The Magic Ring”. This was staged in a figuratively recorded courtly amateur play for the visit of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, which de Bruyn then further processed in his texts. Or he deals in Friedersdorf with the old Prussian nobleman von der Marwitz, whose life fascinates him despite his opposition to the Stein-Hardenberg reforms. He tirelessly complements older selected editions of Marwitz's life story for his own poet garden using the handwritten estate or corresponds with the family. These and other examples are gathered on a stele and showcases grouped around them.They illustrate the writing process from the picture and manuscript documents, to excerpts, card boxes and drafts, to the finished book, which you can finally pick up yourself.
The impression of a busy local poet would still be wrong. Günter de Bruyn was an extremely knowledgeable man of letters who charmingly established an independent genre between finding and inventing. In doing so, he combined such different roles as chronicler, rediscoverer, literary historian and narrator and brought the Mark Brandenburg to its best advantage as an independent literary landscape. For this, too, he was showered with prizes, which he knew how to accept in his noble modesty. He proudly hung the honorary citizenship certificate Oder-Spree on the wall because his community in retreat was important to him, but he put the Great Federal Cross of Merit in a box. The exhibition now shows a great writer who deserves this honor just as much as the Brandenburg poets he has preserved.
"Günter de Bruyn, Märkische Schreibwelten"
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House of Brandenburg-Prussian History, Potsdam;
until January 9th.
The accompanying book (Quintus-Verlag) costs 28 euros.