Reiner kunze kunze reiner essay

Kunze’s most famous poem is rudern zwei (two rowing), which he wrote in 1956. It is a love poem that over the years has been popularized in the German-speaking world and is frequently read or recited on special occasions, such as marriage ceremonies and wedding anniversaries.

I met Reiner Kunze in 1976 while I was on a sabbatical leave, living in Vienna and working on a project that would culminate in a three-volume book on GDR literature in the 1970s. In January 1976, I wrote to Kunze and asked him to participate in my project by permitting me to interview him and publish one or more of his recent texts in my book.

Kunze was a dissident writer, although he was not fond of the “dissident” label; he was a person of principle who stood up to the GDR’s power elite and was harshly punished for doing so.