Uwe Johnson’s TV opinions for the “Tagesspiegel” | EUROtoday

Auch Uwe Johnsons kurze Karriere als Fernsehkritiker ist jetzt von der Philologie erfasst: Der Suhrkamp-Verlag hat die 99 knappen Texte, die der Schriftsteller 1964 für die Zeitung „Der Tagesspiegel“ über das DDR-Fernsehen schrieb, nun innerhalb seiner historisch-kritischen Rostocker Ausgabe der Werke auf nicht weniger als 567 Seiten herausgegeben. So können sich auch in tausend Jahren, sofern es den Planeten dann noch gibt, unsere Ahnen oder Besucher von anderen Gestirnen einen Reim auf jene skurrile, leicht irre Konstellation machen, in die hinein Johnson damals rezensierte.

Innerhalb ein und derselben Stadt – Berlin – gab es zwei Kommunikations- und Medienwelten, die nicht nur gegensätzlich waren, sondern auch völlig voneinander getrennt in dem Sinne, dass sie nichts voneinander wissen wollten. Wenigstens von West nach Ost war dies der Fall: Nach dem Mauerbau setzte der Springer-Verlag auch Zeitungen, die nicht zu seinem Imperium gehörten, unter Druck, dass sie das Ostfernsehen so behandelten, als gäbe es dieses nicht, dass sie also auf keinen Fall dessen Programm veröffentlichten, solange die Ostzeitungen dies nicht auch mit den Westprogrammen täten.

In dieser Lage entschloss sich der „Tagesspiegel“ zu dem kühnen Schritt, den schon damals bekannten Autor Johnson, der 1959 die DDR Richtung Westen verlassen hatte, eine fast tägliche Kolumne über das DDR-Fernsehen schreiben zu lassen (und daneben auch noch trotzig das Programm abzudrucken). So bekam das Westberliner Publikum fortlaufend ethnologische Nachrichten von einem nur ein paar Hundert Meter entfernten Volksstamm und einem Sender, dessen Erzeugnisse es theoretisch selbst anschauen konnte, es aber wegen des unüberwindlich großen Systemabstands nicht tat.

For Johnson, this was probably also an experiment with his own shared identity, the doubly foreign view of the two German halves, reinforced by the strangeness of the medium. Since he didn’t own a television set, he was loaned an Imperial Type 1619 Astronaut suitcase. On June 4, 1964, his first telephonic dispatch appeared.

It started straight away with Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler’s “black channel”. Johnson avoids the cliché phrase “propaganda” all through, however in his roundabout, dryly ironic means he doesn’t skimp on criticism of the manipulative agitation. He reads an “embarrassing familiarity without foundation and real relationships” within the quiet smile of a information anchor after which expands this commentary into basic phrases: “There is always someone smiling all alone in his party badge.” Otherwise, the main points matter to him; He describes this system “You and Chemistry” in addition to the “A Thousand Tele-Tips” and the crime movies set in a “synthetic West German landscape” or “Sandman”. And he displays the impact created by the assembly of heterogeneous ranges of motion which are held collectively by a typical ideological tendency: “Happy Red Army soldiers help bring in the potatoes. There are television films in which it is not considered decent to accept more than one cigarette at a time from West German travelers, because anyone who does that also steals cement.” The serial precept of his main novel mission, “Anniversaries,” is already mapped out right here : Where the every day reference to the “New York Times” will later accompany the life depicted, right here it’s the Adlershof station.

Johnson doesn’t make himself a problem in any means. He additionally does not have a trick for his column, however slightly units himself the “stylistic task of inventing his own gesture for each writing criticism.” He appears to search out it most satisfying when he can reward one thing that goes towards basic expectations: for instance the true crime format “Blaulicht” (“a lot of everyday life”) and, above all, the journal present “Prisma”, which has the ambition to focus on grievances on the earth to assist put an finish to socialist on a regular basis life, such because the “losses that the economy incurs through the purchase of bottles that do not fit into the beverage industry’s bottling machines.” When enchancment was achieved on this matter, Johnson commented, at greatest, half-ironic: “Anyone who appreciates the exhilaration of the ‘Prism Collective’ will understand the differences between such journalism and Western journalism.”

Johnson reached the spectacular climax of his criticism with a case of pretend information. On August 14th he reported that GDR tv had surprisingly proven the Beatles movie “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” was broadcast, though the amount was “slightly reduced”, however nonetheless: “the opening for the entertaining arts in East Germany”. (The scrupulous textual content commentary reproduces the Brockhaus entry on the key phrase “Beatles” in order that future readers from Mars know what it’s about.) Johnson subsequently instructed the unamused newspaper editorial workforce that it had been a check, like many readers discover the false report, i.e. take discover of Eastern tv in any respect. There wasn’t a single one which upset Johnson.

Apparently he truly noticed himself much less as an ethnologist than as a service supplier who wished to arouse curiosity in this system of the separated compatriots. He repeatedly criticizes the lack of understanding amongst Western residents concerning the East. For in the present day’s readers, nevertheless, what could also be most exemplary is his skill to mix criticism of the overseas system with curiosity, precision and even a little bit of humor.