At the annual conference of the German writers' association PEN in the evening, its president Deniz Yücel survived a motion against him to be voted out of office with a narrow majority - and then resigned nonetheless.

The journalist, born in Flörsheim am Main in 1973, who was in Turkish custody for about a year because of alleged terrorist propaganda, was only elected in October 2021 in Frankfurt's Paulskirche - and declared his in Gotha, when the clashes did not stop even after the vote Resignation: "I don't want to be president of this bratwurst stand," Yücel shouted into the microphone.

"I step back!"

Jan Wiele

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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Julia Enke

Responsible editor for the feuilleton of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper in Berlin.

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In Gotha, 125 members of the German PEN had gathered and yelled at each other for ten hours in a breathtakingly toxic atmosphere, accusing them of bullying, slander and insincerity.

There was a bitter argument about the procedure and the agenda, which repeatedly revealed deep rifts between the members, some of whom no longer seemed to be able to mend - which visibly heated them up and, according to various statements, shook them very much, tears were also visible.

There was an application to confirm Yücel and two other board members in office as well as one to dismiss him.

Both motions argued for the benefit of PEN.

In the application for Yücel's confirmation, 61 members said: "We wish that the quarrels that are damaging to the reputation of PEN come to an end." and should continue in peace.

The motion to vote Yücel out of office, on the other hand, spoke of dismay at his “colloquial style, language and airs of authority”, which resulted in a “profound and systemic disturbance of decency and the dignity of PEN”.

This related, for example, to internal mail exchanges and discussions in which members were insulted by the Executive Committee and should be pushed out of the association.

Although it has been repeatedly denied

PEN meeting in a tense atmosphere

Most recently, a narrow majority voted in favor of Yücel with 75 votes, 73 members voted for his dismissal.

The blame and insults from both sides did not stop after this vote.

After this meeting, it is completely unclear how the hopelessly divided club will get back to business and devote itself to its tasks.

In Gotha, the mood at the conference, which began on Thursday evening with the awarding of the Kurt Sigel Poetry Prize, was initially difficult to assess. There was also a certain sense of joy at being physically able to come together again after two failures due to the pandemic.

But that was quickly gone on Friday morning, even before Yücel greeted him, there were heckling, later often mocking laughter.

The dispute in the German PEN has various dimensions: On the one hand, it was sparked off by Yücel's public statements such as his demand for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which five of his predecessors saw as incompatible with the PEN charter.

But in Gotha it was mainly about internal processes that were then made public, about reports and tasks, as well as the question of whether the association should focus its commitment more on the political or the literary.

Yücel himself attested to a great increase in the attention paid to PEN, which in turn was scornfully commented on.

Yücel explained the reasons for his resignation on Twitter that evening: "Today we had to realize that our attempts to turn the German PEN into a modern NGO and to give it back its old relevance as an intellectual association in a contemporary form were not wanted by a majority." be.

And then he added: “Today's PEN has nothing to do with the gallery of ancestors and only little to do with the well-known list of members.

It is dominated by philistines and busybodies over 70 who need their membership as proof of their belonging to the journalistic or literary elite.”

According to its own statements, the German chapter of the international writers' association PEN (“Poets, Essayists, Novelists”) has a total of 770 members who were also able to vote digitally, although there was a dispute about the modalities.

The annual meeting lasts until Sunday.