Günter Wallraff’s Bundeswehr Diaries and the Making of a Controversial Figure



Plowman, AF ORCID: 0000-0002-6183-1882
(2018) Günter Wallraff’s Bundeswehr Diaries and the Making of a Controversial Figure. German Life and Letters, 71 (1). pp. 37-53.

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Abstract

Günter Wallraff's diaries of his conscription to the Bundeswehr and his belated conscientious objection (1964) were his first publication. He republished them several times in revised form throughout a controversial career extending from industrial reportage in Wir brauchen dich (1966) to his impersonation of a Turkish ‘guest worker’ in Ganz unten (1985). This article examines how successive versions of Wallraff's text engaged with evolving debates about conscription and conscientious objection in the FRG for different readers; and it explores how Wallraff drew upon his diaries as a narrative about the origins of his methods at the same time as he revised them in line with current concerns. A first version in the magazine twen in 1964 provided future conscripts with information about conscription and objection following scandal around the abuse of conscripts. Against the background of 1968, his ‘Protokoll aus der Bundeswehr’ (1970) encouraged serving conscripts to emulate his refusal and constructed Wallraff as a ‘participant observer’ after controversy around his methods. His diaries also supported a shift towards satirical impersonation in his work, and in 1992 Mein Tagebuch aus der Bundeswehr offered a definitive version with a view to the text's literary status and legacy. Wallraff's Bundeswehr diaries are a fascinating historical and literary document of controversies around the Bundeswehr in Germany and central to the process in which he fashioned himself as a critical figure.

Item Type: Article
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 18 Aug 2017 09:24
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 06:57
DOI: 10.1111/glal.12182
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3009050