{"id":7602,"date":"2023-08-09T11:24:15","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T09:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?p=7602"},"modified":"2023-08-09T11:24:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T09:24:15","slug":"whats-that-for-wolf-biermanns-diaries-in-the-soup-pail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/2023\/08\/09\/whats-that-for-wolf-biermanns-diaries-in-the-soup-pail\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s that for? Wolf Biermann’s diaries in the „soup pail“"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

„What’s that for? Wolf Biermann’s diaries in the „soup pail“<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Dirk Schreiber | 9. August 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buried beneath a wooden shed in the peaceful little village of Brodowin in Brandenburg in the 1980s slumbered a treasure that many eyes in the GDR would like to have caught a glimpse of \u2013 above all the eyes of the Ministry for State Security. For what was hidden below ground were the most intimate memoirs of the perhaps loudest critic of the GDR state: the diaries of Wolf Biermann, buried in an old food container from the time of the German Wehrmacht. Dirk Schreiber, project assistant on the exhibition \u201cWolf Biermann. A Poet and Songwriter in Germany\u201d, writes about one of the oddest objects in the exhibition.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Eric Tschernow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since 1954, one of Wolf Biermann\u2019s most persistent habits is to keep a diary. Like an \u201celectrocardiogram of the soul\u201d, Biermann\u2019s diaries are above all chronicles of his daily experience. 1<\/sup> As such, they contain anecdotes, observations and comments on personal and political events. But above all, they contain names. Names of acquaintances, friends. And it was these names in particular that made the diaries increasingly explosive, especially as Biermann\u2019s confrontation with the SED party leadership became more and more radical. In the hands of the Stasi, the books could have meant serious danger to Biermann\u2019s confederates. The writings gave evidence of their close relationship with Biermann and of the discussions during their numerous encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before his famous concert in Cologne, which immediately preceded his expulsion from the GDR on 16 November 1976, he expressed his concern: \u201cI\u2019m afraid I will be arrested and that they will steal my many diaries.\u201d2<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Biermann\u2019s friend Reimar Gilsenbach came up with an idea. As an avid environmental activist and dissident, Gilsenbach, born near Wesel am Niederrhein in 1925, had already come into conflict with the GDR leadership. During the Prague Spring in 1968, he had helped Biermann to go into hiding for a short time when Biermann thought he would be arrested due to the tense situation. Now, in autumn 1976, Gilsenbach took in Biermann\u2019s 50 diary volumes in a dramatic \u201ccloak-and-dagger\u201d operation. As a hiding place for the books he chose his property in Brodowin, where the \u201cBrodowiner Talks\u201d were later founded, one of the first discussion forums on environmental protection in the GDR.3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bild df_mo_0000483_002: Reimar Gilsenbach, 1983 \u00a9 Deutsche Fotothek \/ Barbara Morgenstern<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a durable and waterproof hiding place for the diaries Gilsenbach chose a thermos-container from the stocks of the former Wehrmacht.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thermos-containers of this kind were products of the trench warfare in the First World War. In earlier wars the military planners assumed that they would normally be decided in great battles. With regard to the provisioning of the soldiers, such an agenda had the advantage that they could eat before or after the battle. Furthermore, far into the 19th<\/sup> century there were no central field kitchens in many armies. Every soldier cooked their own meal over a fire or on a cooker. After daylong marches or gruelling battles, that activity cost them time and energy. This was alleviated by the first mobile field kitchens, which were introduced in the Russian and Swiss armies around 1890.4<\/sup> The task of cooking in the field was now transferred to field cooks and field bakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the realities of stationary warfare from 1914 on required an adjustment to the gastronomic system. The trenches had to be permanently manned. At the same time the field kitchens could not be moved all the way to the front line for security reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if the soldiers could no longer come to the kitchen, the meals \u2013 warm, if possible, in all seasons \u2013 had to get to them. The result was a food <\/em>or meal carrier<\/em>: a double-walled metal container with cork insulation and a removable vessel that could hold up to 12 litres of food or drink. The lid was hinged and there was a small ladle attached inside. The container could be carried on one\u2019s back like a rucksack by means of two leather straps. Every field kitchen had up to six such containers, which were delivered to the soldiers of the unit that was to be catered for.5<\/sup> From there the meals were brought to the comrades on the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bild ZD006393: \u201cFood carriers on the way to the front line.\u201d Propaganda postcard from the Second World War. Berlin, Deutsches Historisches Museum: PK 2008\/261<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first container of this kind was introduced in the German army towards the end of the First World War. 6<\/sup> Its design was so practical that the Wehrmacht continued to use it almost unchanged. The Red Army and some other East European forces adopted the design and used it during the time of the Cold War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was probably for this reason that Wolf Biermann termed the food box that contained his diaries a \u201cNVA soup pail\u201d, referring to the National People’s Army of the GDR. Gilsenbach\u2019s container was in fact older, as the inscription \u201cbmc 41\u201d impressed on the top of the lid revealed. \u201c41\u201d refers to 1941, the year of the model, and \u201cbmc\u201d to the manufacturer, the enamel works Gr\u00e4ssler & Schmidt in Geithain, Saxony. 7<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bild WB-0688 II: The food container in which Reimar Gilsenbach hid Wolf Biermann\u2019s diaries. Photo: Eric Tschernow<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a trip to West Germany in 1988, Gilsenbach visited his friend Biermann in Hamburg and reminded him of the diaries. According to Biermann, he had long since forgotten about the books. He had, however, routinely continued to keep a diary after his expulsion from East Germany. After the fall of the Berlin Wall Gilsenbach dug up the treasure from his garden and returned the books to their author.8<\/sup> The diary set was once again complete. Biermann later also came to possess the food container as a testimony to the covert action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without Gilsenbach\u2019s engagement a large part of Biermann\u2019s diaries would probably not have survived his expulsion to the West. At the latest, the Stasi would have discovered the diaries when they removed Biermann\u2019s belongings from the apartment at Chausseestrasse 131 \u2013 with incalculable consequences for Biermann\u2019s friends and family. Today the diaries form the core of Biermann\u2019s preliminary estate now housed in the Berlin State Library. Not only his good friend Gilsenbach had contributed to saving the documents, but also a very profane \u201csoup pail\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

