Status: 06/10/2022 5:22 p.m
The scandal is followed by a new beginning: after the journalist Yücel left the German PEN center in a dispute, he is now at the head of the newly founded PEN Berlin together with the author Menasse. The duo has big plans for this.
The international writers’ association PEN has gained another branch in Germany. Around 150 members elected the journalist Deniz Yücel and the writer Eva Menasse to head the new association PEN Berlin at their meeting and in an online post.
In the voting, Menasse received 143 of 143 votes, Yücel received 136 votes with eight against. Nine members were appointed to the board of the new association. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who was imprisoned in Great Britain, immediately became an honorary member. It was said that he accepted it.
The supporters of PEN Berlin include Daniel Kehlmann, Christian Kracht, Karen Köhler, Lucy Fricke, Ursula Krechel, as well as Thea Dorn, who leads the “Literary Quartet” in the ZDF moderated by Mithu M. Sanyal, Christian Berkel or Feridun Zaimoglu.
“Not a club of like-minded people”
According to Yücel, the new association also wants to work with PEN International. The necessary support is already available from the associations in Uganda and Ukraine. “It’s not a club of like-minded people and it doesn’t want to be, it’s a club of authors in this whole range,” Yücel told the news agency dpa. “As authors, writers and publicists, we can express ourselves competently on certain debates.” As an example, Yücel named the issue of freedom of expression and its limits.
Menasse also recognizes peculiarities in the new association. “This wide range of voices and diversity, the mix of women and men, of migrant literature as well as other literature, just everything that comes together from our list can and will make a big difference, in addition to the many prominent names we also have,” said Menasse dpa.
No competition to the PEN center
Menasse does not see the new association in Berlin as competing with the PEN Center Germany based in Darmstadt. But they have momentum and energy ahead of this organization, said the writer. Yücel was President of the PEN Center Germany for a few months. After a heated argument, he was confirmed there in May, but then resigned from the post. Not only his leadership style was criticized, but also his statement that a no-fly zone had to be set up over Ukraine.
The German PEN center registered the new establishment with composure. “We see this as an enrichment of PEN’s work in the effort to reposition ourselves,” said General Secretary Claudia Guderian.