The prestigious German publishing house Harrassowitz-Verlag has published a new book by Prof. Paweł Zajas, "Das Polenbuch! Polnische Literatur und Deutsche Kulturpolitik im 20. Jahrhundert".
The author has described in his publication a little-known chapter of Polish-German literary history. Based on unpublished documents from numerous Polish and German archives, he outlined the relationship between the transfer of literature and cultural policy.
During the First World War, few other European pieces of literature could count on as much attention from German publishers as Polish literature. During the German-Polish rapprochement of 1934-1939, it was the subject of both Polish and German cultural propaganda; after 1956, it played a pioneering role in Polish-West German cultural exchange and became a Cold War weapon. Until 1970, the transfer of works by Polish authors to the Federal Republic of Germany often functioned as an ersatz of diplomatic relations. On the other hand, after they had already been established, impressive West German publishing projects, such as the "Polish Library" published by Karl Dedecius, functioned as a symbol of Polish-German reconciliation.
In the first half of 2025, the Harrassowitz-Verlag publishing house will publish another book by Paweł Zajas, which will be devoted to the presence of Polish literature in the Soviet Occupation Zone (1945-1949) and the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990) in the context of the transnational circulation of culture in the 'Eastern Bloc'.
Source and photo credit: https://anglistyka.amu.edu.pl
