The Meeting at Telgte by Günter Grass

First published:Das Treffen in Telgte, 1979 (English translation, 1981)

Type of work: Historical fiction

Time of work: 1647, at the close of the Thirty Years’ War

Locale: The town of Telgte in Westphalia, Germany

Principal Characters:

• Simon Dach, the organizer of the meeting, a prominent seventeenth century German poet
• Christoffel Gelnhausen, (modeled after Jakob Christoffel Grimmelshausen), a regimental secretary and, later, the greatest German novelist of the seventeenth century
• Libushka, the landlady of the Bridge Tavern at Telgte and Grimmelshausen’s former mistress
• Heinrich Schutz, a great seventeenth century composer

The Novel

Compared to the longer, more monumental works of Günter Grass, The Meeting at Telgte is a short novel. It is the story of a fictional 1647 meeting of major figures of the German literary world who actually existed. Poets, prose writers, preachers, musicians, and publishers travel at considerable risk through a Germany ravaged by the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). This war was the most destructive in German history prior to World War II. By 1647, the year of the meeting, peace was at hand, but much of Germany was decimated, fragmented, and dominated by a caste of authoritarian princes and nobles. Furthermore, the German language had been corrupted by the invading armies of the European powers and was in danger of descending into hideous jargon.

The original goal of these German intellectuals was to meet in Osnabruck, a site of peace negotiations between the Catholic and Protestant European powers and the rival princes of Germany who had fought the German emperor to a standstill. Since Osnabruck remained occupied by the Swedes, however, the writers hold their conclave in the small town of Telgte, a site of pilgrimage midway between Osnabruck and Munster, the two cities in which the Peace Conference of Westphalia will be held.

The noble goal of the writers is to revive, purify, and strengthen the last remaining bond of the German nation, its language and literature. They also aspire to influence the politicians by issuing a manifesto for peace. They meet in the Bridge Tavern. Room and board are secured by Christoffel Gelnhausen, a regimental secretary and aspiring novelist. His former mistress, Libushka, is the obliging landlady of the tavern. Gelnhausen clears out the tavern for the writers by announcing the presence of the plague (a widespread cause of death at the time).

The writers settle in and embark on their patriotic literary projects. They soon squabble over the proper use of dactylic words, the essence of irony and humor, and the applicability of classical models. They separate into factions: optimists against pessimists, purists against pragmatists, and Catholics against Protestants. Such is the irony of their unifying goal. Their sessions are a combination of serious discussions and the comic, bawdy, grotesque, and chaotic happenings characteristic of Grass’s novels. While the older writers draft their high-flown manifestos, the younger ones fornicate with the serving maids. Then, all settle down to a great feast, forcibly procured by the soldier Gelnhausen.

At the end of this short novel, the writers finally agree on a lengthy statement exhorting peace, religious toleration, the reform of the German language, and efforts at political unity. Though their appeal would have gone unheeded anyway, says the narrator, the tavern catches fire and the declaration is destroyed. The writers set off for their diverse destinations, harboring the dream that their noble words and goals will live on. The novel ends on a note of resignation and ambiguity, for no one, including the omniscient narrator, knows who set fire to the tavern. The results of the best efforts of the writers are left to the imagination of the reader.

The Characters

Although the meeting at Telgte so vividly described by Grass never took place, the characters of the novel actually existed and made some important efforts to salvage German language, literature, and culture. The twenty major and minor characters represent a blend of the realistic and fantastic typical of Grass. The identity of the narrator is never revealed. He is omniscient; he evidences a great knowledge of seventeenth century German Baroque literature and a familiarity with the writers themselves. He even knows the details of their physical appearance. The narrator uses indirect statements to distance himself from the story. This is the technique used in Die Blechtrommel (1959; The Tin Drum, 1961), Grass’s picaresque novel about World War II. Finally, the narrator is clearly writing from the perspective of the present: He begins the book by saying that yesterday will be what tomorrow has been. Thus, the narrator’s role is in part to link the seventeenth with the twentieth century.

