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A tour of the Odenwald with Günter Grass
by W. Christian Schmitt
The journalist Georg Stefan Troller (born 1921) may not have invented it—the memoir column he still writes monthly for the "Literarische Welt" (Literary World). But he is my role model for what will now appear here—as a successor to the 18 "Table Talks" column—under the title "Unforgotten." It is a written account of encounters with people from the literary and cultural scene of the past 50 years.
When I met Günter Grass (1927-2015), he had just published his novel "Ein weites Feld" (A Wide Field) with Steidl Verlag – and Marcel Reich-Ranicki had, in a publicity stunt (for MRR), torn the book apart on the cover of "Der Spiegel." But it's best if I start this story from the very beginning. In 1969, a small publishing house was founded in Göttingen, initially specializing in posters and flyers. And I wrote an article about this (then still) small publishing house, called Steidl, for the Frankfurter Börsenblatt (Frankfurt Book Trade Journal), which the young publisher apparently liked so much that he told me I "still owed him one."
Years later, when Grass was already part of the Steidl publishing house, I revisited the idea and asked the Steidl publisher if he could perhaps arrange an interview with his new author, or even a reading. The publisher replied that this would certainly be possible, but with the caveat: "if Grass were to attend the book fair again" and I would pick him up from his hotel. But then I heard nothing more from Göttingen for a long time.
By then, I had moved my editorial office from Darmstadt to Reichelsheim in the Odenwald. But one day in 1995, the Steidl publisher himself contacted me: Grass was ready for an interview, he informed me, and a small author reading would also be possible. I would only have to pick Grass up from the hotel and then take him to the book fair after the reading.
Thus began a story that was (for me) almost unbelievable: Grass was apparently not only willing to give an interview, but he also agreed to a (short) reading that I could arrange. When I picked him and his wife Ute up from the hotel and we were in my car on the way to Reichelsheim, I noticed that Grass was becoming visibly more restless. The few kilometers from the hotel to the venue seemed to drag on forever. The reason? We were on our way to Reichelsheim in the Odenwald region, not to Reichelsheim in the Wetterau region, which was actually only a few kilometers from the hotel where Grass was staying.
When we finally arrived in Reichelsheim in the Odenwald around 1 p.m. (a time when people are usually sitting down to lunch and not rushing to an author reading), everyone was surprised, because word had gotten around that Günter Grass was coming to the middle of nowhere for a reading. The small town hall was packed. Citizens, local politicians, mayors from neighboring towns, and even District Administrator Horst Schnur didn't want to miss this probably unique event – and Grass read from his novel "Ein weites Feld" (which, just eight weeks after its release, was already in its fifth edition and generating a lot of discussion) and eagerly signed copies of his latest work.
With Grass, the event series “Zu Gast in Reichelsheim”, which I initiated and moderated and which was supported by the Sparkasse Odenwaldkreis, was opened, in which authors such as Erich Loest, Ingrid Noll, Gabriele Wohmann, Gert Heidenreich, Susanne Mischke and Gaby Hauptmann read over a period of two years.
The next issue will be about "Eating pizza with Gabriele Wohmann".
Cover photo: Günter Grass and the journalist W. Christian Schmitt.
