Peter Holtz was an honest, as well as treacherous, person. Also, he was a simple, yet insightful man. He used to blend polite well-wishes with underlying threats. The man, who grew up in an orphanage, worked as a bricklayer and used to believe in communism. However, when the Communists cast him out of their fold, he converted to Christianity in order to preserve his place in society and became a close associate of the Christian Democratic Party‘s chairperson. Gradually, the promises of capitalism started attracting Holtz. Ultimately, chronic indecision led society to consider him as untrustworthy. Holtz is the lead character of Peter Holtz. His Own Account of a Happy Life (Holtz: Sein glückliches Leben erzählt von ihm selbst), a 2017 satirical novel by East German author Ingo Schulze.

Readers’ reactions to the character of Holtz generally divide into two main viewpoints: While some find him ridiculous, others have praised him. This character is a symbol of frustration, sufferings and economic crisis faced by the people of erstwhile East Germany. As a 28-year-old young man, Ingo could not accept the reunification of the two Germanys in 1989. He felt like an alien and portrayed his personal conflicts through the character, Holtz. Like many others, Ingo could not accept the move to abandon socialist ideals and embrace the market economy following the German reunification.

Ingo was born on December 15, 1962 in Dresden in former East Germany and studied Classical Philology at the University of Jena for five years. Later, he was compelled to join the national military in accordance with his country’s regulations. However, he was not mentally prepared for this experience. In the interview, Ingo said: “The military experience was unbearable. It felt like I was wasting time.” The boy, who could not focus on storybooks at the age of 13, felt stifled within the confines of military discipline. During his military service, he began writing short stories.

A couple of years after the collapse of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1991, Ingo went to St Petersburg (in 1993) to work as a journalist. He spent six months in St Petersburg which became the basis for his debut collection of short stories 33 Moments of Happiness (1995). However, his first novel Simple Stories (Simple Storys: Ein Roman aus der ostdeutschen Provinz; 1998) brought him wide praise. This publication also propelled him to the forefront of the Wende-Literatur (turning point in literature), the writers of the generation following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Once, Günter Grass praised Ingo as “our new epic storyteller” in connection with Simple Stories that captures the tragicomic realities of ordinary people navigating life in post-reunification East Germany.

Ingo could not accept the German reunification. He still believes that it was a historic delusion. Life during the Communist era was quite different, as the public was constantly told what they ought to do. Fear and suspicion were constant companions; as there was no right to express one’s thoughts in public. As 1989 approached, East Germans experienced a shifting world through various reforms and a different kind of life. Once, Ingo wrote: “I was in Altenburg when the two countries were reuniting. Everyone was yearning for relief from that stifling atmosphere, longing for an environment where freedom of speech would exist. Following the crowd, I, too, took to the streets to join the protest marches.” Under Western influence, he began to think about how to earn money. At that moment, his world of thought seemed to be filled solely with Holtz.

Ingo claimed that the rapid post-reunification adoption of a market-driven system actually threatened and compromised the true meaning of democracy. “We lost our own identity and many lost their livelihoods. Those once accustomed to government jobs found themselves unemployed and were forced to leave their homes and migrate to the West. Around 250,000 people were jobless. We had aligned ourselves with a capitalist society without properly assessing the situation,” he stressed.

Ingo refuses to judge oneself through the eyes of others. For him, it is merely an illusion. He is also against ultra-nationalism, yet the seeds of it lie hidden within the Western social system itself.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das