Lenz, Siegfried (Lyck, East Prussia, now Ełk, Poland, 1926- ), was drafted into the German navy at the age of 17, witnessed the horrors of naval battles in the Baltic Sea, and towards the end of the war, while stationed in Denmark, succeeded in deserting. After an agonizing period spent in hiding and a short spell as a British prisoner of war he made his way to Hamburg, initially subsisting by being active in the black market (reflected in the satirical stories Lehmanns Erzählungen, 1964) and by becoming a blood donor. Hoping for an academic career, he studied philosophy, English philology, and history of literature. In 1948 he joined the staff of Die Welt and became literary editor in 1950, but in 1951 turned to full-time writing. He settled in Hamburg and (later) the Danish island Als. Now in his mid-twenties, he joined Gruppe 47 and published his first novel, Es waren Habichte in der Luft (1951), the hawks of the title representing the persecutors of a Finnish village teacher, Stenka, during his unsuccessful flight from his Soviet (Stalinist) oppressors. In his next novel, Duell mit dem Schatten (1953), the conflict between the generations is linked with the vain attempt of an aged German colonel to come to terms with past guilt by going back, accompanied by his daughter, to the scene of his action in Africa. It took Lenz another 15 years before he published a novel dealing directly and extensively with conditions during and after the Third Reich: Deutschstunde (1968) became for years the best-selling novel of German post-war literature. By then he was already firmly established as an author, skilled in creating tension and atmosphere and intent to engage the reader in moral issues; foremost among these are individual responsibility, guilt, and power, demonstrated in a diversity of contexts of parabolic significance. By basing his didactic purpose on ethics valid for all humanity he sought to contribute to a free, socially aware democratic society while distancing himself from ideologically committed political education. In his autobiographical sketch (Autobiographische Skizze, 1962) he acknowledged the influence of Dostoevsky, Faulkner, Camus, and Hemingway, on whose effect on his first collection of short stories, Der Jäger des Spotts (1958), he commented in the volume Beziehungen. Ansichten und Bekenntnisse zur Literatur (1970).
Other works published before the 1980s include the collections of stories Das Feuerschiff (1960), Stimmungen der See (1962), Der Spielverderber (1965), and Einstein überquert die Elbe bei Hamburg (1975). Of the two novels of the late 1950s, Der Mann im Strom (1957) proceeds from the problem of unemployment, Brot und Spiele (1959) from the moral corruption to which top performers in the world of sport and, by implication, in a society bent on high performance are exposed. Among the stories, the masterly Novelle Das Feuerschiff warns of the ever present threat of evil powers. After the unarmed lightship has been taken over by escaping gangsters, the safety of the seafaring community depending on the ship's position is at stake. The plot develops into a test case in the responsible and rational exercise of authority, in which the captain succeeds at the cost of his life. Even more harrowing are the moral issues raised in the novel Stadtgespräch (1963), in which a leader of the resistance movement in a Scandinavian country is faced with the choice of surrendering to the occupying forces and death in order to save the lives of 44 hostages. Convinced that he must safeguard the movement's fight for freedom, he reluctantly decides against surrender. By highlighting the more difficult choice, Lenz shows a close affinity to what Karl Jaspers has termed a ‘border-situation’: pragmatic considerations prevail in an agonizing dilemma. By then exposing the short-lived memory of the inhabitants who later ostracize their one-time hero, Lenz turns to the mentality of people in the post-war world, the subject of the satire Der Spielverderber, which is a prelude to his major work, Deutschstunde, and its sequel, the novel Das Vorbild (1973). Its three principle characters, the retired schoolmaster Valentin Pundt, the young teacher Janpeter Heller, and Rita Süssfeldt, all with a record of personal failure, are set the task of composing an educational reader; a special feature is the integration of the stories suggested by each of them, though they find none on which they can agree. Lenz's plays and radio plays (see Hörspiel), variations on the themes of his fiction, include Die Zeit der Schuldlosen (1961), the comedy Das Gesicht (1964), the collection Haussuchung (1967), and Augenbinde (1970). In the stories of Der Geist der Mirabella. Geschichten aus Bollerup (1975), all set in North Germany, Lenz seeks to recapture the humorous stance of his engaging tales from his native Masuria; published as So zärtlich war Suleyken (1955), they established his fame as a story-teller. His homeland is also central to the expansive novel Heimatmuseum (1978), expressing his commitment to cultural preservation and territorial renunciation that made him a strong supporter of the Ostpolitik of Chancellor Willy Brandt and of his successor Helmut Schmidt (see Bundesrepublik Deutschland).
Known as his country's chronicler, Lenz's works published from the 1980s include the novel Der Verlust (1981), followed by Ein Kriegsende (1984, TV film 1984), a terse scenario recalling the moral issues involving captain and crew in Das Feuerschiff, though in a radically different situation. Set in May 1945 after Germany's partial surrender, it describes the mutiny on a minesweeper and ends with the court martial and execution of two crew members to whom the ship owes its safe return without loss of life. After the novel Exerzierplatz (1985) and the stories contained in Das serbische Mädchen (1987) appeared the novel Die Klangprobe (1990) which explores the theme of transitoriness, symbolically represented by a larger-than-life sculpture, ‘The Guardian’ (Der Wächter). Placed opposite Hamburg's largest department store by the Alster, it is a masterpiece of the sculptor Hans Bode, whose world of stones and legend signifying permanence is projected against the consumer society. The various strands of the plot, narrated by the sculptor's son Ian, characterize basic traits of Lenz's philosophy of life and his endeavour to uphold lasting human values in a changing world. Further works include the novel Die Auflehnung (1994) and the collection of stories, Ludmilla (1996). Lenz combines his expertise in the creation of thought-provoking crises with his predilection for minutely detailed descriptive passages showing the relationship between environment, occupation, and character, often in a direct or implicit father/son relationship and usually with figures who live on the fringe of society, with Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg his preferred locations.
Several of Lenz's works have been adapted as TV films. The stories and plays have appeared in several editions, including Sämtliche Erzählungen 1949-1984 (3 vols. with postscr. by M. Reich-Ranicki, 1986). Collections of essays and discussions include Gespräche mit Manès Sperber und Leszek Kolakowski (1980), Über Phantasie: Gespräche mit H. Böll, G. Grass, W. Kempowski, P. Kohout (1982), Elfenbeinturm und Barrikade. Erfahrungen am Schreibtisch (1983), Dostojewski (1988), and Über das Gedächtnis. Reden und Aufsätze (1992). Lenz has received a number of prizes, including the prize of the Free Hanse City of Bremen (1961), the Andreas Gryphius Prize, the Thomas Mann Prize, and the Friedenspreis des deutschen Buchhandels (1988).
The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
