Post-War German Literature Quiz | Literature by Region

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which of these authors did NOT leave Germany after 1933, and still managed to publish a 'roman a clef' against Herr Hitler?

Answer: Ernst Junger

Junger (b. 1895) had some affinity for the Nazis but kept his distance. 'To the Marble Cliffs' (1939) was published without official permission.
Gottfried Benn (1896-1956),after playing some dubious role in the early Nazi years, completely withdrew into private life.
Alfred Doblin,(b. 1878, Stettin) having fled to Paris then to New York, returned to the French zone and became the cultural adviser of the military government. Died in Esslingen, near Stuttgart in 1957. Other source mentions Freiburg in Breisgau.
Heinrich Mann (1871-1950) left Germany and refused to return. He stayed at Santa Monica, California, till his death in 1950.

2. Which German author fled Berlin, when the Nazis came to power in 1933, returned to East Berlin in 1945 and became Minister for Culture in DDR in 1954 ?

Answer: Johannes R. Becher

Brecht was born in Augsburg 1898 and died in East Berlin 1956.
Heinrich Mann was the elder brother of Thomas, and was born in Lubeck 1871.
Eisler was not a writer but a composer. He and Kurt Weill wrote the music for some of Brecht's works.

3. Which of these D.D.R. authors crossed over to West Berlin in 1959, then went to Rome, later to New York, and died on the Isle of Sheppey in 1984?

Answer: Uwe Johnson

Johnson was born in Pomerania, 1934. Studied at University of Rostock, then Leipzig. In 1959 he published 'Mutmassungen uber Jakob'; English title: 'Speculations About Jacob' (published by Suhrkamp).
Anna Seghers had fled to Mexico City in 1933,returned to East Berlin in 1947, was President of the G.D.R. Writers' Organisation from 1952 till 1978.
Arnold Zweig(1887-1965) is best known for 'The Case of Sergeant Grischa' 1927.

4. Which German playwright got his own theatre 'am Schiffbauerdamm' in East-Berlin in 1954, but died two years later ?

Answer: Bertold Brecht

Ingeborg Bachmann Austrian author, b. Klagenfurt 1926. Died Rome, 1973.
Gunther Eich. Poet and author of a radioplay 'Traume' (= 'Dreams'.) 1951.
Martin Walser wrote 'Ein springender Brunnen' (1988) and is also a playwright.

5. In 1958 a sensation was created by Gunther Grass when he published 'The Tin Drum'. Where was the story situated ?

Answer: Danzig aka Gdansk

Konigsberg is where Immanuel Kant was born. The three other cities all are known as places of protest during the postwar Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.
First there were the Poznan Riots June 1956, after Stalin's death. Then followed the Prague spring in 1968. The strikes in Gdansk were the beginning of the end of Soviet rule in Poland.

6. When firmly established as a writer Gunther Grass began to intervene in German politics and actively supported a particular German politician. Who was that politician?

Answer: Willy Brandt

Other works by Grass are 'Cat and Mouse' 1961; 'Dog Years' 1963.
W.Brandt was the leader of the SPD from 1964 till 1987. He became Chancellor of G.F.R. in 1969 and stayed in power till 1974. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1971.
Konrad Adenauer(b. Cologne 1876- d. Rhondorf 1967) was the first post-war leader of West Germany and had become chairman of the CDU in 1949. Resigned as a Chancellor in 1963.
Helmut Kohl was Chancellor of G.F.R. from 1982 till 1990 and of the Reunified Germany from 1990 till 1998.

7. Which of these D.D.R. authors got into trouble with the political authorities of East Germany and was ausgeb�rgert, so that he had to go into exile?

Answer: Wolf Biermann

Bierman was a populariser of political verse.
Christa Wolf b. 1929 in Landsberg, in an area of Germany which now belongs to Poland. Her best known novel is probably 'Divided Heaven' 1963.
Magnus Enzensberger wrote poetry a la Ginsberg in 'Schaum'.

8. Which of these German Nobel prize winners had won his prize already BEFORE World War II, but suffering from the right-wing reproach that he had 'betrayed his country', chose to live in Switzerland ?

Answer: Thomas Mann

Mann won it in 1929, Hesse in 1946, Boll in 1972, Grass in 1999.
When Mann left for Switzerland, he in a way followed the example of Hesse, who had moved there already in 1919.

9. Which of these works by Heinrich Boll deals with the Rote Armee Fraktion terrorism problem?

Answer: 1974 The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

German titles in chronological order: 1953 'Und sagte kein einziges Wort', 1959 'Billard Um Halbzehn'. 1971 'Gruppenportrat mit Dame', 1974 'Die Verlorene Ehre der Katarina Blum'.

10. Which of these German authors, on principle, refused to live in post-Nazi Germany and published such 'shocking' works as 'Offending the Audience'?

Answer: Peter Handke

Peter Handke: b. 1942 in Griffen, Austria.'Publikumsbeschimpfung.' Other successful work of his is 'The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick' (in German:'Die Angst des Tormannes beim Elfmeter.') 1970
Peter Weiss b. 1916 near Potsdam; his 'Marat-Sade' was first performed in West Berlin but won the widest acclaim when staged by Peter Brook in New York.
Rolf Hochhuth is, as Weiss, a specialist of the Documentary Drama. His best known work is probably his attack on Pope Pius XII's passive attitude to the persecution of the Jews in WW2: 'Der Stellvertreter' (in English 'The Deputy') 1963.

Source: Author flem-ish

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
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Post-War German Literature Trivia Quiz

It took some time after World War II before German Literature got on course again. Most of the authors who had not gone into exile, were discredited. Some former exiles opted for the G.D.R. (D.D.R.)- This quiz deals with the complex postwar situation.

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