Ein weites Feld

Ein weites Feld, an extensive novel by Günter Grass; its appearance in 1995 met with an unprecedented barrage of criticism which instantly enhanced its publicity. Divided into 5 books, it is concerned with the unification of Germany (see Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and covers the period from the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 to the autumn of 1991. Equally distinctive is its close association with Fontane, to which the title—referring to the figure of von Briest in Effi Briest, one of the Berlin novels—alludes. Its central figure is Theo Wuttke, known as Fonty, whose colleagues at the Fontane-Archiv in Potsdam (formerly in the DDR) function collectively as narrators. Wuttke is supported by his companion and ‘shadow’ (Tagundnachtschatten) Hoftaller, a former state security (Stasi) official, whose name derives from the novel Tallhover (1986) by Hans Joachim Schädlich, who in 1977 moved from East Germany to the West. Wuttke himself is the product of Grass's close study of Fontane for a projected biography; this is reflected in the novel's tribute to distinguished Fontane scholars, among them Charlotte Jolles.

The novel's highly complex structure proceeds from Wuttke's dual role as Fonty and Theo Wuttke: as the admirer of Fontane, whose appearance he imitates as a sign of inner identification, and as the East German, the former war correspondent, teacher, lecturer for the Kulturbund, and office messenger (Aktenbote) in East Berlin's Haus der Ministerien which, formerly the National Socialist Reichsluftfahrtministerium, is now the seat of the Treuhandanstalt. The son of the lithographer Max Wuttke, he was born on 30 December 1919, exactly 100 years after Fontane. The portrayal of Wuttke as a figure reflecting on his existence ‘with two mirrors’ is fundamental to the novel's use of parallelisms, including his family and friends (among them Professor Freundlich, whose role corresponds to Fontane's friend Georg Friedlaender), and involving the extensive use of flash-backs and quotations from the novels and letters of Fontane. The most challenging parallelisms are applied to the novel's historical and political themes, to which the foundation of the Wilhelmine empire in 1871 is central (see Wilhelm I and Bismarck). Wuttke's daily routine as an office messenger involves the use of a paternoster (a continuously rotating lift), in which he meets his future wife; his marriage to Emmi is comparable to the relationship between Fontane and Emilie, née Rouanet-Kummer. Basically, the novel's political and historical perspective is similarly viewed in terms of rotation instead of progression. Wuttke, the sceptic, liable to simplify and distort detail, emerges as a problematical figure. In the end the paternoster and its cabins, with which Wuttke associates his ideals of social equality, go up in flames. The incident coincides with the frail man's withdrawal from the scenes of his activity. With all its immense detail, humour, and irony, this large-scale historical novel, which in effect presupposes a high degree of familiarity with Fontane, lacks the creative power, style, and characterization of Grass's best work.