Das Duell

The poet and his critic - an eventful feud and a great piece of German history.The "forced marriage," as Günter Grass once called it, was officially concluded on January 1, 1960: On that day, the then 39-year-old critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki reviewed "The Tin Drum" by the just 32-year-old author. He slammed the novel. And so began the chequered relationship between the two outstanding protagonists of post-war German literature, a relationship that was marked by both rivalry and respect. In 1958, they had already met once in Warsaw's Hotel Bristol - and both had a life behind them: one had been in the Waffen-SS, the other a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto. But they were united by their great love of German literature and their unconditional will to devote their lives to it.