7 - The uses of literature: Defoe, and the Bible

Summary

Western observers have often wondered why Heym was never jailed for his attacks on so many aspects of GDR government. The answer lies in a powerful combination of circumstances. First, the fact that Heym is Jewish, and that he lived in a state which prided itself on having eradicated anti-semitism. It regularly contrasted this achievement with the supposed failure to do so in the Federal Republic, and made much of any anti-semitic outburst in the western part of the nation. Second, Heym had fought against National Socialism from as early as 1931. This should likewise be seen in the context of a state which regularly boasted that the Communist Party was the only one to offer full resistance to Hitler. The GDR drew considerable moral strength from this fact, and again contrasted itself constantly with what it declared to be the natural successor to the Third Reich: the Federal Republic. Finally, Heym had become too well known to imprison. His arrest would have caused an uproar in both parts of the nation. The same applied to his friends Robert Havemann and Wolf Biermann. These three were the most vocal and successful opponents of the political direction taken by the GDR, and they were all in some way regarded as popular heroes.