In his engrossing, if rather conventional, debut novel In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts ("In Times of Fading Light") Eugen Ruge has written a family saga which has also been received in Germany as a definitive response to die Wende (the collapse of the GDR) from the East German perspective. In Zeiten is a melancholy East German Buddenbrooks which traces the decline of the Powileit/Umnitzer family through four generations, shifting back and forth through time and perspective during critical dates from 1952 to 2001. The "fading light" refers to the dream of the socialist utopia, which diminishes over time until it is extinguished entirely with the "post-Wende" generation.
The patriarch of the family, Wilhelm, is a staunch Stalinist and member of the anti-fascist resistance who, during the war, is sent to Mexico with his wife Charlotte. The couple leave behind two sons in the Soviet Union – Kurt and Werner – who are thrown into a prison camp after complaining about the Hitler-Stalin pact. Werner perishes in one of Stalin's Gulags, while Kurt survives and arrives in the newly-formed DDR with his Russian wife Irina. Kurt becomes a leading "historian" for the DDR but his son, Alexander or "Sascha", has little enthusiasm for the "real existing socialism", and eventually flees to the west, leaving behind a son, Markus.
Ruge employs a biting sarcasm in depicting a family in total denial. Wilhelm is happy to receive phony awards from the Party for brave anti-Nazi resistance activities he was never a part of. Charlotte pretends that her son Werner wasn't murdered by the very system she and her husband embrace. Kurt is blind to the fact that the volumes of "history" he has produced are worthless, while Alexander destroys everything that is of value in his life. But the family is able to cope – even thrive – as part of the privileged mid-level functionary social class precisely because they live under a state order that was founded on denial, and denied reality for forty years. When the house of cards collapses and reality sets in the family's downward spiral only gathers speed.
As in every family, sickness and death take their toll. As the light fades the body fails as well, and Ruge excels at describing the physical ailments that afflict the Umnitzers – from Wilhelm's deeping dementia, to Charlotte's asthma, Irina's alcoholism, and Alexander's cancer. Especially effective is the first chapter when we first encounter Kurt. It is the year 2001 and the "historian" is lost in the fog of Alzheimer's disease – his own past obliterated – and this intellectual who could not say "no" to the party leadership for so many years is now reduced to uttering just one word – "Ja" , Yes.
As the world deals with the horror of the Twin Towers attack on Sept. 11, 2001, Alexander, riddled with cancer, flees to Mexico to die but also to search for some meaning in his grandparent's past. In the end, we are left with the fading light of the sunset over the Pacific.
Historians will argue whether the Deutsche Demokratische Republik was anything more than just a footnote in history. It collapsed from a fatal sickness 22 years ago, unloved and, for the most part, unmourned. But with Eugen Ruge's novel In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts we have a vivid portrait of that vanished footnote of history which has resonated with many readers. We see the world as it really was, and we understand the human foibles which allowed it persist as long as it did.
Eugen Ruge recieved the 2011 Deutscher Buchpreis for In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts.
4 comments
Just read this! Impressive book indeed. One thing bothers me though: where is the Stasi, everybody-spying-on-each-othter in the story? Its absence seems strange to me. You would at least expect that the high-profile grandmother Charlotte and prolific historian Kurt (who spent, like his murdered brother Werner, years in a stalin gulag) would attract some attention from the Stasi.
Good question. My guess is that the Stalinist stalwart Wilhelm was above suspicion and therefore his family was protected.
In any case, the book is highly autobiographical, so it would be interesting to ask Ruge directly.
Yes, indeed it would be good question for Ruge. Maybe he has not researched this part of the family history (which I find hard to believe)? I wonder also if non of the German reviewers have noticed this fact? If I find the time I will do some review research…
And I guess nobody was above suspicion? Wilhelm was a fierce Stalinist, but with no influence beyond his own small circle (as Ruge shows so ruthlessly), other than Charlotte and especially Kurt.
I”m not sure it was entirely unmourned. After the union, a lot of people in the old East Germany found themselves with no work and rising prices. Some said ” we were better off . . “.