Seite 19 - Leseproben

Aus: Telling the Truth. Counter-
Discourses in Diaries Under Totalitarian
Regimes
Nazi Germany and Early GDR. Political
Languages in the Age of Extremes
Conference at the German Historical
Institute London
March 26-27, 2004
Introduction
"Writing is strictly forbidden, however I do it. .. I [consider] it
a huge personal relief. The word benevolently pushes itself,
isolating me from the naked experience of detention."
(Es ist streng verboten zu schreiben. Ich tue es trotzdem. .. ich
[halte] es für eine große persönliche Wohltat. Das Wort schiebt sich
gnädig isolierend zwischen mich und das nackte Erlebnis der Haft.
(22.10.1944; Luise Rinser, Gefängnistagebuch S. 17))
Luise Rinser, German poet, notes this as prisoner on remand in 1944.
Ladies and gentlemen, we talk about diaristics under the conditions
of totalitarism. This short quotation by Luise Rinser shows what we
have to deal with in this respect: A diary is a text type of extreme
privacy. Most intimate feelings, thoughts, and desires are kept in
it, basic experiences of human existence. Basic experiences under
totalitarism are extreme experiences such as imprisonment,
persecution, or danger of life. These need the platform of a counter
world.
Methodical Remarks
Before we approach these diaristic counter worlds, I would like to
briefly integrate the following explanations methodically. These
explanations of diaristic style and function of diary writing under
special political conditions can be seen as part of the history of
mentality. We understand mentality as the whole of manners and
contents of thinking and feeling which determine a certain
collective at a certain time.As mentality becomes manifest in acting
and since speeking (and writing) is a kind of acting, the history of
mentality is the investigation and description of the thinking of a
group, which becomes manifest by speaking (or writing). This means