The rest of the characters are a collection of most of the major German literary and cultural figures of the seventeenth century. They represent a great variety of regions, ages, temperaments, and literary forms. Some are self-made men of action such as the soldier Gelnhausen and the civil servant Georg Rudolf Weckherlin, who has left Germany for London to become John Milton’s predecessor as Latin secretary under the British Puritan Commonwealth. The characters include dour preachers and hymn writers, such as Paul Gerhardt and Johann Rist, and the satirists Johann Michel Moscherosch and Friedrich von Logau. Philipp von Zesen represents the literary theorists and Andreas Gryphius is present as the greatest German dramatist of the seventeenth century. The great and aging composer of the first German opera and of fine religious music, Heinrich Schutz, is cast as a man of great wisdom. The organizer of the conference is the venerable poet Simon Dach, a man of tolerance and benevolence.

The figures come from every part of Germany. Most are Protestant Lutherans. A few are Catholic. Some, such as the satirist Logau, are skeptics. Many have founded regional language and literary societies to purify and preserve the German language. They disagree over such matters as the use of dialect, matters of form, and the definition of what is “German.” All, however, are cultural and literary patriots and exhibit a love for the art, something the politicians have abdicated. They wish to revitalize German language and culture, the only force of unity left in their fragmented and demoralized country. In that sense, they see themselves as the center of national consciousness, the “true Germany.” Grass portrays their efforts sympathetically, but ironically.

The characters are torn between their idealism and their rivalries and physical needs. They find themselves implicated in the war they condemn when their feast is procured by violence and plunder. Then, they have the temerity to try Gelnhausen when he reveals his desire to become a writer of the realistic school. The satirist Logau defends Gelnhausen and berates his fellow writers for serving and praising the very princes who are responsible for the war. It is clear that the author’s sympathy lies with Gelnhausen and Logau. Nicknamed “Courage,” the landlady and former prostitute Libushka is also portrayed as honest and humane. Grimmelshausen wrote a drama about a similar “Courage,” and Bertolt Brecht celebrated her in his play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1940; Mother Courage and Her Children, 1941). Grass obviously has only contempt for such literary snobs as Zesen, who witnesses two entwined corpses floating in a river and wonders how he will feature them in his next romance. In contrast, Gelnhausen will write about life as it really is.

Toward the end of the novel, the characters grow humbler about their political limitations, and they part amicably. They have become more realistic about the place and the power of the writer, and they feel less isolated than before.

Most of the literary figures will be unfamiliar to the general reader. Although the names of the characters remain obscure and the influence on their contemporaries was minimal, their impact was ultimately important. Their dreams of German unity and greatness remained frustrated but lived on. Their resentment of foreigners, their bombastic praise of a narrow “Germanness,” their attempt to compensate for national fragmentation by glorification of the language, national traits, and a great past occurred in the absence of a viable political structure. The historical obsession with German national identity would continue and eventually become disastrous three hundred years later.

Critical Context

Compared to Grass’s greatest works, The Meeting at Telgte is a modest novel. Still, it is fascinating in its depiction of a remote but vital epoch of German history. It is also a stimulating and entertaining book. It challenges the reader to reflect on the role of the writer in national affairs, politics, and war. In addition, it affirms Grass’s belief that writers have a strong obligation to their society, no matter how limited their influence may seem. The novel serves as a reminder that the German problem still exists.

Where the imaginary meeting of 1647 failed, Günter Grass has succeeded. He was the product of the real Gruppe 47 and remains a strong public conscience, a classic German author of today.

Sources for Further Study

The Atlantic Monthly. CCXLVII, June, 1981, p. 101.

Christian Science Monitor. LXXIII, May 11, 1981 p. B2.

Grass, Günter. On Writing and Politics, 1967-1983, 1985.

Hollington, Michael. Günter Grass: The Writer in a Pluralist Society, 1980.

Lawson, Richard H. Günter Grass, 1985.

Leonard, Irene. Günter Grass, 1974.

Library Journal. CVI, March 15, 1981, p. 680.

Miles, Keith. Günter Grass, 1975.

New Leader. LXIV, May 18, 1981, p. 5.

The New York Review of Books. XXVIII, June 11, 1981, p. 35.

The New York Times Book Review. LXXXVI, May 17, 1981, p. 7.

The New Yorker. LVII, August 3, 1981, p. 91.

Saturday Review. VIII, May, 1981, p. 71.

Time. CXVII, May 18, 1981, p. 87.

Times Literary Supplement. June 26, 1981, p. 717.