The Fantastic Ordinary World of Lutz Rathenow

Lutz Rathenow has become the most widely known writer of the younger generation in what was formerly East Germany, though his publications in that country were confined to a few poems scattered in various magazines. In 1980 he released a collection of stories entitled Mit dem Schlimmsten wird schon gerechnet (Prepared for the Worst) with a West German publisher against the wishes of the Ministry of Culture. As a result he was arrested but was released after a few weeks, following widespread international protests. He then resisted pressures to emigrate and went on to publish books of stories and plays abroad. During the middle eighties, Rathenow became the most vocal critic of the East German government within literary communities, speaking out frequently in support of the independent peace movement. Since the unification of Germany, he has written widely as a journalist. His book Berlin Ost (East Berlin)---produced with the photographer Harald Hauswald, first published in 1987, and revised since German unification---describes the texture of daily life in the largest urban center of the former German Democratic Republic. Rathenow's major theme is the conflict between the individual and impersonal institutions and the resulting fears and tensions that pervade normal routines. 020