1<\/sup> Cf.: Roland Berbig: \u201eWie ein Buchhalter, wie ein Geschichtsschreiber, wie ein Elektrokardiogramm der Seele\u201c Wolf Biermanns Tagebuch-Werk, in: Wolf Biermann. Ein Lyriker und Liedermacher in Deutschland, Berlin 2003, pp. 184 \u2013 195.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2<\/sup>Wolf Biermann: Warte nicht auf bessre Zeiten!, Berlin 2017, p. 480f.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3<\/sup>Carl Jordan: Ein freiheitlicher \u00d6kologe. Zum Tod von Reimar Gilsenbach, in: Horch und Guck. Historisch-literarische Zeitschrift des B\u00fcrgerkomitees \u201e15. Januar\u201c e.V. (37) 2002, p. 76f.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4<\/sup>Barbara Maiwald: Feldk\u00fcche und Co. Verpflegung und Ausr\u00fcstung im deutschen Heer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5<\/sup>H.Dv. 476 \/ 3: Das allgemeine Heeresger\u00e4t, Berlin 1937, p. 37.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6<\/sup>Feldk\u00fcchen-Vorschrift f\u00fcr die gro\u00dfe Feldk\u00fcche, Berlin 1918, p. 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7<\/sup>Liste der Fertigungskennzeichen f\u00fcr Waffen, Munition und Ger\u00e4t, Berlin 1944 (Nachdruck: N\u00fcrnberg 1977), p. 130.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8<\/sup>Biermann: Warte nicht auf bessre Zeiten!, p. 482.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/h4>\n

 <\/h4>\n

Dirk Schreiber<\/h4>\n

Dirk Schreiber worked since 2022 as project assistant on the \u201cWolf Biermann\u201d exhibition. He studied military history and military sociology in Potsdam and completed a traineeship in the aerospace department of the German Museum of Technology, Berlin.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s that for? Wolf Biermann’s diaries in the „soup pail“<\/h2>\n

Buried beneath a wooden shed in the peaceful little village of Brodowin in Brandenburg in the 1980s slumbered a treasure that many eyes in the GDR would like to have caught a glimpse of \u2013 above all the eyes of the Ministry for State Security. For what was hidden below ground were the most intimate memoirs of the perhaps loudest critic of the GDR state: the diaries of Wolf Biermann, buried in an old food container from the time of the German Wehrmacht. Dirk Schreiber, project assistant on the exhibition \u201cWolf Biermann. A Poet and Songwriter in Germany\u201d, writes about one of the oddest objects in the exhibition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1765],"tags":[2644,1723,2608,85,2607],"class_list":["post-7602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whats-that-for","tag-dhmbiermann-de","tag-gdr","tag-stasi","tag-whats-that-for","tag-wolf-biermann"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7602"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7609,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7602\/revisions\/7609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}