Look Forward, Beyond the Ruins of the Berlin Wall. An Interview with Anna Chiarloni

Abstract

Anna Chiarloni, Professor Emeritus of German Literature at the University of Turin, talks about the collection of personal papers she recently donated to the university’s Archivio Storico. She describes the corpus – mainly her correspondence with East and West German writers – and uses it as the basis to reflect on Germany’s complex evolution from the Seventies until its reunification after the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Deeply involved in the literary debate in the DDR throughout her academic career, Chiarloni, thanks to her direct relationship with key figures on the country’s cultural scene – Volker Braun, Heinz Czechowski, Heiner Müller and Christa Wolf – had the opportunity to document Die Wende (the period of political change after the fall of the wall) from the viewpoint of the intellectuals, anxious witnesses of the DDR’s social and economic ruin, who faced an uncertain future in reunified Germany.