Charlotte Gneuss’ novel “Gittersee” is set in the GDR. The writer Ingo Schulze found errors in it that reached the jury of the German Book Prize. In the interview he explains his list of deficiencies – and defends the author.
The question of how and by whom we can talk about the GDR and “the East” has been discussed for a long time. An incident that became known last week seemed to usher in a new level of escalation in this debate. It’s about the novel “Gittersee”, set in the GDR, by the author Charlotte Gneuß, who was born in Ludwigsburg in 1992, and which is on the longlist for the German Book Prize. The Dresden-born writer Ingo Schulze has written a list of detailed corrections to the novel. It not only reached the addressee, S. Fischer Verlag, but also the book prize jury. This seemed to suggest that she should reconsider her assessment of the quality of the novel because of the historical errors. Schulze is currently taking part in a literature festival on Lake Garda. From there he answered the SZ’s questions by email.