Lorenzo Bonosi

The correspondence between Hilde Domin and Erich Fried reflects in an exemplary way two fundamentally different views of the role of the writer vis-à-vis politics and society. From today's point of view, the discussion conducted in the correspondence as well as in public seems all the more remarkable in that it is based in each case on coming to terms with the experience of exile, thereby addressing the most important issues of the late 20th century, but arriving at different aesthetic and thus political conclusions and demands.
In her correspondence with Erich Fried, Domin discusses her conception of literature and poetry using prominent examples, such as Paul Celan's "Todesfuge". The discussion that arose around the inclusion of the famous poem in the anthology "Nachkrieg und Unfrieden" (1970) provides a valuable article on the definition of poetry and its function in our society. Domin's optimism in particular, i.e. the confidence that a systematic collective and individual coming to terms would take place in post-war Germany, was significantly absent in Erich Fried's work. In his lyrical work and his addresses, Fried clearly denounced certain situations and those responsible for them right up to the end, as he did in his speech on the occasion of the awarding of the Büchner Prize (1987).