I finished reading Sonja Fritzsche’s Science Fiction Literature in East Germany (2006) for a review that I’m writing for The German Quarterly. Before writing the review, I do want to share some of my first impressions as I organize my thoughts for the official review.
This is a fantastic synthesis of history and cultural analysis of Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) SF. Fritzsche opens up an often-neglected field of SF research with this work. Building on a dearth of earlier scholarly work on DDR SF, she builds a history of the DDR, SF authors, SF publishers, and DDR fandom through a contextualization of Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschland (SED) policies and the thematic and theoretical elements of a variety of DDR SF, but focusing a deep analysis on three emblematic works: Eberhardt Del Antonio’s Heimkehr der Vorfahren (Return of the Forefathers, 1966), Johanna and Günter Braun’s Unheimliche Erscheinungsformen auf Omega XI (Uncanny Manifestations on Omega XI, 1974), and Angela and Karlheinz Steinmüller’s Der Traummeister (The Dream Master, 1990).
Fritzsche’s Science Fiction Literature in East Germany succeeds at adding to SF history as well as DDR history. I recommend this book to SF and German Studies scholars alike–it has much to offer to SF and German discourses. Also, I have to find translations of some of these books that she writes about, because they sound so damn interesting!
Keep an eye out for my full, very positive review in an upcoming issue of The German Quarterly.
